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Advance Wars - The most addictive series to ever grace a handheld: A 10-Year Anniversary
Chen
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Today marks exactly the 10th anniversary of Advance Wars, a series that wouldn’t have made it over here if it wasn’t for NoA’s brazen conviction that the Western populace would love it to bits. And love it we did. The reception was so well-received that Nintendo decided to localize another series, Fire Emblem, which received the same widespread recognition. This is a way to thank the people who were involved, to remember its brilliance and to celebrate one of the finest handheld series (Batallion Wars is a seperate series lalalalala!).
How it all started
It was Autumn 2001. It was a gloomy Autumn with Winter just around the corner. I had just entered college for a full semester and still had to settle in (yay, booze!). On a chilly morning, on my way to college, I went to a magazine store and read the latest issue of EDGE magazine. In there, there was a short page dedicated to a quirky title I haven’t heard before. It was a GBA title with bright, colourful visuals which immediately grabbed me. After closer inspection, it’s a turn-based strategy game that combines chess with Command & Conquer: Red Alert, but with a cartoony approach. I was sold.
When I finally got the game, I spent hours enjoying the tutorial and missions (and toiling over getting enough direct light to see a damn thing on the GBA screen). I brought it everywhere I went and played as little as a few minutes if the time allowed me to. Months were spent in this routine and I loved every minute of it. Luckily, the first year of college wasn’t exactly a hardship, so it didn’t affect my grades too much. I completed the campaign, played through the war room, collected all the medals, played with other people.
It wasn’t until Advance Campaign that my progress slowed down. Almost to a crawl. Still, I persevered and through sheer willpower, I joined Grit and Sami at the dawn of the Final Battle. I didn’t plan this; I chose the missions that were the easiest to complete and somehow ended up with them. I tried again and again to survive Sturm’s army of tanks and bombers and failed every single time. Being as passive as Grit and Sami are, it was impossible to quickly regroup and mount an offense before Sturm wiped me out. Andy had to fend for himself, which was a fool’s errand once Sturm showered me with meteors, and he did, every single time. That dick. I gave up. It was time to say farewell.
About a year and a half later, after waging wars in Black Hole Rising and mastering it in no time, I thought back to my past failing and went back to my first love with a single mission: to beat Advance Campaign. This time I had it all planned out. My plan was to choose Sami and clear her route to gain Eagle’s trust, so that he offers his allegiance in the Final Battle to bludgeon Sturm once and for all. This route was certainly the most difficult to overcome as I had to battle Eagle with Sami who was arguably the weakest CO. Eagle is no pushover either, often times offering a better challenge than Drake would. Weeks passed and Sami did her job. The Final Battle was upon us. Eagle as well as Max joined the fray, like best buddies should. It was the moment of truth.
It was a rout. Eagle’s air force combined with Max’s brute tank divisons allowed me to break through Sturm’s defences and claim his factories and runways. The war was over.
Or so I thought. Afer clearing the aftermath, Eagle challenged me to a friendly bout. How could I refuse? He had a massive contribution in neutralizing Sturm’s air forces. It was the least I could do. It seemed harmless enough. Little did I know what laid ahead of me.
That son of a bitch was giving it everything he had. Eagle’s plan was to perform an old-fashioned blitzkrieg, with a much more sizable army and economy. My mission to complete Advance Campaign was in danger, more than ever. I pumped out infantry and anti-air to hold off the first wave, but usually the first wave would give him his CO power and allowed him to overwhelm me with his second wave. My only hope was to send two brave infantry on two transport copters and navigate them through the fog of war to seize Eagle’s HQ.
It seemed futile. Either Eagle’s forces had breached through my defenses or his fighter jets sniped my choppers. Once again I had to be content with not beating the very last mission of Advanced Campaign. Once again I had to surrender. Many months had passed since that defeat, until a faithful day arrived where I gathered all my willpower and spent days on end to show this arrogant son of a bitch who’s boss.
That is how I became a fan for life.
Q&A
Q: Weren’t there games before on the NES, GameBoy and SNES?
