Battalion Wars

The game features only a single-player campaign, played from a third-person perspective, in which players take control of a variety of units that form a battalion, to complete a series of missions. Gameplay features a mixture of elements from both third-person shooters and real-time tactics games. In each mission, players complete a series of objectives, both primary and secondary, earning a rank depending on the final score they achieve, much like in Advance Wars, determined in three categories - Power is determined by how many enemy units were destroyed in the mission; Technique is determined by how many of the player's units survived; and Speed is determined by how long it took the player to complete a mission, against the mission's Par time. While the campaign's missions focus primarily on controlling forces from one of the game's four factions, bonus missions are unlocked if the player achieves an average score for a set of missions, allowing them to take control of troops from one of the other four factions.

For each mission, the player is given a variety of units to utilise, including infantry, armoured vehicles, and aircraft (with the exception of Air Transports), in which the number and types that can be used vary between missions; more troops can be earned as reinforcements depending on the player's progress in a mission or from capturing POW camps and helipads. While one single unit is controlled fully by the player, whom the camera focuses primarily on, the rest are given orders by the player that range from following them, moving to a location, holding ground, or guarding another unit, to attacking enemy units and structures. e. defending a location).

The game's world consists of five nations, spread across two large continents and a series of islands and archipelagos. The western continent consists of a mixture of rugged canyons in the west and wide plains and forests, to frozen tundra and snowy mountains and forested valleys in the east. The continent is shared between the Western Frontier in the west, based upon the United States and whom the player controls throughout the campaign, and the Tundran Territories in the east, based upon Russia. The eastern continent consists of a desert province in the west, called the Dune Sea, and a large gothic-themed landscape in the east, which is home to the nation of Xylvania, a country based on a mixture of pre-World War I Germany, modern Romania, vampires, and Gothic themes. The southern seas consist of several islands, including a large archipelago to the south of the western continent, which is home to the Solar Empire, a nation based upon Japan with a mixture of traditional Japanese and high-tech futuristic themes.

The game's main protagonists are the commanding officers of the Western Frontier - General Herman, the leader of the Frontier forces; Colonel Austin, a resourceful officer; and Brigadier Betty, a young, energetic woman, whose uniform is based on a cheerleaders outfit. Leading the Tundran Territories are its officers - Tsar Gorgi, the country's former ruler who believes in strength; Marshall Nova, Gorgi's son and successor, devoted to modern progress and peace; and Major Nelly, an experienced female officer. Leading the Solar Empire is its ruler, Empress Lei-Qo - a wise woman with mystical powers. Their main antagonists are the commanding officers of Xylvania - Kaiser Vlad, the country's ruler; Kommandant Ubel, a hulking monster of a man; and Countess Ingrid, a devoted female pilot veteran.

The game was originally titled Advance Wars: Under Fire during development and was originally planned to be tied into the Advance Wars series of games. However, its concept never intended to have this connection in mind, and because of its otherwise unrelated gameplay elements and storyline, the title was ultimately changed for Western release to avoid connections to the Advance Wars branding, while the Japanese version was released under the Famicom Wars branding.

The game received "generally favourable reviews" according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. In Japan, Famitsu gave it a score of three eights and one seven for a total of 31 out of 40.

X-Play complemented the game's emphasis on strategy and third person shooting as well as its cartoonish art style while criticizing the sometimes clunky controls and lack of multiplayer.