Advance Wars

Advance Wars is a Video game of strategy to the turn by turn developed by Intelligent Systems for Nintendo, left on Game Boy Advance in 2002 carried out by Takehiro Izushi, the Co-creator of the series, and directed by Tohru Narihiro.

In Advance Wars , the player must direct made up armies infantries, tanks, ships or planes in dedramatized battle fields. The play takes again the traditional diagrams of the series Nintendo Wars while bringing innovations there. The play proceeds with the turn by turn: each player directs his army unit per unit before passing the hand to his adversary which makes in the same way. This type of Gameplay is in opposition with the rather widespread strategy games in real-time on the machines having interfaces of pointing precise (mouse, Stylet). The units evolve/move in a squaring with the square reason for the style chess-board where each box contains a single ground (city, forest, mountain…). The juxtaposition of all these grounds forms the battle field where the units evolve/move.

It should be noted that the fact that paving is composed of squares is rather rare in the strategy games with the turn by turn where it is mainly the hexagon which prevails, or the rhombus for the tactical roleplays. One can see there the “leg” of Intelligent Systems insofar as Fire Emblem other license of the Développeur, is also based on the square; what in the case of a tactical roleplay is rare.

Outline

The decorations are coloured and voluntarily simplified, with an aim of focusing itself only on the strategic vision. The graphic universe oscillates between the Cartoon for the decorations and the Manga for the characters.

Information is posted by the means of infos contextual (IP) panels and mobiles (they move as soon as the cursor approach some in order not to disturb the player).

One can see in the capture opposite that the IP in top on the left posts the quantity of appropriations had by the active player as well as the name and the face of its general. The IP in bottom on the left posts the relative informations with the ground located in lower part of the cursor (standard and defensive cover).

General mechanisms

Each box of ground can be occupied only by only one unit. To discuss a box occupied by an adversary, it should beforehand have been destroyed by leading one of its units to its contact and by starting a combat whose exit is governed by many parameters of which the type of the assailing and defensive unit, the defensive cover offered by the ground, a random factor… So at the conclusion of the combat, the quantity of points of life of one of the units falls to zero, it is destroyed and releases the box. To destroy a unit, it is generally necessary to start several times the combat against it, which is made impossible by a strategic placement on a bridge, between two mountains or two allied units (which will have to then be also destroyed to discover the side of the surrounded unit).

All the units can move in any direction in a surface of movement which is limited by their range of displacement (which varies according to the unit). The units can move in any direction as long as they remains to them points of movement without being obliged to follow a rectilinear layout. A displacement of a box to another can be made only if they have one stops common and if the ground lends itself to it (a tank cannot go on a mountain for example). It is possible to make pass its units over its own units, without stopping there, but not over the enemy units. At the end of a displacement, the player must choose the action which the unit must carry out. Once the action carried out, the unit will not be able to move any more to the next turn, even if there remained to him points of displacement.

a detailed description of the rules of the game is available on wikilivres.

Development policy

Advance Wars dissociates war games which tend towards realism by several means. Initially, in all the episodes of the series, the organic units explode without leaving blood. In the scenes of combat, the dying units are propelled on the sides of the screen. There does not exist any animation of anguish or image of corpses. Descriptive ESRB allots the initials to him “E”, i.e. “all public as from six years”, however, the SALT disadvises it at least 12 years. However, for the plays which succeed Advance Wars descriptive PEGI emplace SALT and allots to the series the initials “violence” and “7 years or more”. The age generally advised for a war game is 12 years or more.

Then, the civil populations are never evoked, except for one only mission in Advance Wars 2 where the player must save a city invaded by a cruel general. When it succeeds, the inhabitants of the city thank his general by offering a gift to him. Except that, the only alive elements in the play are the generals who maintain long dialogs between the missions. These dialogs are used to define then to enrich psychology by the characters and put the player in the context before each mission while specifying which attacks, which are the best strategies to be adopted, etc

