Advance
Wars
System:
Game Boy Advance
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Intelligent
System
Released: September 2001
Genre: Real Time Strategy
Capabilities:
Game Link Compatible for up to 4 Players (Multi and Single Pak
Play)
Review Originally Written: October 1,
2001
Review Revised: December 14, 2003
It’s time to
take a look back at one of Nintendo’s first GBA games, and boy did it take the
gaming community by storm. I’m talking about the turned based strategy, Advance
Wars that caught everyone by surprise. Its great and addicting gameplay garnered
garthered this game plenty of acclaim, and a sequel is already out that fared
just as well. So let’s take a look back at one of the earlier GBA titles that
Nintendo proved it can churn out more unique and original games than SNES ports
on the GBA.
The controls are easy to learn, but takes another thing to master. Thankfully
the Field Training mode easily takes you through and allows you to get the hang
of things in no time. It’s just too bad it takes several hours to complete the
13 missions in Field Training before concentrating on the main missions, but
that’s beside the point since its still quite fun to play through. Each battle
is started off with a map filled with random units and bases, you highlight a
unit and a certain area of the map highlighted for where he can move. There are
options for the units to attack other opposing enemies, capture enemy bases, and
many other options. There are three type of main units: Infantry, Mechanical
Units (Tanks), and Air Units. There are many ways to plan a strategy in playing
this game, like by having units attack from a mountain where they have extra
protection, for example.
The game has several ways to play. There are only two modes, besides multi
player modes, available at the start. The first is Vs. mode where you can go
against either computer or human players and customize the settings to your
choosing. Once you complete Field Training, Mission mode is unlocked where
several campaigns are available to play through. Another interesting option is
Design/Custom mode where you can make your own map, and multiplayer options for
up to four players in single or multi-pak options.
There are buckets of replay value to be found. First of all, the Field Training
mode is quite a task to beat, but very fun to play through because it gets you
adapted to the gameplay mechanics and teaches you some strategic maneuvers. Then
the multiple campaigns in the game will take many more hours to complete. And
even if you manage to complete all those and still get bored, you can design
your own maps and scenarios and test them out against friends in multi player.
The actual in game graphics may seem pretty simple at first, like they came from
the 8-bit era, but they are some damn good 8-bit graphics, and that the gameplay
is the thing that makes this game. The overhead field maps have little icons
indicating mountains, woods, valleys, oceans, bases, and so on, like it came
right out of an early RPG. All the units have some idle animation so they don’t
eventually bug out your eyes on the GBA screen. When you initiate a battle with
an enemy opponent there are decent little cut-scene of the units attacking each
other (people playing in the single pak mode get to miss out on the cut-scenes).
The audio is surprisingly well done in Advance Wars. I actually enjoy listening
to background music. The type of rhythm they use for the music fits the combat
genre as good as it can on GB. The sound is actually a lot better when you use
headphones. The sound effects for the game are the simple bleeps you expect out
of the GBA, but get the job done, and all the gunshots and explosions sound
appropriate enough.
RATINGS
Graphics: 7.4
Sound: 8.9
Game play: 9.6
Replay Value: 9.9
Overall: 8.9
If any of you out there are into turned based or real time strategy games make sure to pick this up. First of all, games like this on portables are rare, and second of all, you never would of thought that they could’ve been done this good before. If you have never played any of the pair of Advance Wars titles, then the original would be a perfect place to start. Add this sleeper hit to your GBA collection if you haven’t already.