"Depth..."

Advance Wars is a marvelous gem that came out for the Game Boy Advance it it's early months, I guess you could say. The game was unlike any other games that have been seen in America, seeing as only Japan and other countries in the Far East have been able to get their hands on the 'Advance Wars' series. Advance Wars is actually a sequel to the best selling games in Japan, and, judging by how good this game is, I can't wait for the sequel to this. Advance Wars was pretty much a stepping stone for the GBA to get across into the gaming world. It's quite obvious that a game isn't going to off on the right foot if it doesn't have good games to start, eh? Well, Advance Wars, along with Castlevania and a few others, were the building blocks to the GBA's early success, and current success. So, here we go.

-A rocket is launched far in the distance-

The gameplay of Advance Wars is quite obviously it's main haven. There's so many options, modes and battles that you can do, it's just tremendous. The gameplay of the game itself is actually more complex than more people would believe. This isn't exactly a RTS game, as most people are mislead into believing, but it's actually more of a strange chess game, just with more peices at your disposal. Actually, this game is nothing similar to an RTS game whatsover, as you have no workers mining resources, no people building resources, etc. I really can't describe the type of game that this actually is. Ok, enough with that. In Advance Wars, you can either play in the ''Campaign'' mode, which is basically the Story Mode, and you fight through quite a few different battles on your way to glory. There is also Vs. Mode and Battle Mode. In Vs. Mode, you can go against a few of your friends, toughing it out to see who the best player is. The cool thing about this is that you don't exactly need more than one Advance cartridge, but the game will get quite slow, considering you have to change hands with the GBA when it's someone else's turn. In Battle Mode, you get to fight in different islands in maps, against the computer. This adds to the replay value even more than it already is. That's, well, astounding. Enough with this, though, let's move on to the even more good stuff.

Once you get yourself situated with the Battle Mode or campaign mode or whatever you want to do first, you have to learn how to play the game. Simple? No. Fun? Very. There is another option ready for you off the bat, and you're going to get destroyed in the Campaign mode if you don't do it first, so, you know what to do. After learning all of the things involved, you'll become confused about what does what, because the units do so many different things, and there are so many different units. There is one good thing about the way the game was situated, seeing as you're only going to get the basic units to start out in the Campaign Mode, and as the Campaign gets harder, more costly and ultimately better units will be yours for the taking. For example, in the first level, the only units that're going to be open to you are the simple Foot Soldiers, which only shoot with their guns. There's the Mech Soldiers, who are much stronger than the normal Infantry, seeing as they can actually use Rocket Launchers against their stronger foes, and then there are the tanks. The Small and Medium tanks are your powerhouses of your ground attack force. The Small tank is more fuel-efficient, and can cover more ground in one turn more than the Medium Tank can, but it's going to be much weaker than the Medium Tank. The Medium Tank is going to eat up fuel like no other, and it's not going to move very far when you want it to, but it can tear through most any other ground unit in the game. Complex and deep enough? That's just the start. Some units can only attack certain other units, such as the Fighter plane, it can only attack other airplanes. You may see this as a downside at first, but you'll see that the ground units can't attack this unit, as well. That's not all of course, there are dozens of other units at your disposal. Not only are there ground and air units, but there are sea units as well. Imagine it, three different backgrounds for your attacks to take place, and about 10-15 different units per background. Nice. Not only are there hundreds of different combinations to attack and destroy your enemy with, but there are different people to do it with.

You see, each different army is commanded by a ''CO'' or, Commanding Officer. During the Campaign, you can choose which CO that you want to be, although your choice isn't going to be that widespread, because you haven't progressed all that far into the game. You can also use different CO's when you're in the Vs. and Battle Modes, which gives you a variety of armies and other things to base your attack on. Not only are there different CO's, but each CO comes with a different CO power. Each different power is unique to the CO and their respective army, and it is made to suit the CO's personality. For example, Andy is a well-balanced CO that you get in the beginning of the game, and can make it through most every mission with skill. His CO power, for example, restores two hit points to every single unit that you have in your arsenal. Then there's Max, who is a beast when it comes to attacking people, his CO power gives his ground units an extra edge in the battle field. Not only do the CO's come with different powers, but they come with different strengths and weaknesses altogether. You see, Max is strong when it comes to attacking people in close range combat, but when it comes to using long distance weapons, you're much better off saving those for later, because his long range weapons aren't as great as other characters. Then take Drake, who is great when it comes to naval combat, but when it's time to take it to the skies, you can take him down with relative ease. You can also unlock more CO's, to even add to your powerful army. You see, when you beat the campaign the very first time, you're given the option to go on a ''Special Campaign'' which is much harder than the first time. When you go through the Campaign the second time, you can get the opportunity to unlock more CO's, like I said earlier. Not only that, but as you gain coins (I'll explain later) You can even buy more CO's, which is much less strenuous than having to unlock them, don't ya think? This aspect of the game makes it even -deeper- than it already is.

