Advance Wars 2

Hello there, Zerieth here with another game review. Today will be Advanced Wars 2, a turn based tactical warfare game. I will rate for graphics, game play, and story line.

First of all I do not own the actual game but downloaded it for my emulator. I have to say that actually owning would have better for me because I'm missing out on some of the experience. However this emulator did a very good job and I'm quite proud to have played this game on it.

Spoiler alert: I will include some of the CO's and their techniques in this review. If you don't want anything spoiled for you then don't read the * lines.


Advanced Wars 2 is a turn based stategy game that takes place in the modern times. The object of each game map is to either defeat all of the enemy units, or capture the enemy HQ. In order to afford units you have to capture cities using infranty type units, and it goes the same for taking bases, airports, docks, and hq's.

The units you can choose from are plane units, copters, tanks, support, flack, long range, infantry, and ships. These are simply tha categories of units you can make in the game and each has their own advantages going over terrain, fuel cost, and attack power against other types of units. For instance flack (anti air) are no good against medium tanks (the second strongest tank unit) but can take out a B copter unit in one shot at full power. Also infantry units are no good against pretty much anything other than other infantry but are a must if capturing cities and things is needed. They are also the only units who can spot from mountain terrain. Finally long range units can remain back and in hiding as they blast away at anything that comes near them. Park them on cities and their weapons will never run out of ammo.

Also each unit has a set amount of fuel that needs to be watched as the unit roves around. If the unit is land based then it only consumes 1 fuel for each space it moves. If it is a sea unit then it consumes 2 fuel at the start of each turn and then the 1 for the movement. Subs that are under water consume 5 fuel so they run out fast. Air units consume 5 fuel each turn before movement but they are also among the strongest in the game. If a unit is low on fuel put it back on a base/city if it is a ground unit, a airport if it is a air unit, and a port if it is a sea unit. If not then bring a APC unit to them. While APC's don't shoot at enemies they are still invaluable for their ability to carry infantry over long distances and they can also resupply ANY unit in the game.

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You start the campaign in a place called Orange Star and guess what? They are under siege! A enemy force called black hole is trying to dominate the world and it is up to you to stop them. At first you only have access to 3 CO's, Andy, Max, and Sami. Andy is a jack of all trades guy that is neither good or bad with any type of unit and also has a CO power that repairs 2 units of health on each unit and 5 units plus a major movement increase for his super power. I like using him against enemies that damage units. Max is a direct combat guy that realy packs a wallop but his indirect units are weak and lose out on 1 space of range. Ouch. His power increases unit power and his super increases it still further. He gets a lot of 1 hit kills. FInally Sami is a infantry specialist. Her support units have superiour armor and movement range and her infantry can take cities even faster. Normally capturing is calculated by the remaining points left in the city minus the health of the unit capturing it but her units get a 50% increase. So instead of 20 - 10 it could be 20 - 15. Further more even if the unit gets damaged if it still has 4 health it can take the remaining 5 points. While her other units aren't so great as the others she excells at ending fights quickly by capturing the enemy hq.

Later on as you progress through various territories you meet Grit (my favorite a indirect combat specialist), Olaf (a snow master), and Colin (a weaker co but his units are cheaper and his power increases his money and power) of Blue Moon (mm icecream), then you get Kanbei (a real power hitter but his units are a might more expensive), Sensei( a copter specialist), and Sanja (a fog of war master) of yellow comet.. At last you get Eagle (a flight specialist), Drake (a sea specialist) and Jess (a ground specialist) of green earth.

The music in this game is fantastic and when you use the powers you get some heavy metal war music that just totally gets you revved up. The graphics are good and I like the story line a lot. So I give this game a 5/5 for graphics, 5/5 for gameplay, and 5/5 for story line. I A list this game for anyone who wishes to play a war game that requires a lot of strategy.


Ok so my fav matchup is Grit(me) vs Eagle(cpu). Grit's indirect units get a 1 point range increase without the help of a power, and they get 1 more from his regular power Snipe Attack. Finally they can get 2 points added along with a major attack boast with his super power Snipe Strike. So this means that his missle units (long range anti air) can go from 5 range to 8. That's a lot of distance. Eagle has powerful air units but they can't do a thing if they got sniped out of the sky before even getting to their attack point. That coupled with some anti air units to keep the missles safe from anything that does break through makes his air units next to useless. Rocket units (anti ground long range units) do a good job on his ground forces and with some tanks to back them up Grit really is pretty powerful. Granted Eagle is strong to (a co power that increases his air units strength (air strike) and a super power that lets his units go again even if they have been moved or attacked (lightening strike)), but Grit was almost made for taking him down.

Hope you liked the review. Go check out Advance wars 2 black hole rising when you get the chance. You'll be happy you did.

This is Zerieth signing out.