It seems like the DS is suddenly inundated with strategy-based titles. If variety is the spice of life, the DS is like a delicious array of strategy salsas, ranging from mild to fiery hot. Yet, are any of them even fit to shine the shoes of Advance Wars: Dual Strike? Listen, we're talking about games from a variety of studios, and Square Enix is all sorts of up in the strategy mix, so it's not like we're comparing shovelware to diamonds here. The first Advance Wars for the DS was just phenomenal -- so good, in fact, that we can't help but wonder if even its own follow-up can live up to the glory of that title.What do you think? Can any of them stand up next to Advance Wars? What are some of your favorites among the current strategy offerings, and what are you looking forward to most?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-02-2007 @ 9:46AM
ninjaluke said...
I cant wait until fire emblem DS or final fantasy tactics advance 2 both will be amazing tactics games.
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11-02-2007 @ 10:18AM
tamriel said...
I second the eventual DS Fire Emblem.
I'll go out on a limb and call Worms 2 a great strategy game as well, competing on the grounds of Advance Wars: being good entails fine worm positioning and timely weapon usage. Of course, the skill aspect of W2OW blunts the tactics aspect somewhat, but I figure that I win more consistently even against better shots when I have well-hidden worms.
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11-02-2007 @ 11:43AM
Bluebreaker said...
To be honest, I like all of them so far. Luminous Arc, Front Mission (especially), and yes Advance Wars too are favorites of mine! I think it's odd but uber cool that "Square-Enix" of all companies is bringing honest to god RTS to the system!! I really hope hype doesn't kill "Days of Ruin" because it looks REAL promising.
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11-02-2007 @ 11:46AM
pixelator said...
Surprise - I'll be in the minority here, but IMO, AW:DS wasn't that great. In fact, I think the franchise has something to prove in order to overcome what I thought was visually inferior (to the GBA entries) with pointless stylus control (rumored yanked from GBA queue and quickly shunted to DS).
I pulled long nighters playing AW1 and 2, but AW:DS didn't quite meet my expectations (even though I played through most of it). Not enough felt new to the game - I confess it's hard to put my finger on what was missing - depth, maybe. Maps? Style? It just all felt sort of rushed and stale. Definitely overrated with a metascore of like 90, anyway.
I got more out of Age of Empires, although that game also needed a graphical overhaul...
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11-02-2007 @ 12:22PM
Herby said...
Both Battles of Prince of Persia and Age of Empires were more fun for me than Advance Wars. I liked their backdrops better, there was much less obnoxious anime character banter, and added new spins to the genre (AWDS was so similar to AW1 & 2 that burnout on the series sets in).
BoPoP is one of the sadly most underrated titles on the DS - right next to Yoshi's Touch & Go.
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11-02-2007 @ 3:56PM
Jacob said...
In my opinion, Advance Wars DS is indeed the best. There was just a ton of depth and different game modes. I know a lot of people say that the Stylus Control wasn't good. I guess I'm the only guy who used Stylus control exclusively as I found buttons to be slow and clunky. Just about everything on Advance Wars DS was excellent, and while the visuals weren't great, they weren't bad either, and in a game like Advance Wars, you don't need much more.
Second place likely goes to Age of Empires. That was a game where the visuals could actually get in the way though, as sometimes you could hardly distinguish between your men, and clicking on one pixel in a mob was sometimes difficult. Never-the-less, the gameplay was there. If the developers made a second Age of Empires and cleaned up the visuals and added a few necessary modes like a map maker and online play, they might be able to challenge Advance Wars.
However, Fire Emblem has always been my strategy series of choice. Hopefully Fire Emblem DS comes along and ends up as good as the first game they released in the West. Can't wait for it!
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11-03-2007 @ 5:15AM
Bernhard said...
Anno 1701 DS!
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11-03-2007 @ 10:11AM
impact24 said...
Dual Strike was the reason I bought my DS, that's probably the best thing I can say about it.
Like many, I enjoyed Luminous Arc a lot...but felt it could have been a lot better. I mentioned before however that if you take it as it is --a light-hearted anime inspired strategy game-- then you will be pleased with it.
I'm glad Fire Emblem is coming, but I would love to play a new Tactics Ogre game as well.
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