The danger of having a successful series of video games (or movies, or novels, or poetry recitations recorded on wax cylinders) is that if you give fans more of the same every time, you get accused of playing it safe. Yet if you change the formula too much, you lose those fans entirely.
The previous games in the Advance Wars series have put players into the combat boots of colourful army commanders, ordering cartoony tanks and soldiers to wage war across a variety of terrain. Each scenario requires you to vanquish the enemy through a combination of strategic smarts and tactical execution, and it's a wonderfully heady and addictive mix.
Advance Wars: Days of Ruin follows suit, but it's surprisingly darker and more serious than the earlier games, set in a post-apocalyptic world in which civilization is teetering on the edge of collapse. The bright and friendly visuals have been replaced by edgier illustrations of the games' many units, from infantry and tanks to battleships and bombers.
The core gameplay is pretty much the same, though, with the addition of a few new units and features, like commanding officers who are actual soldiers on the field instead of just tactical shot-callers safe behind the front line. Some fans might lament the loss of the tag-team power-ups from 2005's Advance Wars: Dual Strike, but frankly they were too damn powerful, so good riddance.
Although the game has been streamlined a bit to make it a little easier for newcomers, Days of Ruin's biggest flaw is the same one that plagues most of the other games in the series: By the time you get to the ultra-challenging later levels, you'd better be channelling the spirit of Sun Tzu himself if you hope to win.
Still, it's an expected quirk of these games, and because everything else is so much fun, it's easy to overlook. Don't go changin', Advance Wars. And keep the sequels coming.
BOTTOMLINE
The darker and more serious tone won't appeal to everyone, but beneath it is the same great strategy game experience that's made the venerable Advance Wars series such a gem.
ADVANCE WARS: DAYS OF RUIN
Sun Rating: 4 out of 5
NINTENDO DS
Intelligent
Systems/Nintendo
Rating:
Everyone 10+
