Advance Wars: Days of Ruin

Advance Wars: Days of Ruin
Developer	Intelligent Systems
Publisher	Nintendo
System	Nintendo DS
Release Date	US January 21, 2008 EU January 25, 2008 AU February 21, 2008 JP TBA 2008
Gallery	GH Gallery

Advance Wars: Days of Ruin is the second Wars game on the Nintendo DS. It was first mentioned in E3 2007 and was named during the Nintendo Conference in October 2007. Unlike the last two Advance Wars game, it departs from the trilogy in using new graphics, a new cast of COs, and taking on a somewhat darker and grittier tone.

Story

For decades the Rubinelle Army and Lazuria Army have been bitter enemies, locked in a constant battle for power. Amidst the war, the world is suddenly reduced to ruin when meteors rain from the sky and destroy nearly all of the population. What few humans that have survived have banded together to finds ways to survive, despite food shortages everywhere. Despite that, there are still those who seek war and continuing old rivalries.

The game follows Will as he joins up with the 12th Battalion led by Captain Brenner and Lieutenant Lin. He soon meets a mysterious girl that takes the name Isabella due to having no memory of her real name. Together they fight to protect the innocent, to survive, and to find what peace they can in the ruins of their world.

Gameplay

Though the game plays like the entirety of the Wars series, the game has been significantly tweaked from the formula of the first Advance Wars. A returning feature from Super Famicom Wars is the addition of an experience system for individual units. Each unit can go up a rank after destroying an enemy unit three times to Veteran rank, which will slightly increase its overall power. However these rank increases do not carry over to other battles, as each battle begins with all new units.

CO Powers are less powerful than before and Super CO Powers are gone. Instead COs can ride in a unit and immediately promote it to Veteran Rank for half the cost of the unit. Each CO has a 'field' that will apply statistical changes to all units within this field, such as increasing offense or defense. The CO Power can only be charged by the CO Unit however, rather than with all units as in previous games. Like in previous games, CO Powers affect all units.

Many units have been removed and altered, with many new units as well. Notable changes are that Carriers are no longer indirect units, but now deploy the new Seaplane unit and can carry and repair all planes. Battleships have less range, but are the only indirect unit that can move and attack. Rigs (APCs in previous games) are now capable of building Temporary Sea and Air Ports to repair units. Gone are such units as Piperunners, Black Boats, Stealth Planes, Neotanks and Megatanks.

Bikers are new units that act like infantry but can move further, but with the downside that they cannot cross rivers, mountains, and can only use Landers as transport. Duster planes are capable of attacking all units, but lack the power of Fighters and Bombers. Anti-Tanks are new indirect units with tank-like defenses and the ability to counter direct attacks. Lastly, Gunboats are on the cheap end of Naval units that can carry infantry and fire one powerful shot, but have a limit of one ammunition.

Like the previous Advance Wars games, there is a Campaign Mode with 26 missions. Though the War Room is gone, Campaign Mode includes 38 unlockable 'Training' missions that are generally more difficult than Campaign missions. Other modes such as Battle Maps and Conquest have been replaced with a much more robust Multiplayer system that allows for Wi-Fi play. Design Room has also been increased to allow for 50 saved maps that can be traded with other players online or uploaded to the servers to be randomly played and ranked by other gamers.