Advance Wars: Dual Strike 2
 

Well it looks like some shots of the game in action have popped up over at Jeux-France. It's sporting a new look that's got some divided, but I think it's a nice change. Can't wait to see what the other COs look like.

Here's the mangled up Babelfish translation and the images they've got up:

Oh wow, I thought Nintendo had forgotten about Advanced Wars, but there they go and prove me wrong. I will definitely be picking this up when it comes out.

In otherwords: FUCK YEAH!

I like the character designs, but I'm not fond of the battle graphics choice at all.

One of the big draws of the series has always been the juxtaposition of the hardcore, but beautifully simple chess-with-tanks mechanics against the cute and cheerful visuals.

Having Advance Wars go grey on us and ditching the spritey awesome will be a big set back on the appeal. It'll probably be just as compulsive to play, but much like you loved playing Yoshi's Island because it played and looked so great, the same applies with Advance Wars.

I am so gay for tactic* games and Advance Wars is definitely one of them. =)

Loved the series since the first game came for the GBA and the previous game just made me love the series even more. Can't wait for a release date. =)

* A term I coined after the release of FFT. Any game that you move across a grid and battle other people, in my book, is a tactic game.

Ed? No no. Yuki, is that you?

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y13.../bort/NGBC.jpg

ADVANCE BATTLE COLISEUM WARS? Haha, Japan.

I'm actually liking this look, even if it means all the COs from the previous games will be gone. :(

Godspeed, Colin. Your money-based power utterly ruined my opponents and brought me great joy.

If it's any consolation, it was probably that (coupled with all the other COs) that probably left the world looking like it does in those screens, heh.

Ooh, excellent. I picked up Dual Strike again over the summer to come a bit closer to finishing Campaign mode, and it made me wonder if we'd ever see another Advance Wars title. It's been far too long.

As for the new look, I can dig it. It's a little sad to see that the cartoony battle graphics have been changed, but the map looks the same so that isn't a big deal. While I'll miss a few of the old COs (Grimm, Sami, Grit and Sensei mostly) a whole new set is probably long overdue by now. With any luck there will be cameos, but I'm happy as long as none of the new COs try to rap like Jake.

Here's to hoping they expand Combat mode!

Well, no accusing Nintendo of rehash... visually, I guess. Until I play it is another story. I do like the new look, though I did always find the odd mix of "War" and "Cheery" as being extremely disturbing but pleasing all the same. Especially when I actually went to war. I do recall liberties taken with the dialogue in Advance Wars, as Jake (like others) had a different name and an entirely different disposition when making a comparison to the Japanese and English versions. Perhaps Japan has decided on a set demographic this time around?

Considering I've been finishing up things in my copy of Advance Wars: Dual Strike, this is good news. My curiosity is indeed piqued.

Edit:

Fuck Colin and Sasha. Just gonna save time and throw her in there. That team really did defeat the purpose of playing as most other COs. I'm actually hoping they implement a time limit on individual turns as an option in versus based multiplayer, If it's supposedly like "Chess with Tanks", I'd appreciate a Blitz version of the game. I've literally had opponents just SIT and take forever on fucking turns, and it is one of the things I've hated dearly about taking on human opponents.

Colin? Don't make me laugh. Hachi was where it was at. Deploy units at bargain prices from cities, can you say hax?

Advance Wars: Definately a Tactic Game.


I think it's good they've ended the Black Hole saga. The new visual style is compelling and although it's hard to tell, the map screen looks downright apocalyptic.

Their team can wreck Hachi, unless you play a map with a shit load of cities and huge distance between the opponents. That CO power is nice, just a pity he doesn't get any firepower bonuses like team broken.

Loving the new look, and so excited for this game. Man, i'm really getting into DS gaming now.

I'm gonna have to finish DS 1 now though, and i'm stuck on that impossible mission. You know, the one with the volcanoes.