The universe of Advance Wars names Wars World'. The names of the armies are Orange Star , Blue Moon , Green Earth , Yellow Comet and Black Hole . Although the names are not realistic, the armies have different mentalities which all have an equivalent in our world. Yellow Makes for example made think of Japan by the appearance of the units and the definitely Eastern musical topics. Names of the generals (Kanbei, Sensei…) certify this assumption. Blue Moon corresponds to the Russian army; the chief of this army being a general who draws his power in the snow-covered grounds and carrying a Oushanka ( ушанка ), typically Russian hat. This filiation is confirmed in the next episodes of the series where new generals carry Soviet uniforms. The bond between Orange Star and the United States as for him are not any doubt. The Orange Star HQ resembles a skyscraper, the pace of the generals and the central role which they occupy confirms it. The so obvious filiation of Green Earth it: the helmets of the infantries are identical to the German helmets at the time of the Second world war. However, this army is more European than German. The generals incarnate each one a country: Eagle is a German aviator, Drake is associated with these sailors fatty of the Baltic and Jess the tank crew member Frenchwoman. However, a bearing general armor and appreciating the red wine and the Galanterie makes his appearance in Advance Wars DS, his membership in Spain (and not France!) is not any doubt with its first name with Hispanic consonance: Javier. Blach Hole, when with them, rather make think with the Nazi Germany, in témoingne the costumes of the generals Maverick or Sturm, or the name of the generals, such Helmut. The ambitions of Black Hole (domination pure and simple) as their method (drawn up the countries ones against the others) do nothing but reinforce this assumption

It does not remain about it that they are only assumptions, because on a site of video games, more precisely on a forum, one generally allots Orange Star to Europe, Green Earth in England. The originators of the play stated at the time of a review on an official site not to have had like intention to associate the various armies with nations, but that they nevertheless had been inspired some for their designs.

Scenario

The player is placed in the role of a commander beginner of the army of Orange Star . At the time of its first steps in the play, it is dealt with by Nell , general who will always remain at the sides of the player to deliver the objectives to him or to safeguard. The first task which falls on to him is to push back the invasion of the army of Blue Moon carried out by the general bourru Olaf . Insincerely until its final defeat, he will always invent fallacious excuses to explain his successive reverses. Once this one demolishes, the counter-attack is organized, and it is with the support of Andy , a young general full with vitality and good mood, that the player will conquer Blue Moon . After a confrontation with Olaf which thought of making only one mouthful of the young general, this one will send Grit , a specialist in the indirect shooting having studied in the same military academy as Nell. Of a nature sympathetic nerve and relaxed, it tends to adopt a disrespectful attitude towards its superior. However, after a stroke of Olaf, he agree to make displacement. Once beaten, it takes the defeat with detachment and sympathizes with Andy. After a fixing with a battalion independent of Green Earth carried out by Eagle , a beautiful and arrogant general who by his getup resembles to the pioneers of aviation such as Saint-Exupéry or Berlioz, max , a caricature of the veteran of the Guerre of Vietnam comes to join Andy . The player will be able henceforth to choose between two generals to advance in the countryside.

The missions are connected then and after having beaten the armies of Blue Moon, Green Earth and Yellow Comet, the player discovers that actually, it is the army of Black Hole directed by Sturm , a general suspected of being of extraterrestrial origin, which pushed all the nations to be clashed between them. The 4 nations are combined then to push back the threat together. The capacities of Sturm being gigantic (that Ci can make fall from the meteorites on the battle field and has units more powerful than any general), the task is made really difficult.

Modes of play

When a player begins a part for the first time, a instructrice bearing the name of Nell requires its name of him and if it is the first time that he plays this play. If he answers by the negative one, all the modes of play are resolved as of the beginning. If he answers by the affirmative, then he has access only to the modes drive where he will be able to initiate himself gradually with the play and to discover the universe; VS where it will have the possibility of defying to 3 adversaries on a chart of its choice, whether they are controlled by the computer or the human ones. The last accessible mode for the beginner is the mode link where several human can be defied by connecting their consoles between them. An experienced player will have access as of the beginning with the modes countryside and HQ . Those are explained below.

Mode drive : It is here that are inculcated to the neophyte all the bases of the play by the means of 13 tutorées missions. That begins with the explanation of the bases like the selection then the displacement of the troops, the process to follow to finish its turn, to safeguard, explore the options, etc and finishes by subtleties of the Brouillard of war while passing by the use of the units of transport, supply, artilleries… Each mission makes it possible to the player to gradually assimilate the bases of the play. Each new action discovered is initially explained by Nell and will have to be repeated by the player. Handling is strictly framed because the player being mistaken in button is immediately recalled to the order by Nell which will réexpliquera the operation.

