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Top 7 Console Strategy Games

In this week's top 7, we take a look back at some of the best strategy games to make it over to console.

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Strategy games have long been at home on the PC. The mouse and keyboard offer the optimum way of marshaling armies and directing navies and artillery around large and detailed campaign maps and battlefields.

But on console the genre has a much more checkered history, with many developers struggling to find the balance between control and accessibility that allows them to reach the mainstream audiences on offer. But not all strategy games fail to deliver on the most popular stage. With Xcom: Enemy Unknown just around the corner, we take a look at seven games that made the jump over to console and still managed to thrive and survive.

Xcom: Enemy Unknown (PS1)

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Taking on the alien threat in isometric turn-based combat.
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The original (and many would say best) game in the series. Whilst we await the verdict on the Firaxis crafted remake, we'll have to make do with memories of the Playstation port of the original. Whilst action in the Geoscape is real-time, combat in the Battlescape was entirely turn-based, and it was a combination that resonated strongly with gamers.

It was a title that attracted a cult following, as well as a slew of sequels. But it was the original that gamers held dear to their hearts. Like the imminent remake, the game focuses on the war between humanity and aggressive aliens trying to stick their oar in where it isn't wanted.

Top 7 Console Strategy Games
Absolutely nothing like the aliens that feature in the game, but an iconic image nonetheless.

The 1995 port was well received on console, especially considering the upgrade to the PS1's CD technology meant the old midi tunes could replaced. Ear drums everywhere were greatly pleased by this.

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Civ Revolution (Xbox 360/PS3)

Sid Meier's Civilization series has been a mainstay on the PC for many years now. There's a strong and dedicated community of gamers supporting each iteration of the game that tasks you with nurturing your fledgling society into a dominating empire.

Top 7 Console Strategy Games
Civ Rev is playful and fun, yet deep as the ocean.

Civ Revolution is a fine addition to the series, and what it lacks in depth it makes up for in personality. The graphics are playful, and bely the serious nature of the gameplay. Importantly, the game plays really well on a console controller.

There are plenty of different civilisations to play as, and each has its owns strengths and weaknesses. Diplomacy and military strength are used in equal measure as players seek to expand and strengthen their empire. It's not the complete Civ experience, but not everybody is looking for that, and Revolution caters admirably for the people seeking a thought provoking challenge from the comfort of their sofa.

Top 7 Console Strategy Games
He might be smiling in this picture, but there's no pain more exquisite than being nuked by Gandhi.

Halo Wars (Xbox 360)

Nobody was really sure that Halo Wars would work. The different influences were so disparate, and from the offset it didn't seem like a natural fit. Luckily, first thoughts proved inaccurate: Halo Wars is a decent game.

It's pure real-time strategy and it's set in the Halo universe (years before the events depicted Halo: Combat Evolved). A UNSC ship races Covenant forces to find an ancient artifact that could win the war. It's a well delivered campaign, and it just about fits into the Halo timeline. But the multiplayer games are where the game showed its true colours.

Halo Wars was made by Ensemble Studios, a team recently decommissioned by Microsoft, and it was recently revealed that Bungie didn't take too kindly to having another team working on their franchise. We didn't mind, as Ensemble made a really solid game, populated by iconic units and explosive action. Perhaps the game's biggest success was in bringing a whole bunch of Halo fans to the strategy genre, many of whom hadn't played anything like it before then (or since, I would wager).

Top 7 Console Strategy Games
Bungie didn't like it, but we thought Halo Wars was a great console RTS.

Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle Earth II (Xbox 360)

It wasn't a personal favourite of mine, I found the controls to be a little too disorientating, a little too jerky, but there were plenty of gamers out there who embraced the Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle Earth II, and rightly so. EA had all the licenses for Tolkien's series at the time, and they made good use of it here. The game looks fantastic, with large numbers of units sharing the screen concurrently. The battles were epic, and the familiarity of the Tolkien world ensured the game engaged with a wide audience.

Top 7 Console Strategy Games
Tricky to control, but beautiful to behold.

Battlestations: Midway/Pacific (Xbox 360/PS3)

Battlestations mixes battlefield-wide conflict with third-person action to great success. Pacific refined the formula put down by Midway before it. Players direct their forces from afar, before getting stuck in by captaining a specific vessel, or flying individual planes into chaotic dogfights.

The action is tense and exciting, and being able to snap from general to pilot to gunner in the same battle means there's always plenty to do. Yes, the graphics were a little on the plain side (especially on Midway), but there was enough going on in Battlestations to keep most busy.

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The best thing about Battlestations is the choice on offer.

Starcraft 64 (N64)

Blizzard took the original campaign from Starcraft, bundled them together with the Brood Wars expansion and some new missions, and called it Starcraft 64. Not many complained, even if the PC original was still much more warmly received.

The cutscenes were cut short (presumably so the game could fit on the N64's cartridge), you had to have the expansion pack to play, and the split-screen co-op mode wasn't comparable to online features present in the PC version. But beggars can't be choosers, and the game earned generally favorable reviews.

Top 7 Console Strategy Games
N64 owners got a rare strategy treat in the form of Starcraft 64.

Command & Conquer: Red Alert (PS1)

A sentimental note from me at the end. I had the PC version of Red Alert, and because of the delight I'd take in creating custom maps, I played a lot of skirmishes. What I didn't have was networked PCs, and so I was never able to play against human opponents.

Playing competitive Red Alert on a split-screen with a friend via two linked PS1s was an absolute revelation for me, and cemented my affections for the genre. It's not the best console strategy game ever, arguably it shouldn't even be in the top 7, but Command & Conquer: Red Alert holds a special place in my heart, so much so that for me it towers over Red Alert 3, the last game I bought from the long-running series.

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Command & Conquer: Red Alert will always hold a special place in my heart.


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