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Advance Wars DS, the DS game of year!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 54 / 59
Date: September 13, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Advance Wars DS is a portable strategy gamers' dream. With 8+ levels of unlockable skills requiring at least 8
hours per CO, the play time of this came could surpass 80 hours easily. Complicating matters would be the unlocked CO skill's
battling your unskilled CO later in the game. An example of the skills are receiving cash for destroyed enemy units,
reducing production costs for your CO by 5%, increased direct fire attack by 5% and a city fighter skill yielding 5% bonus
in cities. Up to four skills can be used at one time by one CO with at least 5 different skills per level.

Two CO's can now be used and switched while playing the game. Kanabei can be used to conduct ferocious attacks and
replaced the next turn with Colin to get cheaper unit production. Coupled with
the skills mentioned above you can customize your skills for power vs profit. After you have filled your CO power meter,
both CO's are filled, you can conduct simulataneous CO super powers to devastating effect on the battlefield.

Another option available in Versus Mode including Design Maps is four levels of AI. Defense, Assault, Normal and Strike.
The AI modes can become very challenging, increasing gameplay value for any given map.

A new History menu item is available in the game. History will provide a through overview of anything you have ever done
in the game with medals awarded for suprassing certain amounts. For example medals are given for XXXXX number of credits.

Multiplayer mode has been revamped with new trading options. Coupled with wireless capability of the DS, Advance Wars
DS will instantly become a classic around any public gaming setting. One word of caution, every player will need a
copy of the game. A copy of the game is almost mandatory from a training stand point. We all know training fellow
gamers can be challenging at times.

All of the game features covered until now, have very little to do with campaign mode. Campaign mode in Advance Wars DS
is just as challenging and refreshingly different as the original editions. Move your troops around obstacles and fight
the bad guys as only Advance Wars can. The tutorials are as always, integrated into the game play and can be quite
frustrating to the "casual gamer" like me.

Graphics in the game are basic with a sort of 3D perspective of the battlefield. Birds randomly fly across during
gameplay. I welcome the large bulky text and simplistic menu system.

Sound is the same as always.

I have enjoyed Advance Wars and Advance Wars 2 for almost three years now.

Hit:
1) History, I enjoy seeing how many units fell in battle.
2) Three M's, Maps, Maps and more maps. This new version delivers!
3) 3 second average load time to the main menu! No waiting for boring company logo and the idle animations are fun to watch.
4) Two CO's.
5) Customizable AI for Design maps.
6) Customizable skills for CO's!
7) New weapons in game: black bomb (5 damage to all affected units) and megatank.
8) New CO's!

Miss:
1) Using the stylus, this veteran likes his control based gameboy. Which still works flawlessly!
2) Music, I keep it switched off.
3) Maps in Design Room are not any bigger.
4) Dual Screen battles are to much of a good thing. Luckily they are not the focus of game play either!

If you liked the previous Advance Wars games, you'll like this one

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 33 / 39
Date: September 11, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Advance Wars: Dual Strike (2005.) The third game in the Advance Wars series.

INTRODUCTION:
When the Game Boy Advance was launched in 2001, a number of games were launched with the system, or released not long after the launch. Although most people did the rather obvious move and went with the Mario title, some gamers were fortunate enough to discover a sleeper hit called Advance Wars. The game was a strategy-style game all its own - easy to learn, but tough to master. Even I, a person who isn't too crazy about the real-time strategy genre, ended up loving this game. A sequel followed it, but sadly, even it didn't get this small series any needed recognition. And in 2005, a new game in this series was released for Nintendo's up-and-coming two-screen marvel, the DS. Read on for my review of Advance Wars: Dual Strike.

OVERVIEW:
Advance Wars: Dual Strike was released for the Nintendo DS in August of 2005. The game features strategy-style action, and can be played with one player, as well as in several multiplayer modes. The game has single-card and multi-card multiplayer options.