Mode countryside : After having finished the drive if the player answered not previously, it can continue the adventure here. The missions follow the ones to the others, by sometimes giving to the player the choice between several junctions. Each mission is introduced by a textual sequence where the protagonists of the history intervene. The universe where the player evolves/moves is revealed gradually, mission after mission. In certain missions, exotic objectives can be proposed, like destroying the entry of a factory, capturing a precise number of cities, etc

Mode VS : Here, there is no scenario. It is about the place where several players can clash on the chart of their choice. However, all the charts are not freed as of the beginning, the player having to buy them by means of the appropriations acquired by supplementing missions of mode HQ or countryside. It is also possible to add allies or adversaries controlled by a IA, to defy the computer between friends for example or to rebalance the part when one of the players is tested much more than the other. It should be noted that the multi-players parts can be played with only one and even console.

Mode Link : This mode gives the same possibilities as mode VS, except that here the console does not circulate with hand in hand, each player who can look at his own screen, thus seeing the displacement of the units passers by in their field of view, or listening to the noises which betray the displacement of the units. A bomber or a hunter, not making the same noise that a helicopter, are betrayed during their displacements and make it possible the others to build units in answer. But as certain units share the same sounds, there remains a margin of chance and Bluff. Here, the players can also exchange their charts which they manufactured in the editor of level.

Mode HQ : It is about a kind of mode VS to the only difference which the performances of the player are evaluated then rewarded by a note included/understood in a scale going for E, D, C, B, have then S for a perfect result. By making a success of a chart, the player sees himself allotting parts that it will be able to spend in the shop.

Editor of levels : Here, the player can create his clean charts which it will be able to then test against the computer or of the friends. However, its functionalities are limited enough because the size of the chart is fixed at 20 X 30 boxes. One can, moreover, to add no element Script E nor no dialog. And the number of charts which one can create is limited 3. Easy of access, but limited in possibilities, it does not make it possible to create its own campaigns or its own units.

Shop : It is in the shop that the player can spend his appropriations gained in the countryside mode or HQ. It can buy there new charts for the countryside mode or HQ or of new generals, but when certain conditions are met (to finish the countryside with a certain row for example), rarer and more interesting objects can appear. Certain objects are extremely difficult to obtain and are had only by the most senior players.

Records : The performances in mode HQ as well as the row of the player (this one increases with the number of points which it collected in mode HQ or countryside) are stored here in order to be able to be compared or recopied on a different support.

Types of parts

In mode VS or Link, two types of parts are available:

Those where the players have factories which enable them to build units throughout the part. The confrontations can last several tens of minutes to several hours according to the number of players (up to 4), the size of the charts and the defensive possibilities offered by the ground.

Those where the players have a certain number of units upon the departure without it to them being given the possibility of being able to rebuild some. They will have to then take care to absolutely keep them in life. This type of part, called prédéployée chart is focused mainly on the management of the units by giving up the economic side completely and lasts generally only one ten minutes.

D´une unfolding left in mode VS

In this mode of play, the players choose d´abord the general who will support their army. Those influence the characteristics of the units. Certain generals are balanced, d´autres on the contrary very specialized. One can then find oneself with the head of an army of Blitzkrieg which privileges the attacks direct and brutal by the means of tanks and other motorized units, or of an army of Guérilla which is based on the ambushes and the attacks remote with artilleries camouflaged in the forests and of many infantries to protect them, or of a balanced army which count as much on its tanks as on its artilleries or infantries.

Then, the chart takes care. Each player occupies a part of it. The goal is to take the control of that of the adversary by eliminating all its units or then by infiltrating its HQ.

In the capture of screen above, one can see that in this chart, each player has with the beginning 4 factories and 1 HQ. Neutral cities (in gray) are distributed on all the island. The players will have to capture them so d´augmenter their income: each property (city, HQ, factory…) had provides 1000 appropriations per turn. In the chart above, the players will thus gain 5000 appropriations per turn at the beginning of the part. In general, to manage to have more cities than its adversary is synonymous with victory and the duels in Advance Wars rather often consist of hard battles to adapt them. -->

Phases of play

Prédéployée chart

At the beginning of a prédéployée part of Advance Wars , the units of the players are generally grouped in a specific zone of the chart. The first turns make it possible to the players to deploy their units of defense and attack around strategic points such as the forests, the cities or the mountains. According to the configuration of the chart, the fitting of the strategic points strongly varies and has a direct incidence on the nature of the battles.

