Topic: 7 years since the last Advance War game.

[Ymeegod]

Anybody else miss this series?   

[TOPHATANT123]

I am not familiar with the series at all, it's on the to-do list, but didn't days of ruin come out in 2008?

[ShyGuy]

I've never played one, is it RTS or turn based?

[Stratos]

It is a turn based game similar to Fire Emblem. Big difference is that you produce units and no unique characters to "level up". Units can gain experience to get minor boosts.


I really would think of it as a turn based RTS. I would love to get a new one.

[Ymeegod]

Yeah, the last one was 2008, my bad.

And it's turn based, Nintendo added Advanced Wars 2 to European WII U VC shop this month and I think I liked that one that best out of the ones that were localized anyhow.

[Shaymin]

Fixed that for you.

Is the first Advance Wars a good jumping in point? I'll throw it on my VC shopping list...

[Ymeegod]

And yeah gameplay wise it's similar to Fire Emblem without the RPG elements, instead you focus on strategy elements like getting resources (capturing buildings in this case) and building up your army of disposable units .

It's made by the same team (Intelligent Systems) that made Fire Emblem but don't expect a lot of story.  In the first two games the plot is pretty thin but it's makes up it with Japanese anime type humor/characters, in the last game Advance Wars: Days of Ruin the series took a much more serious tone which killed the game IMO--I prefer the first two DS games, Advance Wars 1 or 2.

You can get Advance Wars in the Eshop for $8.00 which isn't a bad game just a bit dated.

There's been four games released stateside:
Advance Wars (GBA)
Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising (GBA)
Advance Wars Dual Strike (DS)
Advance Wars: Days of Ruin (DS)

And you don't need to play them in order to understand the main plot.

[ShyGuy]

Where does the Wii game fit in? Battalion Wars?

[ejamer]

...
Is the first Advance Wars a good jumping in point? I'll throw it on my VC shopping list...

Yes, it's good. Actually one of my favorites because I feel it's better balanced than some of the later games and focuses less on crazy, over-powered commanding officer (CO) powers swinging the tide of battle.  Of course some people prefer having crazy effects in game, so this is just personal preference.

Where does the Wii game fit in? Battalion Wars?

The Battalion Wars games on Wii and GameCube are very different. They take the turn-based strategy with and overhead map and change it into kind of a third-person RTS.  You get a lot of similar vibes from the art design and overall feel of the game, but the details are so different that there is no meaningful comparison that can be drawn between games.


Battalion Wars 2 (or BWii, as it's sometimes known) was one of the first times I felt really disappointed with Nintendo's approach to online gaming. It's got a cool co-op mode possible, but with no voice chat to coordinate actions the strategy loses a lot of value. I was sure that Nintendo wouldn't make that mistake again though...
**looks at Splatoon, shakes head**

[Stratos]

Battalion Wars should really be viewed as it's own series. It allows you to become a "hero unit" and guide all of your troops in a 3rd person shooter framework. I feel BWii could have really turned into a great team-based 3rd person shooter on Wii U in Nintendo had allowed it to continue.


I liked Days of Ruin, though that was my first Advance Wars title, so I'm probably biased.


Honestly, I wish that we got a crossover between Fire Emblem and Advance Wars instead of the SM v FE. They could have done more to incorporate RPG leveling and let your army leader be an actual unit on the battlefield. Could have gone great in the steam punk setting for Project STEAM...too bad we wont see anything like that again from Nintendo again for a long time.

[ejamer]

...
Honestly, I wish that we got a crossover between Fire Emblem and Advance Wars instead of the SM v FE. They could have done more to incorporate RPG leveling and let your army leader be an actual unit on the battlefield. Could have gone great in the steam punk setting for Project STEAM...too bad we wont see anything like that again from Nintendo again for a long time.

I'm still super excited for the FExSM game, but what you suggest would make a lot of sense and could have been a lot of fun!

[Stratos]

I too am excited about the crossover. But it still seems like an odd blend of franchises. The fact that FE and AW are by the same studio and in the same sub-genre would make a more logical choice.