No matter what some people in the gaming industry say, there are a few genres that the system handles extremely well, arguably much better than its HD brothers do. One of these is the Strategy genre, a type of medium long considered to be among the most hardcore in the industry. With its IR capabilities, the Wii remote is ideal for controlling units, regiments and squadrons across the battlefields; even when it all plays out in 2D.

Swords and Soldiers is a title that will win you over as soon as you hit the menu screen. Ronimo Games, the guys behind de Blob, have crafted another game with fantastic style all around. This is the kind of product that proves 2D gaming is long from dead, as Swords and Soldiers is a joy to look at. The sprites are among the most animated you will ever see in gaming, which coupled with their colorful design create visuals which rival other 2D works like Warioland: The Shake Dimension, and dare we say, Muramasa.

 

Then you will find yourself in the heat of battle, and you will definitely believe that the Wii can handle the Real-Time-Strategy genre like a pro. All you need is a remote to play this, simply point and click across the screen to hit icons and create unit types, or target soldiers for various magic, which entails a variety of offensive and defensive spells. It all plays out about as fluent as you could possibly imagine as a console, easily trumping what any amount of analog sticks could hope to achieve.

There is one little sore spot, though, that being your inability to control your units’ movements. As soon as you churn them out they will keep advancing to the other side of the level until they get killed or help you accomplish the mission. This will definitely be a letdown for those going in expecting full control over your army, as it certainly removes the element of planning your attack.

 

That said, what it does create a whole different RTS experience. In Swords and Soldiers, you will never really take a break from the action. Since everything moves on a linear plane, you can not flank or move around opposing units, meaning you have to meet them head on every time. If you want to overpower your enemies, you need to constantly be clicking on the icons above the battlefield, whether it be to create new soldiers or some kind of nasty sorcery at your opponent’s minions. Slow down for too long and your enemy will begin to press the advantage, thus taking up more ground along the 2D field.

Part of what makes Swords and Soldiers so much fun are the armies you take command of. The game contains a ten mission campaign for three ancient civilizations; the Vikings, the Aztecs, and the ancient Chinese. The stories for them are hardly blockbusters, told by still images and conversations bubbles, but the dialogue is humorous and the premises for their wars are completely outrageous.

 

 As for how they play, every faction has the usual grunt soldiers and projectile units, but that is about where the similarities end. Between the special units and magic, the three civilizations are all very unique from one another. The Vikings rely on brute strength, with tough soldiers, catapults and spells that primarily for offensive purposes, like thunderbolts and the Hammer of Thor. The Aztecs are more complex, with soldiers and magic alike that poison enemies, Necromancers that can turn dead warrior into zombies, and the ability to even brainwash enemy units to fight for your side. Lastly, the Chinese offer a myriad of combat styles, with spells that can duplicate units, send a huge dragon to attack the rival army, and soldiers that range from monks with telepathy to ninja monkeys that throw bombs.

The only problem with said campaigns is that there is one mission in every story, all towards the end, that is a huge jump in difficulty. These particular levels clearly put you at a huge disadvantage which is almost impossible to overcome on the Normal difficulty setting, and the real way to win is to just grind it out to the end. Here, proper management of your units and speedy execution means very little; they simply turn into obnoxious battles of attrition.

But besides that trio, the campaigns are fun. Between the three they should take you about eight to nine hours, which at the download’s 1000 Wii Point price tag is a pretty good buy alone. Of course, this game is far beyond a ‘good buy’ based on content, since Ronimo stuffed it with more to do than the three campaigns. There is a full skirmish mode where you can choose between any of the three factions to play as and fight against across 9 maps, and what more you can play either against the computer or a friend via local multiplayer. Playing this a lot will help you reach some of the numerous Achievements for the game, which has its own menu and relates to the story modes as well.

Rounding it out are three challenges that are essentially minigames, however these are extremely addictive and two of them particularly force you to bring out all your know-how about the game’s mechanics. These two are the; Berserker Run, which has you controlling a single Viking soldier as you see how far you can get him and only him across a field of enemies, and; Survival, which lets you choose from any of the three civilizations to test how long you can protect your base from waves of enemy units. The last, and simpler one is Boulder, where a line of Viking and Aztec soldiers will sit across a plane, and a huge rock will roll through the field. The object is to hit as many of the Vikings as possible and avoiding your Aztec units by hitting A and making the Boulder leap over them.

Some kind of online functionality, whether it was a Versus multiplayer mode, or even Leaderboards for the Challenges definitely would have been appreciated, but when you consider how much Ronimo packed into this download, you could make the argument that their absence is dismissible. At 1000 Wii Points, you get a ton of content, more than a lot of retail games, in fact.