It is 1942 and the Allies and Axis are embroiled in World War 2. The North African theater is the setting for Desert Commander, Kemco's 1989 turn-based military strategy game.

This is perhaps one of the most well-developed NES strategy games available, especially for so early a game. Its depth is impressive for NES.

GAMEPLAY: Desert Commander is a hex-based (4-side square hexes) no time-limit combat simulator. While the units are supposed to be either Allied or Axis, there is no color scheme denoting which side is which side. Units for both sides look the same for ease of identification and quick reference to range, strengths and weaknesses. Each unit may move and attack an enemy, refuel/reload at specific points in the map, fire without moving (artillery and anti-aircraft) or simply not move. One side moves the entirety of their army before ending their turn, whereas the other side moves their units.

The objective is to destroy the enemy's Headquarters unit. There are no capture the flag style victories or total victories where destruction of the enemy is required to win. The strategy changes with the only Victory Condition being the elimination of one specific unit.

THE UNITS: There are 11 units in Desert Commander. Each has benefits and can be strong in specific hexes and against specific enemy units. For example, anti-aircraft guns are strong against bombers and fighters but weak against other ground units. It is important to know the strengths and weakness of the units and what kind of terrain gives them a benefit to maximize the attack and defense points. The more difficult levels in the game give the enemy more units, making the numerically superior, and simply attacking without regard for bonuses will make a win very challenging. As this is a review and not a strategy guide, I will not outline the units and their individual strengths and weaknesses.

SUPPLY UNITS: There is one exciting element of the game and that is units have a limited amount of 'fuel' and 'ammo.' All units may only move a certain number of hexes and may attack/defend a certain number of times before they run out of fuel or ammunition. Hexes on the map, towns and airfields, become critical to refuel and resupply units to repair them and keep them armed and fueled. One special unit, Supply Truck, is a mobile version of the towns and can resupply, refuel, and repair any ground unit. The Supply Trucks are a way to extend an attack into the desert.

TERRAIN: The terrain is another nice part of the game. Oases, defensive positions, and mountains all add to the defensive bonus of ground units occupying that hex. Roads increase mobility and water features deny ground units movement in certain directions. Strategy begins to take a critical step as the player must decide between driving around desert and mountains and moving quickly or travelling directly through the terrain, slowing them down. Only fighters and bombers, air units, are immune against defensive bonuses or movement penalties for terrain.

SCENARIOS: There are five different scenarios with increasing enemy unit numbers and larger maps. The computer has no changeable AI and the strategy is straight-forward. The player can change or edit their units (or remove units for a tougher challenge) in response to the enemy alignment. The player can see the number of units the enemy will deploy but cannot see the map nor how those units are positioned. This gives the player an advantage. If the enemy has a large number of bombers, you may change infantry units to fighters or anti-aircraft guns to give yourself an advantage. Units are changed 1 for 1, so 1 supply truck can be changed to 1 tank to give a bonus.

MUSIC: The music and sound effects are on par with NES games of the time. The music is meant to be martial and combat-oriented to put you in the mindset of fighting a war in Northern Africa. The sounds are standard pops and explosions and are not notable.

REPLAYABILITY: Once the player grasps the basic controls, it is enjoyable to start experimenting. The screen to select armies allows the player to come up with seemingly unlimited types of challenges. Perhaps you want to set up bombers against infantry and see what happens. Maybe you want to try three tanks and try to hold on against a large army moving toward you. Maybe you want to send air units to the four corners of the map and make the enemy chase you down. Players are limited by their creativity and the fact that there are only desert, grass, mountain, town, road, water, and town hexes. The map is not especially pretty to look at but if you get past that, you can enjoy the strategy portion of the game.

FINAL COUNT: Desert Commander is an enjoyable turn-based game. It's easy to learn, it's worth playing to see what NES strategy looked like back in the day and it rivals current day hex-based online games like AdvancedWars or Conqueror. I encourage any strategy game enthusiast to try it for nostalgia's sake.

Good review! I enjoyed reading it.

I do enjoy this game. Its AI is good enough where you can actually have a fun game vs the computer in any of the number of Scenarios there are to play. But the game is best when playing 2players. Very solid for a game released in 1989 and is still playable today.

Not quite as good as a game like Conflict, but certainly worth checking out.