Advance Wars: Dual Strike gives the DS a fantastic strategy title that is sure to appeal to just about any gaming fan.
Advance Wars: Dual Strike begins with the entrance of two newcomers to the series and their current battles versus the Black Hole Army, in Omega Land, apparently a place close to the other areas the Black Hole Army tried to conquer in previous installments of the series. Jake, a cocky and upbeat young recruit who talks part trash and part internet geek, is a fresh face and certainly provides some comical entertainment, not only in the way he talks but his responses to some of the returning good guys as well as bad guys in the game. Rachel is also a new entry available at the beginning of the game, and she presents herself as the strategist for the Omega Land Army, which is fitting considering she is the sister of Orange Star strategist Nell.
The game rightfully begins with the Omega Land army taking on Black Hole within a few missions, and things pretty much make their progress similar to how Advance Wars 2 did, with a few twists throughout to make things interesting as far as the story goes. One noticeable difference between Advance Wars 2 and the DS counterpart is that the game is fairly linear in it’s progression. Where as in Advance Wars 2 you could skip around or do other missions at your leisure and sometimes avoid others, which gave the game a bit of freedom, Advance Wars: Dual Strike goes back to the tried and true mission after mission straightforward approach. While this certainly doesn’t detract from the game, especially for enthusiasts you desire to play through all the missions anyways, it was a nice break before that would let you take on another mission if you had some difficulty with another in particular. Fortunately, unlocking the labs to get to other units is still in place, so you can earn yourself additional skirmishes by correctly capturing specific cities and such located on maps. The labs are also much easier to unlock this time around as the cast of characters, whether fried or foe, give a few tips in dialogue as to when there is a new unit available to unlock by either capturing a specific point or just by playing through the mission and using the particular unit. This is something much easier than what was done in Advance Wars 2's method of unlocking the Neotank for the other factions you fought with.
Advance Wars: Dual Strike retains much of the same gameplay that made the other games in the series popular, with a few tweaks. For those who unfortunately have not played a game in the series, here is the quick rundown. You essentially use various units to traverse terrain and either take out all of your enemies units using tanks, medium tanks, infantry, missles, bombers, and various other naval, land, and air units. You finish the mission by either completing the objectives, which on most areas are either capturing the enemies HQ with infantry or mech units, or defeating all the units on the map. Many missions also include alternate win methods, such as taking out 3 special cannons or may involve destroying a certain type of unit. Capturing cities with infantry or mech units also help to provide resources to power your army and let you create more of specific units, depending on what kind of unit production facilities you have such as airports for air units, ports for naval units, and bases for the grunts of your armies like infantry, tanks, rocket launchers and artillery cannons.
Now that the basic gameplay has been discussed for those who are new to the series, we can discuss the changes from previous installments. New units are introduced, which is standard for any strategy game sequel or expansion, and Advance Wars: DS is no exception. One new unit is called the “Black Boat”, a technology that you acquire by capturing a city from Black Hole and unlock a level to retrieve the schematics. The purpose of this interesting new unit actually provides a nice alternative to the lander, as it allows you transport infantry or mech units, and also has the ability to repair any unit by one. The unit is even cheaper than the lander, but the boat is balanced by the fact that it can only carry infantry, as opposed to the lander which carries tanks and APC’s. The Black Boat also is much more vulnerable to damage it seems, so the fragile unit is very cheaply made but just as easily destroyed. The next unit we have is the Stealth, easily my favorite of the new units. The Stealth is a very cool and unique air unit and is a very versatile member of your army, as it can fly, has decent mobility, and can attack both air and land units, as opposed to other air units that are limited in attacks. The Stealth unit’s flagship ability, very similar to real life units, is their ability to essentially become invisible and only be attacked by enemy fighters. This allows the Stealth unit to attack even cruisers, the bane of air units, and effectively not get counterattacked. The balance of the stealth unit comes in the fact that it is weaker than fighters, so it can be taken down to size easily by enemy fighters, and the unit also uses gas incredibly fast when “cloaked” so you can only last about 2-3 turns before this awesome airplane needs a refuel from an APC or airport, so you have to take great care when using this ability. The carrier, introduced on the same level as the Stealth, is a new sea unit that can hold 2 air units and allow them to refuel if they park there till the next turn, and allow them to go out to battle again. The carrier also has some serious anti air abilities, with incredibly long range to take out various air units