REVIEW:
I loved the first two Advance Wars games, and this game is very similar to the first two. That said, I love this one as well. For those of you not familiar with the series, essentially you control an army on an overhead map. Your army faces off against an enemy army. The objective of the game is to achieve victory by either destroying all of their units, or by capturing their home base. As battles progress, you can capture sub-bases, which add to your funding, which you can use to create more units. Units are created at factories and airports, which you can capture more of on the map. There are a ton of different units, land air and sea alike, and every unit has its strengths and weaknesses. For instance, a standard infantry unit won't stand a chance against tanks or other heavy vehicles, but it is one of the only types of units that can capture bases. Likewise, fighter planes can move very great distances and have good firepower, but they can only attack other air units. And leading your assault is your commanding officer (CO.) Every CO has a special ability no other has, so you can pick one that is catered to your preferred playing style. Players who have played the previous two Advance Wars games should pick this one up right away. The game also takes advantage of the DS hardware. All the action takes place on the bottom screen, which means you can touch the screen to set things up and make selections. I myself don't like getting fingerprints on the screen, so fortunately for me, the game gives the choice of using the D-Pad as well. But for those who can't get enough of the touch screen, the new features will be handy. Needless to say, another aspect of the DS hardware this game takes advantage of is the wireless multiplayer. You can do single-card and multi-card games, which will make the experience all the more appealing to DS owners. There is a storyline to the game itself, but it's nothing special, and besides, it's gameplay that counts. I have some complaints about the game, but nothing too serious. First of all is the concept of the dual-screen battles. For these fights, you must send units from your main battlefield to a second battlefield on the top screen. Units you send there can't come back, and you don't have control over the battle there - the computer does your fighting for you. These battles are more a nuisance than an innovation, but fortunately, they are few in number. My second and complaint is much more minor - the graphics look just like the Game Boy Advance games. The DS is a SIXTY-FOUR BIT SYSTEM. Why do game programmers never push system hardware to its limits, and instead opt for inferior styles? One problem this series has always had is its misleadingly-cute art style. Correcting that might have won more fans over to the series. The final complaint I have is that the game is essentially more of the same. If you didn't like the first two games, you're not going to like this one either. But if you DID like them, you'll LOVE this game. The DS doesn't have a whole lot of good games out yet, but what few it does are nothing short of excellent. Advance Wars: Dual Strike is solid proof of that claim's truth.

EDITION NOTES:
This game, at the time I write this review, was released not long ago. That said, it is still easy to find in stores. And that isn't likely to change anytime soon, either.

OVERALL:
Overall, I would have to say the Advance Wars series has impressed me once again. Any fans of this series will be doing themselves a real favor picking up this title. I give it my highest recommendation - five stars. Why can't every DS game be as good as this one?

SIDE NOTE:
Ignore all comments posted for this review. I don't approve of any of them.

Advance Wars is a blast

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 13 / 14
Date: December 22, 2005
Author: Amazon User

The Advance Wars series is the best handheld strategy series to date. Using a simple interface but complex tactics, Advance Wars has always been a game that the hardest of hardcore or the newest of newbies could pick up and enjoy. Nintendo and Intelligent Systems have managed to bring all of the strategic action to the Nintendo DS in the best way possible, Advance Wars: Dual Strike.

Advance Wars was great, but Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising took everything and made it better. Similarly, Dual Strike is basically AW2 with a lot of new stuff and a continuing story. The Black Hole army was defeated but once again they're trying to recover and gain power. It's up to the Allied Nations of Orange Star, Blue Moon, Yellow Comet, and Green Earth to rise against the Black Hole forces and silence them once and for all. New Commanding Officers come into play and mix up the story, but the old protagonist Andy has been replaced by an annoying new guy named Jake. Jake wouldn't be so bad if he wasn't an Orange version of your typical suburban wannabe...but that's a different story.

