Swords and Soldiers - 1/3rd of a review

I just played a game while I drank a cup of coffee. Simultaneously. And neither my performance in the game nor my performance with the cup suffered while I did it. This was possible because of the wonderfully pared-down control system for the WiiWare game Swords and Soldiers. In this RTS game, I was quite capable in controlling an entire battle (including building units, mining resources, and upgrading my technology) with a single Wii remote and the A button.

The game takes place over a wandering chain of battles among Vikings, Ninjas, and Aztecs (thankfully the developers are well aware that pirates are over-played). The battlefield is a 2D space with your base of the left and the enemy on the right. There are resources that are acquired by building miner unis - for the vikings they look Brunhilda-esque. The fighters, at least for the Vikings range from basic melee soldiers, Berserkers, and ax throwers. You can upgrade your units or research spells from a pop-up tech tree. Everything is in real time so that while you are building your units and sending them in to battle your enemy is too. If this sounds like too much to be handled by the Wii (not to mention while simultaneously consuming coffee) it is because of the innovative way of the battle is played.

This innovation is that S+S plays like curling - you don't directly control the object in question (in the game it is your foot soldiers, in curling it is the rock) rather, you control the environment around it. Every time you build a warrior he heads to the right and will fight the first thing he runs in to. You have no way of turning him around or telling him to wait. To better his chances of survival, you can indirectly help by healing him or casting a spell to hurt the enemies he is fighting. The strategy is therefore to keep that loan fighter on the front line alive long enough for the reinforcements you built to make it to the battle field.

The battles are fast and rarely last longer than 10 minutes. So far the levels are fairly easy and I only had to restart one of them. However, based on what I have read they will get more difficult. But for now I am really liking the pace and style of the game because it allows me to drop in, play a little and then get out. Similarly the controls are so simple that I am not fighting them while I fight my enemies.

I will let you know in my follow up review of the Aztec and Ninja campaign.

Swords and Soldiers is a WiiWare game developed by Ronimo Games. It costs 1000 points.