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Advance Wars Retrospective

UGO's Advance Wars Retrospective takes a look back at the turn-based strategy series originally designed for Nintendo's Game Boy Advance.

January 11, 2008

It's amazing to think that a series which started life on Nintendo's Game Boy Advance is worthy of a retrospective, but such is the joy of Intelligent Systems' Advance Wars games. Granted, 2001's Advance Wars is actually the seventh in the series. The rest were Japan-only releases, starting with 1988's Famicom Wars. However, until Intelligent Systems puts together a localized anthology of the series' earliest six releases (hint, hint), the story begins for us at the turn of the millennium.

Common to all four of the Advance Wars games is turn-based strategic warfare which plays out on a grid map. The entire series is set within a fictional universe which seems to be stuck in a perpetual state of war. Each game follows a story-based campaign through whichever conflict is underway, though the real draw of the series has always been its addictive strategic gameplay. This retrospective is both a look back for longtime fans of the series and a primer for newcomers who won't have any other way of figuring out what the hell is going on with the story when Advance Wars: Days of Ruin arrives in North America for the Nintendo DS on January 21.

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Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising
Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising

Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising

Advance Wars returned to the Game Boy Advance in 2003 with Black Hole Rising. Broader in focus, the sequel features a five-part campaign focusing on each of the previous game's five factions. Battles are selected from an overmap, with additional ones unlocked as more are completed. Players are given a fair amount of freedom here as not all missions must be completed to unlock the final one for each continent.

The story this time around picks up where the previous game left off. As the four color-coded continents pick up the pieces of the recent conflict, the nefarious Black Hole Army - still led by Sturm - has been rearming and preparing for a second assault. Four new COs have been added to the Black Hole high command. Each one oversees operations at massive, unit-producing factories, one for each of the four continents. After the factories have been destroyed, players are finally able to move onto Sturm and his Death Ray super-weapon.

Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising Screenshot Each of the four color-coded continents also features an unlockable secret mission which provides access to one of Black Hole Rising's new units, the Neotank. These unlockable units can be used in the game's fifth and final part - an all-out offensive against Black Hole forces - to make things considerably easier. Once the Campaign is conquered, a Hard difficulty mode becomes available to play, complete with new missions.

Neotanks and secret missions aren't all that's new. There are 19 COs this time out; the original 11 are all on-hand along with eight new ones. The COs also now possess two limited-use abilities instead of just one. The CO Powers of the previous game are supplemented by all-new Super CO Powers. These super-abilities are considerably more powerful than the regular-strength abilities, though using them comes with an added cost to the Power Meter.

The previous game's War Room and multiplayer features return in Black Hole Rising, though both are spruced up a bit for the sequel. War Room features enhanced versions of all 114 maps from the first game along with 22 new ones (though these must first be purchased in Battle Maps mode). And with the help of a GBA link cable, players are also now able to share created maps with one another.

See More: intelligent systems | Nintendo | UGO | Game Boy Advance