Full Review

5 March 2008 - Remember Cannon Fodder? It seems the makers of Battalion Wars 2 do as well, but can the later remake the former and improve on it at the same time? We start ordering about to find out.

Battalion Wars 2 (BWii) sees you commanding a battalion of soldiers against invading forces across a series of missions on land, sea and in the air.

There are five campaigns in total and a six armies to beat or play and all offer different troops, vehicles and aircraft to master.

Rather than give you a top down approach as in C&C you're thrown into the mists of it all with the ability to swap to any troop under you command at a moments notice to complete set tasks only suitable for that troop.

Your battalion is broken down into different types of infantry or vehicles, however you can't break it down further than this, so it's all your flamethrower men or nothing, for example.

You can however select all your men and attack the enemy, although the game suggests against this isn't very effective.

Controlling all the action is surprisingly easy thanks to the Wii Remote and Nunchuck. Rather than require you to manually select men, you can merely click through the groups via the d-pad, select the one you want and then point in the general direction on the screen with the Wii Remote.

To make it easier still Nintendo has added an auto-locking enemy function and this means you hold this down and keep pressing the attack button to destroy everything in your path.

As long as you keep one infantry member alive at all times (normally so you can raise the flag at the end of the mission) you're in with a chance of winning the level and anyone who has played a computer strategy game will find Battalion Wars 2 incredible easy to pick up.

The game is enhanced or spoilt, depending on which way you look at it, by the voiceover characters telling you what is about to happen, even from the enemy briefing you as to which way they are going to attack you.

Those looking for more longevity can opt for battle or Co-Op mode, however due to the chaotic nature of the troops running all over the screen you have to play this via Nintendo Wi-Fi connection rather than split screen with two controllers.

VERDICT
Battalion Wars 2 is a far cry from the in-depth gameplay of the Command and Conquer series, however if you look at it like a later day remake of Cannon Fodder as you manage your men through a series of skirmishes then the game stands up on its own.

The voiceover characters may be a tad annoying, however a simple and easy to use interface and uncomplicated gameplay means you're likely to have fun. We certainly did.