Advance Wars: Dual Strike

Advanced Wars: Dual Strike

First off, I want to think Zam and Ton for letting me offer my opinion on their blog. Secondly, I want to tell everybody out there who has a Nintendo DS, to GET THIS GAME. If you don’t have a DS and you are considering one, this is the game to get. This game alone will make owning your DS worth it. And I should know, it’s the only game I have. I also want to mention this. Advanced Wars is a real time strategy(RTS) game and I hate RTS. With that said, you now have to understand just how good this game is, if someone who hates RTS games likes this one.

First off, If you’ve ever played an Advanced Wars title in the past, this one hasn’t changed that much as far as gameplay is concerned. It's a turn based RTS. Each player,weapon can move different amount of spaces per turn, and can shoot from different areas. Some are for direct combat, and others are for indirect combat.You also have to try and capture buildings to earn money to build new weapons. The biggest change to the game is having two battles going on at once. Sometimes you have a ground battle and an air battle going on at the same time. You have the option of controlling the air battle yourself, or letting the other CO (controlling officer) do it for you. They’ve also added some new weapons to your arsenal this time around.

The best thing about this game is that there are so many game modes. The main mode I play is Campaign mode. This is basically the part of the game that has the storyline. You basically travel around a country taking on all comers and you learn more and more about the story as you go on. Same as any other game.

The next mode is known as War Room mode. Here you battle against the computer and try to earn points for using good strategy. The more points you get, the higher rank you earn and the better your CO will become. Each CO has different strengths and weaknesses. Some are good for ground battles and some are good for indirect combat. It all depends. Picking a CO becomes important.

I haven’t used this mode, because I have no DS owning friends in the area, but they offer versus mode. I think you can figure this one out on your own. You battle your buddy to the bitter end. Die boy Die!!!!

My favorite mode is suvival mode, and within this mode you have 3 options. The first option is money. You have to beat as many maps as you can with only a certain amount of money. So that means once you run out of money, you can't buy any more weapons. The next option is Turn. You only have so many turns to beat a given map. For example, you have 15 days/turns to beat a map. If you take longer, you lose. The last is Time. You have so much time to get through as many maps as possible. It's a lot of fun. Very fast paced compared to the Campaign mode.

Another thing I've yet to try is Design Mode. You can build your own maps to fight on. I'm sure this is cool but it's not something I've had time to get into yet. I've been working on my Campaign mostly. One thing I'll say about this game to potential buyers. Be prepared to put in some time into this game. Some maps can take as few as 5 minutes. BUT, there are some that take an hour and half to get through. Normally, I can't hold my attention that long, but this game is so fun I forget about time and just keep trying to win. This is a must get for any DS owner and it's a reason to buy a DS if you are looking for one. I give Advanced Wars: Dual Strike 5 missle strikes out of 5.

Doug (D.S)

(For more from Doug, go check out his blog - The Only Opinion That Counts)