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Thinking bout buying this game?

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: September 14, 2001
Author: Amazon User

just picked up a copy of Advance Wars ..., after seeing all the hype on different sites. I'm not much of a war sim fan and am definitely not a turn-based game fan, but this game is fun. anime style graphics are neat. the game-play is easy with amazing depth. highly recommended that you go through the 14 training missions, otherwise you'll get blown away. you have to use terrain to your advantage and often, an out and out assualt is not the best path to victory. haven't tried the multi, but the 1 player game is pretty fun. neat to try out diff. strategies. for a handheld game, this is pretty amazing. best features are that you can save at anytime, allowing you to rethink your plan or get back to work. if you have the patience to learn the game it's awesome. highly recommend.

Depth not matched on a handheld.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: April 24, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This is one deep game.

Included are ground troops, naval units, and air units.

Each has their own sub catagories:

Ground: melee (infantry, tanks, anti-air machine guns) and indirect (rocket launchers, artillary, anti-air ranged attackers)
Naval: subs, cruisers, and battleships (your resident indirect unit)
Air: copters(transport, fair attacker) and planes (fighters, bombers)

Each has specifics as to what they are effective against. For example, the fighter jets can only attack other air units, but they do so almost unconditionally effectively. The player must worry about fuel consumption for each unit, many consume different amounts, like air units use 5 per day, terrain effects in addition to unit-attack compatability, CO powers, which can unfairly turn the battle in your opponents favor, and base capture, which is usually the main goal of campaigns.

This only scratches the surface of this game's depth. Included is a very lengthy campaign, numerous individual maps that begin you with no units and require speed, efficiency, and power to take the enemy's main base, and a 3-hour tutorial on the game's basics.

Recommended to all who have a craving for intense, turn-based strategy on the almost-already-venerable Gameboy Advance.

Good, but still lacking something

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: December 13, 2002
Author: Amazon User

OK, there are about a jillion reviews on this game, so you already know whats good about it. I'm going to tell you what's not so good. This is not to detract you from buying this, because its an excellent game, but to simply tell you what most others don't. First off, the single player game is quite easy until the last two or three missions. I beat the first 19 in no more than 2 tries each. Mission 20, however, is insanely hard to beat. Also, although there are tons of things to do to get replay out of this game, it simply becomes repetitive after a while. Even the map generator and custom map battles don't keep the fun up for long. Lastly, this game is very complex and is not for little kids! The tutorial missions (I think there are 20) took me over an hour to complete!

GRAPHICS: 4.5- very colorful and vivid, but a little too cartoony and kiddish.
CONTROL: 5.0- right on, very easy to navigate and control
SOUND: 4.5- catchy tunes and decent effects
REPLAY: 3.5- great potencial, but hampered by repetitivity
OVERALL: 4.0- fun and original, but a few minor flaws keep it from a perfect score

Most addictive game I have ever played

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: July 07, 2003
Author: Amazon User

It's a bit embarrassing, but this is the confession of a 40 year old professional woman. I've always loved video games, and play my Gameboy more than I ought. I wouldn't ordinarily write a review for a game, but this one is really outstanding among the pack of lackluster, too easy games out there. I have been playing this game for two solid months now, and still can't put it down. I have won the main plot twice, and am working my way through the challenge maps. I've never seen a gameboy game with *so* many different scenarios to play. This is a fabulous deal for the money--think of it 2 months and going strong with more new maps to play for 30 bucks. Buy it.

The most fun game I've played on Gameboy Advance.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: June 15, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I love this game. I spent many a fun afternoon kicking back drinking tea and playing this game. I haven't enjoyed a stragety game as much as this since StarCraft on my PC. It's turn based but that's ok especially when you get a phone call you can put the unit down, finish the call and then continue. You may miss the computer attack on it's turn but you won't miss any decisions for you to make and you can also save anytime.

The battles were all very fun and if I have only one complaint it's that the computer was not blinded by the fog of war but you were. However this is ok as you could explore a map first taking losses then restart it and know where the enemies forces were.

This game has the right mix of difficulty and stragety. There are not any missions that are so tough that you stop playing out of frustration(though there is 1 level where you can't win by fighting and holding out. You need to run with 1 guy and keep the enemy away for a number of turns to win). The last battle was for me the most fun. Yes it was hard and I had to stop once and restart it, but with some strategy the computer was toast. :)

I realize this game may not be for everyone. The type of person that likes run/jump/shoot type games. However if you like strategy war type games such as Star Craft where you move troops into position to attack enemies or like building an army and colonizing for resources to fight a war of attrition(many battles including the last were like this) then this is the game for you.

One thing I really liked about this game is how it nicely introduced new concepts piecemeal and had very good and helpful tutorial levels. The gameplay and moves and menus were superb. It's not like other strategy games I've played(Like Tatics Orge) that had confusing menus and controls. You can move and deploy quick in this game.

Very fun game and very addictive with replay value. :)
I've had to force myself to put it away for a while so that I can read some books I've been meaning to read.

Most people won't regret buying this game.

Wow

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: September 17, 2001
Author: Amazon User

The only reason I bought this game was on the strength of the reviews that have been popping up everywhere. I'm a fan mainly of faster paced action games (Counterstrike, Quake, Mario Kart, etc), but I had no idea that I would be getting what will likely be the sleeper hit portable game of the year.

I certainly didn't expect a game to come out for the GBA that would (in my opinion) surpass Mario Kart and Chu Chu Rocket.

