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Battalion Wars 2 | 
| From: Nintendo
Category: Video Games
List Price: $49.99
Buy New: $15.64
You Save: $34.35 (69%)
New (51) Used (13) from $15.64
Avg. Customer Rating:  22 reviews
Sales Rank: 1283
Platform: Nintendo Wii
ESRB: Everyone
Media: Video Game
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: No
Age: 5 - 20 years
Operating System: Nintendo Wii
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2
Dimensions (in): 5.5 x 0.5 x 7.5
MPN: WIRVLPRBWE
UPC: 045496900250
EAN: 0045496900250
ASIN: B000R4809W
Release Date: October 29, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: Brand new and factory sealed. In stock and ships today!
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| Features:
| • | Battle six armies through five theaters of war--each with unique commanding officers | | • | Engage 20 single-player missions | | • | Features five new naval units: Battleship, Frigate, Dreadnought, Submarine, and Transport | | • | Play in three online multiplayer modes: Assault, Skirmish, and Co-op |
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| Accessories:
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Cry 'Havoc!' and let slip the commanding officers of Battalion Wars 2! Mistakenly believing that the Solar Empire is developing a devastating super-weapon, Commander Pierce and Colonel Windsor of the Anglo Isles launch a pre-emptive strike. But as the nations of the world, including the Tundran Territories, are once again propelled into all-out conflict, it becomes clear that a shadowy figure is pulling the strings from afar. Take control as commander-in-chief in this fantastical war action game! Online multiplayer battles heat up the competition as you wage war against friends on the ground, in the air and by sea.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 17 more reviews...
 Good enough at $20 November 29, 2008
Battalion Wars 2 (or BWII), has recieved above average reviews from the professional gaming media, and all in all i think theyve got it right this time (miracle, i know). The game is hard to describe, bcause its not your typical war game (if the graphics already havent told you that), its not really a deep RTS, and its not turn-based. The basic play of the game is to either reach a certain area (with or without a specific unit), destroy a specific enemy unit, or destroy a certain...thing. Each mission is pretty much described above, with slight variations of course. The story is actually really lame, the same goes for the VO (although i dont think its as bad as everyone says it is). Where the game actually hook you is the overall gameplay.
You control a battalion of soliders at any given moment, hence the namesake. What makes this game unique ius that unlike your conventional RTS game, you take direct command over a specific unit, all the time. This is both a good thing and a bad thing. The good-you actually feel as if your doing a part of action, and its fun to do so. The bad-it limits control over your other units, and could potentially cost you quite a bit (i mean victory/loss).
As you command your unit, you can lock onto a specific unit (be that enemy or otherwise), as do a variety of things. You yourself can directly attack it, send others from your battalion to attack it, or capture it (again, either directly or with other units). The overall mash-up of game ideas and gameplay styles means your not going to get bored easily. It does, however, make everything feel a lit loss, and as if it could have been better.
One of the most important aspects of the game is online play. You can play either with/without a buddy, and the matches play out incredibley smooth (very little lag time). There are 3 modes. Assult (conventional 'kill everything' mode), Co-Op (play through missions with a friend), or Versus. The game has a neat little way of keeping track of your online progress (somthing i wasnt expecting from an early Wii online game) by scoreing you for every match. After several matches, you can earn a score (out of stars), and everyone you play will see it. I dont know if the game matches random players through rank, but i dont think so. Another cool online feature is the unlocking aspect. After playing a certain number of matches for a certain mode, you can unlock additional maps/missions.
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Great game, needs improvement though November 29, 2008
This game is one of the greatest games for the wii. It takes you through the world as the commander of the battalions of different countries. I would give this game a 5 star rating but it needs improvement.
Let's look at the good side
-the game has a great story line
-great gameplay
-great crontrols once mastered
-lovely graphics
-the good, hardcore, fun violence but without the gore
-an online multiplayer (finally a multiplayer)
Now let's look at the bad
-needs a offline multiplayer for when nintendo shuts off the servers
-needs a lot of bonus missions for tons of replay value
-in my opinion, I think the campains should be based on wars, like the lightning wars, frontier/tundra conflict, first xylvanian war(BW 1), the second xylvanian war(BW 2), and the solar/anglo conflict, and side choosement for the player being on the side he or she wants to be.
