Athena Crisis is a pleasant spiritual successor to the Advance Wars franchise, even if it has a few unpolished corners. The variety of units, strong pixel art, and map/campaign editor make this a game filled with the potential for quite a bit of staying power.
Credit: Nakazawa Tech
Athena Crisis
Developer: Nakazawa Tech
Price: $20
Platforms: PC (reviewed), macOS, and mobile
MonsterVine was provided with a PC code for review
Tactical games are my jam, be it Fire Emblem, Disgaea, or the more relevant Advance Wars. This interest is what made Athena Crisis catch my eye when it was pitched to me, as it’s the sort of game I love to mess around with. For the most part, I’m pretty impressed with Athena Crisis, even if it has a couple of rough edges.
Athena Crisis does nail one of the most important parts of any tactical game – it’s satisfying to rout your enemies. There are a lot of diverse unit types to take advantage of, like snipers, humvees, and helicopters, which all have their unique uses. Deciding on which units to use and when is an exciting challenge, especially with such a wide variety of options to choose from.
Credit: Nakazawa Tech
The maps can be rather tough, throwing new challenges at you while expecting you to keep pace. You’ll have to carefully manage your resources and units if you don’t want to get wiped out on some stages, as different objectives range from keeping a unit alive to taking over an HQ while navigating fog. The diverse objectives keep you on your toes and make for a pleasant tactical experience overall.
“The pixel art in Athena Crisis is one of the highlights of the game, as it is extremely colorful and charming.“
The inclusion of a map editor is a huge boon to Athena Crisis, as it creates essentially limitless potential for replayability and shelf life. Being able to craft your maps and stories and share them online is an exciting prospect, and the editor itself is pretty comprehensive. I can see lots of aspiring game makers starting out by creating campaigns here, as I would have done the same when I was younger.
Credit: Nakazawa Tech
I do wish Athena Crisis was a bit more straightforward about how to do things. There are tutorial stages (which are surprisingly challenging at times) but things like the map editor and certain mechanics don’t do much to inform you of how to best utilize them. Given this is just the 1.0 version of the game, I hope Nakazawa Tech adds a bit more information to each mode to make it a bit smoother for newcomers.
The pixel art in Athena Crisis is one of the highlights of the game, as it is extremely colorful and charming. The character portraits are expressed and stylized just the right amount, while the units are easily identifiable and fun to look at. The maps can look a bit busy though, but it isn’t too hard to see everything once you’re accustomed to it.
Credit: Nakazawa Tech
Worth noting is that this game doesn’t contain the cutaway scenes of Advance Wars and Fire Emblem that show your units battling up close. I do miss these a fair amount as they add exciting impact to skirmishes, but the increased pace as a result of the quicker zoomed-out animations is an okay trade-off.
The Final Word
Athena Crisis is a solid tactical RPG that takes some of the best parts of Advance Wars and brings them to PC and Steam Deck. There are some rough edges, but the map editor and general gameplay make this one title worth keeping an eye on.
MonsterVine Rating: 3.5 out of 5 – Fair
