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Advance Wars

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Advance Wars
File:0095.jpg
Developer(s)Intelligent Systems
Publisher(s)Nintendo
Platform(s)Game Boy Advance
ReleaseUnited States September 9, 2001
Europe January 11, 2002
Genre(s)Strategy
Mode(s)Single player Multiplayer

Advance Wars is a war strategy game (turn-based) for the Nintendo Game Boy Advance system, and is a continuation of the Nintendo Wars series. It has two sequels: Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising and Advance Wars: Dual Strike.

Story

Template:Spoiler Advance Wars begins with Orange Star warring against Blue Moon. As a tactical advisor for Orange Star, the player follows the war effort through all three other countries over the course of the game. In the end, it is revealed that the enigmatic Black Hole Army, under the command of Sturm, is the true enemy. Using a CO doppelganger clone of Andy, Sturm stirred up war among the four countries in order to confuse, weaken, and eventually conquer them. Once this is revealed, the four countries unite to drive Black Hole out of their land. Template:Endspoiler

Gameplay

The player and an opponent take turns moving troops and attacking. Victory is obtained by either routing the opponent's forces, or capturing their headquarters.

Each army can have a total of 50 troops at a time and can perform an action with each one every turn. Units are classified as ground, air or sea, depending on their movement type. To create more troops, the player must pay money obtained by capturing cities. A player can build ground units at factories, sea units at seaports, and air units at airports. These structures can also heal damaged units.

Screenshot of Advance Wars

Units can additionally be classed as direct combat, indirect combat, infantry, and transport. Air and Sea units require a certain amount of fuel each turn to move. If they run out of fuel, they crash/sink, and the unit is lost. Infantry units may capture buildings. Transport units can carry other units, and usually also supply them with additional fuel and ammunition. Indirect units can attack at a range, avoiding being counterattacked, but may not move and fire on the same turn. Each unit has different strengths and weaknesses against other units, making it crucial to tailor one's army to meet the opponent.

At the beginning of each battle, each player chooses a Commanding Officer, or CO, to represent their army. Each CO has strengths and weaknesses that apply to all units under their command. Also, each CO has a unique CO Power that can be used when charged, temporarily granting them an additional advantage or impairing the enemy in some way.

Countries

There are four main countries in the game: Orange Star, Blue Moon, Yellow Comet, and Green Earth. Orange Star and Blue Moon reside on the northwestern continent. Green Earth resides on the southern continent, and Yellow Comet resides on a chain of islands to the East. Blue Moon, Yellow Comet, and Green Earth both have two COs each. Orange Star has four COs, while Black Hole only has one.

COs

File:Mak-sturm4a.png
Sturm activates his CO power, Meteor Strike
Main article: List of Advance Wars COs

Advance Wars has 11 Commanding Officers (COs), each with unique strengths, weaknesses and a CO Power that can be used when fully charged.

Real-world parallels

The armies in Advance Wars seem to have qualities (equipment, vehicles, CO appearance, etc.) similar to those of armies that exist or existed sometime in the history of the real world. Orange Star appears to be modeled after a modern American army, Blue Moon looks like a Communist Russian Army, Yellow Comet resembles a WWI-era Japanese Army, and Green Earth takes after a WWII-era Europe, with Drake and Eagle most likely representing Britain, and many of their units representing various WWII German equivalents - one such example being their helmets. Later games in the series support this by the addition of characters who seemingly represent Spain and France.

In the Japanese version, Orange Star is named Red Star. Fans of the series believe that it was changed to "Orange Star" in the North American release in order to avoid the reference to the red star, which is often used to symbolize communism.

Black Hole's units look exactly like Orange Star's, albeit colored black. The CO, Sturm, is of indeterminate nationality, as his identity is fully concealed by a mask; however, given his German name (Sturm is German for storm, but can also mean a military rush and his original Japanese name Herr Böse means Mister Evil), his unit bonuses, and his general pattern of attacking other nations, it is not unreasonable to suggest that in spirit Black Hole would represent a Nazi Germany. The game's sequel, Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising, strongly implies that the Black Hole Army hails from another world, with Black Hole units appearance generally altered to reflect this.

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