Customer Reviews

Electronic Battleship Advanced Mission

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I sure expected a lot more out of this game based on its price. Essentially the only thing electronic about this is the preprogrammed games and the cheesy, repetitive sound effects. Okay, a little red light flashes if you hit a boat, but so what? For the money, Hasbro should have: 1) At the very least printed out the punched in letter/number combo on the light grid. Ever play this with a kid who forgets to call out the coordinates then forgets what they were altogether! Frustrating! Putting this on the display probably would have cost pennies. 2) Had LEDs in the grid. Want those plastic pegs? Get the much cheaper and essentially the same, old fashioned "manual version". This doesn't do much more. I was at least expecting LEDs to light up in the grid after the coordinates were put in. Okay, nickels this time, not pennies. But nope. 3) Keep track of what's sunk. Hey, they have a little key with the boats on it - how tough could it be to put a little lit up LED next to each when it's sunk? They don't even have the peg holes up top anymore to mark your sinkings! How lame is THAT?

In this day and age of high tech computer wizardry, this game MISSES THE BOAT! It should be quick and inexpensive to put in what is really missing, especially for the price. Instead, Hasbro gives you something not much better than the classic....at 3X the $$.

If this weren't a kid's gift I would have returned the one I bought. Save your money and stick with the classic. Don't say you weren't warned!

I just came back from buying the Electronic Battleship Advanced Mission game. First, I bought the one that comes in the BLUE BOX. After five minutes into the game, I could see how badly this game was done. Especially the annoying voice of the announcer that lets you know if you hit or miss a target because not only does he sounds awful but also you just cannot understand what he says. Therefore, if you are playing with the advanced weapons and use the tomahawk missile, when the game announces the spaces that you hit and missed you will not be able to tell the difference between the two no matter how many times you press the repeat button. It was so frustrating that I immediately packed the game and went back for a refund.

Then I saw the Electronic Battleship Advanced Mission that comes in the GREEN BOX and I exchanged it for that one. Wow, what a difference! The voices, the sounds, the design, everything is just excellent. Here is what you get in this new and revised game. Remember, it's the one in the GREEN BOX.

1. The original game play in a bigger grid (10 x 14), Salvo mission (You fire one shot for each one of your ships still afloat) and Target Plus One Mission, or Bonus Mission (You earn and extra turn for every hit or successful scan until you miss).

2. Advanced Weapons can now be used in Salvo and Bonus Missions.

3. The voice of the announcer is understandable. You will have NO problem whatsoever in understanding hits and misses.

4. The Attack Squadron Planes now move AND scan on the same turn, and the Planes now scan the space immediately underneath them. Beware of the Anti-Aircraft Missile Battery, the only defense against these pesty little creatures.

5. The Aircraft Carrier missiles were eliminated. Now the Attack Squadron Planes are equipped with a one-time use only missile that automatically hits every space where it detects an enemy target. It does that on the first target found only, and then it only scans.

6. The Battleship has one Tomahawk missile that hits everything in the 3 x 3 square where it lands. The now called Light Missile Cruiser has two Harpoon Missiles that covers three vertical or horizontal spaces. The Fast-Attack Sub has two torpedoes that travel from one side to the other of the grid unless it hits a target first. The Sub also has a scanner that will tell you that an enemy ship is in the vicinity but will not tell you the precise location unlike the Attack Squadron Planes.

7. The new design brings the game to eye level but if you must you can place it the conventional way. The ships are redesigned and the place where you store the pegs actually works (you know, it will not open after storage). Plus the pegs will NOT fall of the grid easily.

8. The new sound effects are cool and necessary. Before the sound of a missile launching and a hit were too confusing. Now not only can you distinguish between the two but also there are different colored lights to indicated launches, scans, hits and misses.

In my opinion, this is a great upgrade to a classic game. A small screen that will record your latest moves is still necessary. I mean, more than once we have found ourselves forgetting what pattern we choose our planes to scan and the repeat button repeats only the last sentence said. But until then, enjoy this beautiful and impressive Electronic Battleship. It actually made me remember how I felt around twenty years ago when I got the first Electronic Battleship made. I hope you have as much fun as I did then and are having now. Bye.

