Advance Wars: Days of Ruin Alters Landscape of Game Series

Ever since the release of Advance Wars on the Gameboy Advance (2001), the series has received much attention and acclaim. Three sequels have been released, Advance Wars 2 (2003), Advance Wars Dual Strike (2005), and the latest, Days of Ruin. Previous sequels seemed more like expansion packs, adding units and features without significantly altering the gameplay or graphics. With Days of Ruin, instead of simply expanding on Advance Wars Dual Strike, Nintendo and Intelligent Systems have made multiple alterations to the graphics and gameplay. The result, an Advanced Wars game that is different, but still fun and addictive.

First and foremost, Days of Ruin has a much darker mood than any previous Advance Wars game. Gone are the light hearted, brightly colored, and "cute" graphics and tone of Advance Wars. Days of Ruin is much more "depressing". Units during battle scenes are drawn more realistically and proportionally compared to the super deformed style of earlier Advance Wars games. The color scheme in Days of Ruin also uses darker and more military-like hues. No more bright red, yellow, or green colors on vehicles and soldiers. Units and graphics in Days of Ruin are much more subdued and bland, reflecting the darker tone of the game.

Like the graphics, the story in Days of Ruin is nowhere near as light-hearted as earlier Advance Wars games. You play as Will, who is looking for survivors after surviving a meteor shower that destroyed most of the world. Ambushed by raiders, he is saved by Captain Brenner and his army. He soon rescues a mysterious girl named Isabella, who has amnesia but somehow has detailed knowledge of military secrets. Both then travel with Captain Brenner as they look for more survivors, find supplies, fight raiders, and ultimately deal with the megalomaniac Admiral Greyfield and his sponsor, Intelligent Defense Systems.

The basic turn based gameplay and control scheme has not changed in Days of Ruin. Like Advance Wars Dual Strike, Days of Ruin makes excellent use of the Nintendo DS stylus and touchscreen to create a very user friendly interface. You and your opponent still take turns ordering units to move, attack, and purchase/deploy units. And every unit still has their strengths and weaknesses.

So while keeping the basic turn based gameplay of Advance Wars intact, Nintendo and Intelligent Systems have modified and added to many other aspects of the game. New terrain tiles such as rough seas and wasteland increases the terrain variety in Days of Ruin. Many new units such as bikes (highly mobile infantry), anti-tank guns (a powerful indirect unit against tanks and fires counter-battery when attacked), and duster aircraft (attacks both land and air units) allows for greater flexibility in combined arms tactics than in previous Advance Wars games.

Nintendo and Intelligent Systems have also tweaked many units to rebalance the gameplay in Days of Ruin. Compared to Advance Wars Dual Strike, most units are slightly cheaper in Days of Ruin, making them easier to purchase and deploy. Many units have also had their attack and defense ratings adjusted, and several units have been given extra abilities. For example, the basic tank now has better defense and are more effective against more powerful tanks. APC's have been renamed "rigs" and are able to build temporary airports and seaports. Cruisers are better at attacking ships and destroying subs. And while carriers have been stripped of their ridiculously powerful anti-air ability from Advance Wars Dual Strike, they are able to build seaplanes and launch airstrikes in Days of Ruin.

Units in Days of Ruin can also gain attack and defense bonuses based on their experience. Every time a unit destroys an enemy unit, it gains a level. Destroy three units and it becomes a veteran. Each level increases the attack and defense rating for the unit, giving you an incentive to keep your units alive instead of letting them fight to the death on the front lines.

The biggest change in Days of Ruin lies with the CO's and CO powers. Unlike previous Advance Wars games CO unit bonuses are not global. In Days of Ruin CO's have to accompany a unit (at a cost of 50% of the unit's price) to project an area of influence and units within this area receive the CO's bonus. Only when you use a CO's power, will your CO's unit bonus apply to all your units on the map.