Another aspect that is important for your success on the battlefield is that you can capture cities, airports, seaports and factories. To capture a city, you have to use one of your infantry units, and put them on the city, and simply select the ''Capture'' option, or whatever it is. Each building as a little status bar, which shows how many units you need to use to capture it. When you use a fully healed unit to use it, it will take two turns, because all of the buildings start out with 20 HP, or whatever you want to call it. But when your units have lost HP, it will take long to capture the city. When you capture cities, you gain more money each turn, depending on how many cities you actually have. Another upside to capturing cities, is that when a wounded unit of yours is injured, you can put them in your city. After each turn, the unit will gain more status, and more HP, making him good to go after a few turns. You can use this option as many times as you want, but it does cost money. When you capture an airport, you can begin to build air units there, and launch them into the battlefield. From seaports you can throw ships into the melee, and the factories produce ground units. If the city is already captured by the opponent, it doesn't make it any harder to capture it. You know you've captured it when the building changes to your armies color.

There is also another aspect to launching an attack that you must also watch out for. Different areas of maps have different places where you're going to have an easier/harder ability to hit the opponent. For example, when your units are atop a mountain (where tanks can't go) they can hit units on the ground much easier and more effectively than if they were on the same plane as them. Also, when your units are in forests, they have more cover altogether. They have no shooting advantages whatsoever to shooting, but the opponent will have a harder time hitting them. That also applies to when you're in a city, and whether it's captured or not, does not apply. There's also a downside to launching attacks near a river or coastline. You see, when you're attacking from a riverbed, you're lower than the opponent, ultimately making it harder for you to hit them. That makes it easier for them to hit you, and you're more vulnerable. So, watch out for where you're launching your attacks from, because they can make or break a whole war. You also have to prepare for some different whether elements, because, at random points in the game it can start raining or snowing, making it harder for your opponents to move, and making it easier for other opponents to move. For example, the CO Olaf's CO power is actually to cause snow to fall from the sky. This works to his advantage because his troops are immune to snow, and yours, well, aren't. This can make or break an attack on your side, as well.

When you're going along in the Campaign, and you manage to win a battle, you're going to get coins to your credit. The coins allow you to buy different Vs. maps, CO's and many other things. Not only that, but as your experience and skill level rises, and the amount of coins heighten, you're going to gradually get upgraded in your army. You see, as you get better, you get different medals to signify your skill on the battlefield. You start at 99, and when you finally get to one, you can consider yourself a master of this game. But don't be fooled, it'll take you awhile to do so. Also, each time you win a battle, you get graded on how well your performance was. You'll get graded on power, strategy, and a variety of others. Those are going to be added together, and you're going to get one final grade, an 'E' through an 'S'. E's are the worst things you can possibly get, meaning you just barely got past that level, and you're lucky. 'S' means you completely dominated that level, and did pretty much nothing wrong throughout it. Depending on your grade, you're going to get a different amount of coins.

Overall, the gameplay of the game is terrific, and quite easy to learn. Once you get past the complexity of it, though, it's going to take you months and months to master, especially with the many different options, modes of gameplay, and other things that might take you time to overpower and defeat.

