Game Stooge

REVIEW: Advance Wars: Days of Ruin (DS)

• Scribbled on February 13th, 2008 by Jonathon Howard
• Filed in Nintendo DS, Reviews, Strategy

Longtime fans of the series are in for a shock when they play the latest addition to the Advance Wars (AW) series, Days of Ruin. Gone are old friends like Andy, and old enemies like Blue Moon and Black Hole. No, this AW takes place on what I can only assume is Earth in the near future, after a catastrophic meteor strike has turned it into a dystopian nightmare. Besides the more grown-up story and setting, not much has changed for the series. Some things are gone, some things are new, but the addictive “just one more” missions are still here and in an Advance War title that’s what matters; everything else is just gravy. Note to hardcore gamers: you might complain about the lack of “sufficient” gravy in this game.

New Post-Apocalyptic World, Same Great Game-play

First, a small introduction to Advance Wars for the uninitiated. AW is a turn based strategy game, played on a tile map,  where you as the commander of the army control the movement of units in order to control resources (cities, airports, harbors) and destroy your opponent.  Combat that is strongly reminiscent of rock-paper-scissors, if you imagine them instead as planes, tanks and people. Mastering the simple set of rules and learning to use every unit to your advantage and outsmarting your opponent is the tricky part. This is where the game truly shines in it’s depth. Much like Othello, AW can be learned in about half an hour, but mastering the game takes much longer!

As I previously mentioned, the biggest change to AW is the visual style. Previous AW games were highly stylized cartoon affairs, where the enemies were lovable tramps and your soldiers were all tweens, as were most of the enemies. The story was equally as light hearted as the art direction. A simple tale of good vs. evil portrayed in the most kid friendly manner possible. All of that is gone, and I can’t say I miss it. It was deceptive, fooling you into thinking you were playing an easy kid’s game; Advance Wars titles are fiendishly difficult in later missions. The new art direction is more serious. Units look like actual tanks, ships, planes, choppers and soldiers.

The story has matured as well. In Days of Ruin you’ll find commentary on the role of society in a crisis, the value of a single life, the breakdown of the rule of law, corruption of elected officials, and the role of the military. These subjects are usually left to heavy RPGs and college courses.  All of this set in a story full of backstabbing, virus outbreaks, assassinations, looting, overthrow, and so on. I can’t say all of the story fits well - at times, it seems the writers were throwing things in simply because they could. It is different and reflects the other changes to the series well. This is apparently the norm in the new and improved post-apocalyptic world, where you’ll be getting used to an exciting gray and brown palette, it seems Behr paints vast selection of color didn’t make it through the meteor shower.

Before I wrap this up, I think I need to do a little math for you, especially those of you who have played and/or own AW: Dual Strike. Days of Ruin does not have duel screen maps. The maps are large, and scrollable but they do not utilize the upper screen as they did in Duel Strike. Your Commanding officer no longer gains experience, either. Speaking of COs, their powers are no longer global as they were in previous games. Instead, the CO is present in a unit on the field and their powers radiate from them, and only the units near them are affected. As their power grows their so does their influence, and the number of units they affect increases. This is very different from previous AW games and will require veterans to rethink some of their strategies. They’ve done some re-tweaking of units as well, removing the cartooney ones (neo tanks) and adding some others (duster, weak aerial units that can attack ground and air units). Combat and Battle modes are both gone as well, but there are still missions outside of the campaign you can play solely for fun.

AW: Days of Ruin adds true multi-player over the internet using the DS’ Wi-Fi. The ability to play on-line with friends is the best new feature of the series. For me, it sealed the deal, making Days of Ruin my favorite if the series.  You still have to use friend codes, but the chance to play on-line with friends and others is an added bonus, especially after you’ve completed the campaign and all the other missions.  I ran a few games with my brother and it worked great.  They’ve even put in a chat feature using the microphone.

It seems Advance Wars has finally grown up, gone are the kiddie graphics, over the top  units and CO powers. Leaving a more serious look and story that finally match the depth of game-play.