Advance Wars: Dual Strike Reviews

Click here if this is your business
Advance Wars: Dual Strike
★★★★☆
4.3
75.0% of users recommend this
Click here if this is your business
  • Addiction Level

  • Graphics

  • Value For Money

? Ask our helpful community of experts about this product or company
Advance Wars: Dual Strike - Ask a question now

Media Gallery for Advance Wars: Dual Strike

Refine your search

  • Average Rating Over Time
  • Within the last month ***** (From 0 reviews)
  • Within the last 6 months *** (From 0 reviews)
  • Within the last 12 months * (From 0 reviews)

Latest Reviews

“To play Advance Wars: Dual Strike, you must be skilled...”

★★★★★

written by bakuza on 18/12/2007

To play Advance Wars: Dual Strike, you must be skilled and talented. to command armies of the masses is the greatest thing ever,Game play is great.

If you are commenting on behalf of the company that has been reviewed, please consider upgrading to Official Business Response for higher impact replies.
Was this review helpful? 0 0

“I found Advance Wars: Dual Strike very addictive,...”

★★★★★

written by foxview on 24/07/2007

I found Advance Wars: Dual Strike very addictive, takes some time to get used to the controls but once you grasp it everything is spot on.

If you are commenting on behalf of the company that has been reviewed, please consider upgrading to Official Business Response for higher impact replies.
Was this review helpful? 0 0

“Lets face it, if you own a GBA, chances are you've at...”

★★★★★

written by Takahiro on 30/08/2006

Lets face it, if you own a GBA, chances are you've at least played one of the Advance Wars games. They are two of the best strategy games in recent times on all platforms, never mind a handheld, and with success like that a sequel on the DS wasn't far behind.

Advance Wars veterans will be instantly familiar with how the game feels, and how it plays, and they'll be eager to get to grips with the new CO's (Commanding Officer) and the 6 new units. But newcomers to the game needn't feel afraid, as the first couple of missions of the campaign mode are a pushover, but with the tutorials turned on, they will help anyone get the gist of it in no time at all.

At first glace you may have noticed not a lot has changed in the graphics. Everything is tidier and more crisp, but essentially it is very similar. The battles have improved slightly, with scaling sprites being used, and some meaty looking blasts when tanks get involved. But most importantly, it still just oozes charm, and the CO's are well drawn and it sucks you in.

The soundtrack has made as big a jump as the visuals, ie. not a great deal, but all the old tunes you remember are here and the new ones are just as good. Nothing has really noticeably changed, but it was so good in the first place it's no problem whatsoever.

So if they haven't changed much you'd expect it to make great use of the DS's unique features. Well, to be honest, it doesn't do much. You can use the touch screen to order your units around, but it's far easier and quicker just to use the d-pad. The second screen is relatively handy, as it constantly shows you info on standard battles, and on some occasions you'll be fighting two separate battles, and the second screen shows the second battle, but this is a simple use for it. The only redeeming use for the touch screen is that it comes into it's own when designing your own maps. It's easy and accurate to use, and it is a breeze compared to using the touch pad. That's the only time I ever use it though.

Right, new stuff gone over. If you've never played Advance Wars you'll need to know to basics. Generally, it's chess but with a bigger playing board. You and your opponent(s) take turns manoeuvring your units around a battlefield on a grid. You can only move left, right, up and down, and the number of spaces you move depends on what unit you are commanding and the terrain you have to cross (e.g. units move freely on roads, but terrain such as woods slows them down, and tanks and such can't cross mountains at all; only infantry can cross them, but slowly). You have to move directly next to an enemy unit to attack them (apart from non-direct units, which cannot move and fire in the same turn. They have to sit still, but they can fire from distances without fear of counter-attack). Once you attack the battle screen comes on. Your units attack first and blast away at the enemy and do damage to their 10HP. If they survive they will return fire, but the lower their HP, the less damage they do, so it's always to your advantage if you attack first rather than them. You can move every unit under your command once during your turn, then you 'end' your turn and your opponent takes his. Just like chess you have to strategically place your units to get the jump on your opponent, and you have to react to his moves.

That's pretty much the basics, but to win you'll need more. You can use terrain for an advantage. For example, a city provides more cover than an open field, and you need to attack units with your own units that can handle it. For example, your small machine-gun equipped infantry won't do much against a tank unit. You will also need to 'capture' properties. Cities give you $1,000 extra every turn, and can heal and re-supply your units if you leave them there. Bases, Airports and Docks are essential for building new units, and Silo's are a one off chance to fire a missile that damages every unit in the damage area by 3HP. A new addition is the COM Tower, which when captured gives your entire army a strength boost, but the most important is your HQ. If you lose that it's game over, but if you capture your opponent's, you win.

