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I had heard Advance Wars was a very enjoyable strategy game so I wanted to try it out for myself. I enjoyed the first 25 missions, then I saw a pattern, and that was the pattern of a strategy game getting monotonous, as many other strategy games have done. These include Warcraft 2's expansion, Tetris Blast, and a few others. It's not that strategy games aren't cool, it's not that I am bad at them, I'm decent. I liked FF Tactics, a lot, tried to beat it 2 or 3 times in fact. This game was just not as good as that one for various reasons.
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Graphics and Sound
The graphics were so-so, and the sound ended up being muted after not too long at all. I realize graphics aren't important in strategy games, but I just thought it should be noted that nobody exactly stayed up late at night making sure you could tell the difference between infantry and mech units even in sub-standard lighting conditions. However, it should also be noted that you can have as many moving and fully-animated units on the screen at once, never slowing it down a notch, which is impressive as it no doubt gets to be quite a strain on the GBA, pushing the hardware to it’s own limits. The battle music could have been so much better, it's one of those things that’s decent in the beginning, but it can get way too repetitive. The sound effects during battles were just fine and well appreciated. Once out of actual battling and back through the menus, all the character’s pictures and profiles appear in above-average resolution.
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Gameplay
They did a good job in introducing you to all the units, how the terrain and climate affect battle, and many of the other basic gameplay mechanics. This game probably uses every single feature you could ever find in a strategy game. You name it, it’s a factor in the battle, and whether that’s good for you or just plain overwhelming, is up to you. It was a little hard not to learn it all by heart after the many training missions you're forced to go through before you can even play the actual game. Once in the game you eventually have the option to play as one of 3 different commanders, all with slight differences, strengths, and weaknesses in battle. Before and after every battle you'll be treated with a little dialogue, mostly corny jokes and "plot twists" that don't really have an effect on you since the plot was hardly developed in the first place. Sometimes there's seriously no reason to fight at all, the characters in the game are even like "Until Sami gets back we might as well have another crack at the Orange Star navy!" when the last battle was fought for the sole purpose of proving to the Orange Star navy that there was no reason for fighting. These battles last anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour. I hardly have 10 minutes I feel like wasting on a battle I'm going to have to repeat 3 more times against the same army saying the same things just to move on and fight a different colored army. It's like Space Invaders with tanks and bombers, except it can be even more monotonous. Although enjoyable at first and featuring deep gamplay, I did not enjoy playing Advance Wars very much.
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Replayability
The game offers many options for replayability. In addition to the many normal levels and training missions to play through, there are extra battle maps to mess around on. You can also replay any of your old missions, plus at the end of every mission you can earn coins and improve your own personal rank, depending on how well you did (judged on speed, technique, and power). These coins can later be spent on even more battle maps, many more. If for some reason you get bored after going through all this game has to offer, ladies and gentlemen, a multiplayer mode. You can link up, and play your friend on any map you currently own, any of your friend’s maps, and for the icing on the cake, you can design up to 3 of your very own maps and play against a friend on those.
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Overall
I'm not a big fan of Advance Wars, but I know a lot of people who would fall straight into love with it, and play it probably for years and years to come. So, despite my own personal bias, I have to come to peace with this game to give it a fair score, and set aside our differences.
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