Before the system was release Advance Wars was a game that had me really interested. I was used to playing turn based role playing games and many variations on the formula at the time, and real time strategy games. Though a few had been released prior to Advance Wars I had not played them, and I didn’t know what to expect from a strictly turn based strategy title. What’s more is that this was developed by Nintendo’s Intelligent Systems branch and I was a big fan of them even then. I was legitimately surprised upon doing research about Advance Wars to learn that this wasn’t a new franchise. It began on the Famicom and had seen release on several of their systems up to this point but Nintendo didn’t think the gameplay would mesh with the North American market.
That’s why it was odd that they decided to finally release this installment outside of Japan, but what really convinced me to ask for it for Christmas that year was the glowing reviews it received from just about every news outlet. I have a lot of nostalgia for this game because I unwrapped it just a few days before my grandmother passed away. It was charming and addictive, and this really helped me cope with the loss. Until the sequel was released my brother and I would play the multiplayer mode religiously by passing the Game Boy Advance back and forth, and we found this to be the ultimate time waster. I haven’t returned to the original for years, and just recently had an urge to see if it holds up even despite several new installments having been released. Advance Wars still stands up, and is to this day one of the best games on all time regardless of platform.
Advance Wars takes place in an alternate anime inspired world consisting of various countries each of which is designated with a specific color. You begin by playing through a tutorial mode that you cannot totally skip (it’s kind of a bummer but there’s a lot of mechanics to learn here so it makes sense). You play as a general for the Orange Star army, and must face the commanding officers of Blue Moon, Green Star, and Yellow Comet. In between gameplay you’re given story segments which help to flesh out each of the characters and it really adds to the charm of it. There’s no deep and detailed scenario; it’s kept lighthearted as per Nintendo’s typical releases, but the characters are highly memorable and their interactions are often a hoot. Story isn’t the focus here, but it does a fantastic job of setting up each scenario, and the way this translates to gameplay is amazing.
Advance Wars is played from a slightly angled overhead view. In the beginning you and your opponents are given several different troops all of which have their strengths and weaknesses. You have everything from foot soldiers (which are weak but can capture cities, bases, ports, airports and headquarters) to tanks (they come in two power varieties) to ships (sea battles are among the most interesting in the game) and even planes (easily the most powerful of the bunch with the highest movement rates and cannot be targeted by many units). There are several other units that have unique functionality such as ranged attacks, transports to move specific units over certain terrain (you have helicopters and APCs that can move only mechs and infantry as well as ships that can move all land units) and even specific troops used to scout in fog of war situations (but more on that later). There’s a huge diversity in the number of troops you can have and I haven’t covered them all. The tutorials and campaign do a fantastic job of teaching you all of the nuances so as to make the mechanics super easy to learn.
As you advance (pun intended) in the campaign the game gets significantly more deep. Rather than being forced to play with only the units you’re given at the beginning of each stage you can eventually create your own units. Keep in mind that all of your units have ten hit points. When you attack an enemy unit you’re shown a percentage of health you will take off of the unit. Weakened units cause less damage but you at the cost of using up the units turn you can combine units if they are the same and are within movement range. Keep in mind that every time you attack the enemy unit will automatically counter which has a huge effect on your strategy. Anyway, as I already mentioned you can eventually create your own troops and at this point the strategy element is enhanced significantly. This comes at the cost of money with the more powerful units requiring more money.
Speaking of money, you earn a thousand dollars each round for every city, base, airport, and seaport that you control. In most maps there are several neutral versions of these areas that you can capture for the bonus each turn, and you can even take over those of the enemy to sway the flow of battle. Ground units can only be created on bases, airports create airplanes, and seaports create ships. You can only create one per turn, and if there’s a unit parked over it you and your opponent will be unable to make a new unit from it. As I mentioned earlier only infantry and mechs can capture any of these structures. They all have twenty capture points, and how much of the territory your unit can capture of it is based on their hit points. Best case scenario you’ll need only two turns to take control of a base, but if your infantry/mech has only one hit points it will take twenty turns. This system is awesome.
The strategic nuances here are crazy detailed and they take a while to get the hang of. Each unit has a specific movement rate over grassy plains and terrain such as forests slow them all down. Attacking from these forests (or from towns, bases, etc.) give you defensive bonuses which helps you to minimize the damage that they might take. Additionally you have mountains that only mechs and infantry can travel across, and they’re much better protected when attacking from these tiles. For ocean you only have beaches, water, and reefs. Land units can travel on beaches, but they’re stuck on land. Water has no defensive bonuses, but reef tiles do but they also slow down ship movement a bit. Aerial units get no bonuses regardless of the areas they’re flying over.
