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| Source // MobyGames |
Help. I started playing Advance Wars after lunch, and now four hours have gone by, and I'm still playing it. It's just... it's quite good this. Oh, when will I find the time to play this?
I had a Game Boy Advance. I waited until the SP model to get one, but I got one, and it was a great little handheld. Why I never picked up Advance Wars for it is anyone's guess because this cartoony turn-based tactics game has devoured my attention this afternoon. I guess I just had absolutely no knowledge about GBA games back in the day unless I knew I wanted to own something.
Well, now I only want to play Advance Wars. Why is that?
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| Source // MobyGames |
Fun Times
I'm going to start off this post by letting you know that I did have some three hours of Advance Wars footage recorded, ready to grab screenshots from, but for my own sanity, I decided to scrap all of that and just use stills from the Internet. I'd be taking screenshots of everything, and this page would never finish loading.
I thought about and then slapped together a video of a mission, but at 25 minutes, that was too long to even warrant an upload - you can YouTube this game yourselves, easily enough. What I really need to do is just stop and write something. So here we go.
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| Source // MobyGames |
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| Source // MobyGames |
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| Source // MobyGames |
Advance Wars is a turn-based tactical game that sees you command the forces of Orange Star, against whoever threatens our land. You do so through moving your units one by one around the map, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, speed and so on, and each tile of the map offers various levels of defensive protection, or movement difficulty for all these units to work around.
The very in-depth tutorial section sees a whole load of missions slowly introduce you to various unit types, from soldiers to tanks, to transport vehicles, to helicopters, to anti-air defences, to jets, bombers, battleships, submarines... the scale just keeps increasing, and everything is a joy to play with.
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| Source // MobyGames |
When a unit is close enough to a target, you can attack it, and since clearing the map of all the enemy forces is a sure-fire way to win, you'll be tactically attacking a great many times. Battles take into account the HP of the unit, its strengths, its defensive value if any... all kinds of factors are rolled into one very brief engagement which results in one or both units taking some damage.
On a level playing field, you'll pick off a few HP at most, but using a unit to its advantages can often see you wipe out a unit in just one attack. Keeping them tucked away in defensive positions, like cities and mountains, can keep them alive long enough to get that one more turn out of them that you desperately need.
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| Source // MobyGames |
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| Source // MobyGames |
The match-ups you can have vary in how sensible they are, but they all look incredible. This game is 18 years old and doesn't look it in any way. That's the power of pixel art, and I am engrossed by how simple - and yet detailed - Advance Wars looks, on every screen.
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| Source // MobyGames |
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| Source // MobyGames |
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| Source // MobyGames |
Missions take place on small maps - it's a GBA game, after all - but you'll be using every trick in the book to get a leg up on your opponent.
If you take control of towns, you can use them to gradually recover health, and refuel and resupply your vehicles. Take over an enemy town, and you deprive them of those facilities. Take over the enemy HQ, and you win outright, whether anyone is still alive or not. The way you approach each map is up to you, using all the tools you're given to put on a good show.
Troops can be loaded into APCs, APCs loaded onto boats, boats sailed around the coast to drop off the APC, so that it can drive closer to a town, dropping off its troops, who start taking over the town. In just a couple of turns, you could be deep into enemy territory before they notice.
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| Source // MobyGames |
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| Source // MobyGames |
You might make a foolish decision and watch unit after unit get wiped out, though, so you do have to play things to their strength. Artillery can be devastating, but needs protecting otherwise it'll get wiped out by seemingly insignificant units. Bombers can remove entire units from the game in a single attack but will run out of fuel if you keep them in the skies too long, and they don't glide back down to earth safely. Transport helicopters can ferry the slowest moving troops vast distances, but can't return fire and don't provide parachutes.
Everything needs to be taken into consideration, and what you thought was a short mission soon turns into a twenty-minute micro-war. And then you play for another 12 missions, and you wonder where the time went.
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| Source // MobyGames |
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| Source // MobyGames |
While I have gone through all of the Field Training mode, I've only touched a single mission of the campaign mode, and if and when I'm finished with that, there are other modes to keep your interest or let you battle against your friends. I've played for hours and hours, but I know there are still things I've not seen, and not been introduced to.
Some levels have a Fog of War mechanic, for example. Your opposition commander will have special powers, including changing the weather. I'm not sure how that's possible, but it means you move slower and have to change your plans until the sun comes out once more. Some of the training missions would fail if you lost a specific unit, so I'd imagine there is scope for victory or failure conditions that aren't 'destroy everything' or 'capture the HQ'.
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| Source // MobyGames |
Final Word
The number one thing that Advance Wars has in its favour is that it is such an accessible game. Pick a unit, move it, if it can do something else and you want it to, do the thing, then pick another unit and move them. When you think you're done, end your turn and see how your opponent responds.
It's all on a square grid, the essential numbers only go to 10, and it just makes sense. Of course hunkering down in a town will give me better defence. Of course there's no chance of a bomber being shot out of the sky with a rifle. Of course five tanks are going to be stronger than two. At no point do I recall something going wrong, and if it did, it was probably because I was an idiot for doing it in the first place, and not because the game screwed me over.
I don't even think it can screw you over. It seems so formulaic that I don't think there is any randomness at all. Doesn't that sound lovely? A tactical game with repeatable results. Love it.
Some of the character attitudes are a little out there. Well, most of them. As depictions of wars go, this is very much a game first, rather than a simulation detailing the harsh realities. I mean just look at it. Bombers would never get off the ground if they looked like that.
Advance Wars is simply fantastic. Presented with a more realistic style, it could be incredible. Now I imagine some kind of Faselei! Advance Wars crossover... No, I can't keep thinking about it. It'll only make me sad that it doesn't exist.
This game doesn't need me to tinker with it for my own satisfaction. It's already ridiculously playable and thoroughly enjoyable, and I'm delighted to learn that there are sequels to look into later too. I need to carve out some time for this one. It's just that good.
Fun Facts
The style, the choice of colours and the use of comedy in what is essentially a game about war are because of the target audience: young kids. Those who actually purchased the game were older teenagers, proving that the mechanics are solid for gamers of all ages to get behind.
Advance Wars, developed by Intelligent Systems, first released in 2001.
Version played: Game Boy Advance, 2001, via emulation.