The gameplay remains largely intact, with the same turn-based stuff we've all played and loved for four years. Each side gets a turn and the battle cycles around until a headquarters location is captured or all units of one side are destroyed. There are 25 units (which includes six all-knew units) at your disposal, ranging from infantry units to stealth planes. Using different types of terrain for transportation and defense, the goal is to finish each battle with as much success and as few casualties as possible. Every once in a while during the campaign, players are forced to complete missions within a certain number of days or before a missile explodes overhead. These different parameters require for near-perfect strategizing, so progression through the game takes a lot of skill. Capturing different properties is as vital as ever, especially when you factor one of the new properties. Also, using COs and their CO Powers effectively makes things much easier or harder, depending on your skill. As I said, there are several new COs and getting used to their different strengths and weaknesses is going to take a lot of practice.

Some big things that really change the gameplay are the introduction of dual-screen combat as well as tag-team battles with multiple COs. Sometimes it's up to you to win the war on two fronts and defeat an enemy CO while also fighting a completely separate battle at the same time. These matches require a lot of attention and detail because they're essentially two battles in one. Choosing the proper CO for each battle is only the start, because victory or defeat can make or break the whole battle. Fortunately you can control both COs if you wish, but there's an option for AI-controlled COs for newer players. I found myself controlling the other CO myself, because the AI-controlled COs usually went and got themselves killed pretty quickly.

The tag-team battles make up the second half of the game, where you fight a normal battle with two COs. You can switch between the two at any time and take advantage of their capabilities, which makes things interesting. For example, series veteran Max has always been good with tanks but is terrible with indirect units like Rockets and Artillery. If I were getting pounded away by enemy Artillery, I'd probably want to switch Max for another CO so I could counter the enemy without having to get too close. However, if the enemy decided to change its plan and send tanks after me, Max's superior firepower would take care of them with ease. Furthermore, the multiple COs can now unleash what is called a Dual Strike (hence the subtitle in the game's name), where both COs use their CO Powers and attack in the same round. Being attacked with a Dual Strike can ruin an entire battle, but hitting your foes with a Dual Strike gives a much higher chance of winning.

In addition to a 28-mission campaign, there are several other options that deserve credit. Nintendo provides an excellent multiplayer option, allowing up to eight players to wage war using only one cartridge. Also, the War Room mode from the previous games makes a return. New gameplay modes include Survival and Combat. In Survival mode, you are given limited time, funds, or turns and you must finish the battle before that limit is reached. Combat mode is interesting to say the least. It's basically a real-time game where players drive around manually and shoot with the A button. Capturing buildings and destroying units is as simple as before, but you don't take turns doing it. It's not a big enough experience to call a full game, but if anything, it might be interesting to call it a very basic handheld preview of the GameCube's upcoming Battalion Wars.

Something that surprised me was the fact that Dual Strike has good music. Nintendo has never been known to develop the best MIDI handheld tunes, but Advance Wars sounds pretty good. Finally I can play a Nintendo game without turning the music off. The sound effects pack a punch for such a small game, as well. In the graphical department Advance Wars excels with updated graphics from the previous games in the series. The map itself looks similar, but the archaic structures now look a little more modern with a slightly three-dimensional look. The actual cut-scenes through which battles are shown look much better than before. The animation is cleaner, the color is brighter, and the explosions look much more fiery.

I'm just going to come out blunt in conclusion: I love this game. Nintendo and Intelligent Systems have served up three straight strategic masterpieces. The Advance Wars series has always been good, and fans of strategy or the AW series should definitely buy Dual Strike. It's easily the best DS game, and I might go out on a limb to say that it's my favorite strategy game. Advance Wars rocks.

Just what the Nintendo DS needed.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 10
Date: November 26, 2005
Author: Amazon User

It is fair to say that the Nintendo DS has had little in the way of "excellent" games. There have been games such as Mario 64 that were astounding as well as decent games such as Meteos. There have been a few innovative games, such as the puppy simulation game Nintendogs and the Warioware: Touched. However, up until now the DS was lacking a solid RPG/Strategy.