from a distance. The megatank, as the name implies, is an improvement over the neotank, introduced in Advance Wars 2. Although the megatank is essentially a walking wall that can laugh it’s way through hordes of standard tanks and medium tanks at times, it’s incredibly expensive to produce and has a movement rate of 4, so it’s very limited in its abilities and the neotank, with its excellent attack power, large movement range, and cheaper cost, is usually a much better and cheaper alternative, but when you need something that can pretty much take a few hits so you can garner some shots in say a Fog of War map from indirect units or swarm your enemy unnoticed, then this can definitely make a solid piece of bait, that is if someone decides to take it. The piperunner, also a technology gained from Black Hole, is an interesting indirect weapon similar to Artillery, but it has a wider range and can strike units from afar. The unit is balanced by the fact that it can only move along pipes, so it’s a very powerful unit with great range, but is also very limited by its movement. The Black Bomb is also gained by Black Hole technology, and is a suicide air unit that can remove 5 health from any unit within its explosive range, but can easily be destroyed by mobile anti-air units or enemy fighters so it must be used with extreme care. Last, but not least, is the oozium, a unit used primarily by Black Hole but you can unlock it in the Battle Maps section from Hachi for a price to use in other maps. Oozium is a one movement unit that will basically “swallow” any unit that is next to it simply by moving on it, and it is also fairly durable against attacks, but can still be taken out with ease since the movement range is so pathetic.
As far as CO’s go, there are a few newcomers, both good and bad, and provide some interesting tweaks in gameplay that can enhance and change the way you play battles. Jake, mentioned earlier, has greater attack power with any unit while on plains, so while being in a defensive zone such as forests provide others with strength, he is perfectly at home riding next to the road or engaging in battle out in the open. Javier is another new CO from the Yellow Comet faction, and he actually has greater defense versus indirect attacks and gains additional strength from a new capture point called Com Towers, that provide your units with more strength and defense, but in Javier’s case gain that even more, especially when he unleashes his CO Powers. The campaign battles this time around are very similar affairs to what was presented in Advance Wars 2, with many more objective based levels, and some even take advantage of the dual screen as well. One particular mission has a satellite that is about to strike Omega land and is even timed for attacks, but certain points of the map on the touch screen can allow you to delay this, but that’s something I won’t reveal for the sake of spoiling the fun. One of the more conventional ideas presented is where you control two CO’s and battle it out on two screens. While you can allow the computer to command and direct the battle on the top screen, many of the missions allow you to control the action, which at least in my opinion is something that I want to take advantage of. Unfortunately, this doesn’t ring true with all the missions, but generally the top screen isn’t that frustrating to win in most battles, and you can send some units from the touch screen to the top screen to assist in the battles as well. If you manage to win the top screen then you also get that CO to join in the battle below, but any units on the top screen, whether they started at that map or were sent there, do not come back down to the bottom screen. This does, however, allow you to use what is likely the trademark gameplay tweak of Advance Wars: DS, which is the dual strike. Co Powers are still the same, with normal CO Powers and Super CO Powers still existing, while some have been tweaked, such as Eagle getting downgraded to getting half attack power with his normal CO power, but allowing him the ability to attack twice, while the Super CO power has no penalties to power and still allows him to attack twice.
Dual Strikes, the trademark ability of this particular installment, is what sets it apart from the previous installments in a major way. Any map where you get two Co’s to control actually let’s you control a set of units but change between CO’s instead of ending your turn, which in effect ends your turn but you have that particular CO to defend with and also use the upcoming day. This is especially useful in some instances, such as using Colin early on to get a quick Medium or Neotank out and then dropping in with someone like Jess or Max who excel with tanks and you can rush out with a bang without having to pay the price that Jess or Max might have to pay, saving yourself some cash but still letting you take advantage of the power that the latter two CO’s exemplify. Dual Strikes are the other, and much more dynamic portion of the two CO fight. Your CO’s will both build up power when you use them, but when you get both of their bars to the level where you can use a tag power, it allows you to enable your units with the powers of each CO(when on their given turn), and can turn a seemingly losing battle into near victory if played right. Basically you use the tag power, use your units(or remaining units if you built up to the Super CO power this turn), and attack your opponents units, but then you change to the other CO, unleash the power of their Super CO ability, and it allows you to move and attack with the set of units again.
