It's War & it's fun. (Advance Wars (GBA))

Member Name: M_W_A

Product:	Advance Wars (GBA)
Date:	07/09/02 (91 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Greatly crafted RTS for the GBA., Superb game length with many modes of play., Best GBA game so far.

Disadvantages: You can become strapped to your GBA for some time during longer battles though there is a save feature.

On to the GBA comes a game not overloaded by Go-Karts, not jammed with things jumping onto different platforms but instead good old War. Ok, war isn’t all that great, but when it resembles something more like toy soldiers then it’s ok.

Advance Wars is probably the first Real-time Strategy to work on a handheld system. In the past we’ve seen them take PC gamers onto the internet for some classic online gaming, and the thing which separates this genre from the rest? Well, it’s that in this type of game you have to use your head more then in any other game, it’s all about tactics. So, for the less more able of us out there this game has alot of depth. You don’t have to be ‘worst in the class’ to enjoy Advance Wars though, infact you’ll probably enjoy it more if you actually knew what you were doing (it makes sense) and on top of that the game offers more modes then I have ever seen in my hands. I’d name them all but basically they are different modes of play which allow you to practice your skills for the main game, multiplayer options, point based modes and even a create your own map feature. You can unlock all of these along your quest and it’s not going to be easy.

You see, once you get into Advance Wars, know what you’re doing and enjoy the game, you’ll never want to put it down unless something good awaits you in the real world. The main mode in the game will keep you gripped onto your GBA as it is more like an on going story mode with battle included. I breathed a breathe of fresh air when I bought this game knowing that Nintendo have done something original for the GBA, something I haven’t seen to often lately. When you take a good game concept, put in a tablespoon of Nintendo then you’ve got a winning recipe. Your characters have different strengths in the art of War, for instance one character is more powerful yet has short attack range whilst another i
s a good all-rounder. They also all have their own special move much like a beat-em-up, I love the way all this stuff is combined. There’s even some comedy due to the characters relationships at times. Hear this from me now, once you get into this game you’ll love it. Pick it up and think “This is too hard, I can’t be bothered to use my brain on a video game” and you’ll hate it. Take into account that a battle could last for hours for a couple of minutes…depends how you take it. Go through the training mode and it’ll take no time at all to learn the basics, after that it’s up to you to learn other little tricks which will help you beat the enemy on land, sea or air.

The range of units is cool too. You’ve got Troops, Troops with big Rocket things. Tanks, small Tanks, Big Tanks. Sea things like Battleships and Sub’s. You’ve even got Fighter Jets and Helicopters. Anti-Aircraft guns…doesn’t sound like Nintendo does it? Buy this for the fact that Nintendo actually put a gun in their game *shock*.

So you’ve got your gameplay with a thumbs up, you’ve got the depth in thumbs up but now you probably want to know what the graphics are like. To be honest they are bright, colourful and damn right to. There’s no troops in camouflage hiding right in your face, instead you can easily tell who you're suppose to be shooting at to work your tactics to their best. Most of the game takes a 2D overhead view but when you fire at a target it switches to something I’ve never really seen on a handheld system. The battles are full animated and look great.

Advance Wars is something which will happily sit in nearly anyone’s collection. If you hate slow games which takes a bit of brain power then you won’t like it. If you like challenge in your games then you will worship it. There’s never really a point in Advance Wars that leaves you bore
d, there’s never really a point in Advance Wars which leaves you unhappy that you bought it and that’s what makes it great. If you combine that with the fact that this is Nintendo’s only ‘real’ effort on an original GBA game then you’ll be begging for more from those people. Until then you’ll just have to enjoy Advance Wars, it’ll last you.

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