Advance Wars DS is, well, Advance Wars. If you've played either of it's predecessors, you've played this one as well in a way. The story mode (absent of a solid plot once again) is back, as well as the ever challenging War Room and the popular multiplayer Versus Mode. What the DS brings is the Wireless battles, a feature never before possible with SPs or any other handheld that Nintendo has dished out. Also new to the series are a Combat mode where the player controls one unit and tries to destroy the opponents by firing at them by either touching the screen or pushing a button, and various Survival Modes, where the player has a limit of either the time, turns, or funds. So, more modes, but how does the rest measure up?

First off is the CO's. Every CO that has ever been in any of the Advance Wars is back, with the exception of the bad guy from the last one, Sturm. In addition, one new member to the main four armies has been added, as well as 5 new Black Hole members. With both CO powers still present, as well as equipable skills such as no terrain penalty for forests or increased attack, there is a character for every playing style.

Second, the vehicles. Good news in this department. AW2 had one new unit, a Neotank. That unit is back, as well as a very fine selection of new units. These include the Megatank, a wickedly massive tank that can destroy complete health tank opponents in one shot, even if the Megatank itself has a health of 7 or 8. The Piperunner, a long distance weapon that can fire on any unit, air / sea / land, that can move massive amounts over factories and pipes. The Stealth plane, a plane that can hide like a submarine and can only be attacked with fighters or other stealths while hidden so. The Black Boat, an aquatic APC that can not only resupply but heal 1 damage. The enemy can use a blob type creature that can move one space only but will instantly consume anything it lands on, even if you are unfortunate to have the nearly indestructible Megatank on that one space :( .

Third, the maps. The maps are decent, and the War Room includes every map the series has ever hosted, as well as plenty of new ones. What the DS brings is the addition of a second battlefront. Unfortunately, unless you are playing against your friends, that second battlefront is always controlled by the computer with little options of you controlling it. Granted, a few missions let you take both fronts, but overall the option is non-existent.

Now, the review by category:

GRAPHICS - It's true, the graphics have little improvement over the prior GBA games. A pseudo (fake) 3D attempt was taken and the cities and trees look slightly three dimensional, but at the same time seem like a glitch with size distortion. No big deal really. The units look nice and the combat scenes are decent. Some facial expression is back, which was absent in AW2, which is nice. Overall, maybe an 8/10

SOUND - I've never cared too much for sound. The combat sounds all right, and some of the themes are catchy. Especially Nell's. Besides that, the sound is tolerable. 7/10

VARIETY - The name of the game is Advance Wars, and warring is the game. Every mode is some sort of fight, be it mission based or free battle. Honestly, the free battles are plentiful and varied enough to be good on their own. The option to wirelessly play against a friend is great and the range is very good. (50 feet with no problems, at least). I give this a 9/10

FUN FACTOR - Ahh yes, the fun factor. I don't know what it is about Advance Wars that makes it so fun. It could be the sheer quantity of CO's, it could be the amount of maps to beat in the war mode, it could be trying to get all 300 medals, or it could even be the satisfaction gained by watching animated men fly away from a bomber's bomb explosions. Whatever it is, it has kept me busy for months, from the day it came out to today, and I'm still only 1/2 done with the War Room. There's just something about this game that keeps the player interested for as long as they want to be. The last game that did this was the original Fire Emblem for GBA. For this, I have to give it a 10/10

OVERALL - Finally, a conclusion is reached. Dozens of CO's, literally a hundred maps, hundreds of medals, and plenty of variety. Another addition that could have been mentioned earlier is that after a certian level of each CO has been reached, an alternate costume can be used for each character. These are really cool, and for example, Sami can take off that army uniform and dress up in a dress and a flower basket. A neat addition to say the least. This game is great to pick up and play in the car, in a study hall, or dare I say in the restroom. Something in me has to keep back a point or so for the similarity to the previous games, given that the DS has a stronger potential. Even saying so, the game is great and anyone looking for a great handheld strategy game that doesn't mind slightly cartoonish graphics should look no further. 9/10

More of the Same Good Stuff

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 11
Date: August 24, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Bottom Line: If you liked the first two Advanced Wars titles, you'll like this one too. (if you hated the first two, don't bother.)

