Mecho Wars: Desert Ashes

Genre: Turn-Based Strategy

Players: 1-2 Competitive (Online)

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Review:

Mecho Wars is a Turn-Based Strategy game that takes the gameplay of the Advance Wars games and pairs it with a… unique aesthetic that replaces tanks and missile launchers with mechanized cats and giant metal bugs, all created in a creepy grotesque art style. This release of the game builds on the original with expanded content and features.

Normally, I try not to let my own personal distaste for an art style interfere with my enjoyment of a game, but this game made it really difficult. In part that’s not only because I dislike this game’s art style, but it pairs so poorly with the cartoonish way that Advance Wars treats the topic of war, a treatment this game copies. The game’s maps are colorful and presented in a simple, user-friendly fashion, and even the game’s story is relayed in a silly, cartoonish fashion, yet it’s starring nightmare monstrosities that I simply cannot find cute and whimsical in the way the game expects me to.

The presentation hurts the gameplay too, as I find myself having difficulty understanding at a glance what each unit is supposed to represent. Is the metal dragon thing a long-distance unit? What about the metal cat thing? Is this unit strong against that one? Will that one be able to counter-attack if I attack it directly? I keep having to go back to check these units to answer these questions, because in my head, they’re all a jumble of monstrous things.

Under the hood, the gameplay here is solid, a good representation of the same sort of gameplay that’s in Advance Wars. Unfortunately, 2019 also saw the release of Wargroove, another game in the vein of Advance Wars, and that game was so loaded to the brim with amazing content that Mecho Wars can’t possibly hope to compete.

I’ll say this – I know that my distaste for Mecho Wars’ art is a part of why I don’t like the game, and if you look at screenshots for the game and find yourself digging it, you may really enjoy this game too. However, even so, it’s hard to ignore that there are better, more feature-rich turn-based strategy games on the Switch.

tl;dr – Mecho Wars is a Turn-Based Strategy game in the same vein as Advance Wars. However, it’s set apart by its bizarre, grotesque art style that unfortunately clashes with the tone and elements of the presentation of the rest of the game. If this game’s art appeals to you, you may find yourself enjoying its gameplay, which is decent. Otherwise, there are better options for you on the Switch.

Grade: C+

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