Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising

Advance Wars 2 seems like more of an expansion pack than a fully fledged new game, but it builds upon the excellence of the original, making it an outstanding, addictive portable strategy game.

Months after the evil Black Hole Army’s CO (Sturm) failed to start a meaningless war between Orange Star, Green Earth, Yellow Comet and Blue Moon, he returns with a crew of assistant COs to conquer the territories all at once. You must take control of each country and prevent Sturm and his COs from succeeding in their desire for conquest.

Advance Wars 2 is a turn-based strategy game taking place over grid maps with various terrain types. Virtually everything found in computer strategy games is present: unit strengths/weaknesses, terrain, movement speed, money, unit production, capturing territory, destroying facilities, protecting headquarters, and fog of war. Each army is represented by a commanding officer (CO), and every CO is balanced differently. Some are brawny fighters who pummel enemies into submission with heavy firepower, others are fast and agile, and some specialize in units like long range artillery. Those who have played the first Advance Wars will feel right at home, but even new players will be able to settle in thanks to the excellent tutorial which is built into the game’s storyline. The game is easy to pick up and learn, but challenging to master. It also features multiplayer link play and a map editor.

With all of the core gameplay of its predecessor intact, Advance Wars 2 introduces new features that add to the depth of the gameplay. The most significant additions are the new types of buildings and the missions associated with them. Laser turrets and beam cannons are grounded weapons that fire only at certain times, but they are challenging obstacles to overcome. Missile Silos are important strategic structures that are used by infantry units, causing widespread damage to groups of enemies. The enemy may use factories to produce large numbers of units, and these factories have pipelines which must be destroyed. The only new mobile unit in the game is the spider-like NeoTank: a bigger, meaner, more expensive version of the formidable Md. Tank. The game features a lengthy list of CO’s to use for battle and introduces several new ones. All of the CO¹s from the first Advance Wars are here and you must master every one of them to succeed in the Campaign Mode. The new CEOs of the Black Hole Army are cunning (with the exception of the brutish Flak) and outsmarting them is considerably more challenging than the enemies from the first Advance Wars. All of the CO’s are unlockable for multiplayer and exhibition battles, depending on your performance in the Campaign Mode. The new CO Power system divides CO special powers into regular and super powers - the latter takes longer time to charge up, but it provides more effect when used.

Considering that it has been nearly two years since the first Advance Wars, I expected to find more units and features in AW2. The game recycles many things from the first game: graphics, animations, music, sound effects and interface. Gone are the animated CO portraits that react to the results of skirmishes between units. Admittedly, the first game was incredibly well designed and polished, but it still would have been nice to have even more content in the sequel. The sequel is like a Blizzard expansion pack: it enhances an already outstanding game to unbelievable quality, even though it is not an entirely new game.

Although Advance Wars 2 could have been much better, it is still an excellent, addictive game. The tutorials are more thorough, the characters are wonderful, the dialog is well written and the gameplay is top notch. The new features, bottomless pool of unlockable goods, multiplayer modes, map editor and Hard campaign will provide the game with plenty of life before the third Advance Wars arrives.

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