Advance Wars- Days of Ruin vs Dual Strike for beginner

It's kind of a catch-22 with Dual Strike Vs. Days of Ruin. While Dual Strike is a sequel, so you should play though the first two to get the most out of it, it's the easier of the DS Advance Wars. Meanwhile Days of Ruin is a whole new plot-line so you don't need to know anything about the older AW games to "get it" but it's the harder of the two.

Overall I would recomend Dual Strike to a beginner over Days of Ruin to beginners, but, as a vet, I still think Days of Ruin is the better game.

here are the pros and cons as I see them:

Dual Strike:

Pros: more to unlock, easier, more COs, *Dual Strikes, more light-hearted story/artwork, 200+ hours worth of things to do

Cons: easier :P, **Less balanced, some new modes don't fit in well (I'm looking at you Combat Mode), no online

*Dual Strikes are special moves you use that allows you to have two turns in a row thanks to the new tag-team system

**unfortunatly it hurts the game's balance making it more about the dual strikes and less about your actual combat strategy

Days of Ruin:

Pros: More mature themes, harder, more balanced units, online play, 100+ hours of things to do

Cons: Less to unlock, *No War Room, **less units, less COs

*Room Room was a staple of the AW games, it was a mode that let you play though 40+ maps and attempt to get the best ranking you could, a favorite of vet players.

**There were a few units that got canned in Days of Ruin, but it ended up making the game more balanced so it's not really a "con", although some people do miss the old units.

Finally as to online play:

You are able to play against "Rivals" which is other people with the same win-lose ratio as you, to try to keep things balanced online. That or you can play with people who have traded friends codes with you. Friend matches let you use voice chat and gives you way more options for the match.

I say get Dual Strike first.

It took me 5 hours to do a mission in Days of Ruin.

I don't see why everyone thinks Advance Wars is so hard :?

Anyways, Dual Strike has a normal and a hard mode option. Its normal is about the same difficulty as Days of Ruin, so it just comes down to which looks more appealing -- most people consider DS to be better, so go with Dual Strike imo.

None of the changes in Days of Ruin made the franchise better, if you ask me. Days of Ruin annoyed me pretty fast.

Dual Strike, however, is a blast. The best Advance Wars by far. The learnin curve and beginner's missions are excellent. If you're new to the franchise, definatly get Dual Strike.

I find Days of ruin easily better.

Although I've beaten the first game, and played a few others, the previous games felt too kidish for me. It's fun, and never felt like it was anything serious. Not that I'm complaining, but I just wanted a more realistic, with a darker there AW, and that's the DOR. In the previous Advanced wars, it never really felt like a war.

The gameplay has been greatly balanced, wifi, better music (The original music was again, too childish for my liking), better plot, darker theme, and so on. Although the only disappointing part was that there wasn't a War Room, and less COs, but the story made up for it. I haven't beaten Dual strike, but Days of ruin is still the best in the series, in my opinion.

This is just my personal preferance. Everyone has their own opinion, so this is how I am.