Military Madness: Nectaris - PS3 - Review

[Ohio Joe]

OK, as I sit and wait for PSN to come back up so I can finally download my free courses for PGA 12 and get back to that, I figured now is a good time to put out a review I've been putting off doing for a while.

I guess the main reason I've not been in any real hurry to do this review is because the game is ancient. I first played it on my TG16. See... Back when I lived in CT, this video store opened up for about six months and then went out of business. Well, they also rented video games and systems, so in the going out of business sale, instead of loading up on games for my SNES, I decided to get a TG16 system and the few games they had for it. One of the best video game deals I ever got... Military madness, Bonk, Final Lap Twin, Splatterhouse, a multi player (up to 4 at a time) RPG I forget the name of, and a few other more forgettable titles along with the system and four controllers all for $125 a freakin steal!

Military Madness was definitely the jewel though. I had never played a strategy game before and at first I had a real hard time getting the concept of the game much less getting into it. Once I had it figured out though... Holy shit did I play this game over and over :D

Later, when I had the PS1, they released the game with the up-till-then Japan only sequel included... Sweet! all new maps! No new units but fuckin-A more maps, All was right in the world. When the PS2 was released, it fortunately worked on it just fine and I never had to wait for updates or anything. Then came the fire and it was gone :(

A while back I noticed it on the Playstation store and could not resist, $9.99 got me another copy of the PS1 release with all of the maps.

The Game - A very early turn based strategy game. Simple in execution but with an opponent that (on most maps) heavily out mans you and has decent AI. You first play through the original maps (12, if I recall correctly) and then play them again only you get to switch sides and have the man advantage. The reverse maps are made a bit harder then you would think by a better AI but they are still a slaughter :D Then the same routine for the second set of maps.

The Units - Each side has a set number of units they start with on each map (maps and unit numbers get larger as you go along) with no unique units. There are also some bases scattered around and anyone that takes over a base gets the units inside (even if the base was just held by the enemy). Bases can also heal units back to full strength if you store them for a turn. There are all of the basic units you would expect, tanks, infantry, long range, transport, etc. Nothing groundbreaking by todays standards but when it was made I think it was.

Maps - The maps start out pretty small but quickly get to a good size. The smallest being a full screen and the largest being four screens square. Units can gain advantages or disadvantages depending on if they are on road or mountain or whatever, highlighting a square shows what it does. Having all of the maps and the ability to play them with either side makes for a lot of variety.

Controls - About as basic as it gets. You use like two buttons and the D-pad.

Graphics - They spruced up the graphics a bit for this release but honestly... They are very what you would expect from a mid-90's game. Being a turn based strategy game though, it does not really rely on it's graphics to make it fun.

Bottom Line - This game hold a special place in my heart, I knew I was going to love it before I downloaded it... Since I had already been playing it for almost 15 years :D If you are looking for state of the art TBS gaming... This is not it. If you are unfamiliar with TBS gaming but would like to get into it, this game will do it for you. A good solid TBS game with enough variety to ensure re-playability.