This is a completely unbalanced mess. Basically all of the carefully laid down mechanics that AW and AW2 laid down are busted wide open by the team-up system, and while we're at it there's also some RPG mechanics as a last middle finger to the original design. And honestly? It's kind of beautiful. AWDS is one of those games that you don't play, you break, and its only issue is that it isn't hard enough to really encourage that. After AW2 perfected the formula, it's a completely different, very serendipitous spin on it, and as the last game in that trilogy (I don't have much hope for Reboot Camp leading to a proper sequel), it's not a half-bad way to send it off.

Emulating games for GBA on my modified PSP defined me during middle school. However, when it comes to Advance Wars, I was too bad at it to fully appreciate it like a Fire Emblem. Nonetheless, I finished the first two games (looking up guides for the last levels), but even though I had a soft spot for the graphics and the idea of a war where opposing factions would trash talk each other at most, I was never interested in continuing the series.

Somewhere in the middle, there was Wargroove that made me rediscover some interest, but the final blow was dealt by the 3DS homebrew (I love my 3DS!!!).

Dual Strike is the best possible version of Advance Wars. Mechanically, the use of the dual screen and tag are extremely fun. I thought I would find the new characters unbearable, but they seem to have always been there. There are only three additions, but a few dialogues are enough to make them entertaining.

The story is insignificant, it's just an excuse to play. And I love playing it.

On a side note: i loved seeing the returning faces. It was like an old friends reunion :) I wish there was more of it, but unfortunately they ditched this storyline for a reboot with days of ruin (eventually i will play it).

STOP PLAYING DUAL STRIKE

-WAR CRIMINALS WERE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE GIVEN 'POWER OF FRIENDSHIP'
-YEARS OF DAY-TO-DAY PERKS yet NO REAL-WORLD USE FOUND for 10% PLAINS BONUS
-"Yes please give blackhole TWO turns if i play too good" Statements dreamed up by the utterly deranged

"Hello I would like to control xx−−√=x+x−−√ CO's please" They Have Played Us For Absolute Fools

Part of the fun and the danger of generational shifts in gaming is the potential for franchises to reinvent themselves. Here, Advance Wars: Dual Strike takes the opportunity of the brand new DS hardware to age things up a bit, with a toned down color palette and new protagonists who are less visibly unqualified to lead soldiers into battle. At first glance the appears to be dangerously close to stripping away all of the personality of the first two titles in an awkward middle phase before a sharp pivot to teenage grimdark sensibilities with Days of Ruin. At a certain point, I have to wonder if the awkward outdated internet lingo that is deployed by the localized version of Jake is preferable to the more straight laced technician that I've heard is in the Japanese version; at least the cringe is a character trait.

However, eventually the plot returns to staging full blown lethal conflict between allies over tests of skills and adds in sudden heel turns for at least some of its previous villains, so at least there’s still some wacky cartoon toy soldier energy to go around. Mechanically speaking, after Black Hole Rising refined the first game's template, it feels as though the franchise's gameplay identity has been solidified and there isn't much left to do but add a few new gimmicks with a handful of new units and enemy types. The slow moving but extremely lethal one turn kills of the oozium slimes makes for fascinating evasive gameplay, while Black Bombs, Stealth Bombers, and Piperunners add new dangers and potential to the combined arms battles that define the franchise. In terms of new system mechanics, the results are a tad more mixed. The extra screen introduces multi-front battles as an additional form of variety, but they also provide an additional form of frustration, especially in missions where the second front is handled exclusively by an AI partner. The ability to swap to a second CO mid battle adds a lot of tactical wrinkles but it's telling that the extra turn provided by the titular Dual Strike mechanic is far more impactful than any of the CO Power combinations that I tried. At the end of the day, however, AWDS is simply "another one of those" and in terms of Advance Wars, that's enough to keep me happy.

To say this game has balance issues is like saying a car on fire is overheating, its technically true, but doesn't highlight the severity of the raging, nasty smelling fire in front of you. While many of the new additions are great fun, the grand majority of it is either really good (black boats), if not busted (stealth fighter), or straight up garbage (Grimm). Most noteworthy is the games gimmick, tag battles and the Dual Strike feature therein. While tag battles add a bit of fresh strategy to the game, the Dual Strike feature is just absurdly gamebreaking fundamentally because you get to activate 2 CO powers and take an extra turn, which you can turn into 3ish turns with Eagles CO ability that lets some of his units move again. While Dual Striking an opponent in the campaign, or in the war room is great fun, it is absolutely unfun in multiplayer, where it's basically an arms race to get it first, and use it to decimate any army of equal strength. Also they managed to screw up the music for some of the returning CO's songs with some poorly picked midi sounds, and that rustles my jimmies. Thankfully the games fundamentals are fun enough to still make this worth playing, and the story is far and away one of the best in the series, despite it not being much past decent.

To love Advance Wars is to embrace its jagged edges, to celebrate the insanity of imbalance and rubber banding in a game about "strategy" and "thinking". Intelligent systems realized this for Dual Strike, and broke every rule imaginable.

Double turns?
Yup.

Switching between CO's in order to cancel out any resemblance of drawbacks they may have once had?
Booyah

Giving characters skills so that the imbalance is extenuating beyond the point of no return?
Yaaaas

It's a busted mess that turns the PvE section into a challenge to see how badly you can break every rule. Missions end with 50 units that you only payed for a quarter of, as you slowly cover the AIs screen til there's nowhere left for them to build.

I have not played PvP and for all I could know that may bend the rules too much into unfun territory, but as far as PvE goes its an orchestrated mess that leaves an impeccable impression.

This is such a comfort play for me. This was my first Advance Wars game so I am a bit attached to it. I’ve heard some criticism that this game like Advance Wars 2 got needlessly darker. I think when you compare the first three to the fourth Advance Wars, Days of Ruin, that they are all strike a similar tone by comparison.

Dual Strike expands on the formula established by the first two to fit its new system, the Nintendo DS (Aside: How many DS games did the thing where they tried to hide the DS in the title? There’s also Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow at least.) that means you can use two CO characters instead of just one, sometimes you even fight a scenario on two fronts. Sometimes it’s neat, and sometimes it’s a little clunky, but I like that it asks you to continue thinking differently about the tactical scenarios you are presented with.

Having two COs does introduce an important change, the ability to charge both and unleash both their powers at once in a TAG power. Doing so is a huge advantage because you get to take one turn, then swap COs and immediately take another turn. This is neat, as you get to toy with the different combinations, I suggest you use Rachel if you want easy mode in most scenarios. In addition, COs can now be leveled up and gain access to skills, to slightly modify how they behave. This is a very customizable Advance Wars, and if you’re ever stuck you might try leveling up your COs to get the right combination of powers/skills to win more easily.

A great game that I will probably always go back to from time to time.