I think the game is a great game and I say it's worth the money, but it can't get away without its problems being seen.
 Major improvement over the original November 19, 2008
For those who haven't played Battalion Wars for the Gamecube, this is a real-time strategy game played from a third person view. You select one of your units, and you control that unit while commanding the rest of your army to follow you into battle, or you can direct them to assault a different target or wait/defend a given location. You can send any combination of units to perform any action, so the control level is immense for a third person style RTS. Unlike in Goblin Commander, which is a fun game in its own right, you can actually send your troops all over the place. The only serious restriction is that there is no option to take an aerial view of the battlefield like most games in this genre.
For those who played the original, BWii is much better than the first. The Wiimote allows for more intuitive aiming and control in directing other units. Navy has been added, which works surprisingly well. Online is extremely fun, allowing you to play an opponent in a variety of levels, either trying to earn the most points (through killing their units) in a given time limit or trying to meet certain objectives such as capturing the opponent's base. You can also play Co-op missions online. Although there are only a few different levels, they are reasonably challenging and you work together in an attempt to earn good rankings. Unfortunately, if you're stuck with an unskilled player you probably won't beat the Co-op missions, but they're still loads of fun.
If you enjoyed the first, you will definitely enjoy BWii. The online is an awesome addition, and the Wii controls make things so much more natural. Do yourself a favor and pick this game up.
An incredibly fun game, though a little slight on replay value. October 17, 2008
Battalion Wars 2 is a Third person shooter meshed together with heavy real time strategy. With the game's easy to use interface, you'll play as lots of different units, switching to different ones as the situation calls for it.
Gameplay wise, this game is fairly simple. The controls are easy to pick on and work well for quick tactics, and the mission objectives are simple to follow while still staying varied. One of the core mechanics is recruiting/saving troops to command. Its always within your best interest to have a moderate amount of units on hand, because that gives you more people to work with, and more people to play as. The system is a little hard to portray in words, but I'll try my best. Basically, you can play as any unit in the game that you have under your command. You can choose to play the foot soldier, fighting on the front lines, or if you find yourself no match for the opposition, switch control to a vehicle such as a light tank. You can do this on the fly, at any time. All the other units besides the one you're playing as will be controlled by the AI.
The game's AI isn't anything particularly special, but it doesn't really need to be. It's not like its dumb or anything, though. Fire on a submarine and, unlike a tank, its not just going to try and rush you. Its going to submerge, and probably make a beeline for your battleship. Your comrades are always quick to help you out, and do a good job sensing when there's a special job to be done, such as capturing a flag.
As in any strategy game, units have strengths and weaknesses to each other. For example, grunts are the bread and butter of your force. They're plentiful, but are merely equipped with a light assault rifle. So, while its essential to have them (as only foot soldiers can capture things), they're generally roadkill against vehicles. There are variations to the foot soldiers, such as mechs, which are armed with bazookas (if you don't have some of your own, these guys are a good alternative to destroying vehicles). Its this aspect of gameplay that is hard to master, as when faced with a force of varied units, you'll need to be able to know what units to send against what. To this end, a simple to use targeting feature has been employed, which allows you to order certain units (even individual ones) to attack certain enemies. For example, in one mission, you'll be engaging enemies on a coast. You're doing pretty good, sweeping through the countryside, with little opposition. Suddenly, you're faced with a gate that is guarded by two RPG towers. None of your ground troops can get in close enough to attack them without getting annihilated. Luckily, you've just been sent two battleships, that have long range cannons. With a quick flick of your Wii remote, and a button press or two, you target one of the towers and order your battleships to attack it. The immediately get into position and use their artillery to bombard them from out of their range. Problem solved. Now you've got units to cover you from the ocean nearby with.
Speaking of vehicles, let's talk about a few of them. Vehicles are extremely important to your arsenal, and many players will feel vulnerable without a light tank to back them up. Incidentally, I'll start with the light tank, the most common of the vehicles. Light tanks are average sized tanks that are truly formidable indeed. They are equipped with an explosive cannon for dealing with other vehicles (and tough structures), and also an automatic machine gun for wiping out any grunts that get too close. Its big brother is the heavy tank, which is truly a beast, sacrificing speed for power. Heavy tanks fire two shells at a time from their double barreled cannon, and can absorb far more damage than light tanks.
