Advance Wars: Dual Strike

[-Xu-]

Advance Wars DS, is as the double meaning name applies, the latest instalment of the Advance Wars series, upgrading from the GBA to the DS.
Extended plot, new lands, more characters, Nintendo have gone the whole hog to cram as much game time as they can into one little cartridge.

Gameplay
For anyone who’s played any AW game, the gameplay is basically the same, why mend something that’s not broken.
For anyone who hasn’t, AW is a turn based war strategy game, you order your troops to attack using the touch screen, end your turn, and the opponent does the same. Don’t get put off though, like I did, if a friend has the game or one of the others, borrow it, don’t just discard it.
I don’t like turn based strategy games, but Advance Wars is arguably one of the best games created for the GBA/DS.
For a start you will not get bored, the battles are engaging enough to take up whatever you’re doing, you even stay glued through the enemy’s turn to make sure the AI isn’t plotting a fiendish ambush or laying down a cunning strategy against you.
Tag battles and Dual screen battles are now introduced.
In Tag battles you command two COs and can unleash devastating Super Powers which give you two turns in one, leading to enormous damage potential to the enemy, but beware they can do it to you aswell. Tagging can completely change the tide of a battle, so you always have to be wary of where you are positioned.
Dual Screen battles are where a battle is commencing on both the top and bottom screen. You can control the CO for the top screen yourself or allow an AI to do it.
Winning the top screen battle is often the key to a victory such as disabling the main cannons so you can attack the bases.
Also winning the top screen battle always you to use 2 COs on the touch screen allowing for an easier victory.
That’s just Story Mode, you’ll fine most of your time wrapped up in War Room, where there’s atleast 50 or so maps with various different rules and 4 different ways to beat them all.
New to the game is Survival, which tests and limits you on certain aspects, such as time and money, it really helps your main game skills to take these challenges on.
VS – as it says in the name, take on your friends wirelessly, 100s of maps and plenty of COs to keep you busy.
Combat – This is more of a little minigame, where you play in real time through 5 small maps with limited CO’s and powers.

Storyline

Starts where the other finished, although you don’t need to have played the originals to get the story, it explains it back to you in a way that’s informative to the newbies but doesn’t patronise the experienced.
Basically bad guys taking over land that’s not theirs, you’ll get the drift pretty early on.
That said, it has quite a few twists under its gaming belt.

Characters

Well all the old characters return, aswell as some new even more stereotypical ones, woo.
And yes, half the bad guys are emos, just as I suspect there are in the real world.
Each character has two CO powers, each different and linked to the individual character. Like Sasha, the rich girl, hers, lowers the price of troops by 10% and 20%, which can wickedly change the battle in your favour.
You can, new to this game, equip certain abilities, to your CO, you gain more as you level up and are the same for all the COs, this means you can make an all rounded Co or an incredibly honed CO, for example adding sight + 2 to Sonia, almost eliminates fog of war( a weather condition) from battle.
A good point about the characters is that they all their own, albeit small, effect on battle. Jake ups tank’s attack slightly, whilst Drake’s naval force is stronger at the expense of his air troops. This lets you modify the battles to your taste, myself I tend to use lots of infantry and air forces, so Eagle and Sami tend to be my double team.
You start out with only a few CO’s but the further you progress the more become available, and once you unlock a CO in the main game, you can buy him/her to use in the War Room or VS game modes.

Graphics

Well, they’re basically the old ones but souped up, honestly I can’t say much on this front.
No, it doesn’t use the full potential of the DS, because it doesn’t need to. If you want potential, go get Metroid Prime Hunters and watch the intro, simply brilliant.

Music

There’s a lot more than in the precious games, same style, but could still do with some varying.
My main problem with the music is, for the first half of the game, you’re fighting the same bunch of people and it plays the theme tune of whoevers turn it is, so it gets pretty annoying.

Replay Value

This is where the game really shines. There’s so much to do, I’d give it atleast 150 hours of work for just one mode, and that’s if you know what you’re doing. There’s upto 4 modes per part of the game. And Hard mode for Story is a real challenge coupled with maxing out all the COs special abilities.

Overall experience/feelings
What sums it up for me is that I’m not a fan of the genre at all, yet I’ve spent days trying to protect Macro land, challenging friends and the occasional stranger. The cover and graphics may look kiddy but don’t judge a game by it’s box. Trust me, try it out, you may not like it, but you’ll be one of few.

The one thing I’d add would be a wifi mode, having battles with my mates whenever I want would be so cool, although it wouldn’t be as popular as MK or MPH, and the complexity could cause lag problems.

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