That one's not too hard, not the first time through the campaign at least.
Take control of both screens, the AI is useless.
On the bottom screen concentrate soley on taking the bases in the corner. Sami is a great choice for her speedy troops and her mech's being able to hold their own against the onslaught of units. Send your other units to teh top screen and just hold out, damage as many of the enemy as possible, taht way they'll waste offensive turns joininging weak units togethor. Bait them into getting in range of your missiles.

Yeah, the volcano mission was actually one of the easier battles towards the end. I managed to do it on my first try, though it's also the only dual-screen mission where I've lost the top screen. Just had to memorize where the lava fell and slowly wipe out the bottom screen enemies.

I'm on the (first?) Andy Clone mission with the four super missiles.

This may be coming just a little late, but here's some videos of the game in action.

A bit more info.

So far I see:
- Wolf emblem
- Dragon emblem
- Cavalry emblem

And a CO with shades. Oh, and the units look kind of different on the overworld.

Hmmm... I'm really digging the new style, love the new way the unit combat graphics look now (better than in AWDS1 where it was just AW2's graphics stretched/compressed out to varying degrees, but I will miss the cartoony elements). But I wonder what kinds of gameplay changes they've made. Can I still park my bombers in a way to block foot soldiers? Though, from the screens it doesn't look like they've changed that.

Also, why hasn't there been an official announcement for this yet?

Awesome news; I'm a sucker for any Advance Wars game. The new art style really piques my interest, particularly the new battle map graphics. Adds more realism.

I hope this game has a really long campaign mode, 'cause they can get pretty intense.

The game still fails massively if they once again don't include Wi-Fi battles.

Pokemon alone has shown Nintendo that Wi-Fi works, so I agree, if it doesn't have WiFi Battle, then... :(

A few more screens, this time it looks like we get to see what happened to hand War World its ass. Some folks were joking around saying Sturm's folks got pissed and just pummeled the planet, heh. There's also that Ling lady we saw in the older screens from Micromania, and some other girl.

Edit: If anyone wants to have a shot at translating these, go ahead. One last thing: The girl reminds me of Eureka, but I don't want things to go down that way (her being an alien or whatever).

No kidding about that, but I wouldn't mind the alien thing (I for one thought where they took Eureka in the show was pretty interesting). But in any case it is good to see that even after what appeared to be a worldwide disaster with meteors falling from space the world is still ready to wage war.

Agreed wholeheartedly. Advance Wars is one of the series' they have only found ways to make better and better over time.

Also Wolf emblem whaaat. Furry mode engaged.

Oh, I didn't mind the direction they went with it in the show... I just don't want something like that in Advance Wars, that's all. The asteroid thing brings back memories of that Ulysses thing that fell in the Ace Combat world (should also be called War World too, heh).

Don't know if anyone pointed this out or not yet but according to Kotaku the game name is Advance Wars: Days of Ruin and it comes out Janurary 21st. (Use ctrl+f to find the advance wars listing)

The only gameplay change they'd need to implement is to allow true indirect fire. That's something I've been hoping since AW1. If we saw a tank in a square of woods that is "hidden", but within range, let us bombard it to make sure. That's what indirect fire is often about.

Of course, you'd need to apply the Halo effect on the AI so that it can only react to you if it sees you, so you wouldn't end up with just tons of cheating and cheap psychic shots. But it's felt ridiculous to need to ram a unit into an enemy just to be able to pummel it with cannon shells from afar.

Speaking of which, they should totally do an Ace Combat DS Game, but with Advance Wars COs.

"THIS IS EAGLE, I HAVE TAKEN CONTROL OF BELKA'S AIRFORCE. SURRENDER YOUR FORCES OR PREPARE TO BE BOMBARDED BY OUR BLACK BOMBS."

Also, I heard a rumor that they were making a console version of Advance Wars for the Wii (And I do NOT mean Battalion Wars, that shitty wanna-be version), any verification on that?

No verification.

