Ive been addicted to my emulator and playing classic games lately.
There’s nothing like that warm nostalgic feeling I get when I’m strategically moving in for the kill and ultimately the win in this turn based strategy war simulator for the GBA(Game Boy Advance). When it comes to this system a game like this really shines. I would definitely put it in my top ten.
The levels are reminiscent of a puzzle. It can be drudgery if you are like me and want to suffer through mistakes made and try to make the best of a game. The raw experience can make a single encounter last entirely too long sometimes 70+ days/turns is just too much(me complaining about choices I make SMH). Of course you can save before every move or whatever you want to do and if you dont like it you can always just restart where you last saved.
Its not often that I even get to complete an entire campaign mode but this game has a somewhat short campaign mode.Do not fear though because there is plenty of play potential in other game modes as well. If I knew how to, it would be fun to play with other people, but I seriously doubt people are still playing Advance Wars even though its a great game.
Really what turned me onto this game was the cover art right out it just appeals to my anime loving fanboy heart. Honestly I wouldn’t mind doing some fan-art myself.. and maybe I will.
The mechanics are really easy to understand. The tutorial is even something I enjoyed learning how to play the game which can be rare. The graphics are superb for the platform and are utilized to the specifications of the machines maximum capacity.
The characters are fun and energetic causing me to appreciate my own dull and lazy lifestyle of non-war activities. If only I were afforded the opportunity to lead the cries of many to their dastardly demise on the battlegrounds! Just playing Im an advocate for world peace. YUS! lets all hold hands and scream LOVE.
Anyways I dont want this to seem like a shitpost so heres some valuable information about my experience playing this game:
I’m still pumping hours into the game literally over 100 hours so far so you know its a worthy investment for you Retro Heads. You are employed by the Red Ribbon Army(this is actually false and I am just reverting to Dragon Ball knowledge) to be an advisor for the up and coming commander who happens to be a small child that goes by the name of Andy. Andy is the type of guy who likes to carry a wrench around and thinks its fun to fix damaged items.
The battle system is quite interesting and has a lot of potential for advancement and development if someone were to recreate or build off of this set up. All commanders are given the same units they can use or build. The commander in charge of the units has special traits that allows certain units to perform well or worse depending on the scenario. Take Andy for example; he possesses a special ability that heals/repairs all units for 2 points and gives them a small boost in their combat abilities for that turn. Other commanders has similar abilities that charge over time depending on moves made during turn.
My personal favorite commander comes from a small island and is quite special in many ways. Taking the initiative to attack first and ask questions later his most trusted council would turn out to be his young adolescent daughter who is much more skilled in the art of war. The island reminds me of Japan for some reason. Fighting this guy is hilarious because he is just terrible at everything even though he has clear advantages over your forces which aren’t even looking for a fight he attacks anyways.
The character animations for battle are really quite a trip. Assuming you don’t care about the lives of troops and machines created within the confines of a handheld video game you might get a kick out of the killing blow on an enemy troop as well.
Fog of war is something that I do think the game could have went into greater detail developing as there are only 2-3 units that can really see very far at all and on some missions that have fog of war its really annoying to be attacked from somewhere you cant even see and then have to deploy all you troops to or away from said area to root it out. Annoying as can be but its a process.
Overview
Advance Wars is like retro heaven. Its fun. Addictive. Handheld. You can emulate it on your phone FFS. The graphics are super cool cutting edge and the objective of the game is KILL. What more do you want from a turn based war simulator? Let me know! Alternatively if you would just love to play this game but dont own a GBA you can learn how to play it on your phone here How to Emulate GBA on Android.
leisureleague 