Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising

"Not quite Advance Wars 2...maybe Advance Wars 1.5, but still, a great game...But the extreme challenge closes it off to some players."

Advance Wars was a very enjoyable game for the GBA, released awhile ago. Recently, Advance Wars 2 was released, but does it stand up to the hype? Well, one thing to get out of the way quickly is – This game is more like Advance wars 1.5. Maybe 1.6, 1.7…but not Advance Wars 2. This is more of an expansion pack than a whole new game; Same graphics, with some areas improved, same basic gameplay, all units are the same other than 1 new one, Same CO’s with the same CO themes, but many new ones, every War Room map carried over, with some new ones, and Design mode is the same. Basically, this is a Re-hash with a fat number 2 slapped on. But does that make it bad? Of course not.

The Gameplay premise is simple. This is a Turn-based strategy game. The time in the game advances by ‘days’. On each day, you get to move each unit once, or build units of your choice. You capture properties, such as cities or airports, to increase funds faster. At the beginning of each day, you get 1000$ per property owned. You build different units from different properties – Cities build nothing, bases build land units, Airports build air units, Ports build Naval units.

Each unit has a movement cost for each type of different terrain. Air units generally have a ‘1’ for movement cost, so they can fly at full force, unless blocked by an enemy unit or a pipeline. Any unit in this game can block enemy units – Your unit that is in the way becomes an impassable wall, until destroyed. This opens up lots and lots of new strategy, using weaker, less powerful units to block chokepoints so stronger units can stay unscathed, or so Sniping units can be protected by other units surrounding it. Land units have different movement costs for different terrains, and depending on what kind of unit they are. A unit with wheels will have a hard time trudging through grass, but a unit with treads will have a relatively easy time. On the sea, you have full movement at all times. (Email me if I’m wrong on that.) Movement in this game is handled in a unique way, also. There is an invisible ‘movement grid’, so to speak, for all units. All movement grids, by default, look like Diamonds. This is changed if terrain is making travel slower, or an enemy unit is in the way.

The units in this game are relatively well balanced, but there are slight imbalances strewn about. Each CO gets different advantages and disadvantages, making some units stronger than others under different CO’s. For example, Eagle, a CO specializing in air units, but not too great with sea units, will have a much better time making an air assault rather than a sea assault. Sami, a CO specializing in Infantry type units, has a much easier time capturing bases than other people – It still takes her 2 days to capture a base, but her units still capture it in 2 days when damaged – to a certain extent. This element of gameplay, different CO’s with different powers, is a very interesting addition, and makes gameplay much better. Unit balance is another matter. Some people argue over a certain unit, called the ‘Neo Tank’ Basically, this unit is a powerhouse, but can be EASILY countered. What people fail to realize, is how simple it is to counter these, and how overpriced these are in most cases. A bomber, which costs the same amount, does the same damage, and is only able to be effectively damaged by a few units in the game, and has a wonderful movement range, and can move across land and sea. The Neo Tank, on the other hand, can only travel on land, and is easily killed by Other Neo Tanks, Bombers, B copters (wittle away at their life :) ), Medium/MD tanks, or long range units. Neo Tanks CAN be massed if you have the money, and they can seem overpowering at some times, but they are only unbalanced if you do not know how to counter them correctly, or do not have enough money/units to counter them. If that case pops up, you are simply SOL.

Another slight problem comes in the CO and Super CO powers. CO and Super CO powers are measured by little stars and big stars. As you lose units, or do damage to the enemy, you gain stars. The same goes for the enemy. Some CO powers, though, are a bit overpowered. For example, one of Eagles CO powers lets him move twice in one turn, which could turn up imbalances occasionally. Overall though, CO powers, in retrospect, aren’t THAT overpowered, but some imbalances occur with certain powers.

There are 3 main gameplay modes – War Room, Campaign, and Vs mode. In War room and Campaign, you can gain points to buy stuff in the shop, such as more maps or more CO’s. Campaign is self explanatory – It’s the main storyline of the game. War Room is a skirmish battle, of sorts. Vs Room is essentially the same as War Room, but you can play your created maps here, and you do not get points for doing it. The War room and Campaign are where some of the problems with gameplay occur.