And Battalion Wars isn't that bad. I'm looking forward to the sequel at the end of this month.

I suppose... but I'm kinda upset that Nintendo developed a game like that but didn't make it into an actual Advanced Wars game

Perhaps that's the truth of the rumor I heard.

Nintendo had a deal with Kuju Entertainment to allow them to develop a game in an established series. And considering there was no guarantee that Kuju was going to do a good job with it, they probably took the safest route imaginable.

The Halo effect? Halo invented that kind of AI?

Not that I said anything of the sort, but since we're here, why don't you name me an older action game of that type with AI that didn't know where you were through walls, if the level so required it. Goldeneye sure as heck did it, as did Doom.

It's an easy point of reference if you've ever actually played the game, people would otherwise be quick to say "but then the computer would always hit you and the forests would be useless!".

Goldeneye, Quake 3, Unreal Tournament.

Like I already said, Goldeneye had plenty of levels where they scripted the AI to see you through walls, it's not nearly the same as the line sight/hearing system the first Halo employed. Once an alarm was made, everyone knew where to find you and they never went back. Using the Goldeneye style AI with the indirect fire system would lead to levels where the computer just magically bombs everything in range with pixel perfect accuracy.

But beyond that, understand it's a point of reference, like saying "Resident Evil controls". Most of us know many games used the controls before Resident Evil, but a lot more know them through RE, so it's easier to refer to them as that.

There is a new trailer at Gamevideos.

I think the new graphic stye is pretty good, but I really don't like the new music. Hopefully it was just for the trailer, and not what the actual soundtrack will sound like...

There's another video where you can hear the music a bit. That was a nice trailer, looks like wifi is confirmed going by what was shown.

I like the music. :) Eagerly awaiting more on this.

Apparently Kotaku recently got some hands-on with AW: DoR

So the motorbikes count as infantry eh? I wonder how much they cost considering their infantry abilities plus their mobility.

If you pause the trailer at around 1.04, you can see the land units and their costs:

http://i23.tinypic.com/1zppqnb.jpg

Thanks for those pics Zuare. Looks like almost all of the units have returned, plus a few new ones. Motorbikes probably have the same firepower as Infantry (Or somewhere in between Infantry and Bazooka), but have a longer range for travelling per turn... just a guess though.

I also see something called Flare, I wonder if that will play into Fog of War Maps? (Unit Fires a Flare, which revealed a 3x3 or 4x4 area of the map?)

Mobile Workshop is particularly interesting, but I would think it would cost more... hmm.

I also took a glance at the videos, and for the one Metal Sphere brought up, the music sounds cool. Got some rock, along with the main (?) theme of the game. Meteor shower destruction confirmed, and apparently 90% of humanity along with it! This game is very appropriately titled.

Very interesting all around :)

Absolutely DELICIOUS! Sounds like they streamlined combat making it faster, which is a big plus in my book. That coupled with the new art direction, a new cast, new units and possibly a better story have me looking forward to this even more than before.

And then I read the WiFi section and exploded.

Judging by the price and appearance, it's just a new name for the APC. I'm more interested in this new Anti-Tank unit. It's nice to know they're still coming up with new tools of war even after the apocalypse.

Oh... well shoot, so much for that then :laugh:

Anti-Tank?

*checks*

Oh wow, completely missed that! Well that's cool.

Flares, interesting. That might throw a wrench into my old AW style of using Grit and sniping everyone from Fog of War forests.

What I'd like to see is a Sniper unit, a long-sighted unit that could massacre infantry/mech troops, but if directly attacked would essentially be boned. Been holding out for that since the original Advance Wars. Oh well, maybe in a future game.

Some of the name changes I don't care for though. If a Mobile Workshop really is an APC, why the name change? Changing Artillery to Mech Gun? Glad they finally changed Medium Tank to Heavy Tank, though. Regular tank, Medium tank... Neo Tank?

Heh, this interview is nice and quick and touches on quite a few things. Looks like they made it a point to strip everything down and refine it.

