Upcoming Tactics Game 'Warside' Sure Looks Familiar

Count me in. Advance Wars needed a new entry, not two “remakes”…. This will finally scratch that itch until Nintendo decides to do a new entry… which I hope is rather sooner than later.

Sorry but this is beyond inspiration. That's literally Advance Wars.

Advance Wars at home... console.

Advance Wars need a Updated - provide Save function in middle of battle

That's very blatant, even moreso than Palworld. I don't know whether to praise it for it looking good or to complain about them stealing Nintendo homework. lol

It's kinda embarrassing that these guys look to have done a better Advance Wars follow up for Switch than Nintendo's own team has managed. And this looks great in the video.

I wonder where the difference lies in "oh this is just that" and "wow this is a spiritual successor to that."

Is it the art style? Gameplay? Presentation? The team behind it?

Regardless, I'm all for this. I love games made by people who are clearly fans of a specific game and they are creating the vision that they want to see for it. Palworld especially.

Oh.
Who ordered advance wars from wish dot com?

See, other games like Wargroove and Tiny Metal at least tried to stand out visually and/or thematically. This is just filing the serial numbers off and calling it a day.

When did folk start drooling over rip offs? Jeez, how I'm meant to take anyone's opinion seriously if they are frothing at the mouth over this is beyond me. Yes, Advance Wars is brilliant...this isn't. And the closer it resembles it...the less brilliant it is. See how it works?

I mean Nintendo's not doing much with Advance Wars so I don't mind having Advance Wars at home, sure. I'll give it a shot at least.

Let's see, Tiny Metal, War groove, a third one I remember dieing in Kickstarter, and now this one (which may or may not be that one that died in Kickstarter.)

That's 4 blackjack and hookers takes on Nintendo Wars. In one generation, to Nintendo's one "give WayForward SOMETHING to do so they'll stop badgering us already, but we won't actually release it domestically because something something, Otome games sell better domestically than military strategy"

This looks awesome to me!

@JokerCK Of course it's inspiration. For instance I was so inspired by Mario, that now im working on game starring a mechanic in red overalls and a blue hat who gets sucked through an exhaust of a pickup truck.

He's magically transported to a far away kingdom to save the queen from a terrifying crocodile that breaths fire, and his army of anthropomorphic truffles.

Only problem is Nintendo keeps sending me copyright infringements. I guess the company doesn't know what inspiration means.

As someone who finally goy around to Advance Wars with the 1+2 Reboot Camp release, and loved it, I approve of this sort of thing.

Homage, rip-off, inspiration? Who cares. If it's good, it's all good.

Wishlisted!

P.S. Nintendo: Advance Wars 3+4 Reboot Camp please. When you are ready...

@Yellowshi I mean, a 3+4 Reboot Camp wouldn't happen given there was only three games.

But also, y'all commenters need to be patient.

"Nintendo isn't doing anything with the IP"

They released remakes in 2023. This isn't the late 80s where you can slap a game out in 6 months. Good heavens

It looks more futuristic / sci-fi to me. I had lots of fun with Advance Wars and Wargroove (still playing atm) so I might give it a chance.

@Haruki_NLI All jokes aside, I 100% agree. When Im 93 years old and Nintendo finally makes a new F-Zero game, I'll be the last one laughing for actually having patience.

@Haruki_NLI Dual Strike and Days of Ruin. There were two DS-era games.

@Haruki_NLI How are you defining 'just three games'?

Well, by Reboot Camp 3+4 I meant remasters/remakes of Dual Strike and Days of Ruin (the two Nintendo DS titles) to go with the two Gameboy Advance remasters we have.

Heck, a collection of the Wars series spanning the GB, NES & SNES would be nice, or at least put them on the NSO.

As for when, I can be patient. Would just be good to know the IP isn't set to languish in obscurity.

I don’t mind taking inspiration but this is such a blatant rip off that it leaves me feeling dirty just looking at it - at least other similar projects made the effort of putting their own stamp on things.

@RetroGames Weird you say that for something that is clearly a ripoff of the originals. Not even just inspired.

@bluemage1989 The good kind of dirty or the bad kind? Like:

"This makes me feel dirty and now I need to clean up" or
"This makes me feel dirty... But I like getting dirty"

It has been revealed a while ago. And I'm counting on it to be good. And I am tired of every time a game in this genre is made by someone other than Nintendo everyone comments that it's an Advance Wars ripoff. Do you still call FPS games "Doom clones"? Is WarGroove a ripoff or does the fantasy setting not make it so?
Copying previous games and iterating on them is how genres are made. There can be more than one "advance wars" like game. And most of them innovate in some way. In Warside's case I remember them announcing faction specific units and multiple types of infantry (something I liked from Tiny Metal).

@JohnnyMind so this is the 4th.

