Advance Wars: Dual Strike (Nintendo DS, 2005)

This game has me absolutely enthralled. I've logged a ridiculious amount of hours on it, and I'm still coming back for more on a regular basis. Now, before I go on, I have to note: I wasn't a large fan of turn-based strategy before playing the original Advance Wars, and I still don't particularly enjoy many games in the genre. With that said, this game is amazing. It improves upon the Advance Wars mold, and makes it an exceptionally better game. The new units are fun, and with one exception, very useful. They're also very balanced, and don't make the game less fun, or much more complex. The new COs are also along those lines, with the exception of one, who seems a bit too powerful. Just ban her in multiplayer games. There are a number of other additions, too--like having your COs gain 'experience', thus allowing them access to interesting new abilities in the single-player game. The campaign is much better than that found in the last game, due to better enemy AI, and generally better mission design. In the last game, the odds were so stacked against you that the dumb enemies had to make up for it. Here, you still always start in worse position than the enemy, and there are a small number of very frustrating missions, but the overall balance is much better, and the AI truly earns its victories. For those of you who haven't played the other games, I reccomend you spend a decent amount of time in War Room (a skirmish-type mode not related to the story) before tackling the campaign, as you'll likely be a bit lost at the beginning. The only really dissappointing part of the main game is the plot, which is simply awful. However, it plays such a small role in the game, you won't notice. There's also a large incentive to replay it several times, due to a hard mode which, instead of simply making the AI better, or their units more powerful, give you entirely different scenarios--it's almost like a whole other campaign. When you're finished with that, there's the aforementioned War Room, which contains dozens of different individual missions, which can keep you busy for quite some time.
Multiplayer returns (obviously), and is still the best part of the game. It benifits from the DS's wireless feature--you no longer need a huge mess of cables to avoid passing around the system. So, for those of you who know 3 friends with a DS, buy this game immediatley. Mulitplayer is extremely addictive, and requires much more intense strategizing--you'll find that human opponents are far craftier than the AI. It's also far more satisfying to defeat a friend, rather than the computer.
So, this game is a required purchase for nearly any DS owner, even those who don't like turn-based strategy. It's a far better game than its prequels, and one of the most addictive titles out for the system, period. I absolutely love it, and I'm assuming most of you will, as well.

Advance Wars: Dual Strike is the third Advance Wars title to be released by Intelligent Systems. This turn-based strategy game details the efforts of a new group of heroes defending their homeland yet again from the evil Black Hole army. As the game progresses new characters and CO's become available including the familiar faces from the previous installments. The game provides a lengthy single-player campaign complete with a new feature enabling the DS's second screen. In one instance a countdown timer is placed on the top screen requiring the player to defeat the map in a set period of time. In other examples there will be two battles to be fought, one on the top screen and one on the bottom. Another new mode, combat, causes players to choose a preset number of ground units to battle computer opponents in realtime, rather than turn-based.

The graphics of the title remain consistent with the previous installments, but all the sprites have slightly more of a three-dimensional feel to them. The sound is fitting, the same songs are used for CO's as in previous installments, and the new melodies created for the added CO's in this title are catchy and well-done. The play control can be done traditionally with the directional pad and A and B Buttons, or exclusively with the directional pad and the touch screen.

For the most part this game is very similar to the two which came before it. A few new units are added such as a new tank, a stealth bomber, and an aircraft carrier, but for the most part the units to command are mostly similar to the previous games. But, this is definitely a good thing as Intelligent Systems has done a great job of keeping the game balanced and making each unit feel like it can be used in many different situations. As in the previous games players will earn points for each map they successfully complete which can then be used to purchase new CO's and new maps. In addition, each CO will level up over time as they complete maps and will be able to be outfitted with unique abilities such as increasing capture speed of cities, or moving more quickly across certain terrain.

In total, this is a title that should not be missed. It feels very similar to the previous games but in the best way possible. With the lengthy normal and hard mode single player campaign, the extra maps, combat mode, a map creator, and wireless multiplayer, Advance Wars: Dual Strike will likely keep you entertained for a very long time.

Like chess with tanks. This game strives to measure your tactical prowess through over a hundred different battlefields. Not to mention that you can customize your own battlefields and test it against your friends wirelessly or against an A.I. that always wants some. Fans of Advance Wars 1 & 2 wont be disappointed because ALL (except Sturm) of the Commanding Officers available in those games are back in this one with 9 more to boot. Theyve also implemented a new level system that gives you skills that make battles easier with each level you gain and a new costume at lv.10. And finally, theres an option to go to the battle with one CO and get double the points, or tag team with two, and level them both up. This just means, you dont need to play the game for countless hours to make COs stronger. When you tag team, you are able to swap COs after your turn which makes that COs characteristics come into play (ie:high defense, low production cost). This also means that you can use their CO powers one after the other, or together with the tag CO power which lets you take a double turn and do more damage if the COs know each other.
All in all, its a well rounded game. combat, which lets you control a vehicle that shoots out pellets is good for a bit of fun, but tactical gameplay is where this game shines. if there are any negatives, they arent blaring enough to even notice unless you play this game for 50 hours or so which can easily be done, and they come down to opinion. The map editor could be improved by allowing any other map in the game to be edited, and by allowing black hole's cannons and crystals to be placed in your custom map. But these are small details.
Good game, and worth the cash.

Sound-5/5
Gameplay-4/5
Graphics-4/5
New Features-4/5

This was a very fun yet often challenging game, which is a good addition to the advance wars series. There's a handful of new units and plenty of new CO's which are all unique in appearance and abilities. Each CO now boasts their own new theme music which changes when using CO powers. CO's can now work together and switch mid battle, and when both their power meters fill they use a combination or a dual strike. If two CO's are compatible their combined power will have a unique name and each power will be boosted, not to mention you automatically get two turns after using your dual CO power. Some of the new units include the all powerful megatank with extreme attack and limited ammo and fuel, and their is also the new piperunner which moves along pipes (obviously) and has a range comparable to that of the rocket unit. These are just of a couple of the new units in Dual Strike. There is now the Combat mode in which you are one unit against an army of opposing units.

Liked-The new units were all good, the new unique music for each CO makes it give your gameplay more personality, and most of it is pretty good music (minus the backwoods grit) And I liked the addition of a bunch of new CO's and the CO switching system.

Disliked-Not enough new units, there is endless possibilities when it comes to units, but the range is very limited. The new combat system was a good idea but you can only play as limited CO's and limited units but it just seems really thrown together and not thought out. The game really gets harder as you play and alot of the time you can find yourself frustrated at being so evenly unmatched in battle.

Overall-It's a pretty good game that I would recomend any advance wars fan, and anyone else that seems interested in the series.

This game stellar, just like the rest of the Advance Wars series. It is deceptively deep, and undeniably addictive. Turn-based strategy games can be hard to get into, but not this one. It is easy to pick, but the difficulty ramps up as you play. Just be prepared to lose some serious blocks of time, as the matches can often take hours (you can easily save the game at any point though). Overall, truly excellent.