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Video Games : Advance Wars: Dark Conflict (Nintendo DS)
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Rating: 
- Gloom and doom
Not half as enjoyable as the bright, quirky and cartoonish Dual Strike. Muddy, indistinguishable colours are hard on the eyes. Reams of tedious dialog. Uninspired maps and features. The "commander" upgrade is more realistic than the superpowers of DS, but is so restricted that it adds little to the gameplay and hardly affects the outcome.
A disappointment.
Rating:
- A return to form for the Advance War series
After the slightly disappointingly bloated Dual Strike, this is a brilliant return to form. The dual-screen and outrageous commander powers are out, the emphasis is back on simple game mechanics and complex strategy!
New features to be aware of:
-your commander is now inside a unit and his power meter only goes up when damage happens in his vicinity; this greatly reduces the emphasis on commander powers and is in my opinion a good thing
-units earn one experience point after each victory, up to three points; more experience means higher attack and defence ratings
-new units such as motorcycle infantry, missile boats and planes that can attack ground and air units add to the strategic options available
-battleships can now fire after moving, giving sea battles a lot more flow (pun not intended)
-tweaks to the movement mechanics: a unit only moves after the full sequence has been ordered (so you can cancel the attack if you don't like the odds even when you would have been blocked by a hiding unit)
-the APC can now build one small airstrip or port, these can be used to refuel and repair (not purchase)
The game now also features online play; I have not tried this yet but I understand that turn times are limited so you don't have to wait ages for a slow opponent to make his moves.
The main negative aspect for me is the occasionally tedious cutscene dialogue, which seems much longer than before. Fortunately, you can skip it.
The story is, as ever, quite corny, though that doesn't bother me; as the game title suggests it is darker than the previous games.
To sum up, this is the best Advance Wars since the original on Gameboy Advance. If you loved any of the previous games, you should get this one!
Rating: - I expected so much more
1: My daughter, three years old, invents WAY more interesting stories than this. The dialog is emabarasing. The characters are, well, let's just say that it's a relief when some of them die.
2: The controls are bad. I played Dune II way back in the early 90's. I wish the developers of this game had too.
3: War map design leaves a lot to be desired. I really did not EVER get the proclaimed "I must play this map just one more time" feeling. I did, however, get the "I must write a bad review" feeling.
4: This is the first "Advanced wars" game I've played. People have claimed that this one is better than it's predecessors. Then the previous games must be really bad. When compared to inovative games of the early 90's, this is is really not worth the money. I regret putting this game on my wish list form my birthday.
All in all, this game has some nice graphics, but it kind of ends there.
Rating:
- Not as good as the Advance Wars games that came before it...
... but the bar has always been incredibly high when a series is this good. I feel many are being too critical about the new story and style - I feel the style and tone don't stray too far away from past titles in the series (especially Advance Wars 2 for the GBA) but, like many others, was not as impressed by the story as I was with the fresh concept of the first, or the tongue-in-cheek fantasy elements in Dual Strike. The plot is interesting, but quite empty in places - the dialogue and dated character interaction scenes just aren't enough to carry it anymore.
Even with these negatives points, this was never going to be awful. Don't get me wrong, it's not. Punishingly hard at times, but aren't they all? Stick to Dual Strike, get this when it drops to £20 or so.
Good times, though.
Rating: - A big step-up for Advance Wars,BUT DON'T BUY IT IF YOU'RE A NOVICE.
Advance wars has always been a successful series with two games on the game boy advance(gba) and another on the ds (Advance Wars Dual Strike) But this second ds title Advance Wars Dark Conflict is a very different game indeed. None of the Commanding Officers(CO'S) from the previous games appear in this one and the kid friendly graphics have been replaced by a more darker and slightly gloomy design. The War room mode has completely vanished and the difficulty is extremely hard.CO Powers don't have as much effect as they did in the past and are harder to gain. The Campaign mode is still good however and the new addition of the trial maps make good sidequests.The design map mode is much better as you can now save an incredible amount of designs(50 in total!)This game is still excellent but don't buy if you've never played an Advance Wars game before due to the insanely hard difficulty.
