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Advance Wars: Dual Strike (DS)

• Developer:
• Publisher: Nintendo
• Genre:
• Official Website: http://www.advancewars.com
• Score: 5 of 5: Purchase

Advance Wars: Dual Strike is the third installment for the series here in North America. It has jumped handhelds from the GBA over to the Nintendo DS, allowing use of the stylus for this turn-based, rock-paper-scissors type of game.

For people who have played the previous AW, the Black Hole army is back to its no-good shenanigans, trying to take over again. New CO Jake takes a stab at commanding while you drive him to victory or loss using his power-ups on the go. This time around, you gain points and ranks allowing you to pick "skills" that upgrade certain stats like farther movement by one square, or when you attack you gain a little bit of money. You also get to use two COs at once and can use the Dual Strike power which lets the first CO go make all the moves and then switches with the other CO allowing him to move and give you a great advantage.

The use of the two screens is implemented in various ways-the top screen displays things like stats, an objective view (i.e. a missile coming down and you have a countdown timer), or a second battlefield that either you or an allied AI can control. The touch screen is used to create, move, and attack units on the battlefield, ranging from the new Megatank unit (my favorite in the game) to moving fleets of air units. The action can be fast but can also grow slow with all the animations going on if there are a bajillion units on the field. However, using the stylus makes giving orders much faster, sometimes so fast that you make a mistake like picking the wrong unit or accidentally pressing wait.

The graphics haven't really moved from the previous games other than a semi-rendered background, which makes it look sharper. There are smooth animations when the battles break out, such as cannons firing or rockets launching. Plenty of new stuff was added, even a new mini game called Combat, where the gameplay is in real time and you use the stylus to shoot. War Room has a bundle of maps: the more campaigns you complete, the more money and maps you unlock to buy in the old man's shop. The only bad thing is that Blue, for some reason, in a majority of the maps (like 90%) always has the advantage; even someone with my skill (which is good for this game) can't even beat them because it's so uneven and unfair. It's ridiculous!

Wireless play for up to four people is available in standard AW games, and up to eight (and one game card) for Wi-Fi Combat mode. I didn't get to try it out for myself, but I already know it would be awesome to play both modes. If that's not enough to savor your AW needs, even more crap is included (the good kind of crap). Another new mode is called Survival, where it pits you against the enemy with certain constraints such as a certain amount of money to use or a number of days to defeat the opposing enemy. A map editor is also included (like previous AW games) with the stylus making the controls smoother. You are even allowed to trade your creations over Wi-Fi.

The game also keeps stats of EVERYTHING, including the amount of time the game has been on to how much money you've made in the game (and about 80 other statistics that are interesting).

Overall, this game is amazing. The only flaw that made this game suck was the uneven matches in War Room. But still, I was hyped for it the moment I heard it was coming out, and it delivered fully. Go buy it. 9/10.

Sep 19, 2005 | 3 comments
InfectedZero