Trivia / Nintendo Wars

• Blooper: In one promotional video for Re-Boot Camp that introduces Orange Star, the description for Sami's stats were displayed incorrectly. Nintendo later deleted and re-uploaded the video to correct the information.
• B-Team Sequel: While the franchise was originally created by Intelligent Systems, half the entries in the Wars series have been developed by other studios. Hudson Soft developed three Game Boy Wars games as well as an unreleased Nintendo 64 installment, Kuju Entertainment created the Battalion Wars games, and Wayforward Technologies headed up Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp.
• Content Leak: Despite Re-Boot Camp being delayed from its April 8, 2022 release date, pre-loads of the digital version of the game were unlocked and became playable on that date, allowing a small number of people to play the game as if the delay had never happened. These fortunate players had, for various reasons, disconnected their Switch consoles from the internet in between pre-loading the game and Nintendo implementing the delay, and happened to keep them offline until the original release date arrived; players who pre-loaded the game but went online after the delay announcement had the pre-load data automatically wiped from their consoles.
• Directed by Cast Member: Cristina Valenzuela voices Nell and served as the voice director for Re-Boot Camp. Rather fitting considering Nell's position.
• Distanced from Current Events:
  • While an official reason was never given, it is generally believed that the Japanese release of Advance Wars was cancelled in part due to 9/11 and the subsequent The War on Terror, as it would have been difficult to market the game when global media attention was on the United States entering war with Afghanistan. The American release was saved by virtue of it shipping on September 10th, 2001, though even then, it did go on sale in most stores on 9/11, being a Tuesday.
  • In contrast, Nintendo explicitly stated that Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp would be delayed a second time due to the escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War caused by the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. It would release in April the following year.
• Dueling Dubs: Days of Ruin / Dark Conflict is a particularly odd example, as it has two completely different English scripts, one for North America (Days of Ruin), and the other for Europe and Australia (Dark Conflict), which were produced simultaneously. And we don't mean just character name changes; literally the entire script was independently translated from scratch twice for the same game.
• Dueling Works: At the time of its original 1988 release, Nintendo Wars had two contemporary rivals. Daisenryaku and Nectaris. Both of them are Turn-Based Strategies that have significant differences from Nintendo Wars.
• Dummied Out: In Advance Wars 2, there was a plan to make the Cruiser more useful by allowing it to shoot land units. This plan was cancelled but the animation still remains as unused data that requires some code modification to reactivate. A similar change would be made to the Cruiser in Dual Strike in its place, allowing the Cruiser to attack all naval units directly, rather than only submarines.
• Executive Meddling: An interview of ex-WayForward QA tester going under the pseudonym "Anvil" revealed that Nintendo didn't care much for supporting the development of ''1+2 Reboot Camp" (financially or otherwise), mostly due to WayForward's status as contract workers, and implied that the game's delay due to the Russo-Ukrainian War was less out of respect for the war's victims and more a convenient excuse to hide the game's mountain of development woes.
• Follow the Leader: Advance Wars has inspired multiple third-party imitations, some of which sought to fill the void left when the series was shelved after Days of Ruin.
  • Battalion (2005) - A turn-based strategy series that was developed by urbansquall and published by Kongregate.
  • Strategery 2012 (2012)
  • Tiny Metal (2017) - A game created by Japanese developer Area 35 that eschewed pixel art for full 3D graphics. A sequel, Tiny Metal: Full Metal Rumble, released in 2019.
  • Wargroove (2019) - A fantasy-themed game developed by Chucklefish and marketed as a spiritual successor to Advance Wars. A sequel, Wargroove 2, is scheduled for release in 2023.
  • Warside (2023) - A game from UK indie developer Lavabird that improves upon the original Advance Wars template with a slew of new units and gameplay changes designed to counter stalemate tactics such as turtling and encourage faster pacing.
  • Athena Crisis (2023) - A game from Japan-based indie developer Christoph Nakazawa.
  • Empires Shall Fall (2023) - A game from Russian indie developer Weird Penguin Games, featuring Diesel Punk-themed and Lovecraftian Superpower factions locked in a World War I-esque conflict.
• International Coproduction: Advance Wars 1 + 2: Re-Boot Camp is a co-production between the Japanese Nintendo and the American Wayforward Technologies.
• Late Export for You:
  • Advance Wars didn't see release in Japan until three years after its initial release, packed with the second game of the sub-series (Black Hole Rising).
  • Days of Ruin/Dark Conflict, called Famicom Wars: Lost Light in Japanese, had its physical release cancelled after many delays. Five years after its overseas release, it would finally appear as not only a DSiWare title, but a game available only as a Club Nintendo reward of all things.^note Club Nintendo being their customer loyalty program at the time.
• No Export for You:
  • Every game prior to Advance Wars were released exclusively in Japan.
  • Currently, there are no plans for a Japanese release of Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp, with Nintendo's financial reports not listing it for future release in the region.
• Schedule Slip: Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp was originally announced for a December 3rd, 2021 release date. It would later be delayed to April 8, 2022 to allow for extra polishing of the final product, only to be shelved and delayed a full year to April 21, 2023 in order to distance itself from the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. The decision was likely made due to the very first mission of the game seeing Orange Star being invaded by Blue Moon, a Fantasy Counterpart Culture of Russia.
• Troubled Production: A Wayforward employee came out to explain the issues with the Reboot Camp in response to Mangs' critique on its shortcomings.
• Sequel First: Japan had an unusual example regarding the original Advance Wars. Its release was delayed there due to the September 11th attacks (the American release was saved by virtue of it shipping on September 10th, though it did go on sale in most stores on 9/11, being a Tuesday). It ultimately wouldn't be released in Japan until 2004, when it was bundled alongside Black Hole Rising as a double pack.
• Sleeper Hit: Prior to Advance Wars, Nintendo had declined to release any installment of the series in America, fearing that it would be too complex for American gamers. When they took a chance on localizing Advance Wars, it not only was successful enough for this series to become a mainstay in the West, but (along with the presence of Marth and Roy in Super Smash Bros. Melee) resulted in Nintendo finally bringing over the Fire Emblem series.
• Vaporware: Did you know that a 64 Wars was planned for, you guessed it, the Nintendo 64? It was being developed by Hudson Soft for a 1999 release, but for whatever reason, the game never saw the light of day. The only publicly available footage can be seen here.

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