WiiWare Find of the Month: Swords and Soldiers Brings the RTS Genre to a 2-D Side Scroller

Posted by ScuzzBuster

July 23, 2009

sns_logo One of the saving graces for the Nintendo Wii in the console wars is the outstanding catalog of WiiWare titles along with the increasing catalog of classic titles in the Virtual Console world. I love the Wii, but I’ve made no bones about the fact that it has major shortcomings that it has had to overcome to attain its popularity. The innovative titles hitting the WiiWare section of the online shop are a huge plus. Of course, with every huge “plus” on the Wii comes a major “beware” factor, and this one is that the Wii’s severely limited on-board and expandable memory it doesn’t have the flexibility to allow downloadable demos of the titles, leaving it to idiots like me to gamble the money and let you know how the gamble turns out. This time, we have a phenomenally fun title that takes RTS gaming into the world of 2-D side scrollers. This combination of two genres we never thought would mix called Swords and Soldiers is a genuinely fun and addictive investment.

This gem comes from Ronimo Games, the company that responsible for the title that eventually came to Wii as De Blob, a cute full release that was definitely a fun distraction, but not nearly the blast that Swords and Soldiers ends up being as a download at a fraction of the price.

ss-screen1 This game takes all the standard staples of the Real Time Strategy genre and turns them back 10 years by incorporating them into a 2-D side scroller. I was massively confused the first time loading the game because I was not really expecting it to play like a standard RTS, but after about a 10 minute mental adjustment period it became increasingly clear that not only did this have all the components of a successful RTS, it was one of the better ones you’re likely to play.

Like many Wii Ware titles, it has a colorful, cartoony look to it, but that shouldn’t distract you from the fact that there is very rich gaming experience at it’s heart. You begin by taking control of a Viking Army, managing resources through mining gold and building your soldiers and spells to work through a surprisingly meaty campaign mode. After the Viking campaign, you move on to take control of one of the armies you defeated in the first section. All in all, there are hours of gameplay in the campaign as well as the ability to unlock single player challenge levels, achievements and compete in multiplayer modes.

ss-screen2 Like any addictive RTS title you’ll find yourself pounding through each level of the campaign with the focused frustration of finding just the right balance of resource management, army building and high level decisions on when to focus on building or drill directly into your battles to assist your soldiers in specific skirmishes trying to decide to flood your enemy with a horde of Ninja Monkeys and Rocket Firing racially insensitive portrayals of Asian foot soldiers or pound them into submission with Catapults, Hordes of Flying Arrows Lightening Bolts from Thor.

Once again, as with titles like World of Goo as well as some equally cool finds like Lit and others, Swords and Soldiers should end up high on your consideration list as yet another bargain WiiWare title that outshines the majority of the too often mediocre catalog of full price Wii Games available (not to short change the great full titles there are, but they are definitely lost in a sea of cut rate titles you have to pound through to find).

If you’re a lapsed or casual RTS gamer, Swords and Soldiers definitely should prove to be a fun distraction with plenty of game play time in the campaign. Definitely worth a look and a handful of blocks of memory. Yet another reason my SD card and meager flash memory of Nintendo’s little white brick gets a lot more work than the disc drive recently.

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