"A new kind of strategy tactics game, and a classic."

Advance Wars is a strategy tactics game by Intelligent Systems. It is the first tactics game in years to combine World War II warfare with a simple and easy to learn gameplay system. It has opened a new kind of style and story line for the tactical war genre.

Gameplay

The gameplay operates on a ‘right tool for the job’ system, where each unit is strong versus some units, and weak versus other units. The anti-air is good against air units, but is weak against stronger ground units like the tank and mid tank. The bomber is good against ground units, but cannot even retaliate against a fighter jet. There is no unit customization, item use, classes, or any special unit types at all. This eliminates organization and unit micro management in favor of straight out combat. The player can also collect money from cities and build units from various factories, air ports, and sea ports. Depending on whether you can build units, the challenge of the level varies considerably.

The main feature of the game, Campaign Mode, faces the player with a series of levels following a story line progression. The campaign maps are analogous to puzzles, with a single solution that the player must figure out in order to complete the level with the highest score. After completing Campaign Mode, players are allowed to access the real challenge of the game, Advance Campaign. In Advance Campaign, the players score is determined only by how fast they completed the level. By compressing time, the player is forced to use their units with maximum efficiency and tactical ability.

The scoring system in Campaign provides a great amount of flexibility, accommodating to players of all skill levels. The developers have carefully designed and tested each campaign level to reward the best possible effort with a perfect score, while allowing less skilled players to pass through the game at their own level of ability.

The amount of care put into each level to provide a challenging experience is amazing. Unlike most strategy tactics games, the levels have been designed intelligently and have all been tested to award the highest score for the best possible effort. I was continually impressed with the ways that the developers demanded more out of the player with every new map. Some of the levels reach the point of masterpieces, with three to four tactical situations at once and a challenge level sure to face up to even the greatest players. Other levels are merely clever and well thought out designs. Certainly the best level design in any strategy tactics World War II game.

The AI is dumb as a rock, it has very little intelligence. I’m not sure why the developers did this, other than to make the CPU act instantly rather than wait a few seconds thinking. Many of the early campaign levels are designed around the CO’s incompetence and obvious mistakes, and the final official excuse is that you, as an “advisor”, are able to focus on tactics while the CO battles (apparently, everybody else is just an army without a general). The developers expect the player to become intimately familiar with the many weaknesses of the AI, especially in order to finish some of the most difficult Advance Campaign levels. Even though the AI is used well in the game, it still needs major improvement.

The design maps feature is a welcome addition, and it extends the depth of the game to an amazing degree. I believe it could have been more robust, though. The system was not designed with player vs. CPU battles in mind, so the limitations there are the most severe. I would have liked to see variable map sizes, unit AI settings, reversing unit directions, options to hide the interface, and being able to check unit movement and attack range. For human multi player battles, though, the editor should be fine.

There is also a whole other multi player side to the game. The experience playing multi player games against humans is very different, although many of the same tactical abilities learned in campaign will help in multi player. The number of maps available to play in versus mode is staggering, and sure to keep players busy for as long as they want to play. The pre deployed maps are fun for a quick match, while some of the largest special and four player maps will last hours per game.

Related to versus mode is the War Room, a set of individual maps where the player and CPU face off. Both sides start off from scratch with no units, although the CPU almost always has the upper hand. All of the levels have tactical solutions that must be executed quickly, and there is a score tally as well. This is just another long lasting addition to the game.

One of the largest shortcomings of the game is its inability to hold more than one in-battle campaign save at a time, or the ability to load a save in-battle, without having to exit the map. This is a feature that would have made the game much less tedious for players attempting to get high scores. The SRAM is the standard 64k size, which is unfortunately as big as a GBA cart can hold. Hopefully this technological roadblock can be overcome in future games.

Presentation, Style, Storyline

Strategy tactics games require a reason to get the player into a good number of military style battles. In order to accomplish this, the story line is often molded into a complex and heavy handed war narrative, with a gigantic cast filled with brooding characters, loyalty, villains, grand legends, and evil hordes of monsters to destroy. After Fire Emblem, games like the Ogre series and Final Fantasy Tactics follow this weary trend.

In contrast, the story of Advance Wars is relatively simple. You are an advisor to the Orange Star army, and are acting in self defense against the traitor Olaf. The story leads to a plot by (spoiler!). The stark simplicity of the plot helps cut down on the war angst, but the excuses for getting into military battles are still the same: an evil force or nation. The character driving the plot (spoiler!).

The characters are young, energetic, spirited, and competitive. They view war as a proving ground to test their adolescent skills. Andy has two giant wrenches to repair his (apparently) simple military equipment. Sami is wearing a small t-shirt, cargo pants, and a utility belt, as opposed to full scale commando gear. Her sniper rifle is the most graphic depiction of war machinery in the game. The characters are meant to represent simple parodies different countries, most obviously with Kanbei of “Yellow” Comet, a self-mockery of Japan’s imperial zealotry. All of the characters can be reduced to caricatures of some sort. The disturbing side effects of this kind of war plot are watching children partake in war as if it were a play time activity after crackers and juice.

The graphics are clean and uncluttered, and suit the light hearted mood of the game very well. The units have a white shine to them, like new toys. Infantry fly off the screen when killed, none of your units mind if you use them as cannon fodder. The COs gloat and pout when attacking one another. The military equipment is drawn in a cute cartoon-like style. The terrain looks like a kid’s playground, as opposed to the detailed and realistic look of the Fire Emblem series. The music and the sound effects are unremarkable. I found the music to be bland at best, and mostly awful and grating on my nerves. Thankfully there is an option to turn both the music and graphic animations off.

Intelligent Systems has fired the first shot in a new type of intelligent and challenging strategy tactics game. They have once again raised the bar for fun, complexity, and challenging map design in a tactics game. It is a classic, and Intelligent Systems is by no means finished creating excellent tactics games, along with their flagship Metroid, Fire Emblem, and Mario RPG series. For a relatively cheap $30 or less, the game offers the best value packed into a Game Boy Advance game available. 9 out of 10, for a few flaws.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/07/02, Updated 06/07/02