Advance Wars: Whatever the Fuck it's Called

[toblix]

The latest one for the DS, anyway, with the meteor-struck earth and unfunny doctors. I'm liking this. It's turn based, which I love, and the maps are small enough that battles are over fairly quickly. The mechanics are pretty simple and work well, although I haven't really delved into the finer points yet.

As always, I expect the game to suddenly become frustratingly hard and suck, in that special Japanese way, but for now it's really fun.

Secret wish: A new Phoenix Wright game is suprise-released tomorrow.

[Roderick]

I liked Dual Strike, and I'm kind of miffed that Dark Emo Conflict doesn't have cool characters that you can upgrade, special abilities, etc. I know a large part of the community disliked those unbalanced, overpowered abilities and are happy with a return to a purer game, but I always like it if I'm overpowered and godlike.

[Scrobbs]

Did you finish Dual Strike? The difficulty level increased nicely level on level...then it spiked. Horribly. I got stuck.

[Roderick]

Yes, I finished it, multiple times. There are two or three very tricky levels, but apart from them it's easy sailing. With those particular levels the key is unfortunately just repeating them until you know what the enemy will do and until you've figured out your optimal strategy in terms of deploying which troops where. I think I might have an idea of the level that gave you problems; is it the one where the enemy musn't capture any of the seven or so missile bases on the map?

That one was a bitch.

[Nachimir]

I gave up at the spike too. Especially as all the FAQs on the level said "Here's the best thing you can do... you're probably still fucked, but try it and hope for the best!".

Yahoo had a really detailed guide, down to exactly what unit to produce when, where to move it, and what to fire at with it. At that point, I thought Dual Strike became a deeply unpleasant and tedious puzzle game rather than an enjoyable strategy one.

[Scrobbs]

I can't remember I'm afraid. It was about 18 months ago that I played it I think. I remember that spike though!