An abbreviated tutorial did nothing to hinder my enjoyment of the game, but I can see some players being left in the wind because of it. Playing made everything much clearer, but it took a touch more experimentation than I thought was necessary. At one point, a healing spell was shown to me, but not really explained what it was going to do, exactly, or for how long, and so forth. I did find it a little disconcerting at first when the computer instructed me to do things with no real context, though. It’s easy enough to start the good fight in Swords & Soldiers each campaign begins with an overview of the controls and what each icon on the playing field represents. There is also a challenge mode, which will suck up even more of a player’s time, as it can be addicting trying to overcome each scenario. From the beginning, players are thrust into a fight, where the game teaches the basics of gameplay. Battles are displayed from a 2D perspective, which can be scrolled from left to right using the GamePad’s stylus. I had a great deal of fun sicking battling Vikings at my enemies, and the Chinese are worth the price of admission for the ninja monkeys, alone. The three groups have their own campaigns and specific skills and units to take advantage of, which makes their individual sets of gameplay unique and fresh. Players are given the reins of three armies: Vikings, Chinese, and Aztecs. If not for some vague instructions and somewhat unclear goals early in the game, Swords & Soldiers is a welcome addition to Wii U’s eShop. It’s a quirky title, with humorous characters and tight gameplay, and still feels fresh almost a half decade later. While there are elements that fans of the genre will find familiar, like resource management and forming meticulous battle stratagems, Swords & Soldiers bucks other conventions to streamline gameplay and provide a very fast and streamlined experience. Swords & Soldiers isn’t a typical real-time strategy game.

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