Once the armies carried out the junction, the engagements engage. The player who takes the initiative to attack in direct attack (with the body with body) is generally handicapped because the artilleries of the defender will destroy the attackers rather quickly. For this reason the players send initially their basic units in recognition, by keeping their deterrent force in withdrawal, while trying to advance their artilleries (if they A some) to the maximum. When the true combat is committed, the two camps quickly lose their units up to one critical moment where each camp has nothing any more but one or two offensive units (in the case of a balanced match). When an odd number of attackers clash, it is that which underwent less damage in these battles which gains the victory. For this reason, the prédéployées charts with 3 players introduce a chance factor which supports that which had fortune not to be made attack; or give place to static parts where nobody wants to tackle fear of being penalized thereafter.

At the end of the balanced part, generally a phase begins from tracking whose exit is determined by the Pierre-sheet-scissors governing the remaining units. The player who succeeded in targeting his attacks according to the group of units that it envisaged to preserve at the end of the part leaves generally victorious. For example a player who decided to keep costs that a bomber costs and who conducted attacks suicides on the unfavourable anti-aircraft units while putting himself temporarily in numerical inferiority, supports his chances of long-term victory largely.

At the time of an unbalanced part, one of the two players succeeded in destroying much unfavourable units while preserving to them his. The phase of tracking is then short and without surprises.

A tie, without fog of war, can occur when the tracked player (who has the smallest units) can avoid confrontation indefinitely. In fog of war, the player traquor can nevertheless tighten ambushes, but that gives place to parts which last for ever and which are generally given up by the players. With the fog of war, a tie can also occur when the player having the tracked unit is vis-a-vis a more powerful unit but blind man who will be able thus to never see and attack his prey lasting the same turn. In both cases of fog, there is no one when the player in weakness can take refuge his unit at a place inaccessible to the traquor (infantries in the middle of mountains against tanks has caterpillars for example), or that the traquor does not have enough power to destroy the unit not armed opposite (if this one is on a city or its HQ for example).

Productive chart

The opening of a productive part of Advance Wars appreciably varies prédéployée chart because the players then have bases, aerodromes and/or ports where they will be able to produce units uninterrupted within the limit of the appropriations which theirs are allocated by their properties at the beginning of each turn.

It is necessary then to get the maximum of cities to increase its incomes and to build more units that its adversaries. To capture a building, it is necessary to carry out its particularly fragile infantries, units to it, then to protect them until the capture. Each capture is the fruit of a battle where the winner can establish a safety zone around the coveted building. These battles can be rather keen since the opponents can permanently feed the face with their base camps. Each captured building constitutes a strategic point because a allied unit being above will be repaired and supplied at the beginning of each turn.

Once an opponent took the advantage, it must then advance methodically and consolidate his financial advantage by preventing being too greedy and finding themselves under the fire of enemy artilleries if that Ci has of forests and the fog of war to cover itself.

Personalized chart

In Advance Wars , one of the notable assets of this play is that one can create his own chart, and then to test it in Versus mode. The editor of chart can have 3 charts at the same time, and however, the possibilities moindrement are moindrement limited. Indeed, one cannot modify the size (Which is 20x30), and put more than 60 buildings.

After the creation of the chart, it will be possible to play there in Versus, or a Multi-player mode via the Link Cable (the parts on charts created requires the use of the cable-link, and a cartridge by player).

Artificial intelligence

Advance Wars has an artificial intelligence of good quality which allowed the development of a countryside mode and HQ. The fact that Intelligent systems is with the departure specialized in the development of artificial intelligences is undoubtedly not foreign there.

Capacities

Management of the defensive cover.
Formation of effective defensive curtains.
Creation of units in a contextual way.
is not affected by the disadvantages related to the field of view in fog of war. With knowledge of the every units which are not hidden in a forest or reefs.

Weaknesses

does not detect the zone of shooting of the enemy units with indirect shooting.
does not anticipate the gasoline loss, which causes the crash landing of its planes in the wide charts.
is focused initially on all the units of transport of troops, then the units with indirect shooting, leaving thus often more interesting targets on side.
Manages the units according to a fixed order (all anti-aircraft defenses, then all armoured tanks, then all infantries…). This weakness disappears in Fire Emblem , a play developed later on by the same studio.