We also have weather which has a big effect on unit movement. Rain slows you down a bit, but snow is detrimental to traveling over vast maps for all of the units. These effects usually last a single round and for most maps are chosen at random. Fog of war is the biggest detriment because you can only see enemy units on squares that you have illuminated. This is the only real use of the recon unit because it has the farthest sight during fog of war, but land units hiding in forests cannot be seen unless you have a troop adjacent to it, and the same goes for ships on reefs. I’m not a huge fan of fog of war, but it definitely shakes things up on the maps that use it.
In addition to terrain effects and weather all of the COs you choose from have their own abilities that differ wildly. While Andy is an all rounder Max’s artillery such as tanks do more damage than the others, Sami’s foot soldiers are stronger and can capture cities faster and more. The enemy COs generally have a wider range of abilities (and they’re playable in multiplayer and specific single player missions). Kanbei is one of my favorites; his units cost more to produce but they’re automatically more powerful. Eagle has the strongest air units, and Drake creates the strongest ships. We also have CO powers that can be activated when you’ve taken enough damage, and these offer a variety of effects depending on the character. These include healing all of your units two hit points, causing an automatic rain storm, allowing all heavy artillery to take another turn, and more. These can easily be used to sway the flow of battle and are a pretty cool feature in my opinion.
What makes Advance Wars so incredible is its replay value. The main campaign is a lot of fun, and that in and of itself is worth the full price of this game. Where Advance Wars really shines is in the multiplayer modes. No features from the main game are cut out of this mode. You can use any CO, any unit, and maps are outfitted with all of the same terrain and options you would experience in the campaign. Of course you can link up with another player, but that requires two GBAs and a link cable. I’ve tried it out and it’s fun but you can’t get the full experience unless both players have the cartridge. Advance Wars supports pass and play gameplay which is the easiest way to play with a friend and this is what I’m most accustomed to. You can play with up to four friends, make your moves, and then pass to the next player. It sounds like something would be lost in translation in this mode but it’s very well done due to the turn based nature of this title.
You can choose from a variety of maps and unlock others (as well as other COs) by using coins earned in the single player campaign. The absolute best feature of multiplayer is the fact that you can even design your own maps. You can place any item of terrain, cities, bases, airports, seaports, and headquarters any where you please. When I first got this title I spent hours tinkering away just here. I would design the most frustrating maps and my brother and I would waste time on car rides trying to defeat the opponents in them. This feature makes Advance Wars almost infinitely replayable for me.
Advance Wars was one of the least visually appealing titles in the Game Boy Advance’s first year. Many developers were focused on making flashy titles taking advantage of the scaling, rotational, and mode 7 effects the system was capable of. This is not one of those games, and considering it came from Nintendo I was initially a little disappointed by the visuals. With that said once you really start playing you won’t even notice the simplistic graphics because they’re perfectly functional. You can tell units apart from each other easily, and the on-screen indicators showing how far you can move or a units range of attack are easy to read and thoughtfully produced. The interface is super easy to learn and understand even for new players. There are a few visual effects I really like here. First of all, whenever an attack is made we’re whisked away to a separate screen divided in half showing each force. The units are full of character and the attacks are animated pretty well. Secondly, I really like the character designs. These are incredibly charming and highly memorable. During the attack sequences you’re given a small view of your COs expression and these are surprisingly expressive despite only being two frames of animation.
The soundtrack is really upbeat and quite pleasant. I really like that each CO has their own theme, and most of them have the same flair of style which is awesome and only adds to their personality. The music is highly enjoyable, and though the same themes repeat often I’ve never grown bored with them. The sound effects are all quite realistic and sound great through the speakers despite the absence of voice samples (which developers were quite fond of adding into GBA games at the time.) The audio isn’t impressive technically but I’ve always loved it.
Nintendo took a real chance bringing Advance Wars over to Western audiences. I’m still confused as to why they thought we didn’t like turn based gameplay; Final Fantasy had already hit it huge. After completing Super Mario Advance, Mario Kart: Super Circuit, and Golden Sun this was the only game I returned to for years after its’ release. While sequels have came out since there’s some magic they weren’t able to re-create. Maybe it’s nostalgia, but I still argue to this day that Advance Wars is one of the most defining games for the system and everyone interested in retro gaming needs this in their collection.
