Battalion Wars is about commanding your army to overcome the enemy. It's a real-time strategy game done a little bit differently than your normal fare of Starcraft or Age of Empires. Since computers have ten times as many buttons as a controller, Battalion Wars really went out of its way to make sure you could command a small army with just a few buttons.

One of the most obvious things removed is a home base you constantly need to be building, units supplying money, and a complete overhead view. All you really have to deal with is a small set units to attack with.

You can control any unit that want, and you can switch between them at any time. There's a horizontal bar at the bottom of the screen that displays the type of troops you have, and how many you have of each. While running around and firing at enemies, you can quickly tell a certain group of troops to attack a specific enemy, and a different set of troops to advance to this position, have some follow you, etc. It's not too hard to get use to either.

You start out with pretty general units such as a few Rifle troops, maybe a couple of Bazooka Veterans. But with every mission you complete, the next one gives you new types of troops. Eventually you'll be driving heavy tanks, flying bombers, using anti-air troops, firing with helicopters, etc. There's quite a bit of troops, and the game keeps it fresh by giving you different types of troops for their required missions. The only unfortunate part is that you never have the entire army at your command, and I believe that's a graphical issue. I noticed once they allowed me to drive four tanks and four heavy tanks, that the game got a tad bit choppy for a few moments.

The story is simple but fun. You're part of the Western Frontier (green troops) fighting against the Tundran Empire (red troops). But when the Xylvanians (blue troops) attack both parties, you end up being allies against the common foe. There's some more to it, but I don't really want to give everything away.

Throughout the game your given some really nice looking CG cut-scenes, but they are few and far between, and also rather short. In fact, when you beat the game, the cutscene is so short and anti-climactic, it really leaves you feeling like there's something else you have to do to beat the game. Some end credits would have been nice, but they decided to let you watch those anytime from the game select screen.

Controlling troops is fun and easy, because the game slowly progresses you through it.
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So what do I think of the game? Well, I had read plenty of reviews before I tried it out, and they all claimed this to be a sleeper hit. They said it was a great game - tons of fun - and no one will notice. I wasn't as amazed with the game as they were, but I really enjoy playing it. Controlling units is clever and each type of unit is a little bit different, so it's nice to try to understand each one's unique style of fighting.

Eventually you step away from simple battles to all out wars. It gets pretty crazy. Just check out how many units you can control on the bottom of the screen...
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At first people kind of get by with the way they play - which is generally the way you shouldn't. They start getting C ranks on levels and being like, "okay this isn't so tough," but at some point you figure out that the way you've been playing the easy levels isn't very effective, and C rank is actually the lowest you can get (ouch).

The game is far too short. There's only about 20 missions or so, and only four of them or so let you control airplanes. Beating the game takes some time, but clearing missions with an A rank is a whole other story. You'll need some serious skill and micro-managing to get that done.

There are four bonus missions in the game that are unlocked due to your overall rank. These are fun, and allow you to play as the other nations. What's nice is that these other nations aren't just copy and paste versions of your own troops. They look different, talk different, and even control different as well.

But those bonus missions also point out exactly what the game is lacking. Versus mode. Where is it? Nintendo - what did you do with it? This game seems perfect for it. In fact, it would have been nice to play entire campaigns with the other countries. Kind of like a Terran, Zerg, Protoss style of Starcraft.

This game feels like a great start. I'm not saying it's bad, because it's great, but it's got a lot of room to grow. If Nintendo were to make a sequel for Revolution, they could throw in online play with it. That would rock - and probably be a best seller. Don't give up, keep making these and really Advance with them.

Verdict: A great start to something wonderful.