A: That is correct. Famicom Wars (pictured below) was released in Japan in 1988 on the Famicom (and later rereleased on the Virtual Console). It wasn’t however until September 10 2001 that the Western masses could taste the addiction that is classified as Advance Wars. Symptoms are insomnia, negligence of time and the tendency to cry “Just one more mission.”
Q: So you mean to tell me the game was released on the day before the attacks? Talk about bad timing.
A: Indeed it was, especially considering the game was about military armies invading other nations, even if it was depicted in a cartoony way. The consequence was that the European release got delayed until January 11 2002. Japan didn’t even get the game until 2004 as part of a Advance Wars 1+2 compilation.
Q: So how did we get the game if Japan got it years later?
A: Funny you should ask. Nintendo deemed the Wars series, and turn-based games in general, too sophisticated for Western audiences and initially didn’t plan to release Advance Wars abroad at all. It wasn’t until Makoto Shimojo, one of Intelligent Systems’ internal developers and later appointed as the graphic designer, and his fellow peers showed the game to the NoA marketing branch. They were perplexed of the addictive chess-like playability and convinced the higher-ups of Nintendo to release it abroad. If it wasn’t for them, later instalments and another series, Fire Emblem, wouldn’t have been considered for localisation. Advance Wars paved the way.
Q: What makes Advance Wars so brilliant then?
A: Frome EDGE magazine: “Advance Wars beautifully encapsulates the essence of the TBS, and in so doing removes any of the peripheral complexity that can unnecessarily bog down more expansive titles. There are still enough variables to contend with, but play remains engagingly fluid. [...] In short, Advance Wars is supremely entertaining. Each battle is a tense, yet fascinating affair, as the balance of power ebbs and flows, gradually shifting towards the eventual victor. It has all the frenzied addiction of a puzzle game, and is as enthralling as a good book. This is the game GBA was made for.”
Q: That sounds fantastic, but I’m new to Advance Wars. Which game should I start with?
A: There isn’t a consensus as all of them are superb. I’d personally start with the original Advance Wars, since it is the classic that started it all. The simplicity actually makes it a bit tougher for those who like a challenge, since there are few things that can be abused unlike the sequels. As many features as they have, they feel more like extensions of existing gameplay rather than solid improvements. Like giving a Rook rocket boots. If you only own a DSi XL or 3DS, you can't go wrong with Dual Strike and Days of Ruin though. If you’re lucky, and in the possession of a 3DS, Nintendo may just release the original Advance Wars on the 3DS Virtual Console. They really should as it's the best series to exclusively appear on a handheld.
Q: Aren't you exaggerating a bit?
A: Well, I am Intelligent Systems' whore.
Q: Who is really the most broken CO?
A: Some say it's Sturm, Colin, Grit or Hachi. The truth is the only CO who has been banned in multiplayer by Nintendo is Caulder (Stolos in the EU version) who heals 5 points to all his units every turn. While Sturm wasn't playable in the War Room in AW1, he was playable in multiplayer due to much fairer abilities. In the campaign he had 120/80 offense/defence, but in multiplayer they changed it to 80/120 offense/defence and a much weaker Meteor Storm. It didn't frustrate players until Black Hole Rising came along, granting him 120/120 offense/defence and a CO Power that worked exactly like in the campaign.
Q: What’s next?
A: Hopefully, Intelligent Systems can find the time to develop another addictive instalment. Rumours say Nintendo is going to announce a bunch of new 3DS titles next Monday, one reportedly being developed by Intelligent Systems. The jury is still out whether it’s Advance Wars, Fire Emblem, WarioWare or something entirely different.
Did you know
- That the Japanese version has different CO appearances? Nell wears a sleeveless uniform, Kanbei wears a traditional samurai armour, Olaf shows a white beard with red clothing, to name a few.
- That Grit is called Billy and Sturm is called Herr Böse (Mr. Evil in German) in the Japanese version?
- That Sturm is a close relative to the Snifit from Super Mario Bros. 2 and Yoshi’s Island? And that he was so ashamed of his heritage that he changed his appearance to resemble Darth Vader in Black Hole Rising?
- That a number of maps in the War Room are recycled from older Wars games?
