WiiWare Review: Swords And Soldiers

As a PC gamer, the RTS genre as a whole is my primary play preference for the platform. Everything from the Command & Conquer series to the Age of Empires franchise to the likes of Warcraft, Starcraft, HoM&M & Company of Heroes, I have played & loved them all. So when I got wind of a new side-scrolling, 2D RTS title heading to Nintendo’s WiiWare service, I was intrigued. Sure, the idea has been dabbled in before (see the Worms franchise), but never has it been done in a way that I actually enjoyed. The controls just never felt right to me. So, has Ronimo Games (developers of de Blob) come up with something better?

I remember the first time I read the synopsis of Swords & Soldiers. Basically, they said that they did a lot of digging to find out all the historical information they could on the three factions in the game (Vikings, Aztec, & Chinese)…………so they would know exactly what NOT to do in the game. The developers wanted to make a funny & enjoyable game not burdened by historical accuracy. So they shot for historical INaccuracy instead. Fortunately, they achieved that in spades. Each faction is a riot & the dialog is always done with their tongue’s firmly in their cheeks. After playing through the Viking campaign (where you’re on a quests to prevent a rival faction from ruining your bar-b-que), I found that I wanted to play the others just to see what Ronimo has next up their sleeves for me.

As a guy who’s accustomed to a mouse & keyboard to control my peons (zug-zug), I had to downgrade my tactics a bit. Everything is controlled by the WiiMote. You’ start out with the ability to create gold collectors & have to research other troops or abilities with the gold you collect. At first, this isn’t really an issue, but as you get further into the game, the order you choose will make or break you. Ultimately, that’s where the main part of the strategy comes into play. The other part has to do with the character’s movements. Once created, your troops begin their one-way trip to the enemy, killing everything they can that comes into their path. You have very little control over it (even though one of the factions have a magic ability to speed up their troops for a bit). So choosing what to make, gauging when they will arrive & who they will fight all needs to be factored into your decisions. In addition to your troops, you also have a certain set of magic powers that vary depending on the faction you’re playing. The Vikings can make snow storms, freezing the enemy for a bit. The Aztecs can turn your troops against you through mind control. And the Chinese can rain down a shower of fire arrows on their foes. Using said powers in conjunction with your army is a must, as you won’t survive on just the power of your sword.

Most of the missions (there are 30 total, 10 for each faction) are the typical ‘destroy the enemy base’ scenario. To add a little flavor though, Ronimo spiced it up a bit with a few other objectives sprinkled in. To break the monotony, some of the missions require you to get from one end of the map to the other with out dying. Another one has you defending your base for a set period of time. Each one is a nice break from the norm & forces you to change your tactics a bit.

I know 30 missions doesn’t sound like much. On the easy difficulty, you should be able to complete it in 5 or 6 hours. But, there are 3 other difficulties (2 available from the start, 1 you have to unlock)  that will tax your brain. Along with that, there are 3 challenge levels to unlock. One has you controlling a giant boulder, trying to kill the enemy & not your own troops. Another one is the typical Horde mode (i.e. survive as long as you can) & the last one is Berserker, where you have a couple of magic spells & you need to keep one single soldier alive as long as you can. Success in that mode is measured by the distance he has traveled. There are also 25 different achievements. Similar to those found in Xbox 360 games, except no gamerscore involved. Not only do you get the feeling of accomplishment by getting them (& some are very tough), but you also get a code after all 25 are achieved. Send that code into Romino Games & you will be eligible for a goodie bag from them (I like this idea & I hope more WiiWare devs do something like this). On top of all of that, there is local splitscreen multiplayer with fully customizable options. Now, I generally dislike splitscreen MP, but in this case, with the game being a side-scroller, it isn’t too bad.

To be honest, this was a pretty good game, much better than I was expecting. I can’t say I liked the amount of options (your limited to only a couple of different troop types & magic spells), but the amount of strategy involved with using what you have more than made up for it. Any game that can keep me wanting to play more, like Swords & Soldiers did, gets high marks from me. There were only a few cons, but many pros, which makes this game enough to keep any strategist busy, experienced or not. My son, who has had no time with RTS games, enjoyed it as much as I did. Swords & Soldiers is rated ‘E’ for Everyone’ & will only run you 1000 point ($10). At that price, there is a lot of game for your money & will make a fine addition to your WiiWare collection. It launched in the US a few weeks ago so it’s available now on the Wii Shop Channel.

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