Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising

"Best strategy game yet for GBA!"

Ok, I've played both aw 1, and now aw2, and I find both games pretty amazing, and I usually don't even like strategy games, only the AW series, and the Final Fantasy Tactics series, but this is a MUST HAVE for you strategy game players, definitely one who like play games mobile!

Game play: 10!
The strategy is great as ever in this game, so much has been upgraded since the last game. Sure, there's only 1 new unit, but so many other upgrades keep everything fresh and fun, such as new structures, nuke silos, new CO's, 2 powers instead of 1, and several other things. In campaign mode, every battle requires different strategy, and coming up with how to win is so fun that I was enjoying the game even when I was losing sometimes. Versus mode, 4 player is one of the best things I've ever done with my GBA, 3 friends and I had a great time with the great multiplayer mode. Even playing AI players is fun, they are much smarter than in the last game. I've played this game over 80 hours, seriously. Even some maps will take over an hour, but it's be the most fun hour ever. After only 3-7 turns, the fighting should already begin, and true tactics ensue. Adapting to terrain, utilizing unit strengths and weaknesses, using CO's and their powers correctly is important too.
Don't get the wrong idea though, this game is very easy to learn and get into, but tough to master!

Replay: 9
Like I said, I've played this game so long, I've beaten campaign 4 times, and advance campaign twice, and I'm going to do it again. Why? Because it's fun. Advance Wars does not get boring fast. Only those people who don't have the brains for true war strategy (i.e. are giving this game low scores), may not like it, but anyone else who doesn't mind thinking in a video game will play this for a long time, and will play several times, for many many hours.

Sound: 9
This game has simply amazing music. The music is even more enhanced with headphones, especially the 'last stage' theme (check sound test). The sound effects too are awesome. The music is game rivals the music of Golden Sun 2. It's that good. Personally, my favorites are Nell's theme, Black Hole Superpower, Factory Domination, and Victory Theme. My favorite sound effect is Rockets blasting enemy infantry!

Controls: 9
This game is fairly easy to take control of, as it's a strategy game. You tell the units to do something, and they do it. Plus, the menus are very simple to operate. Only a nine though do to VERY slight difficulty making your own maps. Only some problems there though, making your own maps is still a very useful feature, those who have a lot of creativity, like me, will spend dozens of hours playing custom maps alone.

Story: 10!
The story is MUCH better than the last one, I give the last one a 7. Instead of controlling Orange Star, you control all of the 4 main armies against the Black Hole army. The dialogue is also very much improved than before, characters like Andy and Kanbei are no longer bungling morons, but make a lot of sense in this game. The enemy's are also very good too, Hawk having the best lines. Campaign mode is set up much better than before. Instead of a straight forward campaign, you get a lot of choices of missions. Saving Blue Moon before Yellow Comet actually effects story from doing it the other way around. Also, you can skip unimportant missions, although it will have a detrimental effect on your future missions (That mission in Blue Moon to stop the nuclear missile? Yeah, you better go and do that...). The story is much more impressive this time around. The plot as well is much more non-lame than last time. This time, Black Hole is stealing resources from the 4 countries via factories. After you destroy the 4 factories, you go onto the enemy homeland and destroy the Death Laser. All the way there, fun ensues. The missions are WAY more varied in this game, and more missions depend on using more than 1 CO to defeat the enemy, which is a lot of fun when you and some friends each control one. I always use Grit, while my friends used Eagle and Kanbei on the last 2 missions. IT was totally awesome, you have to try it yourself, especially if you excel with one CO. (I excel with Grit. he he).

Graphics: 9
Purely awesome. Special effects are greatly enhanced, terrain backgrounds are way better on the over world AND during battle. New CO images are greatly improved as well, especially Kanbei, Olaf, and Grit, although Andy and Max look much better as well (Andy no longer looks like he's 13, he must be at least 17-18 now). Units are also much better looking.. The unlockable images, viewable in sound test, are really amazing as well, for a GBA.

Overall: 10!
I've had so much fun with this game that it rivals even FFTA, another amazing game. I'm not joking, you will have a lot of fun with this title.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/07/03