-You sure this isn't on the SNES?-

The graphics in this game are absolutely astounding for a hand-held game. Yes, I know it's on the GBA, yes, I know the GBA has some good graphics, but they're better than some 2D games that are offered on the Playstation, if you ask me. When you start the game, you're thrown into a quite inviting title screen, and then an even more inviting menu. This will get you into the flow of how the game is, and get you prepared for war. The menus and out of battle aspects of the game aren't the only bright spots of the graphics, though, silly boy! When you start into a battle, you can see the units and the map brightly, but you're only going to see a section of the map that you're on, depending on the size of the place where the battle is taking place. The units of the game are -easily- distinguishable from the other units, and armies. For example, it may seem like it, but you're not going to confuse a normal infantry with a mech infantry, considering the Mech is going to have a huge Rocket Launcher heaved on his shoulder. Also, the small tank is going to look relatively small, and it's going to be shadowed by the large size of the Medium Tank. The backgrounds of the game (air, sea and ground) are spectacular. The ground looks grassy and dirty in certain areas, and the water has good wavy textures, and is very detailed. The air is the least detailed of the three, as you can only see a few clouds as the plane flies by, but that takes nothing away. When your units are fighting it out atop a mountain or in the forests, you can see the units pointing their guns down, as they should, which is also very detailed. When your units are in the water, they will be laying down, which shows the difficulty of shooting the opponents from the deep trenches, obviously leaving you more vulnerable, as I explained earlier. The battle animations in the game are a major plus, because each one is funny and unique, depending on which units attack which. When a unit like infantry is destroyed, they will go hilariously flying off the screen, and when a unit like a tank is destroyed, an explosion will occur. When a unit altogether is destroyed, it takes you to the main map, and shows the large unit blow up. Also, when a CO's army is attacked, he will make some hilarious face, as if he is constipated, and the other one will squeal in joy. When it starts raining, which it occasionally does, you will see both raindrops hitting in the main map, and in the battle animations. And when it snows, you can see it snowing, and in the battle animations, you can see snow falling, and snow will be covering parts of the road, and other areas in the background. Nice details.

Overall, the graphics in this game are very good, and are some of the best GBA graphics I have ever seen. Ever. As I said earlier, the graphics are better than some 2D Playstation games. That may not be saying a lot, but it's still a fact, and a nice fact, at that.

-Symphony Orchestra? No. Good? Sure.-

Then there's the sound of this game. The sound, by my rubric, involves both the music and sound, so strap in, and prepare for the turbulance. The music in the game varies on which CO you choose, as each and every one of them has a different tune to go with their personality. Andy has a strange tune, and it's the main tune of the game, considering he's pretty much the main character. Grit is somewhat of a hick, and he acts like it throughout the game, so when you pick his music, it'll be something similar to the country songs played these days - No offense to people who listen to country, haha - Back on track, each CO has a cool tune to go with them, and I don't find any of them annoying, actually. The sound of the game is pretty much different for each category of unit, but only the ground units really make much of a sound to be noted. The ground units that ''roll'' (tanks, scouts, etc.) make a strange, robotic, rolling sound, and that signifies them quite well, now that I think about it. When guns are shot, you can here the bullets connect, and things like that. The Rockets, when fired, create a rocket sound, and they make a large explosion when they connect with their target. When the tanks come into battle, they use different attacks depending on which opponent they're against. If they're against a weaker opponent, such as the infantry, they will use their machine guns, and they will sound like machine guns. When they use their rockets, I guess you could say, they sound strange coming out of the opening in where they come out, but they're going to create the regular explosion sound that is created when all missile attacks hit their target. Generally, all of the attacks are going to have somewhat similar sounds, but not so similar that there's no originality involved.

Overall, the sound in the game is quite good, and can be compared to other strategy games like this as...good. But how many are there?

-It's not Shakespeare-

The story. I don't exactly review many games with stories, and when I do, they don't exactly have a deep one, and not that I pay attention to them anyways. But this one is special, I guess, considering you're nearly forced to follow the story in Campaign mode. It's quite a simple story, actually, and easy to follow. The Orange Star army and the armies surrounding them have been having an era of peace. But something goes corrupt, another army has been attacked, but by Orange Star? They say Andy was the leader of it, but Andy denies it, considering he didn't do it in the first place. You take the role of the leader of the Orange Star army, (you aren't the CO, though) and you have to solve this mystery, by defeating hordes of armies, and on your way to finding your mystery foe. But once you do find him, he's nothing you'd expect...

-No spoilers, haha-

Good Points

+ Many units
+ Many CO's
+ The depth, and the ability to attack in so many ways. It's just...astounding
+ The ability to be measured by grades, and move up in ranks
+ Graphics are detailed
+ Sound is somewhat detailed
+ There's a trace of a story

Bad Points

+ Sound can be quite bland
+ It ends

Gameplay: 10
Graphics: 9
Sound: 8
Story: 8

Overall: 9

Good day.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/29/02, Updated 02/08/03