Advance Wars: Dual Strike (Or Advance Wars:DS) is the third game in the Advance Wars series and the first on the Nintendo DS. It is set in Omega Land and as usual features several new features, most predominatley 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 relativly unchanged from the first two Advance Wars. You play as a CO of an army (more likly then not, the Orange Stars). You move your army across a 2D tactical map. If able, you can then attack an enemy unit, capture a base, or other diffrent actions. To win a battle, usually you must either kill all of your enemy troops, or capture your enemy's base (certain maps have diffrent objectives, though).
Troops vary in stregth, movement, and attacking style. Infantry, for example, can capture bases, but are relativly 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 usuall geographical features. Depending on terrain, thegamplay shifts slightly. Forests, for example, offer better defence, but are hard to navigate through.
COs (commanding officers) also differentiate tactics. COs offer diffrent strenghs and weaknesses. Colin, a Blue Moon CO, can buy units cheap, but at the cost of weak firepower. While Sonia, a Yellow Comet CO, can keep the number of units left in a group a secret, and has on more space of vision in fog of war.
New in Dual Strike is Tag-team battles. In certain battles, you can pick two CO to leadone army, alternating at your request. Once both power meters are filled, they can launch Tag Power (usually called "Dual Strike"). Here, the leading CO gets the added boost of a Super CO power. Once the first CO is done, instead of ending your turn, you change CO. Once this happens, units may move again, now with the benefits of the second CO. Depending on the COs, you can get an extra boost. Pairings usually happen between either very close family of freinds(Sonja and Kanbie, Colin and Sasha, etc.), or between COs of diffrent tactics(Max and Grit, Eagle and Drake).