--- Reviews ---

Advance Wars: Dual Strike

Advance Wars: Dual Strike is the third game in the Advance Wars series since its Western debut on the Game Boy Advance. Advance Wars has a much longer history in Japan where it has been around since the NES days. They got to enjoy Famicom Wars, 3 Game Boy Wars games, and Super Famicom Wars, long before the release of Advance Wars, when they finally decided to include the western hemisphere. As you can see, to stay consistent with the naming scheme of the series, this game should have actually been called DS Wars.

Dual Strike, like it's predecessors, is a turn based strategy game. It's one of those games that's very easy to pick up and learn how to play, but difficult to master. It can become very addictive. The game takes place on a map overlaid with a grid. You assume the role of a CO that's in charge of your army. On your turn, you move your units, attack with them, build new ones, and end your turn. Your opponents then do the same. All of that happens with one of two goals in mind for all sides: destroy all enemy units, or capture the enemy HQ. 

You wage war using infantry, tanks, artillery, rocket launchers, figher jets, bombers, anti-aircraft units, battleships, attack choppers, submarines, and many other kinds of units. Certain unit types are very effective against some unit types, and useless against others. For example, an Anti Air unit will shred a Battle Copter or Infantry unit, but will barely scratch a Medium Tank and can't attack a submarine at all. You'll be required to build a diverse array of units and strategically place them and make proper use of them if you hope to advance.

Infantry units have the ability to capture cities, and owning cities is how you earn the cash you need to build and repair your units. Ground units can be partially repaired while parked on a city you own, but the repair isn't free. Cities also, regardless of who owns them, provide extra defense for a unit sitting on it, which brings up another strategic element of the game--defensive cover from terrain. Certain types of terrain offer a unit sitting on that terrain a defensive bonus so they don't take as much damage. That means you will inflict less damage on a tank sitting in the forest than a tank sitting on open road. 

And finally, to really mix things up, we have to throw in CO powers. There are a wide variety of CO's to choose from in the game, each one with their own inherent strengths and weaknesses. And each one has the ability to execute their own CO power, which can completely turn the tide of a battle. Everyone has a CO Power meter that fills up as they attack and get attacked, and once it's full, a CO Power can be performed. For example, there's a CO named Grit that specializes in indirect combat. If he's in charge of your army, all indirect combat units, such as Artillery, Rocket Launchers, and Battleships, all get increased firepower and 1 extra square of range by default, while every other direct combat unit suffers from weaker firepower and defense. His CO powers grant indirect combat units even greater firepower and range, but offers no benefit to everything else. For variety, let's look at another CO named Kanbei. If Kanbei is in charge of your army, ALL unit types get above average firepower and defense. Everything is just flat out stronger, but at a cost. Literally. All of Kanbei's units cost 20% more to build and repair than everyone else, which means you won't be able to build quite as many units with the money you have. And Kanbei's CO powers simply make ALL of his already strong units even more powerful. It can get pretty nasty! But you can see the variety available from these examples. Each map yields a different experience for each of the CO's.

Everything just described pretty much holds true for all of the Advance Wars games. Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising brought in some new CO's, and introduced Super CO Powers. Dual Strike has everything from Black Hole Rising, and adds even more CO's to the mix, allows you to have 2 CO's in charge of your army (1 at a time), Dual Front maps to make use of the dual screens on the DS, improved graphics, and the ability to have both of your CO's use their Super CO Powers in a single turn allowing you army to go twice. That ability is called, and go figure, a Dual Strike. Let's take a look at what's hot, and what's not!



