Advance Wars hits the DS and turns out to be the best AW game to date, and one of the best handheld games ever!
This is maybe where the game lacks the sence of perfection. The graphics are almost exactly as they where on the previous GBA games. It's very cool that the action now unfolds on two screens, but that is mainly the only improvement from Advance Wars 2.
The music has always been great in Advance Wars. I'll allways love Jess's theme, it's just so incredibly cool you'll wan't to play more and more and more. All the previous theme songs from AW are appearant in Dual Strike, only they've been updated to stereo and better sound quality. There are also new songs to every new CO and the menu and so on. The sound effects have been improved too. The explosions during the battles have been greatly improved, but the whole game still has the cartoony sence to it, which is very good.
Advance Wars Dual Strike is a lot bigger than the previous games in the series. You still have the great campaign, war room, VS and shop. But you now also have "survival", with three different game modes in. And "combat", which turns the game into a realtime strategy game! The game also features the ability to use two CO's at the same time, and then strike Dual Super Power which is just awesome! You can then play on two battle fronts (screen 1 and 2) and you can send units from the first front to the second. The CO's now also gain experience from battles and level up. You then also have the ability to give the CO's abilities such as +5% in direct attacks, and this is really great. In the war room you can choose if you want to play with one or two CO's and if you want to use their abilities. This affects how much money you'll earn from the battle. The new campaign is also great, with the black hole army returning to full strength. It's pretty much easier than the campaign in AW 2, but that's okay cause that one was so incredibly hard. Advance Wars Dual Strike also introduce us to six new units, and they are all very well balanced and fits perfectly into the game. I won't name them all, but I can say that one of them is the Mega Tank, and it's enormous in size and kills everything in its path! The new game modes are also great. Survival is about surviving as long as possible with a given amount of time, money or turns. Combat works very well, and is a great variation in the gameplay. Advance Wars DS also features a history recorder that gives you medals for many things, such as how many enemy tanks you've destroyed and so on. You also earn upto 5 trophies for how much of the game you've completed. Advance Wars Dual Strike will last forever, and is a must buy for every fan of the strategy genre. It's easily one of the best Nintendo DS games to date.
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They've improved upon the gameplay, which I though was impossible! The music is very good. The game is huge, with more game modes than you can handle. The new units are awesome. The action now unfolds on two battle fronts. All the stats!
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The graphics haven't been much improved since AW 2.