{"id":828070,"date":"2025-02-19T07:11:49","date_gmt":"2025-02-19T13:11:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/19\/company-of-heroes-devs-reveal-b-movie-version-of-advance-wars-the-first-relic-labs-experiment\/"},"modified":"2025-02-19T07:11:49","modified_gmt":"2025-02-19T13:11:49","slug":"company-of-heroes-devs-reveal-b-movie-version-of-advance-wars-the-first-relic-labs-experiment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/19\/company-of-heroes-devs-reveal-b-movie-version-of-advance-wars-the-first-relic-labs-experiment\/","title":{"rendered":"Company Of Heroes devs reveal B-movie version of Advance Wars &#8211; the first Relic Labs experiment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Entertainment <\/p>\n<div data-component=\"article-header\">\n<div id=\"main-content\">\n<p>All the Squirrel-Cows have come home to roost<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<figure>\n  <a href=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/1_jqEhoJr.jpg?width=1920&#038;height=1920&#038;fit=bounds&#038;quality=80&#038;format=jpg&#038;auto=webp\" target=\"_blank\" data-lightbox=\"true\"><br \/>\n  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/1_jqEhoJr.jpg?width=880&#038;quality=80&#038;format=jpg&#038;auto=webp\"  loading=\"eager\" alt=\"Entertainment A colourful grid map of blue and red tanks with surrounding greenery in Earth Vs Maps\" width=\"880\" height=\"495\" fetchpriority=\"high\"><br \/>\n  <\/a><figcaption>\n        <span><br \/>\nImage credit:          <cite>Relic Entertainment<\/cite><br \/>\n        <\/span><br \/>\n      <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-component=\"article-content\">\n<p>It was only last week that newly Sega-less Company Of Heroes developer Relic Entertainment <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rockpapershotgun.com\/company-of-heroes-devs-relic-bounce-back-with-plans-for-big-rts-sequels-smaller-experiments-and-spiritual-revivals\">announced plans<\/a> for various smaller <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rockpapershotgun.com\/the-best-strategy-games-on-pc\">strategy<\/a> game projects. Now, here we are with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rockpapershotgun.com\/games\/earth-vs-mars\">Earth Vs Mars<\/a>, a boldly-coloured B-movie homage to Advance Wars in which you can splice units with animals to create tactical monstrosities such as &#8220;Squirrel-Cows&#8221; and &#8220;Cheetah-Flies&#8221;. Advance Wars aside, the new game harkens back to Relic&#8217;s 2003 RTS oddity <a data-keyword=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rockpapershotgun.com\/games\/impossible-creatures\">Impossible Creatures<\/a>. The trailer below doesn&#8217;t contain any Chihuahua Whales, but it&#8217;s hopefully just a matter of time.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<div>\n<a aria-label=\"Earth vs. Mars - Exclusive Reveal Trailer\" data-lightbox=\"false\" data-platform=\"youtube\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/H1fcAfm_gLM?autoplay=1\" onclick=\"((e) => { e.preventDefault(); e.currentTarget.closest(&#8216;.video_wrapper&#8217;).innerHTML = e.currentTarget.querySelector(&#8216;template&#8217;).innerHTML; enableElements(); })(event)&#8221; title=&#8221;Click to play video from YouTube&#8221;><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Entertainment Cover image for YouTube video\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/H1fcAfm_gLM\/hqdefault.jpg\"><span>Earth vs. Mars &#8211; Exclusive Reveal Trailer<\/span><br \/>\n<template><br \/>\n<iframe allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen data-src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/H1fcAfm_gLM?autoplay=1\" frameborder=\"0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/H1fcAfm_gLM?autoplay=1\" title=\"Earth vs. Mars - Exclusive Reveal Trailer\"><br \/>\n<\/iframe> <\/template><br \/>\n<\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=H1fcAfm_gLM\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Watch on YouTube<\/a><\/figure>\n<p>Earth vs Mars looks to handle very similarly to Nintendo&#8217;s turn-based strategy opus. The maps are grids, and clashes between units play out as jazzy split-view pop-ups. Units have unique abilities, and there are commanders that have passive and active traits. The game&#8217;s splicing mechanic lets you lather all this up with some funky genetic hybridisation. Rhino infantry, for example, appears to have the muscle to knock enemies back a square.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;ll include a single player narrative campaign with &#8220;over&#8221; 30 missions (please, developers, please just say &#8220;around&#8221; or &#8220;approximately&#8221;), together with online PvP in which you can play as either Earthlings or Martians, an AI versus mode and a map editor. All the expected strata-me-doodle fixtures.<\/p>\n<p>Earth vs Mars is the very first Relic Labs game. According to the Steam page, these &#8220;will differ from our traditional, big bread-and-butter RTS games (which we&#8217;ll continue to support and develop)&#8221; and &#8220;allow us to explore new sub-genres, experiment, get our creative juices going, and release games more frequently.&#8221; I suspect that last part about frequency is the crucial load-bearing fixture, here. <\/p>\n<p>Find out more on <a href=\"https:\/\/store.steampowered.com\/app\/3269230\/Earth_vs_Mars\/\">Steam<\/a>. I&#8217;m not massively blown away by that splicing gimmick, but the presentation reminds me just a smidgeon of Kaiju Wars, an unexpected strategy game pleasure. RPS didn&#8217;t review Kaiju Wars because the editors of the era (2022) were a bunch of gadabouts and chancers. So here&#8217;s my, ugh, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/kaiju-wars-review-a-gigantically-clever-strategy-spoof\">Eurogamer review<\/a> instead. If you&#8217;re keen to pursue peaceful Earth-Mars relations, perhaps you&#8217;d like to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rockpapershotgun.com\/mars-first-logistics-has-turned-into-a-martian-railway-builder-with-some-very-pretty-100-authentic-clouds\">build some monorails<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rockpapershotgun.com\/company-of-heroes-devs-reveal-b-movie-version-of-advance-wars-the-first-relic-labs-experiment\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><br \/>\n Edwin Evans-Thirlwell<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>All the Squirrel-Cows have come home to roost Image credit: Relic Entertainment It was only last week that newly Sega-less Company Of Heroes developer Relic Entertainment announced plans for various smaller strategy game projects. Now, here we are with Earth Vs Mars, a boldly-coloured B-movie homage to Advance Wars in which you can splice units<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":828071,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[147,1798,4264],"tags":[5541,7903],"class_list":{"0":"post-828070","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-company","8":"category-entertainment","9":"category-heroes","10":"tag-company","11":"tag-heroes"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=828070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/828071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=828070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=828070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=828070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}