Similarly, CO powers have been toned down in Days of Ruin. The majority of CO powers in Days of Ruin have been reduced to supporting roles. Some CO's do not even have CO powers, but in exchange have larger areas of influence or better CO unit bonuses. In addition, CO powers can only be charged if the CO is on the battlefield and attacks an enemy unit or has a friendly unit within their area of influence attack an enemy unit. Thus, it takes much longer to charge CO powers in Days of Ruin compared to previous Advance Wars games.

Using CO powers in Days of Ruin also incurs a penalty, drastically reducing the area of influence your CO has over nearby units. So depending on how much you depended on CO powers in previous Advance Wars games, these changes may or may not be welcome. With the change to CO powers, strategy and tactics are more important in Days of Ruin than in earlier Advance Wars games. You cannot depend on an overpowered ability to help you win. Instead, you must strategize and use your units effectively to win in Days of Ruin.

Of course there are many units and aspects of the game that were present in Advance Wars Dual Strike or even earlier Advance Wars games that were omitted from Days of Ruin. First, the cast of characters in Days of Ruin is completely new. No characters from older Advance Wars games even make a cameo in Days of Ruin.

Furthermore, all Black Hole developed units and weapons, the black boats, black bombs, oozium, black cannons, and piperunners (along with pipes) are gone. Stealth bombers are no more, and both neotanks and megatanks have been replaced with the war tank. Dual screen battles have been removed as the ability to "tag" CO's or use two CO's at once. In addition, the ability for CO's to gain experience and equip skills has also been removed from Days of Ruin.

Much more noticeable are the disappearance of the battle maps shop and the war room. A staple of the Advance Wars games since its release, both are not present in Days of Ruin. Instead, the war room has been replaced by "trial maps" which are unlocked by playing through the campaign. And the battle maps shop is irrelevant in Days of Ruin, as most maps are already unlocked when you begin the game.

Aside from the campaign, there are no additional mini-games or challenges (short of the trial maps) in Days of Ruin. The survivor and combat modes present in Advance Wars Dual Strike did not carry over to Days of Ruin. The history screen is still there, highlighting your accomplishments in Days of Ruin and giving you medals for them. But like Advance Wars Dual Strike, this serves little purpose in Days of Ruin other than for bragging rights.

But, the ability to play Days of Ruin over Nintendo's Wi-Fi network makes up for everything. Finally, you can test your Advance Wars skills against other Days of Ruin players around the world. Days of Ruin allows you to jump into a battle with a random opponent (along with a random map) or go against a friend in your friend list. The latter is better as you have much more customization options when you play against friends, not to mention the priceless taunting ability via the Nintendo DS microphone and built in voice chat.

To add further replay value, Days of Ruin allows you to download additional player created maps. While the maps are small, limited to 10x10 spaces in size, this gives Days of Ruin tremendous replay value as there are numerous maps you can download and play. Downloaded maps are saved to your custom maps directory, which now allows you to save up to 50 maps instead of the previous Advance Wars limit of three.

As with prior Advance Wars games, Days of Ruin still gives you the option to design your own maps. So if you are dissatisfied with the default maps in Days of Ruin, go ahead and design your own. You can even upload your maps (again limited to 10x10 spaces) to Nintendo for distribution to Days of Ruin players around the world and check the rating on your latest uploaded map to see what others think of it.

Nintendo and Intelligent Systems did not forget about local multiplayer or multi-cart options as you can still play Days of Ruin against nearby opponents. Or if you only have one Nintendo DS or one copy of Days of Ruin, the hotseat option is still available as it always has been with previous Advance Wars titles.

In conclusion, Days of Ruin brings many changes and tweaks to the core gameplay of Advance Wars. While the basic turn based strategy formula of Advance Wars remains intact, the additional units and adjustments in Days of Ruin brings new strategic elements and a refreshing change to the Advance Wars series. The improvements to the story and character development of the single-player campaign are also a nice touch, providing an incentive to finish Days of Ruin and changing the repetitive "run over the Black Hole Army" theme of older Advance Wars games. Nintendo and Intelligent Systems could have simply added to and expanded Advance Wars Dual Strike, but they instead decided rework the game and in doing so, brought about a fresh start for the Advance Wars series.