Military Madness (Mobile)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 4.0 stars Excellent
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 8.1 (4.0 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Avery Score
• Reviewed on: 04/19/2005
• Updated on: 04/20/2005
• Released on: 04/19/2005
• Originally published on GameSpot: Military Madness (Mobile) Review

Military Madness originally debuted on the TurboGrafx-16 in 1989, where it became one of the founding fathers of the turn-based strategy genre on consoles. In the game, you control a variety of military units, which you must guide over hostile lunar terrain. You'll have to take into consideration how the topographical features of the battlefield affect unit performance so you can adjust your tactics accordingly. Sixteen years after its initial release, Military Madness is as deeply strategic and engaging as it ever was, thanks to the porting skills of Flying Tiger and Hudson.

Military Madness is an allegory of war in which a 22nd-century Axis has taken over the moon. As the leader of the Allied forces, you must recapture control of the moon, which has proven an invaluable mining resource and is vital to the survival of Earth. To make things worse, the Axis has devised a weapon capable of destroying all planetside life. So it's up to you to prevent its use.

Fortunately, you've been equipped with futuristic aerial and ground units, each of which performs differently against other types of troops and vehicles. It's important to allocate some of these to base defense while placing others on the attack. If you, for example, cloister a tank within your base, it will gain a tremendous territory advantage and will likely be capable of repelling large siege squads.

Each time a unit is successful in battle, it gains decoration that increases its combat effectiveness. For this reason, it's in your interest to dispatch your foes in as few turns as possible, lest they gain veteran status, thus becoming more difficult to kill. Fully decorated units are 200 percent more powerful. Sometimes, you'll work your opponent down to his last man, only to have your own troops whittled away by that one ineradicable tank or company.

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