Excellent WWII strategy - shame there aren't more grown up games for the DS
Also being a fan of anything WWII I was therefore delighted to find this game which looked more like a history book. I did think about Advance Wars instead but once I saw the cartoony screenshots and pictures of civilian youths in tanks I soon decided which one looked better. Comparing reviews also swayed me to PT as the more complex and immersive option.
This meant it did take a while to get into and to be honest it was on and off my Amazon sales account a few times before I stopped throwing tantrums and settled down with it. The first few missions were also a bit of a mess and I would advise anyone to play all the tutorials at least once AND to read the hefty manual before getting involved. That said, once you have mastered the mechanics of the game it is then very easy to pick up and play (a bit like brain surgery really: easy if you know how) and you wonder why that manual is that thick after all. But I did find it HARD and perserverance was needed.
I have now just finished the three campaigns, which has taken about 5 months of on-off play so no-one can argue about the value. The interface was good although I tended to use the pad rather than the stylus most of the time. I also liked the look of the maps and the combat animations between moves. This is the first hex based TBS I have played and I liked the way it worked (so maybe Commander: Europe at War next...).
Things I didn't like:
The missions are a bit samey in that you need a balanced army to succeed most of the time: (SPOILERS) you preferably need AA to weaken enemy planes, recon to see far enough, artillery to weaken ground forces, fighters and bombers and armour. In general anti-tank and infantry are fairly useless.
It would have been good if missions had required specialisation in certain units e.g. air battles, infantry assault etc.
Also, you can replay individual campaign missions as scenarios once they are unlocked but you get given an arbitary force when it would have been better to start with a blank map and build one from scratch (which you can do by selling everything and then buying anew but it is a bit of a chore).
All in all a good, proper game for war fans on the DC though.