Advanced Wars Dual Strike is just a further tweak on the series. More new COs, more new missions, more new units. The biggest change is you can control the entire battle on the touch screen of your Nintendo DS. While this is cool, the units are small enough that occasionally youcan miss what you're trying to hit with the stylus. For those who get annoyed by this, you can always revert back to the tried and true D-Pad.

The other big change is the top screen is constantly giving you information about the battle. In later missions, it even extends to a separate battlefield, allowing you to use two COs at once.

In any event, this is a must own for fans of the series and fans of turn-based stragety. Real-Time Strategy fans and new players may or may not like the title. People who didn't like the first two won't find anything that different in this game, so they should probably steer clear.

multyplayer

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 2
Date: November 13, 2006
Author: Amazon User

A great thing about this game is that u can go on multiplayer with only one DS. You need to go on Versus, and how ever many people can play on the map, you change them from CPU to eitherP1, P2, P3, or P4. It is really fun having 2 vs 2 games, but evry one is human. me and my cousins have spent hours playing the game. You get to waste your friends and kick there butts. I did a pearl harbour type thing. I bombed my brothers fleet of 22 ships( 4 carriers, 3 battle ships, 3 black boats and 12 landing craft, all full) And i wasted them all. this is a must buy, even if you don't like strategy games, this is fun because all the fighting cut scenes that happen whenever you attack enemy forces or they attack you. BUY THIS GAME FOR U OR YOUR CHILDREN OK!!!!!!!!!!!!

Advance Wars Returns

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: December 02, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Dual Strike is probabbly the best in the series. It features what the second lacked, and abundance of new units and c.o.'s. The first was great. I found the second more of a remake of the original than another in the series. But Dual Strike is amazing, tons of new units and ways to fight. It utilizes the DS well, using the top screen to display unit and terrain info, and the bottom is the battlefield. Using the touch screen and stylus to edit maps is an ingenious idea. The only real problem is that you can still only have three custom maps.

I luv it !!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 5
Date: March 12, 2007
Author: Amazon User

It makes you think !!!! If you want to learn to think harder and have fun than buy this game.

If You See It In A Store, Buy It

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: June 13, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Despite my critical nature, I couldn't find much wrong with the game. I have to say that it's one of the few games that I actually don't mind picking up to play even though it was one of the first games I've bought in my 60+ collection.

My only complaint is that the Computer AI is extremely predictable over time, and it's difficult to get stuck if you repeat a level over and over again. That's not much of a complaint though, because some people welcome the difficulty, limited as it seems at times.

Past the storyline gameplay, there are other modes and missions you can do to change it up if you get tired of the storyline format.

I wasn't much of a platform gamer before I bought the DS, and even then, most of the games I own exist in my collection simply for collective purposes. I haven't played any other version of Advance Wars on any other platform, but this game exceeded my expectations.

If there's any game on the DS that should have a perfect rating it's this one, and it's a little unfair that Phoenix Wright has a full 5 Stars while Advance Wars got docked a portion of the 5th Star. The lasting appeal of this game is incomparable to Phoenix Wright, as you probably will never pick up Phoenix Wright again after beating it a first time.

Aside from rarity issues, a good way to analyze the quality of a game is the price fluctuation from its initial release to current pricing. Advance Wars was released before both Phoenix Wright and Trauma Center in 2005 at a $29.99 price tag. It was re-released in late 2006/early 2007 (I think that time frame is correct) at an extremely modest $19.99 at EB Games / GameStop. Now it's hard to find a brand new copy in any store since its production was halted some time ago. It was a good buy at its retail price, a steal at its re-release price, and still an excellent choice at whatever price you can find it for now, an average of approximately $35.00 according to Amazon.com. Enjoy it, it'll be a classic.

FUN

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 3
Date: August 25, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This is one of the most fun games i have ever played i can't wait to try it with my friends
if you liked the other two games this is a great new version and has new features with the classic game stil intact this is a good start into the series and this makes a very intersting story and with cool unlocks this is ingeneral a brilliant game

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