Thief

Super excited for this, love everything Puppet Combo puts out. Already got this one pre-loaded.

@Zuljaras They might be waiting until more Puppet Combo games are brought to consoles before doing that. I could see them doing one large collection rather than a single game.

Everyone here not wanting Link to have a voice are being ridiculous. They're not going to have him be silent in a feature film, not realistic - especially if they pursue the formula they used for Mario which they absolutely will.

Especially when they eventually do a crossover, having Mario talk but not Link would be an absolute disaster.

Meanwhile, I've bought pretty much every SE release on Switch in the last twelve months. I think they really need to work on better marketing, many of these games simply were released without much advertising.

@KayFiOS You decided everybody needed to know that you weren't buying it. What, do you make a post in every release article to announce whether or not you are buying it? 🤣

@KayFiOS Ok? Pretty sure the article wasn't asking if you supported LRG or not. I for one will be buying this, but only because I'm interested in the game and not concerned about the physical publisher.

Makes sense to me. It's pretty reasonable that Nintendo wouldn't want something like this existing.

The follow-up to this, the Deluxe Pokédex (featuring Johto as well as Kanto), actually skipped two-frame animations in favor of still images. You almost have to wonder if NOJ demanded that change or if it was just hardware limitations.

@Ryne-Gaia This was right after the 2011 earthquake and these episodes featured a ton of earthquakes. It would have been in very bad taste to air these, just unfortunate timing.

This is super cool. Every once in a while, I always think back to this canceled two-parter and wished it could have been aired. But I'll happily take this!

Very excited for this game. The fusion aspect especially.

With collections like Mega Man Battle Network topping Japanese sales charts, it's a wonder Nintendo hasn't tried to do the same with even just the older FE titles.

6.

Graphics leave much to be desired, voice-acting is notably lacking, and the barebones multiplayer hurts the game's long-term appeal.

This game feels rushed, which is funny because they had an extra year to work on it more but seemingly didn't. You can just tell Nintendo wants this out the door and out of sight - no chance for a sequel.

@BrazillianCara So glad Edelgard was recast. Considering Vee went on to voice it her characters in Heroes, I believe they simply realized she wasn't cut out for the role.

@JohnnyMind Haven forbid I have opinions that differ from yours. So glad I have you to share things I have already said on other articles, makes my life a lot easier! /s

@Ulysses There are literal lines where the reading stops half-way through, it's pretty distracting and makes me wonder why they even included voice-acting at all. Were the actors charging per word?

@JohnnyMind How is it "disingenuous" to see these games as bad? That's how I see them and I've backed up my reasons why several times to you - underwhelming graphics, barenones multiplayer, limited voice-acting to the point that entire sentences are only half read, $60 pricing. Did you also think it was "disingenuous" when people called Pokémon SwSh and SV bad games or is that only the case when it involves games you like? You don't see me telling people they are wrong for liking this game, opinion is subjective.

"even went as far as mentioning not being able to redeem the Gold Points as a reason to skip it"

If Nintendo and WayForward can't be bothered to adjust a game's internal release date data for physical gold coin redemption, why should the be rewarded? You seem to love bringing this up like it's an own; it's not, and it's funny to see you constantly bring this up in every article like it should be tolerated. It's yet another example of the laziness on display and people should be informed on ALL the flaws before buying this, and at FULL-PRICE no less.

Grow up.

@ZZalapski If James' "life dream" is remaking a GBA game with minimal changes and dropping the ball when it comes to actual new features like online multiplayer, then no, Mouse isn't being rude by calling tha out. At best, James is exaggerating, and at worst, he's BS-ing to sell people on a game that is almost definitely going to struggle with sales.

@YoshiF2 "That combined with the fact that not even Days of Ruin was released over there. That killed the IP in Japan."

The IP was "killed" globally, not just in Japan, for the last 15 years. Let's not pretend Dual Strike or Days of Ruin had phenomenal sales anywhere - they sold abysmally.

And there's no way of knowing WayForward didn't make the decision to skip over Japan - it totally could have been their call. You're outright refusing to even acknowledge that it could be the case while I'm, at least, suggesting it's a possibility.

Reviving a franchise, and a Nintendo-owned IP no less, only to skip over Japan is incredibly foolish and short-sighted. Why even bother reviving Advance Wars if you're not going to aim for every country possible? That money would have been better spent towards new entries for IPs like Star Fox or Kid Icarus at that point.

@ManaOwls I started playing Persona 1 this week! Atlus really needs to get it together and bring as well as both parts of 2 over already!

@theModestMouse LOL! I didn't even realize he said it was his "life's dream", there's no way he can actually mean that. Underwhelming graphical update, very limited voice-acting, and absolutely no promotion for it from WayForward's end - yeah you can just feel the enthusiasm that went into this remake. /s

Reading more of this article, my favorite part has to be Mark Bozon quote-tweeting James and tagging Nintendo, demanding a new game because WayForward "CLEARLY" has the "chops". The same studio that could only be bothered to tweet pictures of a cake in the months leading up to this game. But River City Girls going on sale for 50% off? Half a dozen tweets about that in the last week alone.

