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Advance Wars: Dual Strike
Anyone who has played either of the Advance Wars titles on the GBA will testify to their greatness. They were relatively simple, yet surprisingly deep strategy games that were charming, fun and addictive. The DS incarnation of the series is no different, but throws a lot more into the fray.
The basic options are all present and correct; a Campaign mode to slug through, the War Room (essentially a set of challenge missions) and the Versus mode where you can play against other human or CPU players. But Dual Strike adds a whole host of other things to do. There’s a survival mode, where you try to complete a number of missions with constraints on money, time or turns used. There’re medals to earn for just about everything, from the amount of damage dealt to the time spent playing to the number of hits you’ve taken from enemy cannon fire. And then there’s Combat mode, where you take control of a unit in real time and move around an environment trying to capture the enemy base or destroy their units without getting yourself killed.
But perhaps the biggest changes lie in the way you play the game rather than any new modes. The game still has a top-down perspective and you are still required to capture buildings with your infantry in order to earn money to build more units. It’s still turn based and you still have a commanding officer with unique skills that will effect how your troops fare. There are still ground units, naval units, and airborne units. However, you can now take control of two CO’s simultaneously, switching between them at the end of a turn. This means you can better adapt to changing situations in battles, but also gives you access to both CO’s powers, which gradually charge up and allow you to unleash a powerful skill for the duration of a turn. If both your CO’s are fully charged you can unleash a Dual Strike whereby all your units can attack twice, once for each of your CO’s, utilising their particular super power. This is truly a devastating power and can turn the tide of a battle if unleashed at the right time.
There are other new features as well. New units have been added, as you might expect. These are all rather specialised units, and certainly don’t upset the balance of the finely tuned battle system. There are also some battles fought on multiple fronts. If you win the secondary front, your second CO will come help you out in the primary battle. While this is a nice touch, it can be frustrating because sometimes you’re allowed to control all units on the second front as you would normally, while other times it’s left to the CPU and you simply select an AI mode such as defensive or aggressive. While not a major problem, you often feel you could do much better on the second front than the CPU could.
Another change is that all CO’s now have experience and levels, rather like in an RPG. The higher the level a CO, the more skills they will have unlocked. Skills can be picked before each battle and are applied automatically. They range from increasing attack power of certain units to decreasing movement costs to giving you bonus cash for captured properties. Another interesting addition, and a nice way to customize things a little more, but it doesn’t have a vast effect and you could simply choose not to use the skills if you feel they make things a little unbalanced.
The CO’s are really what make you feel connected to the game. While you never feel any attachment to individual units (beyond the money you’ve spent building them), the CO’s personalities are built up through the Campaign, and the interactions between them add a nice element to the game. Let’s not delude ourselves though, the plot isn’t going to win awards and neither is the script for character dialogue, but each CO has a personality to reflect their unique powers and skills, and each is likable in their own way. This, along with the cartoon-like, almost cute graphical style of units, is where much of the games charm comes from, and again, helps compel you through the Campaign.
Although there are quite a lot of changes, do not be fooled into thinking the developers have gone overboard and spoilt the game. The core gameplay is certainly intact and you’ll have plenty of fun crushing enemy armies and formulating strategies. And when I say ‘plenty’ I mean it. The Campaign mode alone is quite sizable, especially if you play through it a second time on the Hard setting. Then there’s a slew of scenarios to be completed in the War Room, completing normal, hard and brutal difficulties in Combat mode, finishing each of the Survival sequences… and that’s without even touching on the multiplayer aspect! Battles can (and will) last hours, but even if you lose you’ll be coming back again with a refined strategy or a bright new idea that you’re sure will lead to victory this time around. Seriously, this game can eat away at your life, and with the medals you earn you get a real sense of progression and satisfaction. While there has always been plenty to do in Advance Wars games, in Dual Strike there is far more compulsion to try and do as much as possible because you do feel as though you’re progressing by earning more medals, by levelling up CO’s and by accumulating more points to spend.
So really, there’s nothing that radical about Advance Wars DS. Despite the changes, it’s not vastly different from what fans have come to expect. However, it is by far the most polished and complete Advance Wars package yet with everything and more a strategy fan could want for endless hours of gaming fun and it also happens to be one of the best games available on the DS.