The last choice you have is which CO to use. Each has their own individual strengths and weaknesses, and I'll leave you to discover these yourself.

That's the basic idea, and as you play you'll come up with your own strategies. You'll find your favourite CO's, and you'll choose some favourite units, and you have a 27 stage Campaign mode to plough through, as well as a staggering number of War Room maps, where you choose a CO and get busy on a series of maps. Versus mode is a no frills fight; choose your CO, choose your enemy, choose a map and go for it. You can even play friends by passing the DS around. As you win (hopefully) you earn points to spend in the shop. This is where you buy CO's for War Room, Versus and Combat mode, as well as the Maps, and other things such as the sound test room, gallery and harder difficulty settings. The combat mode I just mentioned is also a new feature. Although it's not all that great, it's a real-time spin on the game, and you control one unit at a time, roaming about the map attacking the enemy. It may sound great, but it quickly pales in comparison to the main game.

The last new mode is survival, where you have 11 maps to clear with either limited funds, time or a turn-limit. This is a fantastic new mode for when you've had your fill of the campaign and war room.

The die-hard among you will want to collect all 300 medals hidden in the game. Each has a set target, and once passed you earn a medal (some include destroy a set amount of tanks, clear a certain mode, move a set amount of spaces etc).

Then there's the multiplayer, and with only one cart you only have a simple combat mode to play with, which is disappointing, but if you have a cart each, it will open up the full mode, and that is where Advance Wars gears up and can take over your lives. It's brilliant.

The only real downside is the lack of an online option, and that would have made something great into something legendary, but as it is, Advance Wars DS is still one of the most stand-out games on the system, and alone or with friends it will just suck you in and won't let go. After a few months solid you may drift away, but you'll soon wonder back, and it will be another few weeks playing nothing else again.

If you are commenting on behalf of the company that has been reviewed, please consider upgrading to Official Business Response for higher impact replies.
Was this review helpful? 0 0

“Advance Wars is the award winning strategy game from...”

★★★☆☆

written by Chuckie1215 on 06/12/2005

Advance Wars is the award winning strategy game from Nintendo. It is essentially a turn based RPG, because you can choose 1 or 2 characters to use on each mission. It is because you can use 2 characters that the game is called "Dual Strike." This is the one big change in comparison to the GBA versions, aside from the transition to 2 screens. I rushed straight out to buy this game, eager to see how they did it on the DS after the fantastic GBA games. And to be honest I was quite disappointed at first glance. It looked IDENTICAL to the GBA games, except it was spread out over the 2 screens. I was not discouraged yet, since I knew that if it looked exactly like its predecessors, it was likely to play like them as well.

A few of the new controls and interfaces take getting used to, such as dual characters, battling on two fronts, and switching characters at the end of each turn in order to build up special on each. Some characters are more compatible with the super powers of others, which are basically the same as on the previous games, and if you can build up to use a super combo, you get a pretty meaty attack. This is a notoriously addictive line of games, so despite these small foibles, I quickly became hooked. I especially liked using the touch screen to command units, because it immerses you into the game better. But, to my woes, it began to get harder, and harder, AND harder, until I was put off my DS for a while, to come back and take about 2 hours to complete the last mission. NOT something that was identical to the games ancestors.

In all, this is a pretty entertaining game, but not on the level of the originals. It's too similar to them to excite anyone previously interested in the games. This would not be a first choice of game if I were a perspective DS owner. Stick with Mario for now, until Nintendo really put this potentially excellent console to good use with some of the games it is famous for. If you really like the idea of Advance Wars but don't have a DS, don't run out to get one for this. Get a GBA Advance Wars game; they were much better.

P.S. if you're looking for a more specific review of Advance Wars, check out the GBA versions.

If you are commenting on behalf of the company that has been reviewed, please consider upgrading to Official Business Response for higher impact replies.
Was this review helpful? 0 0

Do you have a question about this product or company? Simply type it in the box below and one of our community will give you an answer

Our helpful community of likeminded people will be happy to answer any questions that you have.

Thanks for asking a question.

Once we've checked over your question we will put it live on the site and our strong community of experts will hopefully give you some great answers that you find useful.

We will email you when the question is on the site

overview