Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising – GBA – Review

They say that good things
come to those who wait.  As true as that old saying may be, the video industry
indicates the complete opposite.  See, what we have here is Advance Wars 2:
Black Hole Rising, the sequel to one of Nintendo’s sleeper hits.  It wasn’t held
back or over-developed, and no statements were ever released saying that it
would be "done when it’s done."  Yet the quality is remarkable, the gameplay is
unbelievably addictive, and just as Nintendo did with Pikmin, they have brought
innovation to an old genre.

Given the series’
sleeper-hit status, it’s likely that some of you have no idea what Advance Wars
is.  The name reveals only a tiny fraction of what this game is: a deep,
extremely involving turn-based strategy game.  If the words "extremely
involving" or "turn-based strategy" turned you off, then obviously you’ve had an
unpleasant experience with the genre.  But don’t let that push you away from one
of Nintendo’s best, most original titles in years.  While most Game Boy Advance
games play or feel like something released during the 16-bit era, Advance Wars 2
is far superior to any strategy game of that time.  In fact, it’s superior to
most strategy games of this time as well.

This is mainly due to the
Advance War 2’s brilliant gameplay mechanics.  They are very simple and very
easy to learn.  There isn’t really a "camera" in this game, since it has a dated
cartoon design, but the view is always top-down.  Units (tanks, helicopters,
military troops, etc.) are commanded individually.  You use the cursor to select
them, and then choose whether to move and attack, move separately or attack
separately or do nothing at all.  When you attack an enemy, the game switches to
a side-by-side split screen, showing a much more detailed look at the combat.
If this description doesn’t sound too exciting, that’s because it’s not.  On
paper, this game sounds about as fun as those old pen and paper RPGs.  But the
gameplay is out of this world.

The primary goal is the
same in almost every mission: wipe out the enemy, or capture their base.  The
same task will be accomplished by completing either of the objectives, so the
choice is up to the player.  Generally though, the player doesn’t have a choice:
you must do what is best for the mission and concentrate on completing the
objective that has the highest success rate.  Of course, you have no way of
knowing the success rate ahead of time, but you can make a pretty good guess.

One of the game’s coolest
aspects is the ability to make your army grow.  The first mission or two don’t
really get into this, but after that, you’ll have to produce zillions of tanks
and military troops if you expect to survive.  However, you can’t pull a tank
out of thin air.  Infantry doesn’t exactly grow on trees either.  That is why
money is earned every turn.  The amount of money earned depends solely on the
amount of property you have.  For every building captured, 1000 additional
points will be earned every turn.  This makes "commanding and conquering" an
integral part of the game.

Being a strategy game,
there are some things you’ll need to learn about Advance Wars 2, especially if
you are new to the genre.  The first few levels will teach you everything you
need to know — how to change your position, how to attack, etc.  The in-game
help will also give you lots of information on each of the vehicles, pointing
out their strengths and weaknesses.  For those of you who have finished the
original, this might seem a little tedious.  But for newcomers, this is exactly
what you need to get going.

Once you’ve completed the
first few levels (which were mainly created to get you going, whether you’re a
new player or not), you’ll be greeted by a swift kick in the butt.  At this
point, the off button becomes your new best friend.  Let me tell you, for a
"simple" game, Advance Wars 2 is really challenging.  I’d set up a whole army,
plan my assault oh-so-carefully, and then wind up getting wasted by the enemy’s
wiser choices (either sneak attacks, faster infiltration or a more intelligent
use of their budget).  This prompted me to hit the off button and start the
mission all over again.  I figure if the enemy can hide in the fog, I should at
least have the right to start over.

When you’re not running
from the big bad enemy (or perhaps after you’ve kicked the final boss’s butt),
you’ll want to check out Advance Wars 2’s map creation feature.  Sim City fans
will instantly recognize the simple, easy-to-use interface.  Every building and
terrain type is at your disposal, and the map is huge, so you have the freedom
to do pretty much whatever you want.  I know that technologically this is very
basic, but it feels so "Advanced."  Either way I can’t help but love it.

There are a lot of
must-buy games out there, but how could you stand to live without one of the
best?  I’d honestly recommend this game to anyone, regardless of their genre
preference.  Young kids (anyone under the age of 12) will probably not have the
patience to play this game since it involves a lot of careful planning.  But
it’s simple enough that anyone who does have the patience will be rewarded with
an experience that is truly worthy of the Nintendo label.

Reviewer’s Scoring Details

Gameplay: 9.5
First Nintendo
made me a fan of real-time strategy games with Pikmin, and now they’ve piqued my
interest in turn-based strategy games.  Advance Wars 2 is full of all the
exciting, addicting gameplay of the first game, and best of all, there’s more of
it.  And it’s more challenging.  And there’s a map editor!  And there’s…

Graphics: 7
The side-by-side
attack animations are cool.  However, this isn’t a very graphic-intensive game.
The map isn’t cluttered with special effects that it doesn’t need, which I’m
fine with.  But because of that, its graphics don’t deserve a high score.

Sound: 5
I like Advance
Wars 2’s music, I really do.  But why in the world are there only a few songs on
this soundtrack?  Maybe there are more, but you NEVER hear them!  The same
16-bit quality beats are repetitively played from start to finish.  (And incase
you couldn’t tell, saying that the sound is 16-bit quality is not a compliment.)

Difficulty: Hard
Advance Wars 2
has some easy aspects, but all in all, the computer opponents will fight like
crazy to kick your butt.

Concept: 8.5
The first Advance
Wars game was a huge innovation for the GBA.  To ensure the game’s quality, the
developers started from the ground up.  They didn’t borrow from another title or
do things that have already been done.  No, this isn’t the first turn-based
strategy game, but it is the first one that made me take the genre seriously.

That same tender loving care has
been applied to the sequel.
One thing Advance Wars 2 has in common with Nintendo’s 8 and 16-bit games is
that it has everything you loved about the original game and a whole lot more.

Multiplayer: 8.5
Finally, a good
multiplayer game for the GBA!  You could literally spend hours planning out
attacks on your friends.  Man, I wish they’d bring this to the ‘Cube.  Aside
from the awesome split-screen action, they could take the multiplayer features
online.

Overall: 9.2
The Advance Wars
series is one of Nintendo’s unexpected surprises.  While people scratch their
heads, wondering what kind of things we’ll see in the next Metroid game,
Nintendo jumps ahead and gives us a must-own sequel to its must-own turn-based
strategy game.