So I’ve been advancing wars on my GameBoy and also on my DualScreen lately, having finished AW1 and 2. What a blast.
Dual Strike is such a hot mess though. Looking at the scaled to shit pixel art on the lower screen clashing with the pixel perfect pixel art on the second screen front, I wonder why. Why add this nonsense feature that is so inconsequential it almost makes me feel something. I wanna feel something.
Dual COs that are switched out every fucking round by the AI (not me, I don’t care) and trigger cutscenes and also trigger their abilities all the time just make me wait between turns and ask myself more whys. Especially on Dual Front stages where I need to wait for the inconsequentials to make their turn, and even more especially on stages with stage hazards that trigger every turn and make me wait some more.
I always turn off the battle animations in these games. And skip most of the dialogue. And feel good about it. Makes me ask less whys.
Still though. Why did they add so much more bullshit? Because they could? Thank god Days of Ruin threw it all away. And added some gritty setting that doesn’t clash so hard with the theme of killing hundreds or thousand or god knows how many in an act of anime war. Oh and the music slaps, I love it. I can’t even use some of the COs in Dual Strike because I can’t stand their tune.
That’s it for now? Next time I wanna talk something more positive about some actual Advance Wars clones. Maybe.
Anyone like Reboot camp? I don’t like remakes. They’re always worse.
Anyone like Wargroove? The sequel is out. I don’t have a Switch but I’ll try when I do.
Days of Ruin lacks a boy with a large spanner commanding war machines, and is another example of the grit and misery that trended pretty hard in that particular era of gaming
Groanworthiest thing about Days of Ruin was giving the arch-villains albinism. Like, come on. Second groanworthiest thing about Days of Ruin was most of the blue, green and yellow COs only having one emotion instead of a personality. Third groanworthiest thing was Isabelle not even getting to do anything in the actual story. Other than that, not bad game.
Super Famicom Wars is pretty dope. It’s just War Room stages and no story or characters like the original Famicom Wars, but otherwise all the good stuff from Advance Wars is already there. It’s almost like Thracia 776 already looking and playing like the GBA Fire Emblems that followed.
I haven’t really played the War Room in an Advance Wars game yet. Except the first stage. I found it quite interesting how it slighty differs from game to game, because of added units and even an added factory in Dual Strike.
I think you can insert the GBA games to play their War Room stages in Dual Strike? I feel like I could spend way too much time with this. Thank god I also don’t care too much atm but damn, is it a tempting waste of precious lifetime.
There’s also an online Advance Wars community that’s basically playing a homebrewed website version working in hot seat mode (or play by email?) that runs on AW2 rules with custom maps called Advance Wars By Web (AWBW). I don’t play multiplayer, but it sounds wild, I guess.
What’s the best pirate themed Advance Wars clone? Probably not Wargroove. Probably High Seize. Developed by the people who made Pathway to Glory. I played this on my N-Gage QD all the way through and was very engaged the whole time. It is good! IMO. It doesn’t have as many units or charm, but it works?
There’s some cool additions like a navigable map with random skirmishes, and while there’s only one CO you can level them up and choose one of three upgrade paths with different buffs for land or sea units.
In short, I just wanna say that I enjoyed this all the way through, what a hidden gem? Best N-Gage game maybe.
