Although gamers in the east have been treated to several editions in the Wars series, Advance Wars: Dual Strike remains only the third title to have seen a western release. With the European release of the first title – simply Advance Wars – the industry was shaken to its core as, as Nintendo have a passion for doing so, the title proved that graphics don’t make the game – gameplay is king. The second title, Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising, was also a masterpiece of game creativity, but was criticised by many for being too similar to the first title. Advance Wars: Dual Strike has pledged to destroy the quickly encroaching reputation of minor refinement and replace it with a tale of renovation with innovation in one simple stroke.

            The basic premise of the title is similar to its predecessors. Battles take place throughout a series of Maps, selectable in a variety of gameplay options, with a Turn-Based Strategy agenda. The variety of gameplay options is expansive to say the least. The usual Campaign makes a striking return, offering newcomers an easy ride into the title but also offering a quick re-cap for those already familiar to the series without becoming a bore. The story is obviously in place to add a sense of progression, but in the usual Advance Wars style is very much an added extra, that you will be skipping through by about the fifth mission. The War Room also makes a welcome return, however, this time things are a little more confusing; the choices for battle arrangement consist of 1 Vs. 1, 2 Vs. 2, 1 Vs. 2 and 1 Vs. 3. Further to this, you have the option of selecting from a range of Experience and Skills options.

The Experience system will be familiar to those who have played the series before (although it’s clear the system has had some heavy refinement) allowing you to buy further Maps from the War Room with the Experience earnt. However, the Skills system is an entirely new addition which gives a little added flavour to the proceedings. In addition to the reward of extra Maps for your progression, for every Mission completed your COs will also gain experience and take part in a minor Levelling-Up system – which, should a CO progress to a further Level, will allow you to use some very beneficial Skills such as Attack +5%, Movement +1 or Building Capture +1.

            A whole host of new buildings and units are available to the player, including the new ultra-devastating yet ultra-slow Mega Tank, and the Stealth Bomber. All of the new features have obviously been carefully balanced, and many of the obvious inequities from previous titles have been corrected and balance brought back to the war-zone. One major addition – clearly due to the new abilities of the NintendoDS – is the ability to fight on two fronts, with two COs. Dual CO battles become a common fancy, due to the ability to use Tag CO Powers; giving you two turns as well as the COs regular special, however, fighting on two fronts instantly ramps-up the addiction level of the title. Battles that run for several days are not uncommon when fighting on two fronts, with the victor gaining the ability of two COs on the Main Front.

            Yet another new addition is the huge variety of COs, Maps and design options to choose from. This time around, Maps can be constructed entirely from scratch and made to look and feature exactly the same principles as the pre-designed Maps. All the previous COs and Maps from the Advance Wars titles are available and literally hundreds more.

            The final new addition is an altogether new mode – Combat. To those fans of the series, Combat Mode will either instantly provide a look of disgust across their face or one of intrigue. Advance Wars now features a real-time mode. GASP! As a commander of a limited-fleet, selectable before the series of Missions begins, the player controls each unit in-turn and faces the task of eliminating the enemy’s forces before running-out of units. To those seasoned Advance Wars veterans, Combat Mode may certainly sound like a misguided venture from a development team trying to find an outlet for their new ideas, however, in practice the new addition offers a nice distraction from the turn-based proceedings without changing the Game Card.

            The multi-player options, now making full use of the NintendoDS’s internal memory and Wi-Fi ability, are as extensive as the Single-Player modes. With a Single Card Download, the player joining will receive a mini-demo of the title, featuring both Wi-Fi and Single-Player versions of the Combat Mode. A four-player download is included should everyone present have a copy of the Game Card and no features from the Single-Player remain unavailable. Taking the brick-built assets of the Single-Player game and coating them in sugar was always Advance Wars’ forte, but now the NintendoDS has allowed the development team to progress their ideas in new ways, and a four-player all-against-all ruck on Advance Wars: Dual Strike is as compelling as a 32-player Tournament in Super Smash Bros. Melee.

            Graphically, the Advance Wars series doesn’t seem to be going anywhere quick. Being much more expansive and providing much larger battlefields is by-the-by with a new edition and Nintendo have seemingly done little else to improve on an almost tired looking title. Advance Wars: Dual Strike really doesn’t need to be any more lucid with its looks, but it would certainly be nice to see the arrival of a 3D version at some point, obviously disregarding the forthcoming GameCube semi-rendition, Battalion Wars.

            Advance Wars: Dual Strike has broken the mould. The Advance Wars series has always been fun and excelled at everything it has attempted, almost as if the development team have had a midas-touch effect on even the most complex fine-tuning. But now the series has taken the mantle for handheld Turn-Based Strategy titles, placed it atop it’s iron fortress, surrounded it by Neo Tanks, Stealth Bombers and Mech units, and issued a challenge to all it’s adversaries; “Just try it”.