Game Boy Wars

Gameplay

In Game Boy Wars, the nations of Red Star and White Moon are locked in conflict. Players command the military forces of one side on hexagonal maps composed of square tiles. The objective is to either eliminate all opposing units or seize the enemy’s capital city. To achieve this, players must capture key locations such as cities, factories, airports, and harbors spread across 36 different maps. Turns alternate between the player and an opponent, which can be the computer or another person. Each army can field up to 50 units, and every unit can receive orders to attack enemies, support allies, or capture territory. Units are divided into land, sea, and air types. New units are built near the player’s capital using funds generated from owned properties. Land units emerge from cities or factories, air units from airports, and naval vessels from harbors. Both armies have access to 24 distinct unit types.

Sequels

Years after the original Game Boy Wars, a set of follow-ups arrived, but they were handled by Hudson Soft rather than Nintendo and Intelligent Systems. The first of these was Game Boy Wars Turbo, released on June 24, 1997. Its main improvement was a smarter CPU decision-making algorithm, which made enemy turns faster than in the original. It also added 50 new maps and worked with the Super Game Boy. Like several other Hudson Game Boy titles from that period, it came in a metal tin instead of the usual cardboard box. A special version of Turbo was given away as a promotional item by Weekly Famitsu, featuring maps sent in by the magazine's readers.

Game Boy Wars 2 came out on November 20, 1998. It supported both the Super Game Boy and the Game Boy Color. The CPU's decision-making was refined again, and the game now showed players exactly which spaces a unit could move to or attack, making planning clearer. It included 54 new maps.

The last Hudson-produced sequel, Game Boy Wars 3, launched on August 30, 2001 for the Game Boy Color, just a month before Advance Wars hit North America. During development, it was called Game Boy Wars Pocket Tactics. This entry changed the series' formula by taking inspiration from Hudson's own Nectaris war simulators. For example, indirect attack units could now move and fire in the same turn. Also, having enough funds was no longer sufficient to build certain units; players also had to supply construction materials to factories and cities. This required deploying construction units to those sites to produce the materials, and those same units could cut down trees and build roads.