"The most successful reinvention of a series I've played yet"

Every game in the Advance Wars series has been incredibly enjoyable, offering more features in each new installment, however, Days of Ruin is far different from any AW you've ever played. Everything about the game has been reinvented. New story, new graphic style, new features, you name it.

Story: 10/10
This is by far the darkest AW game. It takes place in a post-apocolyptic world, in which meteors have destroyed civilization, and the dust has blocked out the sun. The survivors are pitted at war with eachother, and disasters strike left and right. The story features much darker tones and themes than you would expect from the light hearted series. Characters are actually murdered throughout the game. However, it is not without it's comic relief. In each mission you can view a short scene which features a, more often than not, very humorous conversation between characters, followed by tips and tactics to help you with the level. Oh, and anyone who hated Jake's jive talkin' punk rocker lingo in Dual Strike, rest assured, nothing of the sort is found in this game.

Gameplay: 10/10
The game has been simplified to the extreme from the last installment. There are no dual CO missions, and, in fact, the entire CO system has been completely reinvented. Instead of having about 30 COs with drastically different attributes, and 2 CO powers, there are now 12 COs you can choose from, who only have 1 CO power each. In the old games, every unit you deployed was affected by your CO, no matter what. However, in this one, you must deploy a CO into a vehicle, and then every unit around the CO will profit from boosts. These are much simpler than in the old games. And as your CO battles with enemies, his or her power meter will fill, when it reaches the top, you can use their CO power. This is much simpler than the system in Dual Strike, where having 2 very powerful COs at once basically broke the game.
Also, the main campaign has 26 missions, which are all much easier than in the past games, however, it now has more free battles than ever, more new units, and several "war excersize" missions, which offer incredible amounts of difficulty. You can also now create more of your own levels than ever, 50, which is a BIG step up from the 3 you could make in past games. You can also trade, and battle them over WiFi, making this the most expansive AW to date.

Graphics: 10/10
Everything about this game is more "grown up", including the graphics. Instead of having the kiddy, light hearted graphics, we've come to know and love, this game has much more mature character designs, terrain graphics, and the battles look completely different. They are much less cartoony, and depict more serious battle sequences. Everything about the game looks really beautiful.

Music and sound: 10/10
The very first thing I noticed when I turned the game on for the first time was that this has one of the best game soundtracks I've ever heard. And the sound quality is superb for being a hand-held game. I've spent hours at a time just in the sound room listening to some of the games more dramatic tunes, they just sound so good.

Replayability: 10/10
If there is one thing the AW series is known for, it's replayability. There are more maps than ever, and you can always go back and try to improve your score. It is so fun to replay levels and try out different tactics, or make dozens of your own levels, which can now be made in map sizes ranging from 5x5 spaces, to 30x30, allowing you to make many many different levels.

Overall: 50/50 (10/10)
This is my favorite AW game to date. It has excellent graphics, and sound, a superb story, and of course, it's so darn fun to play. It's a much simpler game than Dual Strike, and it really keeps your interest for weeks. If you're a long time fan of the series, or this is your first one, it's a definite buy than you won't be sorry for.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 02/19/08

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