Simply put, this game is not for everyone, due to the EXTREME Challenge in some of the later levels. This is definitely not a game to get little Timmy for his birthday, unless you want him to chuck his GBA across the room in a mad rage. The game is missing a difficulty slider, which, in my opinion, would open up the game to more people. Personally, I love the challenge, but because of the extreme nature of it, this game closes itself off to a lot of people. If you are one to get extremely pissed at a game for it being too hard, leave this game in the store. Some campaign missions put you up against ludicrous odds, and seem impossible sometimes. Some people love the challenge, some don’t.

Overall, the gameplay of the game is quite solid, but there simply isn’t enough change from the original.

Gameplay: 9/10 if you never played Advance Wars 1, 7/10 if you have.
- Solid and fun premise
- EXTREME challenge.

Advance Wars 2’s graphics are quite colorful, and sharp. The GBA isn’t quite pushed to the limits here, but the graphics are still fine. The CO’s and individual units are all drawn with great detail, and are well polished. The individual battle animations look great, and all the backdrops look great also. One thing I would have liked to see, though, was individual unit design for every Country. There is individuality – to some degree, but Black Hole has very unique units, while every other country has generally the same looking ones. Individual unit design for each country would have been nice. Overall though, the graphics are nice, and colorful, and have nothing wrong with them.
Graphics : 9/10
- Colorful
- Well Drawn
- Not quite pushing the GBA To the limits..

The story of this game is nothing to go insane over, or psycho analyze, but it gets the job done. There are a few ‘holes’, so to speak, if you never played Advance Wars 1, but you can easily get the storyline.

Basically, Black Hole, a ‘mysterious’ nation, has started invading the 4 main Wars World nations again – Green Earth, Orange Star, Blue Moon, Yellow Comet – but this time, they are fighting for themselves, and not with clones. You must defeat Black Hole, and stop their advance, and then defeat them in their own country. Can you do it?

Overall though, nothing to complain about in the story. It is sometimes a little kiddy-ish, but there really isn’t anything wrong, either.

Story : 9/10
- Gets the Job done.
- Nothing special about it, though.

The controls for this game are VERY simple. It doesn’t take a Game Master to use them, and you can get used to them fast. A little kid could get used to these controls fast, but this game isn’t quite for kids, given the extreme difficulty..
Controls : 10/10
- They feel natural
- Very easy to use
- No flaws or problems.

The music of this game is very, very catchy. The old CO’s retained their old themes, sadly, but the new CO themes are great. CO Colin’s music is quite catchy, and some of the best in the game, in my opinion. Some of the older CO themes are still catchy, but hearing them all through Advance Wars 1, it kind of ruins it when they are the same in 2. The Menu music is still great, and Design Maps mode music is pretty good, too. The music is mostly clear, and there is no problem with that.

The sound of the game is very clear, even for the GBA, and very great. The gun shots, explosions, and moving, the 3 sounds you will hear the most, are very good, and are entertaining to hear. The menu click sound doesn’t annoy you, and the little ‘beep’ noise that plays during the text isn’t bad either. Overall, sound and music are clear, and very good for the GBA.

Sound/Music : 9/10
- Clear
- Entertaining to hear
- Music is quite catchy.

Overall, this game gets a 9/10. There aren’t any bugs at the time of this writing, and the basic premise of the game is quite fun, also. The one thing that brings it down, though, is the extreme challenge. If there was a difficulty slider of some sort, that would dumb down the AI as it got lower, and make the AI much more random and smart at a higher level, this would open up a whole new gameplay aspect, and would invite some of the ‘lesser’ players, younger players, and players that hate extreme challenge, to the wonderful world of Advance Wars. And, as I said at the beginning of this review, there simply isn’t enough change over the original to warrant it being called ‘Advance Wars 2’. It should have been Advance Wars 1.5, or something, and Advance Wars 2 be an actual ‘new’ game. But, as the saying goes, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’ There really isn’t anything ‘broken’ in the game, but it needs something new.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/03/03, Updated 07/03/03