Advance Wars for Game Boy Advance

The Gameboy Advance lineup keeps getting better and better. And Nintendo’s Advance Wars has the potential of creating a new franchise based on addictive gameplay and lots of fun. Strategy fans can expect to be stuck playing their GBA's for hours in Advance Wars. Advance Wars is easy to learn but a challenge to master. Thankfully, Nintendo has included an immensely helpful training mode which introduces you to all of the units and strategies step-by-step, while still keeping the action interesting and challenging. The battles are turn-based, with each side moving all of its units in one turn and then switching to the enemy’s turn. It is not as complex as Final Fantasy Tactics’ mix of unit turns based on speed, but it is similar to other strategy games such as Ring of Red and Vandal Hearts.

The terrain plays an important role in defense, as forests, cities and mountains provide far better defenses than open plains, roads and water. “Fog of war” similar to Blizzard¹s War/Star Craft series also comes to play sometimes, where you and the enemy can hide units under the cover of fog and execute sneak attacks. Commanding Officers (CO’s) have special abilities that can be executed after a few rounds of charging up, too, such as snowy weather, unit repairs, double movement and extra attack power. Success in Advance Wars depends on knowledge of the terrain and which units are strong against what types.

Many features are included with Advance Wars. Two player support is available via the GBA’s link mode. An easy-to-use map editor allows you to create your own maps for play. The training mode is thorough and comprehensive and the single player mode has an interesting storyline with colorful characters and dialogue. Parents will be pleased to know that although Advance Wars is based on army battles, it is not really “violent” in a sense. Troops that are blown away by fire simply fly off the map instead of actually “dying”, and there is absolutely no blood or gore to be found. Advance Wars is centered on tactics and strategy, not killing.

Advance Wars features colorful animated graphics. The main map has simple but distinguishable icons to represent the units and landscapes. When two units collide in battle, the game switches to a close-up view and animates the results of the battle. Cute expressions on the CO’s faces often give you an idea of what the result will be, depending on which unit attacks what type of enemy unit. Although the brightness level is fairly good, as with most GBA games you will want to have a light accessory to be able to see everything clearly.

Sound effects are simple but effective and faithfully match the animations that accompany them. The music is not bothersome, but it can get repetitious after fighting in several battles. A little more variety in the music and sound effects would have been a welcome addition to Advance Wars.

Advance Wars has been a surprise success for Nintendo. Stores have been selling out of copies recently, so if you want to play the game, you should try to get a hold of it as soon as possible. It is an addictive, challenging game that will give you and your friends plenty of entertainment for a long time.

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