- Gloom and doomNot half as enjoyable as the bright, quirky and cartoonish Dual Strike. Muddy, indistinguishable colours are hard on the eyes. Reams of tedious dialog. Uninspired maps and features. The "commander" upgrade is more realistic than the superpowers of DS, but is so restricted that it adds little to the gameplay and hardly affects the outcome.
A disappointment.
Rating:
- A return to form for the Advance War seriesAfter the slightly disappointingly bloated Dual Strike, this is a brilliant return to form. The dual-screen and outrageous commander powers are out, the emphasis is back on simple game mechanics and complex strategy!
New features to be aware of:
-your commander is now inside a unit and his power meter only goes up when damage happens in his vicinity; this greatly reduces the emphasis on commander powers and is in my opinion a good thing
-units earn one experience point after each victory, up to three points; more experience means higher attack and defence ratings
-new units such as motorcycle infantry, missile boats and planes that can attack ground and air units add to the strategic options available
-battleships can now fire after moving, giving sea battles a lot more flow (pun not intended)
-tweaks to the movement mechanics: a unit only moves after the full sequence has been ordered (so you can cancel the attack if you don't like the odds even when you would have been blocked by a hiding unit)
-the APC can now build one small airstrip or port, these can be used to refuel and repair (not purchase)
The game now also features online play; I have not tried this yet but I understand that turn times are limited so you don't have to wait ages for a slow opponent to make his moves.
The main negative aspect for me is the occasionally tedious cutscene dialogue, which seems much longer than before. Fortunately, you can skip it.
The story is, as ever, quite corny, though that doesn't bother me; as the game title suggests it is darker than the previous games.
To sum up, this is the best Advance Wars since the original on Gameboy Advance. If you loved any of the previous games, you should get this one!
Rating:
- I expected so much more1: My daughter, three years old, invents WAY more interesting stories than this. The dialog is emabarasing. The characters are, well, let's just say that it's a relief when some of them die.
2: The controls are bad. I played Dune II way back in the early 90's. I wish the developers of this game had too.
3: War map design leaves a lot to be desired. I really did not EVER get the proclaimed "I must play this map just one more time" feeling. I did, however, get the "I must write a bad review" feeling.
4: This is the first "Advanced wars" game I've played. People have claimed that this one is better than it's predecessors. Then the previous games must be really bad. When compared to inovative games of the early 90's, this is is really not worth the money. I regret putting this game on my wish list form my birthday.
All in all, this game has some nice graphics, but it kind of ends there.
Rating:
- Not as good as the Advance Wars games that came before it...... but the bar has always been incredibly high when a series is this good. I feel many are being too critical about the new story and style - I feel the style and tone don't stray too far away from past titles in the series (especially Advance Wars 2 for the GBA) but, like many others, was not as impressed by the story as I was with the fresh concept of the first, or the tongue-in-cheek fantasy elements in Dual Strike. The plot is interesting, but quite empty in places - the dialogue and dated character interaction scenes just aren't enough to carry it anymore.
Even with these negatives points, this was never going to be awful. Don't get me wrong, it's not. Punishingly hard at times, but aren't they all? Stick to Dual Strike, get this when it drops to £20 or so.
Good times, though.
Rating:
- A big step-up for Advance Wars,BUT DON'T BUY IT IF YOU'RE A NOVICE.Advance wars has always been a successful series with two games on the game boy advance(gba) and another on the ds (Advance Wars Dual Strike) But this second ds title Advance Wars Dark Conflict is a very different game indeed. None of the Commanding Officers(CO'S) from the previous games appear in this one and the kid friendly graphics have been replaced by a more darker and slightly gloomy design. The War room mode has completely vanished and the difficulty is extremely hard.CO Powers don't have as much effect as they did in the past and are harder to gain. The Campaign mode is still good however and the new addition of the trial maps make good sidequests.The design map mode is much better as you can now save an incredible amount of designs(50 in total!)This game is still excellent but don't buy if you've never played an Advance Wars game before due to the insanely hard difficulty.