"Tactically sound, but it begs for more."

Welcome to the Orange Star Army, soldier! Your first mission isn’t going to be easy, but since you haven’t even proven yourself yet, you’ll get to go through training! However, we are sure you’ll be fine, so when you finish learning the basics, let’s get you out into the world to kill people!
Always wanted to take full control of an army without running any risk of actual death? You will absolutely love this game then, for it’s as strategically deep as you are willing to take it. Buckle up, though, because it isn’t all a joy ride. You might also want to familiarize yourself with the various save functions, because you’ll need them a lot.

First off, let’s take you through some basic training. That’s right, boys and girls, this game actually forces you to go through the training missions before unlocking the campaign mode, but in the end, it’s all good. You see, though the training might take a bit longer than you or I would wish, it does a darn good job introducing you to everything, and it does so at a pace that even my younger sister could pick up. If it’s any indication in itself, let me just say that I actually got to the point where I enjoyed the training missions themselves.

What is it about this game that I enjoyed so much? Perhaps it is the exact same thing that makes many hate the game: it places more value and importance on the actual missions and how the game plays than it does graphics and fancy features. Sure, this game is on the GBA, so how good could its graphics have been, right? In all honesty, it doesn’t matter, because there is no time when the graphics either detract or obscure what happens on screen. The gameplay itself won’t allow for such small contrivances to interfere.

Every mission is absolutely solid. You might not understand it the first time, and you surely won’t score perfects on every mission your first time through, but it’s such a challenge, and so much fun, that you will likely replay the missions just to do them better. I know I found myself doing that periodically, and I even diagramed out some missions on occasion purely to get that elusive S rank. Then, as if that wasn’t enough incentive to play your maps well, the generals you unlock can also depend on your performance. All this just draws you into the experience, and whether you think you will or not, you’ll end up addicted.

However, there are a few nagging complaints Advance Wars left me with. One of the more notable was that the musical scores for each battle were, bluntly, awful. It was as if they didn’t care to hire someone with talent to do the background music figuring that the gamers would be so entrenched in the missions themselves to notice. Luckily for you all, I noticed! I might just be biased, but I doubt it, and it’s proven that the GBA can pump out far superior music. The tracks were far too short, which meant you have to hear it over and over and over, especially on missions which can easily last up to half an hour if you’ve never played through it before. On some of the latter missions, even the most experienced players will still spend huge chunks of time just waiting and hating the background track.

This brings up another minor problem with this game. Once you really open up the maps and can see a lot of what’s going on, the game seems to slow down considerably. Troop movement is typically a time-consuming process in itself, but once you also have to account for the troop creation, battles, and movement of the icon across the screen, it can take up even more time. Then there come the strategic gridlock battles. We’re talking battles where you can easily spend an hour just trying to whittle away at ONE base your enemy controls, and it won’t even be easy. (because their stupid super-tank is impossibly perfect and refuses to die!) Still, this can be easily overlooked because, as I mentioned earlier, you really do get into the battles. It’s only when your friends and family start wondering where you disappeared to that you’ll realize just how many hours of your life you will never see again.

Advance Wars also tends to make you wish you could see through the color black. After only three or so missions, you will infinitely hate the cloud of war. It’s at about that time when you’re introduced to sniper tactics, you see, and moving just one unit into the wrong space will insure you certain destruction, and at least one ranking penalty. No mistakes in this game turn out cleanly. If it starts going badly, you’d better fix it soon, or you could lose before you think twice. This is one of the great challenges, though. If you don’t know the map, I constantly suggest that you save your game so that you can ‘replay’ your turns. Sure, this might sound a bit cheap, and it is, but at least that way you’re guaranteed the best possible outcome of your immediate actions. If you don’t want to do that, you really might consider mapping out battlefields and strategies. Even I did it, and my sole intention for the game was to play it casually. Hah, that turned out great, let me tell you... -_-‘’

As I have said, this game is incredibly addictive once you really get into it. Also let me note that ‘really getting into it’ might take you, oh, about the first 3 training missions. After a while, you get full control over your forces, and then you’re allowed to capture bases and create your own troops. It’s any strategist’s wet dream! You have to consciously think of how you’ll allot all your troops, and all your resources, to maximize your production and best defeat your enemies.

But wait, folks, there’s still more! This game is actually difficult! We are not talking one of those mock-tactics games where all you really need to do is just waltz over to your opponent before a grand melee battle ensues and, as always, you win. No, sorry, it’s far from it. In this game, you will have to learn and improve yourself and strategies, or you will lose. This is yet another reason I say to become VERY familiar with the save functions. ;)

No matter how impressive the gameplay is, though, the game does suffer at times, be it from slowness and a lack of graphical flair or a bit of stumbling about on maps, just trying to undo your most recent mistake and getting pummeled for it. Due to the somewhat clumsy layouts on a few maps, and the impossibly perfect positioning of enemy forces, you will very frequently get frustrated. Also, there are times when you just swear up and down that the stats for troops do not matter, like when one super-tank with almost no life left manages to destroy half your assault force. That really puts a damper on things, and it seems to happen a bit more frequently as the game progresses. Now I am definitely not one to say a game is too hard, but I will admit that this is NOT for everyone. You may get horribly frustrated, or just sick of the exhaustive battles, which really can drag out if you’re not sure where you’re going or how you will best get there. Still, the game offers enough variety in missions to make them all pretty enjoyable -- even the ones in the snow or rain.

Overall, the gameplay is excellent, and it requires as much truly tactical thinking as any game I’ve played of late. An outstanding score for this game would have pushed it much higher on my grading policy, but it unfortunately is what it is. When you consider how much thought goes into seemingly every aspect of every mission, you may get a bit overwhelmed. Let me assure you though: this game is worth every bit of it. Your major characters are pretty flat, and their personalities are a bit stereotyped, but that’s ok. It lends to the fun atmosphere of the game. It is also pretty amusing to see your generals fight amongst themselves, since you know they’d have to get your permission to do anything to begin with. Call it an ego, or a superiority complex, but I do love having supreme control in a war.

What the game lacks in graphical flair and sound are more than made up for with its incredible gameplay. It does seem to get a bit repetitive at times, and the lack of decent background music is an outright shame, but I just cannot get too upset with this game. Even though it was an early GBA release, it was and still is very popular. It came out of nowhere and shocked a whole lot of gamers, and not without good reason. Pick this game up if you’re a tactics freak like me, and I promise you won’t regret it.

Gameplay: 8/10
Graphics: 7/10
Sound: 6/10
Replay: 6/10

Overall: 7/10

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 03/29/03, Updated 03/29/03