I'm not going to lie, I believe WayForward cut corners everywhere they could (from barebones multiplayer to skipping over Japan entirely probably so they didn't need to hire Japanese voice actors) just to get this game out the door and attempt to get what they REALLY want; a completely original Advance Wars game they get complete creative control over.

@YoshiF2 Fire Emblem was on the brink of death and was only saved because Awakening's changes to the formula spoke to a larger audience than it's previous one. How can Advance Wars "deserve" the Fire Emblem treatment more when it would only be copying exactly what Fire Emblem has already done? And if Nintendo isn't even willing to test Reboot Camp in Japan, how can it be ready to re-invent itself with confidence that low?

@ZZalapski No problem!

@BTB20 Why? I watched online gameplay and already determined it is not worth $60. That's a lot of money during an inflation and I'm not dropping it on the sheer hope that it's actually good.

@Bret Never said I only buy flawless games, but Reboot Camp had enough flaws for me to not want it in my collection. The art-style, very cheap looking. Wouldn't be an issue if this game was $40 or $50, but $60? Yeah no. Online features were the biggest factor here for keeping since I can more or less get the same experience on my GBA copies. Only supporting 1v1 with friends was laughable, so I passed in it. AWBW has more online features, that's just sad.

@Everythingnotsaved Remains to be seen how many people actually bought the game that weren't turned off by the art-style or lack of online features. If people simply wanted to re-play the first two AW games, great, but I can already do that without needing to spend $60.

@ZZalapski I watched Australian livestreams for the game that have started coming out. I don't blindly buy games that I have hesitations about, and for Reboot Camp, I'm very happy that I did.

Plus, this game had zero pre-order bonuses. In fact, people who bought physical copies are realizing that they can't even redeem gold coins off of it. Dodged a bullet there!

@ZZalapski There have been numerous people calling the game bad, myself included, which is why I said "arguably bad games". Obviously, opinion is subjective but going off of OpenCritic alone isn't a credible way of determining that. Cyberpunk 2077 and Pokémon SwSh both have strongly positive ratings on OpenCritic but clearly that doesn't make them good games.

@Paraka People shouldn't feel obligated to buy arguably bad games day one just on the hope that more games will be made. Reboot Camp has flaws, especially with online multiplayer, I for one don't intend to reward that with $60. And if that means no more Advance Wars games, oh well! It's on Nintendo and WayForward for dropping the ball, not on me for withholding my money for a better game.

@Serpenterror Online is 1v1 with friends only - no matchmaking, no ranked. Capcom's Mega Man Battle Network collection managed to do all of that, so it sucks that I now have to go out of my way to organize matches in Reboot Camp rather than just pressing a button.

Would have preferred that extra mile being put towards online multiplayer, but alas.

@EVIL-C Lacking online features, divisive new art-style, and a direct remake that offers nothing new in terms of story content - no, I do not think it justifies full-price. This could have, and should have, been $40-$50 because put it next to any other full-price Nintendo game and there's no comparison - Reboot Camp looks cheap.

@Cashews This was you defending the $60 price:

"But it isn't exactly easy to find an old system, then find the games to play, fork over the dough and hope your GBA doesn't short out on you. This game will cost you less than trying to play the originals - so I think it is very much worth it."

You can emulate these games, even on your phone if you should choose, and there's no reason to even feel bad since the one place it was available legally (Wii U Virtual Console) is now offline. If the intention is simply to play the campaigns, you can do so for free right now.

@KaiserGX It's not stealing if the product isn't legally available anywhere. Nintendo gets just as much money from you emulating it as buying it off eBay for a ridiculous emount of money. Cashews brought up the second-hand market, so I in turn brought up emulation.

"Read that very slowly as many times as it takes for that to sink in."

Alright then, point me in the direction where Nintendo is selling these original GBA versions. The last place was the the Wii U eShop, and that's gone now. It makes no difference now whether you emulate or buy it off eBay, so why do you care?

@Cashews Your argument falls flat when piracy is very much an option here for the GBA games, and now that the Wii U eShop is closed, it's no longer available legally anyway so nothing is even being "stolen". Why pay $60 when I can essentially get the same game for free? The lack of online features certainly don't make for a strong argument.

@CharlieGirl That's funny, because to me it sounds like Veronica Taylor, Ash's original voice actress.

@Snatcher No worries! I was just curious if there was an actual corner of the internet that I was overlooking.

If you ask me, Reboot Camp looks to be a fun way to experience the first two games if you've never played them before. It's always nice to see Nintendo bring an older franchise back, but I do wish they hadn't tapped WayForward to do it; a studio that hasn't worked around tactical games before.

