Before you go any further into this article I feel it needs a quick explanation. One rainy day Brad and I were discussing this exact thing on instant messenger. We realized that there are a lot of really cool things one can think of in regards to the new Nintendo 3DS, and a new iteration of Advance Wars.
Since we both really like the series and had a good deal of input we decided to try something new. This is our first attempt at an ARTICLE DUAL STRIKE! Where you'll actually get a full explanation, along with actual conversation between the two of us. PURAASSSUUUMMAAAA!
AMADO:
Ok so I get why it was once called Advance Wars, it was because the first one debuted on the Game Boy Advance, but we’re now going to be on the 3DS. Maybe it’s time we changed the name to... ummm... actually I think the Advance is stuck now because of branding so I’ll shut up about that.
What I really want to talk about is ADVANCE WARS 3DS OMG! Have you ever played an Advance Wars game? Seriously? No? Something is very wrong with you. I Highly recommend this game to anyone. No, seriously anyone. It’s one of those games that can be enjoyed by everyone, don’t you agree Brad?
BRAD:
Oh sure force me agree with you, you red headed Mexican bastard child. But I really have no choice but to also recommend the series to any gamer, especially anyone into turn based strategies. For me the series finds that perfect balance of being really easy to play, but also has a depth of gameplay that is satisfying as well as challenging. It’s a fact that Advance Wars will kick you in the nuts, place them on a satin covered pedestal, and then force you to eat them T.V. dinner style while watching re-runs of Golden Girls (Blanch is such a skank ho).
AMADO:
I see... Golden girls, right. Any-who allow me a brief moment of your time for those of you whom have never played it. Those of you who have, and are on board already skip this next paragraph:
Developed by Intelligent Systems; Published by Nintendo; First released September 10th 2001. They made: Advance Wars, Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising on the Game Boy Advance. Advance Wars Dual Strike and Advance Wars: Days of Ruin for the Nintendo DS.
Take it away Bitch-face!
BRAD:
It’s a tactics turn based strategy game where you command your own little army. Capturing cities, gaining funds, and deploying units for battle against up to 3 other armies. Your army is deployed onto a grid like map and your goal is to either destroy all of your enemies or take over your opponents headquarters. Once you get into the thick of it, your going to gain access to different types of soldiers, vehicles, and commanders that will require you to learn their advantages and disadvantages in order to fight another day. Factors such as terrain, ammunition, fuel, resources (cash money), and squad numbers will inevitably leads to either rubbing your success in your friends face or shoving your foot up their ass. Speaking of asses...
AMADO:
Rubbing success into your friends faces. Right I do remember doing quite a bit of that. So now let’s get into the why we want them to bring it to the 3DS!
I’ll be the gimmicky one and say it first. 3D. You can’t tell me that 3D screen technology doesn't excite you in the slightest, I just refuse to believe it. I mean you did watch James Cameron’s Avatar didn’t you? Because I’ve seen the 3DS in action first hand I’m a believer brothers and sisters. What stuck with me is that they didn’t just throw it in as a stupid, ahh watch out for that tree! Omg water shoots at your face! Instead they understood that it is better used to enhance the depth of field. You’d literally be looking into a box where a battlefield is living and dying inside your 3DS like a bloody violent little diorama. With tanks!
BRAD:
It’s hard to say how much the 3D is going to effect the gameplay on this type of game. Which is always been the big question with 3D gaming. Will it prove to be helpful in a turn based strategy game? One thing is for sure, having the 3D combined with Wii like graphics is going to produce some high quality visuals, especially in the battle cut-scenes where they show your two armies duking it out like Hulk Hogan and Macho Man Randy Savage. Just think about it, during an online WIFI match you would see your opponents missiles coming flying at you. Yeah, maybe I’m a sucker for cheesy 3D gwaphics.
AMADO:
I’m stealing this one. Augmented Reality! Can you imagine what they could do? I mean have you seen any of those AR videos? I’m probably going a few years into AR’s future with this one, but in my head I see it possible that instead of selling you just a cartridge, they’ll sell you a cartridge and a physical stage, maybe even selling custom battle stages post release. In episode 41 of our podcast we talked about Tabletop Gaming. I can see this as a bridge between us and our gamer cousins, the tabletop gamers. Anything you’d like to add Mr. Jerger?
