Battalion Wars 2 is Kuju’s second attempt at taking the magic of Advance Wars, ripping out its slower paced turn-based system, and hurling us right into the action. Battalion Wars 2 is basically a 3rd person action game with the occasional strategy element included. The first few missions will introduce you to the basic controls and play mechanics, so there is no need to have played the GameCube original to understand what’s going on in the battlefield. The campaign and missions are guided by a mix of characters from different fictitious nations, but unlike its little handheld brother Advance Wars, the characters and storyline are never really developed. They tell you where to go and what to do, but you’ll want to avoid their uninspiring dialogues like you would a field of landmines.

The visuals are striking. Just like in the first game, the style of the game is kept very cartoony. Bright, colourful, clean environments and cheery character designs really bring the world to life. It seems really weird to think that these cute little troops on screen are actually out to slaughter hundreds of other cute little enemy units as part of some grand geopolitical struggle.

Whatever the case, Kuju Has managed to do a good job of utilising the Wii’s controls; the Nunchuk analog stick is for movement and the Wii Remote is used for aiming. Quickly taping the Z button makes aiming a hell of a lot easier too, because after you have locked onto a target, it’s simply a case of hitting the B trigger to shoot, or the A button to order your friendly backup units to attack. Cycling through these backup units is achieved via the d-pad on the Wii Remote. While this isn’t quite as swift as hitting a corresponding button, it’s about as good as it can get on the Wii due to the lack of more convenient controls.

Each unit type has strengths and weaknesses against other types, Rock/Paper/Scissors style – the strategy element is telling the right units to attack the right targets. You also have to make sure your buddies don’t wander off into the wrong enemies – which happens quite a bit. Your commands for other troops are limited to ‘follow’, ‘attack’ and ‘stay’. There’s no way of saying ‘move over there’ or ‘retreat’ so it’s just a matter of trying to keep track of where they all are while making sure you don’t get capped yourself.

Despite such tactical bugbears, this really is a fun game to play, and the lively atmosphere will keep you coming back for more. The online modes do add a little extra lasting appeal and are a step in the right direction. This franchise has a lot of potential; hopefully they’ll have worked the kinks out by the time they release Battalion Wars 3.