Advance Wars Turns Darker, More Tactical

By Connect Mason Reporter Daniel Sims

When people think of Nintendo’s turn-based strategy game Advance Wars, one of the things that usually comes to mind is little toy men on a battlefield. The games up until now have been pretend wars both in mechanics and in subject matter, nearly focusing more on “pretend” than on “war.”

The Advance Wars games have been about teenage commanders who direct full-scale military operations across “Wars World” with weapons that often seemed like products of cartoons. Considering what they emulate, the relative lightheartedness of the Advance Wars games might seem a bit unfitting to some.

Nintendo Intelligent Systems seems to be trying to steer the franchise in a more serious direction with Advance Wars Days of Ruin on the DS. They’ve somewhat streamlined the game to focus more in tactics than on cool toys and they’ve adopted a somewhat grittier setting.

Meet the New Advance Wars

Right from the beginning there is a stark change in image with Days of Ruin. Previous games like Dual Strike depicted very colorful wars fought by intentionally cartoonish soldiers. The plot of that game involved allied forces fighting against villains that tried to sap the world’s resources to develop supernatural weapons. The commanders included people like a blonde in a half-buttoned-up uniform and another with headphones wrapped around his neck.

Days of Ruin in comparison introduces us to a much grayer and bleaker world. The game’s plot starts with a meteor shower that brings about the apocalypse and from there tells a story about people and nations picking up the pieces while fighting to survive. Rather than tell it through ultra-gritty images of death though, Days of Ruin tells a story of survival and the meanings behind war in a way much more similar to anime like Gundam or Blue Submarine No. 6.

Days of Ruin really seems to be an attempt to re-focus a little bit what Advance Wars really is, and that goes for its core gameplay mechanics as well as its image. Dual Strike felt kinda like a toy chest with the number of tools and modes that were available to players. Days of Ruin has made some necessary upgrades and slimmed things down significantly. The result is a leaner experience.

New Units, New Abilities

Some of the stranger-looking units in Dual Strike included things like robot walkers called neo tanks, guns that moved along rail-like pipes called piperunners, and oozums which were blobs that absorbed enemies. These are all gone in Days of Ruin. To replace them and make the game feel more tactical, new units have been introduced like infantry on bikes, lander gunboats, anti-tank artillery, and tanks with flares to remove the fog of war. These new units focus less on the sheer power their predecessors had and more on instrumentality.

Many returning units have also been given new abilities. For instance, landers which before could only carry one infantry unit at a time can now carry two of any type of ground unit, battleships can now attack indirectly after moving in the same turn. Aircraft carriers can now be used to build aircraft, and armored personal carriers can now be used to build temporary ports and airfields. Units can also now gain experience and become stronger as they survive more battles.

The influence of commanders in Days of Ruin has also been significantly lessened compared to Dual Strike. Dual Strike’s title came from commanders’ ability to team up and use special powers to initiate certain effects in battles. This could often drastically turn the tide of a battle or end it altogether. In Days of Ruin commanders only have influence on their units when they’re actually on the battlefield and only for the units near them. Commanders also no longer gain experience as they did in previous games.

Go at it Online, With Friends

Other somewhat extraneous stuff from Dual Strike like the real-time mode and managing two battles at once has also been deleted. However, a couple of very important features have been introduced in Days of Ruin, the major one being online play. The ability to engage in battles with friends over Wi-Fi has been a much-requested feature by fans and for people coming off of Dual Strike, it should be the main reason to buy Days of Ruin. Friends can also trade the maps they’ve created online which further justifies calling Days of Ruin a true sequel despite its light handling of the core gameplay.

iTouch

Last but not least on Days of Ruin’s list of improvements is its refinement of the touch screen controls. A touch screen would seem like the perfect interface for a turn-based strategy game. Dual Strike’s touch controls were so delicate however that I often found myself going back to using the control pad and buttons. Days of Ruin seems to have much more workable touch controls. Navigating command menus and targeting still aren’t perfect a lot of the time, but since starting Days of Ruin I’ve only had to press a button once or twice. Many may still prefer conventional button controls, but the touch screen allows Advance Wars to be played in a much more casual way. For me it makes the game feel like I can fit it into nearly any part of my everyday life.

Bottom Line

If Days of Ruin is your first journey into the Advance Wars franchise and you like strategy games, then it should prove to be an incredibly addictive game. If nothing else, returning players will find Days of Ruin worth the purchase for the online functionality if not also the refined focus the core gameplay has taken.