What ultimately disappoints me about Reboot Camp is the very limited online features; only supporting 1v1 with friends. No matchmaking, no ranked, it's a shame. Nostalgia can only propel this game so far, and I truly believe that online competitive is what would make this reboot a must-own. Instead, WayForward gave us some of the most limiting online play for a first-party Switch game.

@Snatcher I'd ask where you are seeing this discussion. Twitter, Reddit, and especially YouTube, have had very little to say about this game from what I've seen.

In fact, I've seen more discussion for the Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection this month; both leading up to as well as post-release.

@BTB20 The red flag is all Nintendo-owned IPs have released simultaneously on the Switch, Japanese release has never been delayed until now.

@Lizuka Agreed, Reboot Camp should not have been $60. It indirectly causes people to compare it other full-priced Switch games. Should have been $50 like WarioWare or $40 like the Klonoa two-game collection.

Again, I think this game will massively underperform in sales. Between the art-style and $60 price, I think many players will give this a pass. And let's not forget; this isn't getting released in Japan - that's a huge red flag if you ask me. Even Balan Wonderworld managed to get that, smh.

Oh and WayForward, who you would think would be making tons of noise about this, hasn't done anything more than re-tweet Nintendo's tweets since the April release date was announced. It's like they're not even excited about this, and they developed it!

@smithyo I wouldn't even say it's lots of love; it's largely been criticism from general players with vocal fans brushing it off and insisting people buy it at full price simply to support the franchise. Mark my words, this game will be one that's constantly put through sales as time goes on. I think we could start seeing these discount sales as early as June.

But yeah, you could pull a screenshot from this game and put it into one of those YouTube mobile game ads and most people wouldn't even be able to tell the difference - that's how bad this looks.

@Switch_Pro The Klonoa collection, which is also two games with a new coat of paint, is only $40. There is no justifying Reboot Camp's full-price, especially for GBA remakes, and the sales numbers are going to reflect this.

@Arawn93 Exactly. Nintendo should have dropped this in August 2022 when the biggest title to drop on the Switch was Pac-Man World Re-Pac. Now, there's just too much coming out. Even in April alone, the Final Fantasy and Mega Man Battle Network collections are much more appealing in comparison to this.

@jedisquidward No, this shouldn't be treated as some kind of charity where people throw their money at a product regardless of it's quality or price just to support obscure franchises. Reboot Camp had years to polish, but from what I have seen and read, Nintendo and/or WayForward didn't take it seriously and instead expect people to drop $60 on something that is absolutely inferior to other first-party titles going for the same price.

@EVIL-C Klonoa released a two-game collection last year with remastered graphics - only $40. Everything I have seen and heard about Reboot Camp does not justify $60, and I strongly believe this game will see numerous sales in the coming months. If you want to drop $60 on this, be my guest, but the divided reactions are overwhelmingly loud and it will ultimately impact sales. And for a niche franchise like Advance Wars, that can spell the end of any potential revival.

Wonder how much that'll increase with the movie.

@Cashews Both BOTW and MK8D saw physical and digital sales within the first year of their respective releases, and since I suspect Reboot Camp will not exactly sell gangbusters, I could see sales as early as this summer. A large point of contention whenever this game is discussed is the $60 price, and once Nintendo sees low sales numbers, they're not going to wait to put this title on sale.

@EVIL-C No thanks, I'll wait for a sale. This game is not worth $60, and if the online features are as limited as we're hearing, there's even less reason to buy this at full price. The Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection has more online features and those are GBA ports!

A Nintendo cinematic universe is pretty much a guarantee, even if it is exclusive to the Mario-verse for the first phase. I could see the final entry for the first phase being the "Mario Party" brawl that serves as a segue into other IPs like Zelda or Kirby.

@Ryu_Niiyama You are this like it's ruining an intern's day - it's not. If anything, they probably just laugh at how silly it is while they drink their coffee and work.

I like that the DLC came out all within three months. It's a nice change from the usual long waits between waves, and works very well for a tactical series like Fire Emblem.

@Ryu_Niiyama Why? Most interns simply ignore these types of protests and just do their job.

@JohnnyMind It doesn't matter what the rest of the story is about, having a game open with a Russian-influenced nation invading and occupying a neighboring nation was too eerily similar to real-world events.

Mario Party honestly could have been an interesting addition to their mobile library.

Shame that you can't transfer Pokémon in, but still a great addition to NSO.

@Yas Blue Moon is pretty much a reference to Soviet Russia, and their role in the game is to occupy a neighboring nation. If people can't see that connection, it's because they're refusing to look.

Jokes aside, I would absolutely love it if Nintendo actually did this. The chances of it happening are slimmer than Mother 3 getting localized, but I would buy these day one if it happened.

Add this to the list of reasons of why he's one of my favorite actors. Now I just need to know if he's ever played Dragon Quest.