Advance Wars Game by Nintendo Reviewed by MSG Cow KalevRK@aol.com Size: Don't know but who really cares? (32 Megabits) Save: Battery save, 1 save spot Released: 2001 Rated: E for Everyone Works with: Gameboy Advance Only! **************************************************************************** Opening Snide Remarks: First off, I'd like to congratulate DMG Ice on being only a few reviews short of 1000! So part of the reason for this review is to help contribute to that 1000, Woohoo!! Anyway on to the game. Frankly I don't think this game got enough praise and it's one of the best games on the Gameboy Advance if not the best (except for maybe Golden Sun =P). Anyway hopefully I can convince anyone reading this to go out and buy it... Right Now! **************************************************************************** Gameplay Descripion: Advance Wars is a turn based strategy war game for the GBA. You control the the Orange Star army on their quest to defeat the other 3 armies. You start out with training missions that help you learn the tactics of battle. What I especially love about this game is how many different elements come into play. First off you have a s*** load of units to control including land, sea and air. Each unit serves a different role and you have to decide which unit is the right one for the job. IMHO the units are balanced and no one unit can whip out an entire base. The next thing is how things affect your character such as terrain or running out of supplies. Depending on where your units are, they'll have different defense ratings. ie- in a city they have a better defense rating than in the middle of a field. As for supplies, if a unit runs out of ammo then the unit will do a lot less damage. There's a good variety of missions in which the goal isn't always to defeat the other side. The AI is very tough and challenging and will not be a pushover. Luckily the game helps incorporate new units at the right time to help you get a feel for each one. In addition to the main campaign you also have a set of unlockable maps whichs is good for practicing on or for just playing something when you're stuck on a mission. I don't consider myself a huge strategy game fan but this game will appeal to almost anyone with a GBA. It might be too frustrtating at points for younger gamers but everyone else should have a blast with it. It'll last you an extremely long time as I've found most of my GBC/GBA games do, and with a map editor, the extra maps outside of the campaign, a harder difficulty setting once you beat the campaign and up to 4 player multiplayer will keep you glued to the screen for months. The best portable war game period. Liked: The variety of units, the complex strategy system, huge length, nice difficulty, and just about everything else. Hated: Some of the missions in the campaign near the end get extremely hard and sometimes frustrating. **************************************************************************** Graphics Description: They're simple but they get the job done. That's the easiet way of putting it. It's nothing mind blowing but the graphics allow you to indentify the units easily which is a major plus and the screen doesn't get too cluttered. The best part is during the actual battles where you see a set of your own guys (units) face off against the other army's units. They have some nice animations during these scenes and they include cool anime style pics of the CO on each army which is spiffy. And amazingly the battles don't get as repetative as the summons in FF8! You can just use your imagination sometimes and add action to the scenes. The graphics get the job done but there are some extras that really add character to the game and style. Liked: Anime pics kick butt and the animations look pretty cool. Hated: They're still pretty simple but then again strategy games are more about gameplay then graphics and all things considered this one is pretty good looking for a strategy game. **************************************************************************** Sound/Music Description: The background music is kind of a mixed bag. There are some tunes that are really cool and just stand out in your mind, while others aren't so exciting. But since you'll probably be paying more attention to your units, it's not such a big deal. The music never distracts you from the game and isn't bad by any means but they could have but some more upbeat tunes in there. As for the sound effects, explosions, rounds fired, bombs dropped, etc. all sound great and really help to put yourself in the game. Nothing sounds too weak and it sounds like a war should, minus the cries of the wounded soldiers, but that's probably a good thing, besides it's Nintendo. Liked: Great sound effects make you feel like you're really in the action. Some of the music tunes are catchy, nothing is annoying or distracts you from the action. Hated: Not really hated but I didn't like the fact that most of the music wasn't upbeat and you didn't really notice. But nothing really serious enough to detract from the game. **************************************************************************** Play Control/Game Design: The controls are basic since you only need to move units around and do actions such as fire. Almost all of this is done with menus that help keep the screen from getting cluttered up as well as being able to hold a number of commands. The actual game design is excellent. The difficulty is just right and will challenge any player, and the complex battle system helps keep the action moving and really adds a strong strategy element to the game. The game is easy to navigate and with a good set of tutorial missions, you'll get the hang of it in no time. Liked: The excellent strategy system, the ease of navigating the game and the challenging difficulty level. Hated: Nothing, there's really nothing the makers could improve in the control or design areas, execpt for maybe adding more units into the next game, but I'll get to that... **************************************************************************** Improve: I think the makers did an excellent job with the game and there isn't much that they could improve. Maybe more units to extend the playabilty and improving the graphics and maybe having a 3D sort of screen for the battle screens. And they need to liven up some of those music tracks! RIYL: There aren't many strategy games on the Gameboy systems and this one reigns supreme but if you're in desperate need, Warlocked will give you a good time but there a lot fewer units in that game. Even so I still played it for months until this game came out. **************************************************************************** Final Words: Advance Wars is THE best strategy game on any portable system and is one of my favorite games on not only the GBA but on any system. I'm always amazed at how much you can get out of Gameboy games and this one is no exception. Go right now and buy Advance Wars, and if you don't have a GBA, then go out and buy one and this game, because this game alone is reason enough for getting a GBA. Enjoy! **************************************************************************** Score Gameplay: ***** Graphics: ***** Sound/Music: ***** Play Control/Game Design: ***** Personal Opinion: ***** Total: 25 Final Score: 100% **************************************************************************** Currently Known Codes: You can unlock a harder difficulty after beating the campaign once through. And there's different CO's that you can unlock for the multiplayer and single player skirmish maps by taking different paths through out the game and by doing other things, not really sure, sorry. =)