The Discussion Thread: The Greatest Games Event 2017 - FINISH YOUR LISTS

[The_Liquid_Laser]

#10 Advance Wars

Why did it make the list?
Advance Wars is purely about gameplay.  It’s a turn based game played on a tiny little screen.  It is hard for a game to be impressive in that context.  But the gameplay, the glorious, glorious gameplay…well you jut have to play it to know what I mean. 

Normally if you want to play a game about both building an army and then conquering the other side, then you need an intricate RTS or 4X game on the PC.  Advance Wars manages to give this same type of experience and yet the maps tend to take 30 – 60 minutes to complete.  I think the fact that you get to build an army from scratch on most maps is what pushes it over the top for me, because I can't think of another "short" game that lets you do something like this. Also the game play just feels smooth like a well crafted like a Civilization game.  Just one more turn is the experience you get from Advance Wars (and also “just one more map”).

There are 4 different games in this series that have been released outside of Japan, two on the GBA and 2 on the DS.  I like them all more or less the same, so I chose the first one for my list.  (Actually, I might put this one and Dual Strike slightly ahead of the other two.)

Original experience:
I had a friend who would periodically show me games on his GBA.  First he showed my Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, and I would fool around on that game whenever I went over there.  Then he showed me Advance Wars.  After that I knew I definitely HAD to have a GBA.  At the time I wasn’t interested in handheld games at all, but Advance Wars was the game that changed my mind.

 

How does it hold up today?
All Advance Wars games are still awesome today.  These games never tried to be graphically impressive in the first place, but the gameplay is just pure magic.  I am also upset that the series seems to be canceled.  I would love to see a Switch Wars.  Myself and many other Advance Wars fans would love to see a Switch Wars.  "Switch Wars!  Switch Wars!..."

Last edited by The_Liquid_Laser - on 21 December 2017