Anyone who has played either of the Advance Wars titles on the GBA will testify to their greatness. They were relatively simple, yet surprisingly deep strategy games that were charming, fun and addictive. The DS incarnation of the series is no different, but throws a lot more into the fray.
The basic options are all present and correct; a Campaign mode to slug through, the War Room (essentially a set of challenge missions) and the Versus mode where you can play against other human or CPU players. But Dual Strike adds a whole host of other things to do. There’s a survival mode, where you try to complete a number of missions with constraints on money, time or turns used. There’re medals to earn for just about everything, from the amount of damage dealt to the time spent playing to the number of hits you’ve taken from enemy cannon fire. And then there’s Combat mode, where you take control of a unit in real time and move around an environment trying to capture the enemy base or destroy their units without getting yourself killed.
But perhaps the biggest changes lie in the way you play the game rather than any new modes. The game still has a top-down perspective and you are still required to capture buildings with your infantry in order to earn money to build more units. It’s still turn based and you still have a commanding officer with unique skills that will effect how your troops fare. There are still ground units, naval units, and airborne units. However, you can now take control of two CO’s simultaneously, switching between them at the end of a turn. This means you can better adapt to changing situations in battles, but also gives you access to both CO’s powers, which gradually charge up and allow you to unleash a powerful skill for the duration of a turn. If both your CO’s are fully charged you can unleash a Dual Strike whereby all your units can attack twice, once for each of your CO’s, utilising their particular super power. This is truly a devastating power and can turn the tide of a battle if unleashed at the right time.
There are other new features as well. New units have been added, as you might expect. These are all rather specialised units, and certainly don’t upset the balance of the finely tuned battle system. There are also some battles fought on multiple fronts. If you win the secondary front, your second CO will come help you out in the primary battle. While this is a nice touch, it can be frustrating because sometimes you’re allowed to control all units on the second front as you would normally, while other times it’s left to the CPU and you simply select an AI mode such as defensive or aggressive. While not a major problem, you often feel you could do much better on the second front than the CPU could.
Another change is that all CO’s now have experience and levels, rather like in an RPG. The higher the level a CO, the more skills they will have unlocked. Skills can be picked before each battle and are applied automatically. They range from increasing attack power of certain units to decreasing movement costs to giving you bonus cash for captured properties. Another interesting addition, and a nice way to customize things a little more, but it doesn’t have a vast effect and you could simply choose not to use the skills if you feel they make things a little unbalanced.
The CO’s are really what make you feel connected to the game. While you never feel any attachment to individual units (beyond the money you’ve spent building them), the CO’s personalities are built up through the Campaign, and the interactions between them add a nice element to the game. Let’s not delude ourselves though, the plot isn’t going to win awards and neither is the script for character dialogue, but each CO has a personality to reflect their unique powers and skills, and each is likable in their own way. This, along with the cartoon-like, almost cute graphical style of units, is where much of the games charm comes from, and again, helps compel you through the Campaign.
Although there are quite a lot of changes, do not be fooled into thinking the developers have gone overboard and spoilt the game. The core gameplay is certainly intact and you’ll have plenty of fun crushing enemy armies and formulating strategies. And when I say ‘plenty’ I mean it. The Campaign mode alone is quite sizable, especially if you play through it a second time on the Hard setting. Then there’s a slew of scenarios to be completed in the War Room, completing normal, hard and brutal difficulties in Combat mode, finishing each of the Survival sequences… and that’s without even touching on the multiplayer aspect! Battles can (and will) last hours, but even if you lose you’ll be coming back again with a refined strategy or a bright new idea that you’re sure will lead to victory this time around. Seriously, this game can eat away at your life, and with the medals you earn you get a real sense of progression and satisfaction. While there has always been plenty to do in Advance Wars games, in Dual Strike there is far more compulsion to try and do as much as possible because you do feel as though you’re progressing by earning more medals, by levelling up CO’s and by accumulating more points to spend.
So really, there’s nothing that radical about Advance Wars DS. Despite the changes, it’s not vastly different from what fans have come to expect. However, it is by far the most polished and complete Advance Wars package yet with everything and more a strategy fan could want for endless hours of gaming fun and it also happens to be one of the best games available on the DS.