Currently, two new handsets are appeared, of which the successor Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising, which falls under the continuity of Advance Wars . The artificial intelligence underwent there notable improvements, which mitigate the majority of the weaknesses of the computer, making consequently the battles more difficult and the more interesting challenge.

Modifications compared to Super Famicom Wars

Advance Wars is the continuation of Super Famicom Wars . This part treats differences between Advance Wars and its Préquelle.

The most notable innovation of Advance Wars is the addition of a countryside mode and charismatic protagonists. Previously, to finish a Nintendo Wars , it was necessary to gain the victory over all the charts proposed in any order by facing dumb generals and without personality. In Advance Wars , the player can conduct a campaign made up of many missions varied and supported by a history and characters Atypique S who maintain the complex relations between them.

In addition to bringing an element living to the play, the generals instigate the parts by the means of their capacities. A capacity of general can be used only when its gauge of being able is full. This one fills more quickly when a unit is lost that when one destroys one of them. In this way, a player in difficulty will see his bar increasing more quickly and it will be able to try to reverse the vapor by calling upon its capacity. The generals also have capacities which act permanently. A general has infantries which capture more quickly, another has more powerful tanks, etc

Advance Wars also brings the management of the climate (snow, rain and good weather), a more effective artificial intelligence, the possibility of seeing the damage which one will inflict before attacking and of many other elements generally bringing an additional comfort to the player and an superior interest to the title.

The system of engagements was modified in-depth. In Advance Wars , a unit while attacking another inflicts damage according to its points of life and other parameters specific to the defensive unit, the ground, the general, etc the defensive unit counteracts then in the same way by taking into account its remaining points of life and the same parameters as the assailing unit. In this way, if a defensive unit is completely destroyed, it cannot counteract. In Super Famicom Wars , all the units draw at the same time, the having defenders a malus. In this way, even a unit which one has just destroyed will inflict with the assailing unit sometimes important damage.

The units also underwent many modifications. Many was modified, others were amalgamated and certain simply disappeared. No unit was created for Advance Wars .

The childish style of Super Famicom Wars was clearly attenuated. Thus, the units do not carry out any more comic mimicry and do not emit any more sounds Kawaii with each one of their actions.

Super Famicom Wars manages a system of experiment for each unit which was removed. This system favors the player who has already a dominant position, which is the contrary will of Advance Wars with the capacities of the generals.

When one charged, discharged or supplied a unit, it launched out a small animation showing the action. It is not any more the case in Advance Wars where only animations of capture were preserved (although désactivables in the options). A ground present in Super Famicom Wars resembling a lake was also removed.

Anecdote

This play left the September 10th 2001 to the the United States, and was to leave the following day to the Japan, that is to say the same day as the attacks of September 11th. The Japanese exit is then deferred finally never not to be born. It is an unheard of situation, because hitherto, all the plays of the series left exclusively only to the Japan.

Although having also been delayed, it leaves in Europe on January 11th 2002. This version includes the languages English E, German E, French E and Spanish E; the choice being left with the player with the starting of the play.

Development team

Executive producer: Hiroshi Yamauchi
Producing: Takehiro Izushi
Realizer: Tohru Narihiro
Supervisory: Kentaro Nishimura
Programmer system: Takanori Hino
Support system: Takafumi Kaneko
Programmer IA: Chikara Yamamoto
Programmer Support: Makoto Katayama
Programmer Level design : Mitsuru Matsumoto
Design of the section “drive”: Ryuichiro Koguchi
Creation of the characters: Ryo Hirata
Responsible graph: Makoto Shimojo
Level design er : Ryo Hirata, Sumiko Miki
Type-setter: Taishi Senda
Animation of the battles: Ryo Hirata, Ryuichiro Koguchi, Sumiko Miki
Support graphic: Masahiro Higuchi, Sachiko Wada, Maki Takemori
Support scenario: artistic Masayuki Horikawa
Responsible: Taeko Kaneda
Artists: Fujiko Nomura, Kiyomi Itani
Customer support: Kenji Nakajima, Kenji Imai
Localization: Tim O' Leary, Bill Trinen, Nate Bihloorff
Direction of the Localization: Jeff Miller, Leslie Swan
Test and debugging: Michael Kelbaugh, Todd Buechele

The series

Internal bonds

External bonds

Video
of the play
Advance Wars on Nintendo.com
Advance Wars Experiment
Advance Wars Net
Advance Wars Bunker
Advance Wars review

Simple: Advance Wars

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