The sequel to Ronimo Games’ award-winning WiiWare hit “Swords and Soldiers” gets a Wii U makeover in “Swords and Soldiers 2,” a witty and addictive side-scrolling real-time strategy title that, from our early impressions, is just as inventive and addictive as its predecessor.
If you never played the 2009 original, have no fear, it’s not crucial that you understand the past of the series. All you have to have is a fondness for real-time strategy and the wackiness of the story. With various troops or Vikings, pirates and goblins fighting amongst themselves, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to catch up. Through our early gameplay impressions, it’s easy to see that there will be plenty of ground to cover. With various characters of interest, the story looks like a large one that slowly unravels through the game’s 75 levels.
Also plentiful is the amount of enemies and thought put into each level. With a plethora of different troops and ways to defend yourself, via standard attack or magic, the action is dense and requires thought. After the novelty of the first few levels wears off, you’ll have to actually think and not just throw as many troops on the field as possible. This is where the game really shines.
And don’t let the side-scrolling nature of the game fool you. Although it doesn’t appear to be the perfect way to play a RTS, it works its way into your heart after a few levels. Able to coast through the entire battlefield, it works just as well as the traditional over-the-top perspective all you geeks remember from “Warcraft” and” Starcraft.” Add in the colorful 16-bit visuals and the laughs from the story and you have enough to keep your plate full throughout.
Thanks to a hearty stew of old-school gameplay mechanics and a funny story, “Swords and Soldiers II,” through the first few hours of gameplay, appears to be a worthy addition to the series and a solid RTS for any hungry for something different on the Wii U.
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports.
Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders.
His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023.
Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief.
Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale.
Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.
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