I'm a professional game designer, and this series of games is just beautifully designed, perhaps the peak of turn-based combat with its own fantasy story but a great tie-in to real world military units, roughly from WW2 to the 1960's. The opponent AI is best of class in this particular final version "Days of Ruin", the enemies are much more challenging than in previous versions.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
They took away all the charm and fun from Advance Wars in this one. They even made the game mechanics slightly worse. Decent storyline.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
Proving that change can be quite good, Nintendo's long running portable turn-based strategy series Advance Wars gets a fresh coat of paint with Advance Wars: Days of Ruin. Taking a more mature themed storyline, Advance Wars: Days of Ruin still features pretty much the same tried and true gameplay that fans of the series will come to expect and will be quite easy for them to pick up and play. Besides a more mature themed storyline, Days of Ruin also features a more comic-style artistic design scheme and a less cartoony feel to it as well, making it a pleasure to look at as well as play. Sadly, the Shop that was in previous installments of the series has been done away with, but what we get instead is some spectacular multiplayer and Wi-Fi options that only up the replay value even more so than ever before. The single player mode, which has been shortened when compared to Dual Strike, is still great as well, but the multiplayer options are where the most fun is to be had. While there's really nothing new in terms of the overall gameplay mechanics of Advance Wars, Days of Ruin remains a spectacular strategy game that delivers on all fronts. All in all, fans of the Advance Wars series will should cry with joy once they pop in Advance Wars: Days of Ruin, which is undoubtedly one of the best installments in the series, and one of the best strategy games and multiplayer experiences you'll have on your DS.Read full review
The Advance Wars series is a fantastic game. If you enjoy turn-based strategic games, it offers hundreds of hours of depth. It is also the kind of game you can play while being distracted because you can look away from the screen at any time and not lose a life or take any other game consequences. Days of Ruin added experience levels for each unit. New unites include motorcycles for faster movement to capture cities, Flares to reveal terrain in fog, the anti-tank, Dusters, Seaplanes, and Gunboats. Improved units include battleships that can move and fire, and the Rig which can build temporary bases (formerly APC). Finally, there are a host of new bosses and abilities, plus all the missions are new.
I was skeptic about this game since the entire cast was replaced from the hit Advance Wars series. We all came to love the old casts of heroes and villains. So I started playing this game thinking that it won't be that engaging. Was I wrong! It's got great graphics - no more "cartoonish" looking characters. All the sprites, artwork, etc. have been updated and looked great on the DS. It has a very engaging story line. And the villains...let's say that they really are "villains". You'll have fun clobbering them (and be challegned at the same time). There are some features missing from the game like "Battle Maps" which makes the game a little shorter (timewise) compared to the predecessors but it's fun nonetheless. It's a must for the fans of the series. Even if you're not a fan, it would be a great addition to your collection of DS games. And you won't be disappointed.Read full review
Be sure to turn off the animation or this game will take forever. Even with it off, this game easily kept my interest for hours in the triple digits. Appeals to my board game-playing left brain, as well as my sense of style. I particularly love the HP system. In many games, the flurry of astronomical numbers on the screen causes them to lose their meaning. In Advance Wars, however, the designers sleekly restrain all units to 10 HP, and keep a nice balance of power between the different units. Also, in most programs and games where a large amount of data is available, much of it turns out to be superfluous. But in Advance Wars, every bit of information comes in handy at some point. Minor complaints: the music isn't worth listening to much of, especially with some battles taking a few hours, so I turn the volume off. However, I miss some tips that way during "Fog of War", when the enemy is largely invisible, because you can still learn which units they have by their sound effects. Also, I eventually found that a similar strategy works too often, and the game lost some interest when I continued to resort to it: grab territory and keep it long enough to get rockets, then keep building them while pushing the enemy back. This is a slow strategy, but much of the time will win. I ended up spending too much time checking the range of the enemy and creeping to the edge of it. Of course, the fun begins when you invade and begin the pounding. This game is a solid purchase.Read full review
Many of the reviews that I read about this game compare it to the earlier incarnations of AW, but I do not have much experience in that arena, because this is my first game in the series (I have since bought Dual Strike, which is also a fantastic game). If you are a fan of the Empire Deluxe series of games for the PC, then you should like this game (and also Dual Strike) a lot. The mechanics of the game are much the same. The addicting "one more turn" aspect is also there! Another great feature is the map editor. Even though there are a lot of great maps that come with the game, it is so nice to be able to make my own. I am very happy with my purchase.
Product came at the right time and was in great shape. The game is the same that I remember back in the day when I had my old copy of it and it work really well
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
This is a review for the advance wars vet so you newbies won't understand. I like how they completely went a different route with the story and it's not so cartoony anymore and they added gunboats, propeller planes and an even bigger tank and anti tank. New content is always welcome, but old content has snuck it's way in though in some of the training maps. The story seems short compared to the last one but the wi-fi connection is definitely cool. Challenging game for all you newbies out there so if you're not good at tactics games, don't bother.
If you like strategy games with a compelling story, easy to learn but hard to master mechanics, and incredible replay value, than this is the game for you!
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
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