I bought this game for my daughter. She has the old version but cheated too much. Of course I cheated too. Believe me, you would never find my patrol boat. I'd just keep moving it around.
Advance Mission puts an end to that. You have to program in your coordinates so it's impossible to cheat. This is a good thing.
Advanced Mission has four different games to be played:
The Classic Mission - each player gets one shot apiece regardless of hit or miss.
The Salvo Mission - each player gets one shot for every ship left unsunk. I really like this one.
The Bonus Mission - each player gets one shot unless they score a hit in which case they can continue on the same turn until they miss.
The Advanced Mission - each ship has special weapons and you have two recon planes, however if you use the recon planes I will defeat you. IMO the recon planes are a bit too much. Deploying them counts as a turn and you don't get to fire a weapon. I never deploy my recon planes. I have never lost, yet.

Another thing that sets this game apart is the ability to play the computer. You don't even need any friends to have a good old fashioned war at sea.
There are also 3 different skill levels to choose from. ...
Of course the game now has sound. You hear the weapons being fired and the explosions from hits.
All that being said I still see room for improvement. On the old battleship you could adjust the top grid for better visibility, much like you would a laptop. On Advanced Mission the top grid is fixed and depending on the lighting can be hard to see.
Unless you are sitting at eye level with direct lighting you will inevitably place a peg in the wrong grid resulting in frustration and possibly a failed mission.
The makers of Advanced Mission should have gone a step further by lighting the grids, at least the top grid. It wouldn't take much to accomplish. It would look really cool and certainly be easier on the eyeballs.
The other thing is the volume, which is relatively low...
Bottomline is it's a fine game but with a few improvements it would really be something.

The Advanced Mission takes this familiar game to a whole new level. Here is the list of the new weapons and tactics now at your disposal: 2 exocet missles fired from your aircraft carrier; 1 tomahawk missle with a massive footprint fired from your battleship; 2 apache missles fired from your destroyer; 2 torpedoes fired from your sub; two recon airplanes for surveillance; and sonar imaging from your sub! While the older version of this game had some strategy, it was still a mostly guessing game, but with the Advanced Mission you really have to plan your attack and keep track of your available assets. One hint: have your recon planes take off from the aircraft carrier ASAP to avoid them being destroyed if the ship gets sunk. If you play this game with some strategy in mind you will find yourself doing very little guessing, which makes this game much more interesting and NEVER boring!

This is a cool game, what is really nice is it can be played by one player as well as two. My 5 year old son really enjoys playing the classic mode. This was a Christmas present from my wife and although it says for 8 and over it is pretty easy for a younger child to pick up on. We have yet to play any advanced missions but I am looking forward to it. Overall very entertaining.

A great classic that's been updated with a lot more little tricks and rules to make the game seem more exciting. There are several different versions to this classic which add on more technical details to an already cool game. However, more often than not you find yourself leaning in to hear what the computer is saying or trying to figure out how to enter in the right codes to load your settings into the game so it registers where your ships are. The one thing I really did enjoy about the new rules were the planes you could use to do recon form your aircraft carrier. Overall, a decent buy.

Being a big-time Battleship™ player ever since I was able to plug pegs into a board, I was itchin' to check out the electronic Advanced Missions rendition after stumbling upon it in Amazon™'s Toys and Games section. When I finally got the chance to try 'er out, I was both elated and skeptical: can the addition of new weapons and the ability to scan your enemy's grid really take Battleship™ to a whole new level? Well, there's only one way to find out of course...

But before I get into the gameplay, I must say I'm not disappointed by the game unit's storage capacity! This wasn't the case at the outset, however; I made the unfortunate discovery that there's no room to store the ships and planes in the flip-lid compartments after I threw all the hit/miss/scan pegs in there. But then I discovered that the game grid fields also flip open, offering a very roomy place for the little plastic vessels to stay between the deadly skirmishes I fight against the computer or a friend. This feature even adds to the atmosphere of the game; you can stash your destroyed men-o-war under the grid for that authentic "sunk" look! And there's plenty of room left over to store extra AA batteries and a small Phillips screwdriver (to loosen the screw on the battery cover)! The only real limitation to this bad-boy's storage capacity: I can't find a space to fit the instruction manual into...

