Advance Wars: Dual Strike
| Format | DS |
|---|---|
| Year Released | 2005 |
| Publisher | Nintendo |
| Genre | Puzzle & Strategy |
| ESRB Age Rating | Everyone |
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TVG Rating: 9.2
User Reviews
Average User Rating: None
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Amazon.co.uk Review
The greatest strategy game in portable history maneuvers onto the DS with new units, new COs (commanding officers), new game modes and the most addictive gameplay this side of Tetris. It may not have much in the looks department but in gameplay terms this is the supermodel of turn-based combat.
The lowdown:
Mixing chess-like complexities with an anime plotline, Advance Wars is one of gaming?s most unlikely heroes. This marks the most significant overhaul of the series yet with six new units and dozens of new features, including a real-time mode. The stylus control and dual screen display are really just gimmicks though, and it?s the new dual strike attacks that are the most interesting idea, with COs double teaming for some battle turning super moves. COs can also gain "experience", as in a role-playing game, allowing you to fine tune your army?s abilities like never before.
Most exciting moment:
A tense four way battle against friends that ends in a double whammy duel strike from hell.
Since you ask:
The Advance Wars series has been going since 1988 in Japan, where it?s known as Famicom Wars. The first to make it to the UK was Advance Wars 1 on the GBA in 2002. Advanced or not, war has historically been viewed as a bad thing.
The bottom line:
The best DS game yet and probably the best Advance Wars ever. 
Harrison Dent
Amazon.co.uk Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 4.5
Advance Wars: Dual Strike
To me this is all a sequel should be and everything number two wasn't. What with new characters, new combat types and new vehicles it has plenty to keep you going.
There also seems to be more of a story to this one then the other two which to me is a good thing as there actually seems a reason to the fights now which before I found lacking. I did find though that around the 20 mark (can't remember which one exactly) the difficulty was hiked right up without warning. I really enjoyed the slow learning curve up till then but after starting to play the harder ones, it took away some of the fun factor. I thought they had learned from the previous ones about the difficulty level but soon found out how wrong I was.
The graphics while simple at times, show all they need to show and at no point do you ever think about wanting more.
The music I found a little repetitive at times so would often just turn it down if it started to get on my nerves too much but as far as combat sounds, there's nothing quite like hearing the explosion of one of your enemies tanks (especially the mega tanks) after spending turn after turn pounding away. Same thing applies to capturing their HQ.
As for controls you can either use the touch screen to get around or the buttons (which I ended up using) so fits all types of gamers really. Easy to get to grips with it but it's the timing of attacking and knowing what to attack with that is the hard bit to master.
The Campaign took me just under 20 hours to complete but there is plenty of replayability to the game as you can try and get the top rank throughout the game, play in multiplayer, play against the computer with predesigned maps and the list just goes on.
Overall, the first one in the series was in the top ten of my games played but although this one has it's faults, it's improving and I think it's just nicked the first ones spot now just when I go back to remembering about this game I'll try and forget about the levels after the 20 mark.
Rating: 5 Buy from amazon.co.uk
Persistence rewarded by perfectly balanced gameplay
This game sat in my DS case for quite a while after I bought it. Played it a few times on a long-haul flight, made my way through the early training missions, and sort of tired of it. The game is packed with layers to take on board, and unpeels them like an onion at quite a pace. First you're faced with a large range of vehicles to choose from, each with movement range, firing range, firepower and defence, and each with one or two weapons that fare better or worse against different targets. But then almost immediately the game introduces you to terrain, CO strengths and weaknesses, CO powers, vision in fog of war and then eventually combat by sea and air. And then you fight two battlefronts at once using the dual screen. It's quite intimidating but mainly I just wasn't enjoying it very much.
And then something clicked. I returned to it months later and started from mission 1 again. Equipped with a bit of an understanding of what was coming I was no longer on the back foot, learning through mistakes, and was forming strategies and adapting to changing battle conditions. I was picking the right CO for the job, and taking advantage of the weaknesses of my opponent, setting traps, withdrawing troops to recover and battling on multiple fronts. Winning a battle map by land-based conquest and then immediately starting it again with a different CO to see if I could conquer by sea.
This is one of the greatest games I've played on any format, hand-held or otherwise. It has hooks in all the places to draw you in to a quick skirmish or sustain your attention for a massive four-hour battle with multiple opponents. Having made the mistake of attempting one or two of the more difficult maps, only to find myself rapidly and painfully wiped from the field, I am sure that after 60+ hours of gameplay I am far from beating this game. What's amazing is I'm also far from bored with it. It's a measure of incredibly well-balanced gameplay. Victory is never easy but always just about within grasp, and is therefore satifying as a result. And those little XP abilities you unlock as you go, as well as a massive number of battle maps and gameplay modes, keep you playing and honing your game.
Particularly good for those who do a lot of travelling, whether long-haul or just a daily commute.
But yes, you will need a little patience to penetrate it's tough shell.
Rating: 5 Buy from amazon.co.uk
A Good Game, Especially Multiplayer
a good game to while away the hours, and you cna play wit up to 3 friends with one DS brilliant, i recommened it
Rating: 4 Buy from amazon.co.uk
I keep coming back.
I'll keep this short. I heard many good things about the prequels on the GBA, but dismissed them as I don't like strategy games. But when offered this for a measly ten pounds from a friend I thought 'What the hell' and bought it.
It's addictive, deep, and oh so much of a joy to play. It is very challening and requires you to develop a strategy but it really is worth your time even if you don't usually like these games. Battles can be very long but there is no time limit so you can take as long as you like, perfect for when you are half watching TV, half playing the game! you can even save mid-battle if needs be.
Believe the hype, believe the reviews, its fantastic.
Rating: 5 Buy from amazon.co.uk
Very hard...
I bought this game as I've read many reviews on Amazon and elsewhere hailing it as one of the best titles available on the Nintendo DS.
The game is a stategy game along similar lines to Command and Conquer. In essence you control a turn-based army including units such as tanks, bazooka teams, mobile howitzers, helicopers, jets etc. Your objective is to capture buildings to gain 'money' then use this money to build tanks, planes etc then attack your enemy until either their entire army has been vanquished or you capture their HQ.
This is all well and good and the gameplay is involving and challenging, unfortunately this is my first gripe: in my humble opinion it is far TOO challenging. There are supposedly 300 missions in total. I reached level 13 then got totally stumped. The game is very VERY hard to play after the first few missions, you don't get anywhere near enough money to begin with and before you have a chance to build up a decent army to fight with the AI (which has alot more money available to build units at the beginning and builds them much faster) moves in and crushes your feeble defences. Some of the Commanding Officer characters which are supposedly able to command tank units and entire fleets of ships and aircraft are all about 13 years old and use stupid phrashes such as "'Sup?" and "Word!" they talk endlessly about rubbish and their 'helpful' info about playing the game is about as useful as a chocolate teapot.
The two most infuriating things are: Unless you attempt to complete a battle in exactly the way the game wants you too its almost impossible to finish the battle and you have to start all over again which after fighting intensely for over after 2 hours is so annoying it makes you want to throw the DS out the window. Also if you find the game too hard to play (and you will) there is no difficulty setting available to make it a bit easier.
The only reason I haven't given this game 1 star is because there are some plus sides. The graphics are good and the gameplay (at least in the early stages) is fun and does keep you occupied for hours however as I've said it does get very hard, very fast and although I like a challenge as much as anyone else it goes beyond being a challenge and makes you want to break something!
All in all I am very disappointed and learned the valuable lesson of not listening to hype before buying computer games.
Rating: 2 Buy from amazon.co.uk
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