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Advance Wars: Dual Strike
Anyone who has played either of the Advance Wars titles on the GBA will testify to their greatness. They were relatively simple, yet surprisingly deep strategy games that were charming, fun and addictive. The DS incarnation of the series is no different, but throws a lot more into the fray.
The basic options are all present and correct; a Campaign mode to slug through, the War Room (essentially a set of challenge missions) and the Versus mode where you can play against other human or CPU players. But Dual Strike adds a whole host of other things to do. There’s a survival mode, where you try to complete a number of missions with constraints on money, time or turns used. There’re medals to earn for just about everything, from the amount of damage dealt to the time spent playing to the number of hits you’ve taken from enemy cannon fire. And then there’s Combat mode, where you take control of a unit in real time and move around an environment trying to capture the enemy base or destroy their units without getting yourself killed.
But perhaps the biggest changes lie in the way you play the game rather than any new modes. The game still has a top-down perspective and you are still required to capture buildings with your infantry in order to earn money to build more units. It’s still turn based and you still have a commanding officer with unique skills that will effect how your troops fare. There are still ground units, naval units, and airborne units. However, you can now take control of two CO’s simultaneously, switching between them at the end of a turn. This means you can better adapt to changing situations in battles, but also gives you access to both CO’s powers, which gradually charge up and allow you to unleash a powerful skill for the duration of a turn. If both your CO’s are fully charged you can unleash a Dual Strike whereby all your units can attack twice, once for each of your CO’s, utilising their particular super power. This is truly a devastating power and can turn the tide of a battle if unleashed at the right time.
There are other new features as well. New units have been added, as you might expect. These are all rather specialised units, and certainly don’t upset the balance of the finely tuned battle system. There are also some battles fought on multiple fronts. If you win the secondary front, your second CO will come help you out in the primary battle. While this is a nice touch, it can be frustrating because sometimes you’re allowed to control all units on the second front as you would normally, while other times it’s left to the CPU and you simply select an AI mode such as defensive or aggressive. While not a major problem, you often feel you could do much better on the second front than the CPU could.
Another change is that all CO’s now have experience and levels, rather like in an RPG. The higher the level a CO, the more skills they will have unlocked. Skills can be picked before each battle and are applied automatically. They range from increasing attack power of certain units to decreasing movement costs to giving you bonus cash for captured properties. Another interesting addition, and a nice way to customize things a little more, but it doesn’t have a vast effect and you could simply choose not to use the skills if you feel they make things a little unbalanced.
The CO’s are really what make you feel connected to the game. While you never feel any attachment to individual units (beyond the money you’ve spent building them), the CO’s personalities are built up through the Campaign, and the interactions between them add a nice element to the game. Let’s not delude ourselves though, the plot isn’t going to win awards and neither is the script for character dialogue, but each CO has a personality to reflect their unique powers and skills, and each is likable in their own way. This, along with the cartoon-like, almost cute graphical style of units, is where much of the games charm comes from, and again, helps compel you through the Campaign.
Although there are quite a lot of changes, do not be fooled into thinking the developers have gone overboard and spoilt the game. The core gameplay is certainly intact and you’ll have plenty of fun crushing enemy armies and formulating strategies. And when I say ‘plenty’ I mean it. The Campaign mode alone is quite sizable, especially if you play through it a second time on the Hard setting. Then there’s a slew of scenarios to be completed in the War Room, completing normal, hard and brutal difficulties in Combat mode, finishing each of the Survival sequences… and that’s without even touching on the multiplayer aspect! Battles can (and will) last hours, but even if you lose you’ll be coming back again with a refined strategy or a bright new idea that you’re sure will lead to victory this time around. Seriously, this game can eat away at your life, and with the medals you earn you get a real sense of progression and satisfaction. While there has always been plenty to do in Advance Wars games, in Dual Strike there is far more compulsion to try and do as much as possible because you do feel as though you’re progressing by earning more medals, by levelling up CO’s and by accumulating more points to spend.
So really, there’s nothing that radical about Advance Wars DS. Despite the changes, it’s not vastly different from what fans have come to expect. However, it is by far the most polished and complete Advance Wars package yet with everything and more a strategy fan could want for endless hours of gaming fun and it also happens to be one of the best games available on the DS.
