Battalion Wars (2005)

This is one of those rare GameCube gems. I bought it after seeing it on a magazine; this was the very first game that made me shout a curse word, this game is that hard.

The good

• The graphics are quite iconic and look good for the time. They look cartoony and that allows the game to stand out over other shooters.
• Most levels are memorable. An escape, a D-Day style battle, an aerial escort mission, a bombing run, etc. They may repeat but they are all memorable due to their different structures and scenarios.
• Almost all the units are distinct and are useful in their own right, unfortunately one is useless and the other is broken.
• You can control the units yourself and this helps a lot, with grunts you can dodge, with vehicles you can move faster. I highly recommend always controlling a vehicle or an assault vet.
• The enemy AI is very competent. It will dodge your shots, attempt to flank and ambush you and gang up on the most powerful unit.
• The music is very good and the songs will rarely repeat. They fit the context of the missions and I’m sure you will at least remember one.
• The characters are simple but memorable, either due to their antics, designs or their voice acting.

The bad

• The AI allies are bad. They will get themselves killed if put on “follow me” because they will rarely fight; so you will be mostly spamming the “guard” and “go there” commands because they will actually fight correctly. The third faction units are even worse because they will do whatever they want, but they are far more useful when they are in “follow me” mode.
• The last missions are nothing but endless enemies, in any other level the enemies do not respawn. This ends up breaking the difficulty because you will have to rush everything, causing you to get units killed.
• The story is kind of mediocre. It’s pretty basic and the lore is dry; it’s the simple “Enemies band together to defeat a common foe”.

The ugly

• Some units are useless or just broken. The light recon barely does damage and gets killed easily by squads of rifle grunts, the missile vets are broken when you control them because their missiles can severely weaken and even destroy tanks… if you can time their shots just right, you can dodge tanks and wipe them out in three full missile blasts.

If you want a real time strategy with third person shooter mechanics and vehicular combat, play it; you will love this game.