Great new look and a fresh feel for the Advance wars series. ( Score is really about 8.8)
But I was a little skeptical when they said it's going to be pretty much a spin off with new characters and different story line. None of the original Advance wars characters return, Instead. They're re-making the entire series with new characters and starting over pretty much.
Story: Let's start with the story.
It's goes pretty much like this. The world was at war, two great countries were going at it for a LONG time. When, one day, the world is struck by meteors. Over 90% of the population died.
We start off with a 15 year old named Will, Who was training to be a soldier. He finds himself to be the last one in the city. Not knowing what to do. He wonders around endlessly looking for help. Un-fortunately. All he finds it raiders looking to raid his ass. Since the meteors hit. Raiders raid cities searching for supplies. But not all is lost. As Captain Brenner with the 12th Battalion come to save the day. After they scare off the raiders, You find out that Brenner and his group are going from city to city helping survivors. Greatful for what Brenner has done, Will joins him on his journey.
The story is definitely grittier and more mature, Which is good because it goes great with the new look. But I can't help but feel that they didn't give enough time in the story to let the player get attached to the characters as they did in Duel Strike. Most of the time it kinda seems like random battles. Like out of no where the raiders will just attack. It gets more advanced in the story mode as time goes on. So the problem gets a little fixed.
Gameplay: Probably the best part of the Advance wars game is the gameplay. As usually, You take control of little soldiers and, using strategy, attempt to either take control of your enemies base, defeat all of the enemies soldiors, or some side objective some missions have.
The game is alot more in-depth then it sounds. It seems kinda like one of those you have to try it to get it type deals.
But if you've played an Advance wars before this. You may want to know a few things.
The game has been almost completely redone. The engine feel brand new and they've changed alot. To add more strategy, They've changed how CO powers work.
There is no longer duel strikes, Which I find is a good thing. Because if just feels like a handicap or an added bonus if you're winning.
You can now have COs on the field. When the Co is on the field, He/she'll have a CO zone type thing. Which is a certain amount of spaces where your units can be in to be buffed up. Like attack + 3 or Defense + 3, depending on your CO. Also, The new way you get your CO gauge to power up is by attacking enemies only in the zone. So this way the CO powers don't get over-used, They don't feel broken, and you can focus more on your units and using strategy with them instead of just killing your enemy with a CO power.
You may also want to know that the difficulty and Ai in this game have gone from meh to omg wtf. I've actually been beaten by an enemy when he had four units and I had 20 closing into his base. So even though the Duel strike is gone, don't think for a second the battle can't turn the tide.
One more thing I'd like to add is that they've finally balanced out the units. You can no longer make the incredibly over-powered Neo tank and there's a few new units you'd might like to know about.
The Mega-tank has been replaced withe the War tank. Which seems more powerful and less moveable.
There's the new Duster which is a new air unit. It kinda reminds me of a more powerful recon.
A bike. Which is pretty much a bike version of the infantry, but it moves hella farther. It can also take control of cities.
There is the new Anti-tank. Which is kinda like an artillery for tanks. And tanks only. ( Although you can attack other units, but it's not as powerful, Plus it has a counter attack for every kind of unit).
I think there's a few other units, but I can't think of them off the top of my head.
Graphics and sound: The graphics are completely different now. They made it much more serious by tainting the whole game in a dark brown. Giving it a WW2 type feel, plus they made the units alot more detailed. I personally love the new look. But veterans of the advance wars series may not like it as much.
They thought about this. So in game, You can push L I think. And you'll zoom out, making the units look like they used too.
The battle sequences are quite awesome, as usually. But every once in a while. You'll see a few pixels out of line in the explosions. Hardly noticeable so it's doesn't really effect much.
The sound in this game seems a little rehashed, But considering I liked the sounds. I don't mind.
The music has a very, Rock and roll and kick ass, type feel to it. Most every song in the game has a Hard rock feel to it. To try and match the new look. There is even some remixes of old songs done in rock form.
I love rock so this is a great aspect for me. but if you don't like it I'd suggest just turning off the sound. Sound isn't quite important in this game because it's all text done. Yup still no voice overs. Which I also find is good because they'd probably get bad voice overs like they do with most games.
Gamemodes: Don't have to worry about this here. This game is pretty packed with stuff to do. The Map maker has become very awesome. And now, You can go online and submit your maps. At the sametime download some aswell. They've changed the map spaces from having 3 custom maps to like 50.
They also have complete online capabilities. You can play against people online through random battle or friends codes. As most online Nintendo games are.
The online will keep you coming back to the game. So there's a bit of replay value.
What's also great is the single DS play. You can take this to your friends house and play with a Single advance wars game. When you play multi-player, you can switch off turns, So all you need is one DS and an Advance wars and you're ready to play. This was also in the last games. But I love this mode to play with my little brother of my friends.
Conclusion: Great game for fans of the series, but if you're new and you're looking to try this out. Try Duel Strike first due to the crushing difficulty.
Story: 8.5
gameplay: 9.2
graphics: 9.0
Sound: 7.9
Gamemodes: 8.6