One of the most surprising genres for the Virtual Boy, due to it being awkward to use for long periods, is long strategy games, but here’s one with a Gundam theme. Here you control individual units to battle your opponents in a turn-based affair, however individual matches of combat are done in real time.

The first stage has you flying towards your opponent, utilising the depth of the Virtual Boy. You can shoot at them, yet they don’t shoot back. At first I thought this was the advantage of attacking, but the same process of you shooting them happens when they attack you. The second stage is like a mini one on one fighter. You can move around the screen but also back and forth through three layers. Your opponent is so good at dodging that button mashing is the best tactic. Fighting the enemy base is like the first stage, but it actually shoots back.

You can also spray your opponents with indirect fire instead of moving and attacking, where they can’t shoot back. Oddly, AI doesn’t seem to use this as an option. This means that you can play the 8 scenarios where you whittle down the enemy until they decide to attack you. I do like the idea of injecting some control into the fights, and if the first stage of fights was the attacker shooting and the defender dodging, it could work, but the way Dimension Wars is designed, there’s just not much in the way of tactics. A bit of an issue for a tactics game.

Fine

Remake or remaster?

It’s a rather unremarkable Tactical RPG, although the ideas could be utilised again.