In their E3 2021 Direct, Nintendo announced Advance Wars 1+2 Reboot Camp – remakes of the first two Advance Wars games to be released later in the year. This was amazing news for fans of the series who hadn’t seen a new Advance Wars game since 2008. It indicated Nintendo was still interested in the IP and was testing the waters to see if the fan base was still there.

Then the Russia/Ukraine war broke out, and Nintendo being Nintendo, felt it would irresponsible to release a war game, even a light-hearted one, while this real war was going on. So the game was delayed – indefinitely.

Now here we are almost a year and a half after the original announcement and the game is still delayed, even though it’s reportedly finished and ready to ship. It looks like Nintendo isn’t going to release the game until the war in Ukraine ends.

However, the question should be asked: even when the war eventually does end, won’t there be another war somewhere in the world going on? I’m not sure I fully understand Nintendo’s standards for releasing the game. Is it only the war in Ukraine they have a problem with, or is it war in general? If it’s war in general, then the game will never come out because there’s always a war going on somewhere in the world, and it makes one question why Nintendo decided to bring back Advance Wars in the first place, even though the series’ take on modern military warfare is about as far from being realistic as you can imagine without it being fantasy.

‘Advance Wars 1+2 Reboot Camp’ for Nintendo Switch.

I understand Nintendo being conscientious about something as serious as the Russia/Ukraine war, but it makes me wonder if a publisher like Activision looks at Nintendo and laughs to themselves. Activision had no qualms about releasing their annual Call of Duty game this year in spite of the Ukraine war or any other war. Granted, Advance Wars is not the cash-cow for Nintendo that Call of Duty is for Activision, but judging by the complete lack of outcry, Nintendo could likely release Reboot Camp and no one would be bothered by it. I know Nintendo tends to live in their own insular bubble-world, but that should’ve clued them in if they’re concerned about the PR of it all.

If it’s not a PR thing, but comes from a place of legitimate concern about the Ukraine war from a moral standpoint, and they’re content to sit on the game until they feel good about releasing it, that’s understandable and commendable.

Nintendo’s probable thinking is that there’s no rush. There hasn’t been an Advance Wars game in so long that a few extra months or years isn’t going to make a difference. They can sit on the game for as long as they feel they need to and then release it with no pangs of conscience or fear of PR backlash. It’s not likely to be a massive seller anyway, but for Advance Wars fans like myself, we’re starting to wonder if the game will ever come out. Advance Wars and Advance Wars: Black Hole Rising were two of the best games on the Game Boy Advance and fans would love to see them on Switch. I would’ve been happy with straight ports, let alone remakes.

In the meantime, let’s pray that the war in Ukraine ends soon.