Anyone who has played either of the Advance Wars titles on the GBA will testify to their greatness. They were relatively simple, yet surprisingly deep strategy games that were charming, fun and addictive. The DS incarnation of the series is no different, but throws a lot more into the fray.
The basic options are all present and correct; a Campaign mode to slug through, the War Room (essentially a set of challenge missions) and the Versus mode where you can play against other human or CPU players. But Dual Strike adds a whole host of other things to do. There’s a survival mode, where you try to complete a number of missions with constraints on money, time or turns used. There’re medals to earn for just about everything, from the amount of damage dealt to the time spent playing to the number of hits you’ve taken from enemy cannon fire. And then there’s Combat mode, where you take control of a unit in real time and move around an environment trying to capture the enemy base or destroy their units without getting yourself killed.
But perhaps the biggest changes lie in the way you play the game rather than any new modes. The game still has a top-down perspective and you are still required to capture buildings with your infantry in order to earn money to build more units. It’s still turn based and you still have a commanding officer with unique skills that will effect how your troops fare. There are still ground units, naval units, and airborne units. However, you can now take control of two CO’s simultaneously, switching between them at the end of a turn. This means you can better adapt to changing situations in battles, but also gives you access to both CO’s powers, which gradually charge up and allow you to unleash a powerful skill for the duration of a turn. If both your CO’s are fully charged you can unleash a Dual Strike whereby all your units can attack twice, once for each of your CO’s, utilising their particular super power. This is truly a devastating power and can turn the tide of a battle if unleashed at the right time.
There are other new features as well. New units have been added, as you might expect. These are all rather specialised units, and certainly don’t upset the balance of the finely tuned battle system. There are also some battles fought on multiple fronts. If you win the secondary front, your second CO will come help you out in the primary battle. While this is a nice touch, it can be frustrating because sometimes you’re allowed to control all units on the second front as you would normally, while other times it’s left to the CPU and you simply select an AI mode such as defensive or aggressive. While not a major problem, you often feel you could do much better on the second front than the CPU could.
Another change is that all CO’s now have experience and levels, rather like in an RPG. The higher the level a CO, the more skills they will have unlocked. Skills can be picked before each battle and are applied automatically. They range from increasing attack power of certain units to decreasing movement costs to giving you bonus cash for captured properties. Another interesting addition, and a nice way to customize things a little more, but it doesn’t have a vast effect and you could simply choose not to use the skills if you feel they make things a little unbalanced.
The CO’s are really what make you feel connected to the game. While you never feel any attachment to individual units (beyond the money you’ve spent building them), the CO’s personalities are built up through the Campaign, and the interactions between them add a nice element to the game. Let’s not delude ourselves though, the plot isn’t going to win awards and neither is the script for character dialogue, but each CO has a personality to reflect their unique powers and skills, and each is likable in their own way. This, along with the cartoon-like, almost cute graphical style of units, is where much of the games charm comes from, and again, helps compel you through the Campaign.
Although there are quite a lot of changes, do not be fooled into thinking the developers have gone overboard and spoilt the game. The core gameplay is certainly intact and you’ll have plenty of fun crushing enemy armies and formulating strategies. And when I say ‘plenty’ I mean it. The Campaign mode alone is quite sizable, especially if you play through it a second time on the Hard setting. Then there’s a slew of scenarios to be completed in the War Room, completing normal, hard and brutal difficulties in Combat mode, finishing each of the Survival sequences… and that’s without even touching on the multiplayer aspect! Battles can (and will) last hours, but even if you lose you’ll be coming back again with a refined strategy or a bright new idea that you’re sure will lead to victory this time around. Seriously, this game can eat away at your life, and with the medals you earn you get a real sense of progression and satisfaction. While there has always been plenty to do in Advance Wars games, in Dual Strike there is far more compulsion to try and do as much as possible because you do feel as though you’re progressing by earning more medals, by levelling up CO’s and by accumulating more points to spend.
So really, there’s nothing that radical about Advance Wars DS. Despite the changes, it’s not vastly different from what fans have come to expect. However, it is by far the most polished and complete Advance Wars package yet with everything and more a strategy fan could want for endless hours of gaming fun and it also happens to be one of the best games available on the DS.