Wii

Military Madness

Wie die meisten Strategiespiele ist auch Military Madness ausgesprochen gut gealtert. Der Protoyp der Hexfeld-Stategie begeistert selbst heute noch mit fordernder Mondkrieg-Kampagne im Jahr 2089, gutem Zweispielermodus und flotter, schnörkelloser Strategiekost. Für Fans von Advance Wars und Co. ist Military Madness die erste Wahl.

When Military Madness was originally published for the TurboGrafx-16 back in 1989, it was praised by critics but didn't sell all that well due to the system's inability to catch on in a market that was then dominated by Nintendo and Sega. It wasn't until Nintendo published Advance Wars for the Game Boy Advance in 2001 that console owners really noticed and took a liking to the military-themed, turn-based strategy genre. Now that the TurboGrafx-16 version of Military Madness is available for the Wii's Virtual Console, today's strategy buffs have the chance to discover what a few TG-16 owners already know: Military Madness was ahead of its time. The game offers the same sort of complex turn-based combat as Advance Wars but also does enough differently from Nintendo's franchise that it hasn't been rendered obsolete in the intervening years.

It would have been hard to recommend the broken Military Madness that first debuted on December 18, plagued as it was by a simple but annoyingly persistent emulation glitch. As that's no longer a factor, the game's true value is restored. Overall Military Madness is a lot of fun, and certainly worth a look if you're a fan of turn-based, grid-based, moonbase strategy. We'll forgive Nintendo and Hudson the oversight this time, but let's hope that future VC releases don't arrive with any more technical troubles.