There are also air and even naval units, but before, I want to mention the Recon, which in my opinion is the funnest unit in the game. Basically, the recon is a speedy little buggie with a gatling gun mounted on the top. I can't tell you how fun it is to run around a skirmish in a Recon, shooting stuff up with its little gatling. Even tanks can defeated by it, since they're cannons are a little slow to hit the experienced driver (though you'd have to be partially insane to try it.).
On to air vehicles, of which there are few. The most amusing in my opinion is the bomber. Bombers are the funnest example of the point and click targeting interface for ordering your troops around. If you're lucky enough to have an allied bomber circling in the skies above (which you can take control of at any time), if a particular enemy (such as a heavy tank) is becoming a thorn in your side, you can order your buddy above to bomb him. The bomber will leave its holding pattern and within a few seconds, you'll here the extremely satisfying trademark whistling sound as bombs rain from the sky and the tank is quickly blown to bits. Yes, that was an air strike you just ordered.
Air units are interesting because as vulnerable as they are (it can be hard to make out little Anti-Air dudes on the ground targeting you with their little missile bazookas, so you've generally got to keep yourself and your other units in check), they are incredibly powerful. The bomber is most ground units' biggest nightmare, as they have no way of fighting against them. The only other fixed wing aircraft is the fighter, which is almost as fun to control as the recon (there's satisfaction in bombing people yourself, but I find the bomber to be rather tough to control precisely). Fighters are nimble little jets that streak through the sky. It takes practice to fly them with any amount of grace and skill, but they are formidable units, being capable of escaping the missile lock of anti-air units and other fighters by doing barrel rolls. In fixed-wing air craft such as the bomber and fighter, the controls change significantly. You use the Wii remote's motion sensing to pilot the unit, only using the analog stick to speed up and slow down. Basically, the remote becomes the unit. You twist it to bank, and tilt it up and down to gain altitude and dive.
In my opinion, naval units are generally more frustrating then they are fun, but they do give a good change of pace. All of the units are very sluggish, and of course bound to the water, but they're also very powerful. The battleship has long range artillery cannons, which makes short work of most other ground and naval units, and submarines dominate the other two units because of their ability to submerge, making it difficult to hit them (Impossible for all but other submarines and frigates, actually).
I think the graphics in Battalion Wars are also worth mentioning: They're pretty good. Fantastic, even. The game makes use of blur effects and good lighting to enhance the already fairly well done environment. I wouldn't have expected much less from a Nintendo game.
The last thin is the replay value. Battalion Wars 2 is no doubt a fun game to play though. The campaign is reasonably long, but even casual players will probably be able to beat it within a couple days. After that, you can go back through the missions and try get better medals to unlock extra content like art and unit dossiers. I was disappointed to find that there is no local multiplayer. Offline, the game is singleplayer only. However, it has been partially salvaged with the addition of an online multiplayer mode. Though it was a good attempt, and may keep those who play online a lot amused for a fairly long while, but I don't play online much on any game, so the feature didn't impress so much.
Pros:
-The Recon
-A varied catalog of units to command
-A reasonably long campaign with likable enough characters
-Excellent graphics
-Easy to pick up and play. (Get bored of it, the pick it up every week or so to play a skirmish or two online.)
-The controls work very well generally (Aiming with the Wiimote IR sensor and moving with the nunchuk analog stick)
-Reliable AI
Cons:
-Story is nothing special
-Online is fairly weak, and probably won't occupy you for longer than an hour.
-Naval units are sluggish and sometimes repetitive compared to the other units.
-Low replay value overall
Loads of FUN! May 20, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I purchased this game based on some of the user reviews I read in various places that stated how much fun it was. They were right. This game is a blast. It is certainly not a perfect game, but if you are looking for a fast, furious, fun game to play you should add this one to your collection. It is perfect for mindlessly blowing a couple of hours on a rainy Saturday. My 6yr old son LOVES this game. It is the only game we own that he likes as much as the various Star Wars games we own(for Xbox 360). I just wish it had a co-op mode so I could along side my son instead of having to take turns trying to get thru the missions (he usually completes them faster than I do...). Great game. Highly recommended.
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