![]() ![]() Playing as Ed in the most recent instalment, we find ourselves up against yet another evil organisation. This idea is where I believe Intelligent Systems started looking more into the relationships between its characters, which is a big part of the studio’s final addition to the series.Īdvance Wars: Dark Conflict (2008, Nintendo DS) Dual Strike takes this gimmick even further by making certain characters pair better with others. This not only brings a wide new range of tactics for players to consider, but you can also hear more of your remixed favourites. ADVANCE WARS DARK CONFLICT DS REVIEW SERIESOn top of that, all of the tracks Intelligent Systems brought back from previous games now had an upgraded feel to them, freeing the series from the Game Boy Advance’s restrictive chiptune style.Īdvance Wars: Dual Strike also allows the player to control more than one CO during a mission. Much like in Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising, you’ve got even more COs to choose from in each nation’s army… and they all come with their own original scores. Jake’s cool demeanour harmonises with his style of music, though his dialogue implies he’s more interested in being a waiter than a war hero. His track feels calm and calculating, like you’re standing in an assembly line waiting for your next piece of metal to connect. Jake is the new Orange Star CO this time, who totally gets that the soundtrack is all you need to get pumped to win. Best Track Award goes to this Black Hole CO.Īdvance Wars: Dual Strike (2005, Nintendo DS) She holds advanced weaponry in-game, too, playing into her theme as well. She’s a young and precocious technical wiz and this shows in her music, which is very upbeat and peppered with sci-fi noises. Hearing Lash’s theme feels like I’m being beaten up by a radio satellite while I’m trapped on the moon. Flak’s theme song doesn’t compare to his partner’s, though. He’s clearly so charming and articulate - bet you can’t guess that his music focuses on deep drums and rapid electric guitar strums. ![]() The sequel uses the same music for the characters established in Advance Wars, but the new enemies of the Black Hole army are back with catchy tunes and hungry for revenge.įlak is the cutie in the blue helmet and one of those new Black Hole army CO’s. The new campaign has you playing as not only the Orange Star army like in Advance Wars, but now as the armies of the Blue Moon, Yellow Comet and Green Earth. Many games use music to amplify the journey but Intelligent Systems did an incredible job in making each track sound completely unique, especially considering that music on the Game Boy Advance was restricted to a chiptune style.Īdvance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising (2003, Game Boy Advance)Īfter the first game’s incredible critical and commercial success, Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising came out firing with more COs - each one with their own earworms to enjoy. ![]() By comparison, Andy’s rival, Grit, is a sharpshooter sporting a revolver and a long trench coat, has a Western-inspired theme with stretchy banjo strings and lots of finger snaps. Andy, for instance, is a young and naïve engineer, so his music involves crashing machinery matched with an upbeat tune. Each of the three COs has their own abilities, strengths and weaknesses, and each one has their own soundtrack to boot. The story has you playing as the Orange Star army, controlling Andy, Max or Sami. Every Commanding Officer, or CO, has their own personalised theme music that plays during their turn. Each game in the series has its own captivating soundtrack, and there’s more to this missing franchise than meets the ear. Out of all the games that Intelligent Systems has developed, though, the Advance Wars series uses music in a way that can’t easily be forgotten. The Paper Mario series hasn’t been doing so bad either, with 2020’s Paper Mario: The Origami King becoming Intelligent Systems’ fastest-selling Paper Mario game ever. With four titles split across the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS, Advance Wars was a phenomenal series that was unfairly smothered by the explosive success of the Fire Emblem series after the 3DS entry Fire Emblem Awakening. Intelligent Systems recently added new entries to its Fire Emblem and Paper Mario collections but one of its most celebrated series hasn’t seen a release in over 10 years: Advance Wars. How a forgotten strategy game uses music as an extension of its personality ![]()
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