Advance Wars: Dual Strike

Advance Wars: Dual Strike, known as Famicom Wars DS in Japan, is the third game in the both the Advance Wars and Famicom Wars series and the first on the Nintendo DS. It is set in Omega Land and as usual features several new features, most predominately the ability to play two COs at once.

Plot

Advance Wars: Dual Strike

The game begins with the Orange Star CO, Nell telling her sister Rachel to be careful and that COs from the other Countries will unite with her. Rachel then starts training Jake and thus the tutorial begins. Once tutorial is completed Jake meets a Black Hole CO, Jugger and the first proper battle of the game begins. During the battle Rachel is startled to see how fast Black Hole has recovered in so little time. After the battle Max arrives from Macro Land to help those in Omega Land. Shortly after his arrival Lash attacks with her new weapon the Black bomb. Max defeats her, but doesn't catch her. Later, a huge missile is headed towards Orange Star that will destroy it in 30 minutes. Rachel takes command and defeats Jugger who's operating the missile and safely lands it. Koal arrives and attacks, in which you'll be able to choose who to use. After that, Blue Moon COs Colin and the new CO Sasha arrive to aid. Lash then attacks and Colin counterattacks, in which they have a heated argument. Koal attacks and Sasha is pitted against him, but Jake helps her out by advising her. They then find out about the Black Crystal, and attempt to destroy it, but Lash builds a new invention which attacks from the air, so 2 COs have to attack, and they destroy it. After that, you have to go on and destroy a Black Obelisk. When this happens, the clone CO's show up and attack. First is Kindle and Olaf, then Jugger and Drake, third is Koal and Kanbei, and finally Kindle and Andy. Once you beat them all, you face Von Bolt twice. After beating him a second time, you've won.

Gameplay

Gameplay in Dual Strike is relatively unchanged from the first two Advance Wars titles. The player takes the role as a CO of an army (more often than not, the Orange Star Army). The player moves the army across a 2D tactical map. If able, the player can then attack an enemy unit, capture a base, or other different actions. To win a battle, usually the player must either eliminate all of the enemy troops, or capture the enemy's base (certain maps have different objectives, however).

Troops vary in strength, movement, and attacking style. Infantry, for example, can capture bases, but are fairly weak, while Rocket Launchers can hit units from far away, but are defenseless in a head-to-head battle.

Terrain also effects the gameplay. While the main terrain is plains, there are also cities, forests, mountains, and other usual geographical features. Depending on terrain, the gameplay shifts slightly. Forests, for example, offer better defense, but are hard to navigate through.

COs (commanding officers) also have different tactics. COs offer different strengths and weaknesses. Colin, a Blue Moon CO, can buy units cheap, but at the cost of weak firepower. While Sonja, a Yellow Comet CO, can keep the number of units left in a group a secret, and has one more space of vision in fog of war.

New in Dual Strike are Tag-team battles. In certain battles, a player can pick two COs to lead one army, alternating at request. Once both power meters are filled, they can launch Tag Power. Here, the leading CO gets the added boost of a Super CO power. Once the first CO is done, instead of ending a turn, the player changes CO. Once this happens, units may move again, now with the benefits of the second CO. Depending on the CO, the player may get an extra boost. Pairings usually happen between either very close family of friends (Sonja and Kanbei, Colin and Sasha, etc.), or between COs of different tactics (Max and Grit, Eagle and Drake).