PixlBit

Games that made it past my first cut of a score of games were: Dragon Warrior [NES], Romance of the Three Kingdoms [NES], Nobunaga's Ambition [NES], Fist of the North Star [NES], Defender of the Crown [NES], Super Mario Land [GB], Military Madness [TG-16], Golden Axe [Genesis], Phantasy Star II [Genesis], Herzog Zwei [Genesis], Final Fight [arcade], Sky Adventure [arcade], Tecmo Knight [arcade], and Warlords [PC]. My first choices were Herzog Zwei and Fist of the North Star, but Herzog Zwei is rare and not ported anywhere and my friend picked up Fist of the North Star for me after I started my third choice, TuboGrafx-16's Military Madness. It's available on Virtual Console and I had points left over - done.

             

                          You would probably see this screen in sections on TG-16.

Military Madness (MM) is a turn-based strategy game by Hudson Soft that at first glance made me think of Intelligent System's Advance Wars (AW) series. The more I played MM, the more I realized it is exactly like AW. The design of your pieces are very similar and you move on a grid of hexes. Just like AW there is a topography; being on higher ground gives you a defense bonus. Having other units next to your attacking one gives you support bonuses to your attack. You view the field in an overhead view but then zoom up to the action during fights. This is just like AW. The only difference is, I noticed, you don't receive a defense bonus for being in a city. Nutz to that.

         

Watch as the battle plays out before you and the adjustments to Attack and Defense are made.

You are a member of the Allies-Union forces in 2089 tasked with retaking the Moon from the Axis-Zenon forces who plan on launching an atomic missile to bring Earth to its knees. I think it's really funny that the Moon here is considered a rich resource to be fought over. Everyone knows that piece of rock is useful only as a launch pad to richer locations in the solar system. I think even asteroids are of more interest resource-wise these days. But whatever, it's a video game, I went along with it.

            

               I wish there was more to this screen, like some FPS gameplay in the factory.

You fight to recapture factories which contain an assortment of military hardware. In Advance Wars you would construct vehicles and such there but here you have to use what's given you.

The controls work really well: you click on a unit and then choose an action from the right menu. That's it.

Just like AW this game gets difficult and I got stuck on level 7. There's a race at the beginning to take over two factories and I couldn't get more than one of them each time I played it. Your AI opponent starts with much more hardware than you, so getting that second factory before they do is vital. I'm baffled at how to do it.

Anyway, this game was remade in 3D for XBLA/PSN/WiiWare called Military Madness: Nectaris. I remember playing it on XBLA back in 2010, but not liking it. Military Madness on TG-16 (or Vitual Console in this case) though, is awesome!