Advance Wars (2001)

So I recently finished Advance Wars on the GBA and it was AWESOME! It genuinely stumped me during certain missions which was great honestly. While the tutorial was a little long it did a good job of having some interesting levels often allowing the player to finish the tutorial their own way (by design). Every unit had it's strengths and weaknesses in a way that felt meaningful not just one unit being stronger than another. I've heard some compare it to Fire Emblem which I've been meaning to play sometime in the future. There were also a few optional levels depending on which CO you intended to use. Just a lot of fun, I feel like the multiplayer function has to be pretty fun which means maybe I'll pick up the Switch version at some point.

Overall a really fun gem on the GBA (and switch!) that I wish I'd grown up with.

Variety of armies, units, and maps. The graphics are nice, the music really catchy, and the gameplay fun.

I wish the game forced you to use certain armies instead of letting you choose. This way you have more situations to deal with.

About the difficulty, I think the game has a problem with this. The hardest levels consist of trying to survive the first days and then you can just destroy your enemy. It would be nice a better challenge in this aspect.

The game is a little short and the plot is just an excuse but still, a really enjoyable game.

Advance Wars is my second GBA game (its similiar to two old favs of mine Super Conflict and some bits visually look like Godzilla 2) The game wont blow anyone away these days, but it is arguably a very well made game. It looks great and sounds good on a GBA display (which imo is a real weaksauce display unfortunately and I found requires some kind of scanline shader on emulator to look right due to the text) and the game has a lot of replayability due to different player characters, unlockable maps, and multiplayer mode. It is a great pick up and play game that has an unusual amount of mileage for a handheld, impressive.

Game itself is very piecemeal turn based strategy (or tactics) that revolves around pros and cons of different individual units. the goal is to capture an enemy base for a quick win or kill the enemy units. It's fairly easy to pick up (but i've played many games that operate on the same principles) and a very mechanical kind of play. Its not boring as its easy to slip up and get trounced. A few things can mix it up and add random elements. But it has a kind of balance and elegance that I can appreciate having waded through many games in the genre. Aesthetics are nice and not really obnoxious. My only complaint is that the enemy AI never really makes 'mistakes.' It seems that if they do something they will always do it in that situation. There are a few exploits perhaps but there are no true 'mistakes.' This can become a bit wearisome as you struggle to just not fudge things and get steamrolled as you slowly advance to victory. but that's the way 98% of every TBT game i've played is. This has to be the best game in it's class i've played and the only thing that might compare is Langrisser (despite it's differences) Few games can match Advance Wars sense of balance and condensed minimal elegance.

having read that the same developer made fire emblem It gets a bit higher priority now as I'd be curious to see something like this in an RPG-like context.

1001 Games - #488

Pros: well-balanced units & COs, head-to-head multiplayer fits perfectly, map editor allows endless customization, comprehensive tutorial

Cons: lacks coherent plot, AI is overly predictable in some regards

Recommendation: Advance Wars is a very intelligently designed game. No CO is objectively better than others (unlike in the sequels) and no unit is particularily unfair. The real highlight is the multiplayer mode, which has a wide variety of pre-made maps, and a map editor to boot. The AI acts predictably in certain situations and can thus be exploited, though this arguably makes unfair situations winnable. While Advance Wars probably deserves a full 5 stars ( and is a more fairly balanced game), I grew up on its sequels so the game feels a bit barebones in comparison.