Advance Wars

Review - Top-notch turn-based fun with an anime-style. Nice.

Nintendo’s Advance Wars is something of a breath of fresh air to the Game Boy Advance; being the first of its kind (namely the turn-based strategy genre) to appear on Nintendo’s elongated Hand Held. The game sees you in the role of ‘Commanding Officer’, taking control of a particular faction as you wage war across a variety of diverse battlefields in a lengthy and impressive campaign (spanning 114 pre-designed battle fields, apparently). The game was released in Japan as Game Boy Wars; and the influence of our Pacific-based gaming chums can be seen in the imaginative and original gameplay; flavoured with a distinct anime style.

It’s an awful lot of fun too, you’ll be pleased to know, and the Japanese influence has resulted in a clarity and balance to the gameplay, which makes for a very addictive and rewarding experience. The new and varied battlefields assist this as well, as do the selection of units available.

The style of the game is also noteworthy; if only for it’s original and fresh appearance, being influenced heavily by anime, the units being very cute and cuddly in appearance (a bit like brightly coloured ‘Freds’ from the Home-Pride cooking sauce adverts, but with guns)– this colourful display makes for a pleasant change after the staleness of turn-based strategy titles prevalent on the PC platform.

The perfectly-balanced turn-based strategy gameplay makes for a highly absorbing and deep experience, which is addictive as well as rewarding; appealing to those that need a quick and involving fix, as well as those that come from the long-haul school of gaming. Fortunately, the incredibly detailed and well thought through training maps (the most involving I’ve ever encountered) enable you to learn how to battle the easy way, a nice touch given the immediately daunting nature of a turn-based style completely new to the GBA, and the surprising thing being that they are almost as much fun as the game itself. You also take your tuition from rather sexy Anime-style lass “Nell” who is Commander of the Orange Star army. Which some of you may enjoy…well, whatever turns you on, I suppose.