Buy it

Huge Depth in a Little Pak

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: September 18, 2001
Author: Amazon User

As far as I know, Advance Wars is the first title to be released in the USA from a popular series of turn-based strategy games that has been around in Japan since the days of the old NES. Being a lover of all types of strategy games, from Final Fantasy Tactics (my all-time favorite) and Ogre Battle 64, to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms series, I was really looking forward to popping this pak into my GBA. But I wasn't expecting it to be of this caliber.

At first glance, the colorful graphics of Advance Wars look simple, but I was somewhat impressed by the look of the battle sequences. It's nice to see that the artists took the time to design all types of different battle sequence backgrounds, such as a forest background when your troops attack from the trees, and a river background when they launch an assault from the water. The effects of gunfire and the blades on a battle copter whipping around sound pretty good, and there's an assortment of music that changes from turn to turn depending on which characters the player(s) or computer has chosen to play as. Once again, it's nice that the creators put together several pieces of music instead of leaving one monotonous track to do the job. But with the good comes the bad. The storyline, though it somewhat develops the characters and provokes you to continue your campaign battle-to-battle, can get kind of stupid when, say...your advisor happens upon her ex-boyfriend.

Advance Wars is packed with modes, but first you'll have to complete Field Training. This is where you'll be taught how to play, which is good since the book doesn't fully explain all there is to know. You won't be taught in a matter-of-fact way, but instead are presented with a more pleasant, hands-on approach, where your advisor slowly welcomes you to all the different army units, terrain types, and so on, as you engage in little mini-wars. There are two other single-player modes: Campaign is the main game that takes you through the story as you fight off invading armies, and War Room gives you a high score depending on how well you fight (how fast the battle was completed, how many of your units were lost, etc.); it can be fun to come back later or invite your friends to the War Room to challenge your high score. And of course, there are the multi-player Versus Mode (also single-player) and Link Mode. (Versus is played by having players pass around one GBA.) Both modes (multi-pak for Link Mode) allow you to choose from over 100 maps, but unlike Versus Mode, Link Mode doesn't let the computer take the place of the third or fourth player, so if you want to play cooperatively against the CPU on multiple GBAs, you're out of luck! Even if it did have this functionality, Link Mode is no different than Versus Mode except that you don't have to reach that full foot or two to pass the GBA to your friend. So if you think you need more than one game to get all the great multi-player options, you can probably save your money and get just one. Perhaps most exciting of all, there's a great map editor that lets you design your own battlefields for play in Versus and Link Modes. You can virtually make a map that is as good as, if not better than, the programmer-designed ones since you are given every object of terrain and every building that is in the actual game to work with. Now that's an edit mode!

When you actually get down to waging war, the gameplay will seem complex at first since there are so many things to take into account, but after a day or two, you'll be spotting all the traps and making all the most strategic moves possible. First you'll have to acquaint yourself with all 18 war units. For instance: you'll learn that, while mechanized infantry have more destructive power than ordinary infantry, infantry can move three spaces per turn while the mechs can only move two; then again, it counts as two spaces for infantry to cross over mountains while it only counts as one for mechs. You'll also learn that certain units can only attack certain other units -- maybe only ground units, maybe only ships, or maybe a mixture of both. It gets even more complicated when you have to drive the APC over to give units more ammunition or refuel vehicles. Then there's the terrain which units can use for coverage. Say you spot enemy infantry on the plains; since plains only offer and added defense of one while mountains provide an extra four defense, an attack sprung from the highlands would score more damage while suffering less from the counter-attack than one sprung from the plains. Troops can get even more coverage if Fog of War is toggled on. This feature disables the player from viewing enemy troops until they come into the vision range of one of his units. Forests provide still further concealment, with only units directly adjacent to the treeland terrain being able to peer into its depths.

I've only just scratched the surface of Advance Wars and could go on telling more forever, but I am limited to 1,000 words. With so many modes and so many ways to play them, plus the infinite possibilities of the edit mode, suffice it to say you'll have your hands tied until...well, forever as long as your friends prove challenging enough to keep you strategizing. In my mind, in a matter of two weeks Advance Wars successfully dethroned Mario Kart. If any GBA title ever wishes to top this game, it's going to have to wage a brutal war.

Fun? You bet! Frustrating? YOU BET!!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: September 30, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I reviewed this literally hours after I bought it and gave it raves. I was still in the (exhaustive) training mode and having a blast. Several dozen missions (and three sets of AA batteries) later I'm still playing but now it's about revenge. The Computer player always has more bases, more vehicles and more aircraft than you ever have. I've switched the game off mid-mission out of sheer frustration at the imbalances in this game, but ultimately I have to encourage anyone who enjoys a challenge to buy this game immediately. It's worth it for those times when you've finally got the computer on the run and are beating it's brains out and you'll love every minute of that!

Excellent!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: October 09, 2001
Author: Amazon User

This is the best game I have ever played! The graphics may not look great...but compare it to the Game Boy Color (no, I am not advertising Game Boy Advances). Just play it and find out. Even the tutorial is excellent! There is only one downside though...the battles often take a LOOOOOOOONG time. Fortunately, you can save in the middle of one.

My favorite GBA game.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: April 07, 2003
Author: Amazon User

One word describes this game: "Awesome, addicting, great, amazing, spectacular", okay, okay, so that's more than one word, but you get my point.

Basically, this game is great for multiple reasons. First, it's just plain FUN. Second, it has a heck of a lot of replayability with all of its various modes of play (I've had it for two YEARS, have played it frequently, and STILL can turn it on and instantly find something new to do). This game will last a long time. Only complaint: It's hard! But hey, what's wrong with that, people need a challenge!

Now, let's see if the already-announced sequel will be as good...

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