Advance Wars

A while ago I discussed the Fire Emblem series of games and I thought since I didn't play any DnD this weekend I might write about the sister series, Advance Wars (or inofficially named as Nintendo Wars). So let us begin with the first game I played in the series, Advance Wars released in 2002 in Europe.

First playthrough was a disaster due to poor planning and not grasping when to charge and when to attack. After a while to when I got the hang of it it went very well. As with the first Fire Enblem there  was a tactitian introduced to make it easier for newcomers to relate and those first mission as you are guided by Nell of Orange Star as you fight of an invasion by Olaf of the Blue Moon are really good. Then the real campaign starts as you are assigned to lead Orange Stars army to counter the invasion with the newly deployed Andy as your commanding officer. This task take you across the world battling the Blue Moon, Yellow Comet and Green Earth until you find out that the one behind the hostilities is none other than Sturm of the Black Hole. You defeat him and all is well. The graphics are great and colorfull while the music is energetic and pumps you up for battle. One of the best turn-based strategy games and a great first introduction for the series. Then came a follow up in 2003.

Already you can see that the CO:s characters doesn't look that great. The story continues with the Black Hole Army invading all countries and it's up to all lands to unite against this threat. The tactitians role is gone which I must admit makes it a bit none personal. Some new CO:s for every army and one or two new units to play with. Not much to say other than I prefered the design of the first game. This game was followed by a DS game concluding this trilogy.

Advance Wars: Dual Strikes (get it? Dual Strikes? DS?) and the story this time is that the good guys have had enough and form an alliance to attack the Black Hole at their own soil while the enemy is divided by the old CO:s and new ones when Sturm was supposedly killed. This is also the first game where you don't have Andy as your first CO, but some new kid named Jake. Can't say I'm a fan of his. Again, the design of the CO aren't that good, colors feel washed out and I just don't connect with all the new CO:s. Also a new tag system is introduced where you can use two CO:s and their powers or even attack twice in one turn as well as a couple of new units. The series then shifted over to the gamecube with Battalion Wars, but that has to be for another time. Until then.