BRAD:
I can see it now... Oh no the enemy is launching their gigante Amado testicle force attack! That’s what I see in the future of AR gaming with Advances Wars. In all honesty it could be cool as a side feature where you could play like that and actually interact with the objects (like that Invisimals game for PSP) against your opponent in real time in the same room. Very cool idea. Practical, not really... testicles... I leave you with that thought in your head. I’m actually interested how the pedometer feature could be implemented, What do you think?
AMADO:
Is that the walky county thingy?
 |
| AW Days or Ruin artwork by Ryo Hirata |
BRAD:
Yes, ass face.
AMADO:
Ok yeah, so not Pedobear ok. I’m not so sure about that one honestly let me think...
BRAD:
Well I was thinking with the pedometer feature you earn in games coins that you can spend in game. For example you could use the coins to gain extra fuel or resources for your tanks etc. Things of that nature, I like to think outside the 3D box you know. Don’t you dare make a Mom joke or I’ll cut you...
AMADO:
Threats of bodily damage from almost 400 miles away hold no weight. However, I will take the classy route and not kiss and tell. As for this Pedometer thing, I don’t know if they should do that due to balance. Then again maybe if you were terrible at this game, having that option available to you might be the win button that has been so prevalent in games lately.
The last thing that sounds kind of interesting to me is the Street Pass thing. any ideas?
Well Amado, I really like turtles, so I’m actually hoping they add a infirmary for baby turtles where I can raise all my cute cuddly baby turtles, and trade them with my friends :D.
AMADO:
What does this have to do with Advance Wars?
BRAD:
Hey stop putting words into my mouth and let me speak or I’ll bring out the big guns (kisses bicep). Well I think the pedometer could be used for single player game in someway. But obviously your not interested in that, so Ill jump on the street pass bandwagon. With Street Pass function turned on it seems that the only thing you would want to trade with someone is stats or maybe maps that people create. In Days of Ruin you could download maps online and use them for yourself or upload your own. This way you could get them from anyone at anytime. But there should be something else you could receive from someone that would be interesting.... maybe your Brontosaurus pea brain has a thought hidden in there. Hello!? Knock knock, anyone in there? McFly?
Amado:
Grunt... *scratches nuts.
Brad:
I didn’t think so. In all honesty the Street Pass thing doesn’t interesting me all that much. Maybe once I get the 3DS in my hands I’ll get a better feel for what it has to offer. I did have an awesome thought about playing the game online that would be really rad, well two thoughts. I know it’s crazy I just had two thoughts, just hang with me. My first idea was about when you play online against other people. While your playing the game the 3DS could be recording/photographing your faces during key moments in the match. At the end of the match it could display them for everyone to see in a battle replay of sorts. Plus if you end up being the winner of the round you could add a nice victory shot of your nut sack to really Pwn your friends. I seem to have an obsession with nuts today, strange. Anyways the second idea that would be much more reasonable would be to be able to take pics of your face and place them on your little soldiers so you can see yourself running around in the game. I just think things like would be fun to do and make the online experiences more unique. I wonder what other things they would do to the online part of the game.
AMADO:
Hey! I was watching a movie, but I’m back.
Nuts as a victory shot. I’m interested. Actually though I do have a thought about Street Pass. I was thinking... you mentioned game stats. I’m seeing kind of like a local scoreboard. Being in Fresno I’ll likely never pass anyone else with a 3DS unless I know them. In San Francisco though where you live and other more commute heavy cities I can see this becoming something cool. You probably take the train with the same people every day and if they have a 3DS and are playing this as well, you’ll constantly be getting updates on their scores, passive aggressively competing with them lol.
Anyway that’s it for me man. I’m sure there are tons of other things that we can come up with in this article but I really doubt anyone is still reading at this point! Any final thoughts Brad?
BRAD:
Testicles.... large testicles.
AMADO:
Aww jeez Brad what a way to end the article.
So I pose this question to anyone out there that has played any of these games.
