Advance Wars: Dual Strike

Here's another game where I feel I'm in the minority because I just think it's awful. I got into the franchise when it hit the GBA and started to like it. Then I linked up with a friend and started a battle and the game never ended. No matter what either of us did, no one could get the upper hand. Maybe we were just equally matched. When I continued the solo mission I started to get real bored and lost interest, forcing myself through to the end. I kept giving the series a shot and bought Black Hole Rising and then this game, but neither did anything to improve my feelings towards it. Dual Strike took me 9 months to beat, part for difficulty but most just didn't feel the motivation. It did introduce some new combat missions that made good use of the dual screens, like having to pass a mission before the missile dropped from space to avoid being annihilated. The new neo tanks looked more like pigs. I thought they could have been a little more inventive than that. I played this game 4 player with some coworkers and the one game card battle was rediculous. It wasn't even turn based strategy. It was an all out free for all real time battle. It felt like Hungry Hungry Hippo driving around shooting every which way. After losing the first round I realized it was best to just pick a bunch of medium tanks. They ruled over anything in this mode. The big tanks were to slow and shot even slower. Once I learned this I managed to pull off a second round win, but they thought it was dumb and that was the last we played multiplayer with Dual Strike. When it comes to strategy RPG's, I think the Fire Emblem series is much better. The storyline grips me from the beginning and I love the feeling of 'I can't wait to get home to get through another chapter'. Judging from how Advance Wars: Dual Strike scores I know I'm on my own on this.

I can't say I ever beat Advance Wars: Dual Strike. I could have, but I'm a complete nut when it comes to unlocking things, so I was obsessed with getting the coveted "S" ranking and got stuck on like Mission 23 I think. I love both the Fire Emblem and Advance Wars titles but I have to go with Advance Wars being my preference.

I for one enjoyed the story, although I'll agree it's not the deepest tale ever told, and the game's design is excellent in my mind except for one minor gripe. I absolutely hate the dual strike abilities. Surprising isn't it, especially since that was one of the main focuses of the game. I just hate it when I'm kicking someone's but majorly only to find that they turn it around in one turn due the dual strike they obtained from all the damage I'm currently administering. Seems like a punishment for playing well, and one power up is more than enough.

Personally, I prefer the multi card multiplayer or the splendidly brilliant take turns and hand the DS around mode. It allows for quite a bit of flexibility and has passed many an hour away for my friends and I. I'll agree that the single card multiplayer leaves a lot to be desired though.

Streex, if you would want to give Advance Wars another try I would suggest going with Days of Ruin. I much prefer it to Dual Strike as it reminds me more of the first one on the GBA and has a good story although maybe a bit preachy. I also like the more morbid theme and the darker atmosphere of DoR. (plus no more dual strikes, yay!)

Yeah those dual strikes kicked me a few times also. Frustrating. Days of Ruin does look better than Dual Strike like you said, I just don't know if I'm ready to jump yet. You know, I never did try out the multi card or single card pass around multiplayer games on Dual Strike. I should sit down with Cheator one day and see if that grows on me.

I think Days of Ruin would definitely be worth your time. It's a much needed reboot of the series if I do says so myself. It just feels so much more balanced and relies more on tactics than destroying using CO powers, although CO powers do make an appearance in DoR. Plus, how can you not love the new units like the flare unit and the carrier .

Getting to try out new units in each Advance Wars game has been one of the few things I've enjoyed, as long as they look more like killing machines than barnyard animals. And if it's getting back to the basics and not relying so much on the CO Powers like you said then it is taking a turn in the right direction. I'll try this game out someday. Even when a franchise continues to underwhelm me I still go back for each new entry hoping this will be the one that redeems the series for me.

Never tried any of these games... Fire Emblem was always too hard/time consuming for me. How does this stack up?

If you ask me, Fire Emblem is way better. I love the value they put on each character in FE where once they're gone, they're gone. Fire Emblem has a better story line too.

That was part of what I disliked about FE. There isn't even a learning curve in the one for Wii, one mistake and game over. Not fun if you ask me. Seems like FE games are for Strategy elites. lol Well that and Starcraft lol.