| Advance Wars: Dual Strike review |
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Intelligent Systems’ ‘Wars’ series has been in existence since the NES days, yet it was only with the release of the first Game Boy Advance title that Western gamers were able to get their sweaty palms on this excellent franchise (and in a strange piece of irony, they got it before their Japanese cousins, too). The game was greeted with almost unanimous praise from all sectors of the gaming press, and is widely regarded as one of the finest handheld titles ever produced. A sequel was inevitable, and came in the form of AW2: Black Hole Rising, which must have been programmed with the old adage ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ in mind. The game was essentially a retread of the first title, but it was again met with universal acclaim, such was the quality of the title.
The Advance Wars series has now found its way onto new hardware – the Nintendo DS. This progression presents new obstacles – how do you take an established series which happens to be as close to perfection as your ever likely to get, and port it from a single-screen console with a traditional joypad input to new hardware, which features two displays and a touch-screen interface, without losing the vital ingredients that made the game so essential in the first place? Thankfully, Intelligent Systems have the answer – and as was the case with AW2, it’s ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’.
Upon loading the game up, the most notable addition is obviously the introduction of another screen. The concept is that your main focus of combat takes place on the lower screen and your ‘secondary front’ (when this is available) appears on the top screen. Direct control is restricted to touch screen, with the CPU taking care of the secondary front, but the player can choose to take control at any time. For those missions that are not fought on two fronts, battle data is shown on the top display. The second innovation is obviously the touch screen itself. Like so many DS games before it, Advance Wars struggles to make convincing use of this feature. You have the ability to move your units using the stylus, but most AW veterans will find themselves ditching this method and reverting to the traditional pad-and-buttons approach. The stylus-driven system is an interesting addition but it lacks the accuracy and speed of the joypad and buttons. However, the option is always there and many gamers will no doubt prefer the ‘hands on’ feel of the stylus control method.
Graphically, the game isn’t a massive step up from the GBA originals – there’s a slight ‘slant’ to the play area that gives an impression of 3D-perspective and there are nice little embellishments such as flying birds. The combat scenes now feature a ‘Mode 7’ sheen and scalable sprites. All these extra touches are welcome, but it’s obvious that the developers didn’t want to stray too far from the established ‘look’ of the series – and considering how accomplished (and accepted) that look is, this is to be commended.
The basics of the gameplay also remain fundamentally unchanged. A generous dose of new units (including a Stealth Bomber and quite frankly stupidly massive new tank) and buildings (missile silos that allow the player to launch attacks on distant areas of the playing field – the progress of the missile is shown in the top screen) has been introduced, but the old order remains, and each unit (be it a tank, plane, boat or simply a lowly infantry trooper) has its own strengths and weaknesses. The abilities of each unit must be painstakingly memorised so their tactical effectiveness is exploited to the fullest potential. Pitting a solder against a tank is obviously going to result in one dead soldier, but there’s a more subtle hierarchy at work here too. Soldiers may be useless against armoured units, but they are the lifeblood of the army – they’re the only unit capable of claiming buildings and therefore gaining extra cash for development of new weapons. It’s the numerous tactical choices and options available to the player that make the Advance Wars series so compelling to play. Once the logic of the battle system is mastered, unit deployment quickly becomes second nature and it all starts to resemble a gloriously complex game of chess, such is the perfect structure of the game system.
The only major change for this edition is hinted at in the title. The player now has the option to switch between Commanding Officers during play, and combine their unique CO Powers to perform a ‘dual strike’, which unleashes a devastating double blow to the enemy. For the uneducated, one of the hallmarks of the series is the special abilities given to each character. Some of these powers simply improve unit accuracy or attack power, whereas others allow the player to earn extra cash or even change the weather. This element of the game remains something of a talking point with fans. Use of these abilities can radically alter the tide of a battle in the space of a few turns. If you’re on the receiving end of a CPU beating, they come as something of a godsend, but when it’s the other way round then it can be incredibly frustrating to see a hard-earned victory snatched away from you. With the introduction of the opportunity to utilise not one but two of these abilities at once, this frustration/jubilation (delete as applicable) is amplified. However, love them or loathe them, the CO powers are a hallmark of the series and are here to stay, and only the most easily upset of gamers would be stubborn enough to walk away from the game after a the CPU has snatched victory from the jaws of defeat thanks solely to their special abilities. It all adds to the challenge offered by the game, even if it is at times a little on the unfair side.
As well as the stunningly addictive single-player campaign mode, Intelligent Systems have been hard at work on the multiplayer features too. Both single- (where one DS is used and is simply passed to the other player after a turn is finished) and multi-cart play are supported, and there’s a wide range of maps to choose from. The main problem with playing against another human is that Advance Wars has never really lent itself to this mode of play. Even on the smallest map, battles can last for hours and unless you have a whole evening to spare, it’s unlikely that you’re going to see one through to conclusion. As with all turn-based games, one player has to wait for the other to finish their movements, and this gets boring pretty quickly (regardless of the ability to send pre-determined messages and taunts to the other player). The multiplayer aspect of the title is a welcome addition, but the real meat of the game lies with the single-player campaign.
One of the more unusual new features is the ‘Combat Mode’ which is essentially a real-time action game using the Advance Wars engine. Although it’s a neat addition, most players will probably only spend a few minutes with it – the game engine simply isn’t built for this kind of action. Still, it’s nice to see Intelligent Systems trying to incorporate something new and fresh, even if it is just a throwaway mini-game.
Aside from what’s already been covered, It’s hard to accurately pinpoint any other faults in a game as polished as Advance Wars, but if one wanted to be really picky, the whole theme of the game sometimes feels a bit wrong – the world which the characters inhabit is pure fantasy. It’s all primary colours, hip and friendly anime characters and a rather suspect lack of death. Considering the game’s main focus is bitter conflict between nations, the dialogue and plot never really get past the ‘pre-teen’ stage. Some of the comments made by the Commanding Officers are really cringeworthy, and come across as a hopeless attempt to pander to youngster players (new character Jake is responsible for some of the most toe-curlingly bad dialogue in the history of games). The only other fault one could level is that the game is a little too similar to the previous two GBA outings, but this is a rather hollow criticism as anyone who loved those particular games will be more than pleased with Dual Strike, and anyone who has yet to try an Advance Wars title couldn’t really choose a better starting point than this.
As previously mentioned, Advance Wars 2 on the GBA was very much an enhancement of the original rather than a fully fledged sequel. Although Dual Strike appears on new hardware that boasts revolutionary new features, it remains as much of an enhancement as Advance Wars 2 was. This isn’t a bad thing by any means, but those expecting something amazingly different will be disappointed. However, those anticipating another dose of what is possibly one of the most fantastically additive games of the past few years will be more than pleased by this installment.
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System: Nintendo DS
Genre: Strategy
Developer: Intelligent Systems
Publisher: Nintendo
Players: 1-4
Version: United States
Reviewed: Nov 2005
Writer: Damien McFerran
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Pros:
- Challenging campaign mode
- Excellent presentation
- Dual CO's and extra units are welcome additions
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Cons:
- A tad similar to the first two GBA titles
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Advance Wars: Dual Strike Video: 3.7MB
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