Can you think of anything awesome the 3DS will do with the Advance Wars series that we’ve not seen up to this point?
I've heard a lot of good about the Advance Wars games, but have never played a portable version.
ReplyDeleteI do own, and have completed, Battalion Wars II on the Wii...though I'm not sure how close the series is, but I thought they were developed by the same company...
Being that I haven't played the Advance Wars games though, I can't really think of anything awesome for the developers to do with the 3D functionality on the 3DS.
The Battalion Wars entries were developed by a different company (Kuju Entertainment). All of the Advance Wars titles were developed by Intelligent Systems (the guys who do Paper Mario and Fire Emblem. Actually, if you're wondering what the gameplay's like, the Fire Emblem series is a lot like the Advance Wars series).
Delete@Coffee I had no idea there was a Wii version! My friend Lenard told me that in Japan they actually have had them since the NES generation. It was just called "Gameboy Wars" I think.
ReplyDelete@Brad Amazing photoshop job of our faces on those guys XD! P.S. I'm the one on the right.
They have had them for a long time. Actually, the "Advance Wars" series can be labelled as part of a broader set of games, the "Wars" or "Nintendo Wars" series, which encompasses "Famicom Wars", "Super Famicom Wars", the three "Game Boy Wars" titles, the 4 "Advance Wars" titles, and the two "Battalion Wars" titles.
DeleteAdvance Wars is the best. I liked how Days of Ruin balanced out the overpowered CO moves yet still had some buff for commanders. I hope they bring it back.
ReplyDeleteNice write up
You know a 'Design Unit' mode would be great. With online battles that could make all the difference because you could have wildly different kinds of tanks and artillery. Unlockable/downloadable parts. That sort of thing. Then the 'plans' could go via streetpass and spotpass etc.
ReplyDeleteThat would be very interesting indeed. It would probably ruin the balance of the game unless they could somehow limit...! I got it. When you make your tank you only have a certain amount of points, and the parts you use to put it together cost points. So you can only do so much.
ReplyDeleteOn second thought that would probably ruin it because then there'd really only be one or two possible "GREAT" vehicles to come out of it, and everyone would make the same one lol.
Good idea though, thanks for commenting :D!
Yeah I was envisaging sliding scales so that more power and defence add to the cost, increased range means higher rate of fuel use etc. Personally I was just tired of the same old units and always knowing what the outcome between two units would be. Having units level up was a good idea but I got tired of that too. Basically I just wanted more variety. The idea came when I was thinking of the different roles I wanted from ships. I went through a phase of making massive naval-oriented maps and I'd end up having all these cruisers all doing nothing. I wanted cheap little ships that could fire on coastal units without having to go to the expense of build battleships or carriers. Or missile cruisers that could fire at air units and ground units but over a distance not just directly. And even stuff like 'super carriers' that could carry 4 units or something. It's all about roles: if you can find a unit that fits a gap then it will help. But like you say, there needs to be balance. The most obvious way is pricing the unit out of range but I'm sure there are other ways. My name is Lewis by the way. Just couldn't be arsed to set up a profile
ReplyDeleteOh and by the way, I assume you're all Americanos? I see you all refer to Dark Conflict as Days of Ruin.
ReplyDeleteOh and it's 5 to 7pm not 11 in the morning.
ReplyDeletelol. Yes sir Lewis we both live in different parts of California. Home of the X-Governator-which is actually a cartoon that he somehow green lit. Where are you from?
ReplyDeleteAnyway yes I really like that idea. I've had too many naval battles where I was left with a bunch of cruisers sitting around doing nothing and thought to myself: what a waste. Who knows what they'll do with the next one, hopefully they'll take what the fans say to heart and make things more... interesting.
The leveling up was a great idea, but your right it was very short lived. I played Patapon 1 and Patapon 2 for PSP and one big improvement was that you could level up your units outside of battle. What you leveled up up to would be more proficient in a certain aspect. I think it would be pretty cool for them to do something like that too. Maybe give them better weapons, upgrade their armors. I'd like to make my little assault units into Mountaineers-- most effective when firing from the mountains :P.
