Advance Wars: Days of Ruin

"Where there is a Will, there is a way."

Summary
Advanced Wars: Days of Ruin was released for the Nintendo DS on January 1st, 2008. It is from the popular Advanced Wars series, and is currently the second in the series on the DS. Advanced Wars: Days of Ruin is a modern day warfare game. While most of the game consists of battles that are highly based on role playing and strategic movements of your troops, there is a story which could really make or break this game. But for Advanced Wars, the story really made this game a masterpiece.

Introduction
You start the game following the story of a young cadet named Will. You soon find out the planet as we know it has been smashed by meteors, resulting in the death of so many lives, it is not comprehendible. Will is soon rescued by a captain and his troops who have survived the meteors, called Brenner's Wolves.

As Will's story continues you will meet memorable characters such as Captain Brenner and Lin, and a mysterious girl that Will takes a liking to named Isabella. This game can be played just for the excellent story, and no other reason.

What Do You Do?
Well, basically the whole concept of the game is to get through all of the chapters, winning a battle in each. Each battle you get something new and it gets genuinely harder. The general objectives in battles is to destroy all enemy units or capture their HQ. Once succeeded, you want to get a total of 300 points in technique, power, and speed to get an S-rank medal.

Throughout each battle, days go by, and the more days that go by, the less speed points you achieve in the end. Every day you want to build more and more units and destroy their units. As you capture cities, it results in getting more money for more units.

Though completion of a chapter, the story continues, but in this game, almost no chapter goes without relevance to the story, which really keeps pushing you through the difficult levels when you feel all hope is lost in succeeding.

How Is This Game?
I really liked this game, though, my only complaint was, it felt very stretched. Sometimes there were almost little sub-stories that were merely put in too make the game longer. Sure, the overall story was great, and more so, one of the best stories in a video game I have yet to play, but it was too long. The producers of Advanced Wars: Days of Ruin sure had the quality down, but a little too much quantity.

Well, I have bogged you down on the story so much, you might be wondering where the wars and the playing of the game comes in. Well, that is the battles. There are in total twenty-six chapters, a battle for each one, and on top of that, there are two player, three player, and even four player maps! And when you throw in all of the challenge and trial maps, you easily have over 100 different battlegrounds!

Music
Uhh… Music? Really, this game didn't focus much on the music, none of it was as memorable as a Zelda title or as familiar as a Mario game, but that's not saying it was bad. The music just didn't add anything to this game, but it didn't take away anything either, so don't really expect much from this category…

Graphics
The graphics really aren't anything special in this game. The little dudes on the battle field are just sprites, and in the cut-scenes they merely look like drawings. Like the music, doesn't take away anything, but isn't adding anything either.

This really isn't graphics, but something they could have done was during the cut-scenes, they could have changed the character's picture just to show some emotion. I think that could have added something to the story, that would just let you get into the characters.

Game Length
No matter how you look at this game, it is looooong. The main story doesn't seem like much, but if you aren't the type to sit down and play a game for hours at a time, it will be as close to death as you and I know it once you reach the later levels, especially if you don't use a guide.

And then comes every other battle after the story mode… There are almost countless choices for battles, and if you are the person who really gets a kick out of these, the you are looking at a month of non-stop game play. Oh, and did I mention this has Wi-Fi?

Replayability
The replayability of Advanced Wars: Days of Ruin depends completely on the person. If you are set on completing every single challenge this game throws at you, have fun. But if all of that sounds a little too much for you, you might beat the twenty-six chapters, try a few trial battles, and then be done with the game and never play it again. That last option is what most of you will conclude too, but remember, replayability doesn't make a game.

Nintendo Wi-Fi
Oh fun, the famed Wi-Fi. The Wi-Fi in Advanced Wars: Days of Ruin is ok. It is nice playing against some humans, who do not have artificial intelligence, but real intelligence. But, as all Wi-Fi games go, you will run into people who will quit the moment you take out one of their war tanks, but hey, nothing is perfect. It is also nice in the fact that you can play people your own level, which if you aren't too good, you will play people who aren't as good as well. It is fun for a rainy day when you have nothing more to do.

And In Conclusion…
Well, if it weren't for the story line, this game would maybe get a 3/10. It just gets repetitive, and really, it would just be another game kind of in-between a strategy and RPG. But lucky for the story that it was well written, which I think makes all the difference. I would recommend this game to people who love a challenge, because this game brings it, and or people who want a fun past-time. Also, I would recommend renting this if you have a feeling you might get tired of it in a week, because the game itself will eventually tire. Where there is a Will there is a way. Until next time, adieu…

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 02/06/08

Game Release: Advance Wars: Days of Ruin (US, 01/21/08)