Stuff We Like:

First off, the new graphics. Yes, the game mostly looks the same with the same top down view of the map as the previous games, but it is worth mentioning that some subtle improvements have been made. The map is now tilted forward a little bit so the isometric perspective from the camera looks a little more 3D. There's a light ambient fog or haze layer sitting on the map, and some of them even have birds roaming around on the map. The sprites and backgrounds on the combat screens also have a little more detail to them. Another thing we like are the new CO's. Their new abilities and powers bring even more variety to the already diverse selection of CO's. Sasha has to be our favorite new CO. Something else we like that's not directly related to the game is the fact that you can do everything WITHOUT ever using the touch screen. You CAN use the touch screen, but you don't have to, as there's no need for it. That may seem like a silly thing to like about a DS game, but we at GamesWeLike strongly believe that DS titles should primarily use either the touch screen, OR the face buttons, and never both. Dual Strike seems to have avoided the apparent mandate by Nintendo that you have to force the user to use the touch screen somewhere when you develop a game.

Secondly, the basic game--Advance Wars is a rock-solid and addictive strategy game, but it's approachable, with no micro-managment to bore you and steal time away from actually playing.

And third, the sheer amount of content. Even if all you do is play through the main campaign once, you'll definitely feel you've gotten your money's worth. But there's tons more in the game. But even with many hours of content available, it's still a game you can play a little at a time if you want to--a plus for a game on a portable system--but not one that consists entirely of small bite-size minigames like Wario Ware or Feel the Magic.


Stuff We Hate:

Many CO abilities have been changed, and several for the worse. Max's CO powers are practically worthless now. Previously, his powers would make his direct combat units even mor powerful, and more importantly, allow them an extra square of movement. In Dual Strike, he gains no extra movement with his CO powers. Another example is Colin, who is inherently supposed to have cheaper, but weaker, units. This time around his stuff is cheaper, but seems nearly as strong as anyone else's regular units. We think the balance was better in the last game.

The new real-time 'Combat' mode officially sucks. Moving around and manipulating units in real time just isn't Advance Wars. 

We don't like the pathetic implementation of 'Dual Front' maps. These are maps that take place in 2 areas at once with one map on each screen. One kind of Dual Front map has a sky environment on the top screen to send your units to, and the regular map on the bottom screen, and the other kind of Dual Front map has a map on each screen that has nothing to do with each other, but you still have to send units to the second map on the top screen. What would have been cool is if the top screen was the same playfield as the bottom screen for aerial units, and you could still attack with aerial units on the top screen or anti-air units from the bottom one. If that were the case, maybe aircraft might actually be able to fly OVER ground units, unstead of having to go around as they do now! 

And I'd have to say the biggest thing we hate also concerns Dual Front maps...forcing you to let the AI have control on the top screen. Let's be clear on this: you DO NOT get to control both screens when there's a two-screen battle. At least, about half the time, you don't.
The computer is fairly dumb and predictable, that's why you can easily take on overwhelming odds. Put the computer in control of your stuff, and it's just as dumb. On Dual Front maps, your 2 CO's are split up. One on the bottom, and one on top. The first time you see this, you have NO control--the computer controls your stuff on the top screen. The next time you do a Dual Front battle, you are instructed that you have a choice to manually control the Second Front. Great, that's what I'm talking about! Then the next time, you're ready to stomp ass and, WTF?? Where's the option to manually control my stuff? Gone. The computer will handle suicide runs for you. Then the next time the option is back to manually control your stuff. It keeps alternating every time you get a Dual Front map until you reach the end. And not to spoil anything for anyone, but your final battle is extremely difficult because the important decisive battle is on the top screen, and you guessed it, your fate is in the computer's hands on how fast it wants your units to kill themselves.

Like/Hate Score:

Advance Wars: Dual Strike overall is a fun little package. It brings some new elements to the series and changes others, some good and some bad. But it's still the the same turn-based strategy experience we all enjoy. It's an excellent game to play for short periods at a time, and you'll still remember how to play if you pick it up again 4 months down the road. There's so much content to play, you'll never have a reason to be bored while waiting in line at the DMV or the airport again!

On our scale of 5-10, we give it an 8.9.

Click here for an explanation of our ratings system.

If you want to drop us a line, send it to "webmaster" AT "gameswelike.com".