Gamespot's preview reveals a bit more.

Eh. CO Powers were what made this series unique. I can pick up a million and one grid-based strategy games, but not with mechanics similar to Advance Wars' S/COPs.

They're not doing away with CO powers, just hitting them with the nerf bat. It won't be like before with colin or some other broken CO/CO combo where in the middle of a battle you can pop the SCO and basically win. Personally I think this is a good change. This way CO powers will be used to win smaller battles here and there, instead of completely overturning the battle in one turn.

Yeah, I saw the video after the post, and after watching I was feeling lazy, not to mention I had class right after...

I agree with what Qwarky said about the indirect fire it was always REALLY annoying to be in a bottleneck situation with only one point of attack and it's a god damn tree square! Meaning you had to basically block the main way through with something before you could even consider attacking whatever is hiding.

I know I'm late, but as for the news of this newest game I'm honestly kind of shocked at the revamp, advanced wars was always cheesy looking, but that was one of the main things that made it stand out from other turn based strategy games. Now they seem to have gone for the generic hardcore "war is hell" angle, which is tough on people with previous character favorites, but forgivable as long as they keep the co variety in there they built up from previous games. It almost makes you wonder how much they tested the co powers in the previous game with all it's broken combos, since it's the thing they've fixed the most this time around.

The new unit sprites on the game map look ugly in my honest opinion, although I can understand them wanting to change the sprites when two units attack since they've been recycling the same sprites for 3 games now. Come to think of it what happened to them trying to make the board look 3D? I guess that went out the window too. The cute brightness of the past games with a war theme was aways an odd combination, so I guess they finally decided to change to go with a formula that made more sense.

There's a difference between nerfing the Colin/Sasha tag team and nerfing everyone. Very few S/COPs could actually turn the tide almost instantly, and even if the few times it could you'd give your own opponents a huge boost in their meter. I thought that the system as a whole was pretty balanced, even if a few guys tended to be abusable.

They probably found something called the Colin Paradox that made it impossible to nerf him without reworking all of the game mechanics.

If you time your SCO tag power correctly and didn't screw up by the time your turn is up the game should be won and it shouldn't matter if they have their meters filled. And unless you are up against another good/cheesyColin player any semi-decent combo would do (i.e Eagle/Sami - HQ insta-capture FTW)

So I don't think this CO power nerf stemmed solely from the power of Colin's powers, although when talking about overpowered powers Colin's comes to mind first. However just exactly how nerfed CO Powers will be and what kind of things they will do in this next game has yet to be seen and until then it is kind of pointless to cry over the CO power changes (least of all the loss of Colin, which in my mind is an awesome thing).

A good player is always prepared for a Lightning Strike or Victory March and not put in that kind of position in the first place. The first thing you learn is to not overexert yourself when you're playing against Eagle. Just like how you learn to make Colin waste his funds.

Eagle/Sami isn't even insta-capture. Unless you're an absolute retard and let a bunch of air units and some infantry waltz up to your HQ when they're about to tag (even though it takes about 233.3 turns to charge). All I'm saying is that one or two kinks doesn't mean to just trash the whole thing or weaken the shit out of it.

I'm hoping that by "toning down" the CO powers they'll be bringing them down to the capacity of them as in the first game in the series. Admittedly depending on the circumstance there would be a chance of them completely turning the battle around, but nothing crazy like weather change plus damage to all enemy units plus double fuel consumption. Each of those seems it'd be a perfectly viable power on its own given the purported nature of Days of Ruin.

I think I'll be happy just as long as I can continue to be an artillery whore. It always worked pretty well for me as long as I maneuvered carefully and got the choke points covered before the enemy did.

I hope that they'll put wifi capabilites into it.

now that I think about it that could take a very long time

That's already been confirmed, I believe.

Nüsflash! The game's been renamed Advance Wars: Dark Conflict.

One can only imagine why.