When the touch screen was first announced for DS, my thoughts instantly turned to Advance Wars. Oh, what would they be able to do to a strategy game with touch controls? Well, Advance Wars: Dual Strike, answered that, and it didnt' make me wait long to do it.
Aside from having an oh-so-clever name, AW:DS has a lot of good humor in it, easily visible right from the get-go. Things like your commanding officer yelling out, "Go get the plates, cuz you just got served!" Made me love this game after only one battle. It's the little things, like "Watch who you're talking to, you're the one who just got owned!" that make you actually
want to read the inane dribble they shoot at you as you learn the game.
The controls are pretty simple, and if you've played any other Advance Wars game, you're ready to go with this one. Of course, the game lets you use either the touch screen or the buttons, and at times it's smart to just keep switching between the two.
Oh, by the way, remember how mad you were in Black Hole Rising when you first saw Nell, and how she wasn't hot anymore? Well, they didn't fix that this time. However, Nell only appears once in the game! Now we get to hang out with Nell's younger, sexier sister, Rachel! Not only that, but we don't have to deal with Andy any more! I just had to point those things out...
Anyway, the graphics in this aren't much better than the other games in the series. It uses the same sprites for most things, but this time the backgrounds are 3D (some are actually Mode7, I believe) and everything
looks crisper on the DS screen for some reason. If you were hoping for a leap in graphics for the Advance Wars saga, guess you'd better wait for Batallion Wars. I'd give 'em 6 Md Tanks out of ten.
The music in this is really cool, nothing to rock out to, but it gives the game a good feel. The DS' speakers are much better than the GBA's. The sound effects aren't bad either. I love hearing units explode when you defeat someone!
As for the story... Eeh, I haven't played a whole lot of the game, but if this is like any of Nintendo's games, it will only be enough to keep me interested. So, Black Hole army has come back from somewhere (Poo on Nintendo Power ruining the supprise for me. Damn zombies)
Where's the mic?! This is actually the first DS game that I've played that doesn't use the mic! And that's not really a bad thing, if you ask me. I hate blowing into that thing!
