Originally developed for the German speaking market, Panzer Tactics is a homage to the ‘Panzer’ PC games of the early to mid nineties brought to a new platform through the Nintendo DS. Having already been released in the German and American territories, developer Sproing sent us a preview build of the game so we could have a taste of the finished product planned to be released here in the UK later this year.

Panzer Tactics is a tactical war game set during WWII. Consisting of three main campaigns and several multiplayer modes the game allows you to emulate the role of a commander without even having to leave your stylus behind. To my surprise and joy, Panzer Tactics actually gives bias towards the German axis side of the conflict by allowing you to play those missions first as they are of a lower difficulty level than the Russian or British campaigns, whether or not Sproing were trying to make a point or not I shall leave to you, but it certainly is a breath of fresh air to finally see a bit more of a level playing field in the historic war gaming sector.

The main game itself takes place on many maps split up into hexagonal grids (much like a honeycomb, or the image constantly seared into Bob Holness’s retina) with each piece consisting of a different terrain, be it land, sea, mountain or forest, you can see where this is going. As a tactical game obviously everything that could possibly come into effect does; terrain, fuel, ammo, bravado, all obviously very important things in real life commanding, which is perhaps the reason why games like this perform so well. The time you have to invest into understanding and knowing how to keep all elements balanced is primarily intended for devoted followers of the genre. Going from the beginning of the war in 1939 to the fall of Berlin in 1945 you control either of the three big competitors, each with growing difficulty as you go along. The situation will be familiar to your average strategy gaming nut but perhaps not to Nintendo’s ‘casual gamer’ market which could bring new interest to the genre if tapped into.

Controlling the scaled world of war is just as easy as you would expect from the DS. Using the stylus you are able to pick and choose your units on the fly, as well as give orders and change map overviews and statistics through a radial pop out. In fact, the stylus acts quite like you would expect from a mouse-driven game with long holds being a secondary function, compared to short presses. If you’ve played Advance War’s before on the DS you’ll know exactly what to expect from the controls and navigation. As well as the stylus you can also use the buttons and directional pad to give orders and direct your pointer respectively. Your units can only move a set amount of hexagons each day and being unable to undo your actions makes you think a lot more about where and when you will move your troops. It can become incredibly difficult to balance the right amount of offence and defence as different rewards are given for both disciplines, allowing for some re-playability as you try to complete all required and optional goals.

Like most other strategy games, Panzer Tactics never fails to live up to the conventions of it’s genre. During combat you are first provided with a small set of units which will grow in number as you progress in battle and the game’s campaign itself. Sadly we were unable to see if your progress and commanding skills will help you shift the eventual outcome of the conflict or if after all of your hard work, your führer and the rest of your buddy’s still shoot/poison themselves, despite your best efforts.

The multiplayer aspect of Panzer Tactics DS sadly wasn’t included in our preview cartridge but by the sounds of things, Sproing are planning to be very ambitious with 4-player local or online skirmish mode when it is released to retail. Having such a time consuming multiplayer mode over the internet could get a little annoying if you need to pause or someone quits out so thankfully by the sound of things, Sproing have included ways in which this will be prevented.

Commanding your army in Panzer Tactics takes a lot of time and energy and the 30+ skirmish’s promised in the full game will take a lot more effort to complete than your average mission of Advance Wars. Which leads me to the games most interesting aspect - the realism of everything. Everything in the game matters and needs to be thought about, and that’s simply something which isn’t catered to usually on the DS, with many developers opting to focus on fancy Playstation-era graphics or innovative control schemes. Panzer Tactics feels like an old style PC strategy game brought to your favourite hand held and is totally portable so you can have your own little five minutes of being Hermann Göring wherever you are. Although I think the game is a little too difficult and detailed for Nintendo’s truly established casual market, we will just have to see when the game hits retail later this year.