On a slight downside, the flip-lid peg compartments aren't as secure as they're supposed to be. Although the lids are designed to stay in place when you are closing the game up or setting it up to play, they simply don't want to behave. So when you're bringing your battle-board down to the horizontal axis, do it slowly and with a reasonable degree of care. The last thing you wanna do is waste a half-hour's worth of Naval carnage pickin' up two hundred red, white and blue plastic pegs off the floor! And those things sting somethin' fierce when you step on them barefoot, lemme tells ya. Oh, and unlike some folks' comments about the small size of the coordinate keys, I found them to be just the right size for me. But then again, I've got fairly small hands...

Now it's time for me to rap about the game-play. You can go up against either a human opponent, or the computer. You can choose an automatic ship formation from the hundred selections available (all illustrated in the back of the instruction manual), or punch in your own configuration. Setting up a game is the most tedious and time-consuming part of the process; it takes a few minutes for a player or players to select the number of players, what your skill level is (1-player mode), what type of battle to fight (4 to choose from), and the coordinates where your ships are located. Fortunately, the pace is picked up a bit when setup is complete and you're ready to do battle. The one thing that slows things up a bit during a one-player game is the computer; it can take up to half a minute to process a move in Advanced mode. Because of the machine's tendency to dilly-dally, I've yet to finish a one-man match in less than twenty-five minutes. But other than the slight delays, and those rare occasions where I don't remember the coordinates I'd just punched in two seconds before (always keep a pencil & paper handy just in case, kids!), I've been having quite a time playing this game.

My Ratings Breakdowns:

Fun Factor: Four Stars. Although not quite as fast-paced as I'd like it to be, I've been having a ball playing both against the computer and a few buds. Definitely a kick for any avid Battleship™ aficionado.

Educational Factor: Two Stars. You'll learn a few rudimentary lessons on strategy and tactics, and that's about it. For some reason I seriously doubt Battleship™ Advanced Missions will be hailed as an essential learning aid at the Naval Academy any time soon...

Durability: Four Stars. So far my game unit has held together quite well in the two months I've owned it. So long as you don't get it wet, drop it, or let the batteries leak and corrode the innards, the Battleship™ Advanced Missions electronic game board should last you for many a moon and beyond. Unfortunately, there appears to be almost no durability whatsoever with the metallic red coating on the raised-relief Battleship™ logos emblazoned on the underside of both boards-- it started flaking off a mere two days after I got it, and it ain't stopped since...

...`Late

I first borrowed this game from a friend and after one game knew it was a must have. The fact that you can play one or two player game is neat in itself, but the advance missions really blow the game wide open. One of the things I like are the planes that take off from you aircraft carrier and will scout out ships for you. I found a many a ship this way, thus lead to victory. Don't think you plane is free and clear just because you get it off the carrier, each side is equipped with anti-aircraft guns! It takes a reasonable amount of time to program, but nothing to complain about and it's so easy. There is a lag when playing one player games as the Puter has to think but if you played against an AI before you're use to this. I like the look, feel, and playing of this updated battleship. The special weapons heat things up as well as the sub's sonar ability. With friends or alone there enough options to keep the game fresh and new for awhile.

The classic game with some new twists...advanced mission Battleship is great fun. Several skill levels and four types of missions challenge even the best players. Additional missles, airplanes, and better sound effects create a more realistic mission. The only downside is that the buttons are a too small for comfortable play and sometimes lead to error. Otherwise, it's a great game.

My 7 year old (almost 8) son and I love to spend time together playing the advanced mission. He's still learning about strategic processes and this gets his mind turning. Plus, if we're mad at each other we get to blow each others ships up and let off some steam. The only problem I've had with the game is getting some of the pegs out of the top grid. Ouch! But, the fun value for us is defintely a 5!