I'm from Manchester, Englandland. You're getting the idea now: anything that lets you individualise what you want to get what you need. The most direct way is a design unit mode made up of either 1000s of combinable parts (like different size hulls for ships to get different numbers of weapons etc or a series of sliders on range and att etc. A more advanced levelling up sounds good too because it actually makes the unit feel more worthwhile. As far as 3D goes I suppose the best addition they could make is a ground level and an air level so that air units can actually fly over other units for once. In fact that could actually let bombers be on top of the units they're trying to bomb. Which is more or less how it works in real life remember.
ReplyDeleteFamicom Wars has grown up so fast...
ReplyDeleteThis is a great article. I'm sorry if I'm waking up an old post but I'd like to say those are great ideas. Now that the 3DS is out, what do you guys think?
ReplyDeleteMan, even thinking of an Advance wars game for 3DS makes my back shiver... I hope they make one
ReplyDelete@Nick Thanks! It's always a good thing to read that someone is enjoying anything we wrote no matter how old :P. Lucky this isn't that dated as you say, the 3DS is out.
ReplyDelete@Warkid Here's hoping they do this! I also hope they don't get too excited with the graphics and change visual style too much. The jump between the GBA ones and the DS ones wasn't that big, and the visual style didn't change at all so I have high hopes.
@Nick, I'm glad this article keeps getting hit up. I knew we weren't the only ones hoping for a 3DS version of Advance Wars. I'm not sure when well get it since Intelligent Systems is working on Paper Mario 3DS.
ReplyDeleteBut I'm sure we will get it eventually.
I'd love to see this for the Nintendo 3DS as I will be buying one soon!
ReplyDeleteI loved the first 3 games, played them for hours and completed EVERYTHING.
Unfortunately I REALLY disliked Advance Wars Dark Conflict. I hate the way nearly everything had changed, original CO's dead, no more Super CO Powers and no more working together using to CO's :(
Hated it. (Yes I did complete it though)
E3 coming up soon. Fingers crossed!
ReplyDeleteYes E3 would be a nice announcement. I don't think we'll see anything. The last I read Intelligent Systems was working on a Paper Mario Game for 3DS.
ReplyDeletePersonally, like all of the advances wars, indeed the older CO were overpowered and in DoR,they pretty much started a new cast of characters but with the way they ended it, might be new people again unless they can continue with whats left... playing with friends is always a blast, online not so much, 1 vs 1 is..... kinda dull because its only 1 person to worry about, it could be a bad idea but i think adding 4 players free for all or 2 vs vs 2 or those that think they are bad@$$ 3 vs 1 by all means go for it, yes i know what ur thinking if ur losing bad someone will quit but if someone does they should have it that the just gave up and and the other 3 continue the war and if people try to turn off game to keep a good record have it delete all wins and lose on there profile sure some people dont care but it sucks when sore losers cant accept they made a bad call or misjudge there target adding new upgrades and buffs could be cool to, and to actually see a good guy die in DoR was alil shocking, in the past if i remember right no one died ( that was good ) but other then that kick@$$ game, just add more options to online play!!!! make it more heart pounding ooooohhhhhh!!!!!! but of course this is my idea to throw out there.... anyone else think that its a good idea?
ReplyDeleteI think it would be a good idea if someone bailed on a online match a white flag goes up and it's a race for the other players to pick up their troops to add to their ranks. The person that left the match could get some sort of penalty the next round you play. Like a reduction of certain types of troop.
ReplyDeleteIt would be crazy if they had a world wide mode where everyone starts off with a certain number of troops and you fight sort of like Risk. As you lose battles you still live to fight another day until you run out of troops etc.
Advance Wars is a fun game, and I have played all 4
ReplyDelete(Advance Wars, Advance Wars 2 The Black Hole Rising, Advance Wars Dual Strike, and Advance Wars Days of Ruin/Dark Conflict) and I think they should make Advance Wars 3ds, I want a new challenge.
We want it too! We've been waiting and waiting. Fire Emblem was a nice offering and had fun characters but I like the strategy more in Advance Wars. Plus tanks are cool. Am I right?
Delete