Good potential yet flawed presentation.
The story fills in the gaps in the Prince of Persia troy between Sands of Time and Warrior Within, with an engagin campaign as he tries to conquer the demons that chase him.
The game turns are called hours, which are divided into phases where you play 1 card each. These cards can be used for there special effects or for giving troops orders. You can customise each deck with a variety of cards and effects. After being used, a unit can't be reused until the next hour. However, a fair few of the cards on offer are duplicates, but it does add an extra layer of depth to strategy and counter-strategy (e.g. going order heavy decks to rush, aura heavy decks to keep units in blocks), and the push backs, stuns and morales are nicely done , based on the damage you do, to discourage players keeping units in one unstoppable clump.
The combat system is also done in a fire-emblem style triangles (lare>medium>small>large) with different triangles for weapon types as well, which would've to interesting army-builds. This is one of the games flaws. You don't get the opportunity to build an army from production buildings, or even choose an army with a set gold limit. Instead, each army is based on the general you choose.
The generals is also a nice touch to the gameplay, with each general having a command aura which increases troops effectiveness, rallies troops, etc. Keeping your general too close to the combat, even if he is your best fighter, isn't always good as you suffer huge penalties if he is lost. However, differnet generals are good at different things (e.g. command aura, melee, range, number of cards drawn per hour), which would've increased depth if you could've chosen your army. Yu can't even create a map to have a bit of variety.
The graphics in this game are awful. Your units are represented by different types of symbols in boxes. However, there is a semi nice unit picture when you select the unit. It would've been better to have a smaller version of that along with the symbol. The combat graphics are pretty bland, and quickly repitive. There is no voice acting, and the story scenes are around two paragraphs of text.
It supports hotseat play and wireless, multi card play. It could've had download play. The touch screen is used nicely to drag your units, and the combat system is surpirsingly deep. It really falls down on presentation, and a clunky deck-management system. Dual Masters for advance had a good deck managent screen with cards aranged in order of what they are, and a separate screen devoted to cards already in deck. Instead, here cards are added to the top of the list as you get them, it is painful arranging a deck unless you completely redo it, and even then it isn't much better, and it all seems as if it hasn't really been played much.
Overall, a game which has a good strategy base to build on for a sequal. Improve the graphics, give players a choice in what to field, improve the deck management system, improve graphics and sounds, voice acting, maybe even a map editor, and it would've been a classic. If you want falshier presentation and more depth, get Advance Wars : Dual Strike.
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