I don’t mind new entries in the genre (I enjoyed tiny metal and wargroove) but this looks like legally distinct advance wars. There is nothing about this that looks unique or a new idea. As such I’ll pass. Also it might just be me but the artstyle looks inconsistent.

isn't that just outright plagiarism ?

@GrailUK Somewhere after 1993, when the success of Doom made everyone else try their hand at a first-person shooter game, then called "Doom clones".

@Bonggon5 I bought Tiny Metal, Reboot camp, WarGroove and will likely buy WarSide and probably Empires Shall Fall when it goes on sale. Just like I bought XCom 2, both Mario + Rabbids games, Mechanicus and Fallout Tactics.
Imagine how sad our hobby would be if every genre had just one franchise in it. No Dragon Quests or Baldur's Gates because Ultima was a thing in the 1980s. No Gradius or Touhou, only Asteroids allowed. And no Sonic, Metroid or Castlevania, only endless Donkey Kong/Mario games for you!

@DripDropCop146 I didn't know Nintendo invented the idea of combined arms warfare with Famicom Wars.
And what do you think of games like Battleworlds: Kronos? Is it a rip-off or do the hexes and sci fi setting change the game "enough" for you?

@Yellowshi There's 4? I thought it was only ever three because that's all I heard people talk about outside of how the series is cursed by real world events.

at best this looks like a rom hack if not like just an outright copy. Like jeesh atleast change some things up. Visually you could have fooled me this was just another advance wars

I hope it plays well because I love me some Advance Wars.

....but at the same time, I can't believe this got okayed by Nintendo to be for sale on the eShop. The only differance I can see is the characters are more realistic looking cartoon and less anime style.

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, the devs of Advance Wars must be EXTREMELY flattered.

@dkxcalibur Maybe if you read the description you'd notice things like
"25+ units" (Advance Wars has 19)
"Faction unique units with mechanics specific to each faction"
"a variety of specialist infantry, including snipers, medics, mortar teams, and saboteurs"
"Co-op campaign"
And most importantly
"Game mechanics bias towards action and away from turtling."
"Each faction has at least one anti-stalemate unit capable of disrupting frontlines."
From this article and the kickstarter page.

Just because it has pixel tanks doesn't mean it's exactly like Advance Wars. It seems to stray more from the formula than Tiny Metal did (and it's not like it didn't have innovations as well).

@Haruki_NLI Let's see:
Famicom Wars, Super Famicom Wars, Gameboy Wars 1-3 and Turbo, Advance Wars 1 and 2, Advance Wars: Dual Strike, Advance Wars: Days of Ruin (I'm not counting the two Battalion Wars games).
A few more than 4.

Advance Wars with all the charm removed from the commander designs.

@coolioam I don't really care, so long as it's good and is a modern version.

@SmaggTheSmug I didn't know that either. Thanks for sharing. You learn something new everyday.

@SmaggTheSmug But thing is that most of those games try to at least look different from the game they're inspired by.
At least make pixel tanks (and the other graphics) that don't like a shameless copy of Nintendo's.
I wouldn't care really for free fan games, but for something that solicited funding such as Kickstarter, I expect to see more originality. I see graphics like this and am like "why do I want to play this? Why would I not just play the Nintendo games?"

@KingMike So what, if it was 3D like Tiny Metal it would be more "original"?
And it's not like ReBoot Camp kept the pixel art either. In fact I remember a lot of people complain about that. And now a different game looks more like the GBA games and you complain that it has pixel art?
Maybe try reading the description and watching that trailer and you'll see the developers are innovating in the gameplay department a lot. I am curious as to how they intend to make the game play faster. I hope this is good, because Tiny Metal was a bit of a disappointment.

@LadyCharlie "wish dot com" Advance Wars is what we got with Reboot Camp. Warside looks like everything we wanted from an AW revival, and I fully support this game's release. Nintendo made it clear that they're abandoning this particular art style and genre pairing, so why shouldn't someone else take a shot with it? It's coming to Switch, so it's not like Nintendo even cares how similar it is.

"Local and online co-op is available, and players can also battle each other in PvP matches."

The co-op features are already shaping up to be better too. Like it has to be said, Reboot Camp is bad, and there's a reason why it has still failed to break even one-million copies sold. WayForward dropped the ball, and frankly, I hope they don't get another chance with it. They were too busy promoting an eShop sale for River City Girls on the day that this released, so there's clearly no love lost.

@Haruki_NLI It's no secret that last year's remake pretty much flopped and was pushed out the door. WayForward themselves couldn't be bothered to do more than make a single post with an Advance Wars cake and not say another word about it since. The writing is on the wall with this one sadly, and the IP is probably going back on ice for a while.

@SmaggTheSmug if this was an extensive AW rom hack instead of all new art and gameplay, people here would be hooting and hollering. I think it’s a maturity issue saying who’s passion for a thing is worthy.