Sound was always an upbeat and fun portion of the Advance Wars series, and while a lot really hasn’t changed this time around, that isn’t really a bad thing. Many of the returning CO’s obviously have their music to associate themselves with here still, such as Grit’s twanging low beat to Jess’ funk and bass driven style(favorite of mine) returning as well. The new CO’s also have some nice arrangements, with Jake’s being the most memorable, being a bit heavy and seemingly grungy or dark at times. Any new music presented in the game still has the same feel to it, but certainly when it comes down to it, the music was always generally upbeat and flowed with the pace of the game.
As far as looks, even though this has been released on the DS, you don’t really see too many improvements, and some characters at times look worse, not at a graphical glance, but just some of the design isn’t as impressive, as cool characters from Advance Wars 2, such as Sonja, now looks like a kid instead of this military brat yet incredible military genius in the DS version. Rachel certainly represents the younger Nell well, and Jake has this cool and kickback look that represents the trend of kids today, which certainly matches his personality and attitude. So while the game hasn’t taken any graphical improvements, there are some changes, both good and bad, that are in the game, but for the most part they are good and any weaknesses don’t take away from what is otherwise a fantastic game that is heavier on gameplay than it ever has been on graphics and looks.
Extras and unlockables were also something that was very much present in the previous games, and it seems Advance Wars: Dual Strike takes this one step further by various tracking options. You can still unlock various maps, CO’s and colors this time around, but you also get medals not only in ranks and such like before, but for many different things you do throughout the game. The game has a history option, where you can track pretty much anything you have done in game, from how many medals you have, to how many of a particular rank, the amount of time you have played, how many infantry, megatanks, recon units, and any other unit, as well as those you have destroyed as well. You can collect it seems 300 medals throughout these various goals listed, and you get more medals obviously with the more you play the game. While this could certainly seem a bit tedious, it gives the Advance Wars addicts out there another goal to reach and keep them busy for a fairly long time. The endless goals and options it gives you and units you have to create/destroy could garner likely over 100+ hours to maybe even come halfway to achieving the goal of total completion, but more likely taking much more time than that.
The War Room also returns, which unfortunately has many of the same old maps that were present in the other game. Depending on how fond you were of those or desiring new maps, this may be a drawback for some, but overall there are some new maps and with the dual strike abilities this certainly changes how many of these maps might be played as well, so things can definitely become very fresh, and along with many of the new CO’s presenting some interesting abilities as well.
One new interesting addition that is completely new for the Advance Wars series is the combat mode, which is the newly anticipated real-time mode. This isn't really similiar to your typical rts, but more of an action paced game where you control one unit that attack many enemies while trying to either destroy all their units or capture their HQ. You get a set allotment of points to buy units and they each have their own strengths and abilities, and all can capture buildings to help recover health but obviously infantry or mechs are faster at capturing then a tank obviously. This is a nice side offering, and while certainly not as deep as the main game and campaign, it's a nice alternative to the turn-based element and a feature many would find a welcome and interesting addition.
Multi-player, also an element present in the two prior games, is now taken one step further this time around with some interesting options that are presented. You can now engage not just with four players but up to eight players, which can certainly make things a bit more hectic and interesting as far as alliances and battles go. The DS, with its Wi-Fi abilities also intact, can connect wireless with other DS titles, and you can play with other players whether or not they have a copy of the game through the DS download play option, which is similar to the old link play with Advance Wars games not requiring anymore than one copy of the game and some link cables, but this time the cables are obviously not required.
All in all, Advance Wars: Dual Strike makes some great changes to the overall gameplay of the series to suddenly make it a whole new ball game to not just casual players but those who have played the previous installments to death. The game does take a bit of a step back in difficulty, so those used to the tough as nails Advance Wars 2 might find themselves flying through the third game in the series, but it certainly picks up near the end, and the changes in the gameplay still keeps things fresh and fun for anyone interested. Overall, Advance Wars: Dual Strike gives the DS a fantastic strategy title that will be fun for years to come for just about any gaming fan.
-FooManChu311