- That the nations of Wars World are loosely based on real-world nations: Orange Star (USA), Blue Moon (Russia), Yellow Comet (Japan) and Green Earth (Western Europe)? Fans speculate Eagle is German, Drake is British, Jess is French and Javier is Spanish.
- That the European version of Days of Ruin is called Dark Conflict and has a localisation that is more faithful to the Japanese script? Brenner is called O’Brian, Gage Trak, Forsythe Carter, Greyfield Sigismundo, Tabitha Larissa, Caulder Stolos.
- That Advance Wars is first on the GBA all-time list on GameRankings, scoring an average rating of 92.68 based on 41 publications, and seventh on the 2001 release year, ahead of Devil May Cry, Final Fantasy X and Super Smash Bros. Melee?
- That Advance Wars is fifth on the GBA all-time list on Metacritic, scoring an average rating of 92 based on 28 publications, ahead of SMA2: Super Mario World and SMA3: Yoshi’s Island?
- That the publication that gave the worst rating is EGM who gave it a 7.33? From their October 2001 issue: “I never had so much fun NOT playing a game. You see, whether you share one GBA or link several up, you don't get to do anything when it's not your turn.”
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Wikipedia
GameRankings
Metacritic
The Making Of: Advance Wars
Let’s Play: Advance Wars
Let’s Play: Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising
GameRankings - Video Game Vault: Advance Wars
Skirmish Wars: A Free Board Game based on Advance Wars
Advance Wars By Web: An Online Simulator
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That Hard Campaign Clear screenshot shows Jess. She wasn't in the first Advance Wars. I must therefore doubt your entire story.
The web version you have listed was great. I played it for a while with buddies.
It felt like playing chess via mail. I could just hop online between (or during) class and make a quick move or two.
Chen's OP also deserves a court martial for not mentioning the best fucking part of Advance Wars: the music.
Might even be worth trying to play it.
DoR was still great though, but boy did I miss the war room.
Days of Ruin was meh..did not finish it.
Anyway, despite being absolutely horrible at strategy games, I love this series to death. I really need to play Dual Strike again these days.
Dual Strike is my favorite though. My vote for best DS game ever.
Strum Herr Böse Nazi Alf Lord Sniffit Sturm > all > Von Bolt
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That's true but I'm sure most of us can separate the difference between cartoony-nintendo violence vs something like Modern Warfare. Definitely dodged a bullet though, fortunately enough for all of us fans of the series.
Edit: Personally, I think the Gamecube got it worse. It released on September 14th, 2001 in Japan. Imagine how that effected sales and perceptions.
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His CO Power was a lifesaver in a late game mission when I was able to just mortar the objective without having to face very many enemy troops
Dude, sometimes that was the only way to S rank missions. I more or less saw it as a puzzle element rather than a way to abuse. At least APCs could take a hit. They changed the priority to infantry in Black Hole Rising, which meant that more often than not your Survival rating tanked, because the enemy CO thought it's a good idea to fire all his/her artillery shells at footmen.
Fuck those infantry COs!
Goddamn, that was some good times.
here you go
In AW1, Sami doesn't have an instant capture building CO power and her infantry and mech are 120/100 as opposed to 130/100 in AW2. Her +1 movement on transport units is still a nice boon though, but if you've chosen Sami's route in the original every single time, you'd know the difficulty spike is much higher if you compare them to Andy's or Max's map. It's actually uncanny how much harder she has compared to the men.
If you want a CO who's been nerfed every single game after 1, call Max.
Days of Ruin has awesome music. The audio quality is pretty bad... I believe it's stored on the game card as 8-bit, 32KHz ADPCM, and there's no official soundtrack release. Such a damn shame.
Of course I played Hawke all the time because it's okay when I do it.
Hypothetical scenario: all your units are somehow 1HP, and all your opponent's 10HP. One turn later and your foe's HP are equal.
God damn how they butchered most of the COs' themes in dual strike.
Days of Ruin is probably my favorite one overall. I used the map editor to recreate a bunch of the maps from AW1. Spann Island is still one of my favorite maps to battle on.
Easy mode please, would like to not be stuck on the last level forever.