If you've ever played an Advance Wars game (Gameboy, GBA, DS) or Field Commander (PSP), you've a pretty good idea of what to expect from this new Xbox Live Arcade retro remake: turn-based strategy on a hex grid with a military theme. For those new to the genre, don't be afraid - this isn't some hardcore sim your father-in-law plays (heya Kevin, totally talking about a different father in-law here, honestly). Instead, this is approachable, manageable strategy without the annoying pressure that realtime games provide (particularly on consoles). Here you have the time to figure out what you should do so, if you lose, don't go blaming the controls!
PopMatters: Military Madness: Nectaris is the latest remake of an old TurboGrafx game that has seen a fair number of iterations over the years. Why do I bring this up? Because if you haven’t played one of those previous versions, this one is not for you. This game does everything that it can to scare away whatever new audience it might have found on XBLA, WiiWare, or PSN.
Mygamer writes: "Military Madness: Nectaris aims to revive its classic predecessor, which was released on the TurboGrafx-16. From my understanding of the game’s original incarnation (which was derived from poring over a few fansites), it seems to do this very well. Military Madness’s concept and gameplay remain generally unchanged from two decades ago. This lack of evolution is bound to be a blessing and a curse—fans of the series will be immediately swimming in nostalgia, and newcomers, such as myself, will be struggling to readjust to strategic gaming conventions that have long been extinct. That’s not to say this struggle isn’t worth going through, but if you’re not a dedicated strategy fan who’s open to something very different from modern strategy games…you’ve been warned."
Avault writes: "I don’t really remember it, but others might recall that the Nectaris series actually debuted way back on PCs and the TurboGrafx-16 (one of its eight games, I believe) in the late 1980s. They are turn-based, hexagonal-mapped strategy games in which one player tries to overtake another by moving their units around the board. Military Madness: Nectaris, recently released on Xbox Live Arcade, is an updated throwback to the original."