@Thief "Warside looks like everything we wanted from an AW revival"

🤨 Who is "we"? 🤔

@LadyCharlie having discussed this game since it was first announced, a lot of AW fans (myself included) have praised this game and supported it - especially when out side-to-side with Reboot Camp. Especially with the lacking online features, the general consensus with AW fans when it comes to this is extremely positive - thus the "we". If Nintendo won't deliver, let the indies.

Nobody should support this. Terrible. It's one thing to steal the gameplay, but to have ZERO creative pride or morals is baffling.

This looks so much more like Advance Wars than Reboot Camp.

Famous: Copy the same thing from Nintendo and release it for all platforms... Atchgenshin, sniff. I have a cold. 🥶

And there are people who say that Nintendo games are bad, but when something like this appears on Gamepass...

I saw this got a new trailer a day or so ago. I'm hyped to try it. Also excited they apparently had a steam deck logo in the trailer.
More Advance Wars is always welcome!

Not the "Advance Wars" I would like. But it looks good enough for me.

Looks decent.
I didn't like the AW reboot-camp that much, it underdelivered with ugly graphics and no real online support. I don't care this looks very similar to Advance Wars, as long as it's functionally good and got online mode that works.

While more of a good game is obviously a good thing, and games which take inspiration from great games can add to them and expand in other directions (I'm currently playing and loving cassette beasts) I would say this game here goes a bit too close to the original to find it's own feet. Look at those 4 images at the end of this article, the 3 map ones are taken nearly directly from advance wars. It's one thing to say they're just copying pixel tanks... On the a turn based grid system, with COs that give powers.... Also the grid maps? Yeah those are exact copies too.

Too much imo

This is just blatant plagiarism. It looks the same, plays the same. Why bother? Hard pass for me.

@SmaggTheSmug How about you maybe try being more polite to people by not telling them to Maybe Try...?
I'll just go ahead and stick with my own opinion then until someone wants to convince me with a more respectful attitude.

They didn't even change the colors of the teams. 🤦‍♂️

In totally unrelated news, somehow shameless and shameful mean the same thing. 🙃

@SmaggTheSmug Are you on the game's PR team or something?

So what if it has a different number of characters. Don't care about the numbers.

"Faction unique units with mechanics specific to each faction"
"a variety of specialist infantry, including snipers, medics, mortar teams, and saboteurs"
You mean they made a strategy game where different units have different uses? WOWWWWWWWW!! It'd sure be boring if they made a strategy game where every unit did the same thing. Wouldn't have much strategy.

"Game mechanics bias towards action and away from turtling."
"Each faction has at least one anti-stalemate unit capable of disrupting frontlines."
HOW does it "bias towards action and away from turtling."? WHAT is it doing different?
The only thing I see different than Advance Wars is allowing more than one thing to be built from a factory each turn.
"12 commanders with unique abilities" Sounds like this game's version of CO Powers to me.
Co-op play sounds different but I don't have friends that are into these sort of games to play with, so that doesn't help me.

It's good if you're excited enough to play all of these games, but if you want to really persuade others to play, don't be rude about it and give real examples of HOW it's better that aren't just spouting off the PR numbers.

@KingMike First off, don't command other people to be nice when you're being obtuse yourself. To get respect maybe give some first.
I'm not on the game's PR team; I just like this genre a lot and I don't want it to end up like the monster catching games: dominated by a single franchise that has been wallowing in mediocrity for almost a decade now while any newcomer is sneered at as a "clone". It's even worse for Nintendo Wars series, as the first new entry in 15 years is a dissapointing for many reboot. And yet you scoff at someone else picking up the mantle?
As for the specific points: faction unique units and multiple infantry types is already a huge departure from the Wars series formula. Tiny Metal had the latter but not the former. The Rhino tank in the trailer which seems to push enemy units rather than shoot them looks like one of those and it's already something not seen in any of the Wars games. Imagine how different Advance Wars would be if, say, Orange Star had a superheavy tank, Blue Moon a unit like Days of Ruin's Anti-tank Gun, Green Earth a Striker plane capable of attacking both air and ground units and Yellow Comet Motorbike infantry. That would make for some interesting CO/faction combinations!
What's more it seems like WarSide is taking notes from Famicom/Super Famicom Wars with armed IFVs and supply trucks in place of do-all unarmed APCs. If you tried playing any of those you'd see how this one detail changes gameplay despite being in the same series as AW. In some aspects Advance Wars has been actually a step down compared to Super Famicom Wars.
A design for speedier games may make or break the game. A lot of these turn people away as they become slow grindfests in the middle of the map, with very slow progress on either side. This may be the shot in the arm the genre needs.
As for you not having any friends to play co-op with... Yeah, I can absolutely see why.

...I could just play Advance Wars on Switch...

Not a fan of that other game, but as others have said, at least Wargroove tried to do its own thing....

This is just a ripoff...

@SmaggTheSmug I know when I'm being trolled. I do have friends, just none that like to start points by being the first aggressor. Bye.