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Advance Wars goodies make us wish the days would go by faster
In case you missed it, you can see from the video above that Advance Wars: Days of Ruin has a much darker style than its predecessors. The gameplay is looking great and we're liking the mature style, especially after hearing some of the reasons behind it.1up recently interviewed Hitoshi Yamagami and Masaki Tawara of Nintendo's Software Planning and Development Department, who shed some light on the darker style behind the game. They decided to drop the light-hearted scenario of the game because they didn't want to depict war positively. The more realistic tone then led to different visuals and a few tweaks to the gameplay. While the fundamentals are the same, Yamagami and Tawara say that Days of Ruin will have a faster pace than before.Because the previous Advance Wars games were great in of themselves, change to the series can seem a little daunting. Still, we like it when developers take risks, and we think the game will be all the better for it. We'll find out for sure soon enough, though, as the game is scheduled to release in a few weeks.%Gallery-8563%
New Advance Wars images show off new COs, new belly buttons
Supplementing its latest preview of Advance Wars: Days of Ruin, GameSpot has posted over twenty screenshots, faction emblems, and commanding officer portraits for the turn-based strategy title. Among the new cast of COs are two similarly designed gothic lolitas (possibly sisters?), a nefarious scientist with watercolor stains on his labcoat, and what could possibly be Advance Wars' first black CO. Also worth noting is the leather-clad redhead who looks a lot like an older version of Sami. The darker palette, reportedly "heavier" soundtrack, and serious expressions on the COs really reflect the series' new mature direction. -- we can't wait to see how much further away Intelligent Systems will take the game from its lighthearted roots after having killed off 90% of the world's population. You can preview the new images and COs yourself with the convenient gallery we've embedded below. As promised in our headline, there are plenty of belly buttons -- both male and female -- for you to appraise.%Gallery-8563%[Via AWN]
Confirmed: Advance Wars: Dark Conflict laying siege to Europe on January 25
var digg_url = 'http://www.digg.com/nintendo/Confirmed_Advance_Wars_2_dated_for_Europe_boxart_revealed'; Following yesterday's speculation, we've just received confirmation from Nintendo of Europe that Advance Wars: Dark Conflict will be hitting European stores on January 25, just four days ahead of the game's U.S. release.Also confirmed to us was the name change, though judging by the leaked boxart that materialized on NeoGAF recently (and which seems to fit in with the game's new, oh-so-serious approach), this will only apply to Europe. Looks like the title will still carry the Days of Ruin suffix when it launches stateside.%Gallery-8563%
Rumor: Advanced Wars 2 sacks Europe in January
Word via the all-knowing, all-seeing intertron is that Advance Wars: Days of Ruin is going to be hitting Europe next month, complete with a new subtitle in Advance Wars: Dark Conflict. With a release window of January 2008, the rumor is that Europeans will likely be enjoying one of the best DS games to date in a short time. As you already know, the game is slated to release in the U.S. on January 21st.Hopefully, this isn't a rumor and is fact, but considering that the only outlet running the story is Cubed3, without a mention on any other major European gaming news site, we're remaining incredibly skeptical about the whole thing. In fact, we even tried to call Nintendo of Europe, but couldn't get through to anyone able to offer an official comment. In a perfect world, this would be fact, but we've been burned before so keep in mind that we're chalking this one up to another product of the rumor mill.%Gallery-8563%
Nintendo Power reconstructs Days of Ruin facts
One of the folks over at NeoGAF got their grubby little mitts on the latest issue of Nintendo Power and, as you can imagine, it's chock full of factoids and other interesting information. And, there's a good deal of stuff on the Advance Wars sequel, Advance Wars: Day of Ruin. While there isn't anything new to look at, per the last few videos of the game in action or the screens we have in our gallery below, Nintendo Power still has some stuff to present: The game stars Will, a survivor of the meteorite. He dug himself out of the rubble, living only on canned bread. There are 26 main missions, 30 training missions are unlockable and over 150 multiplayer campaigns Ranks are raised when a unit destroys another unit, with a maximum of three before it becomes a Veteran CO powers have been nerfed, making them weaker and they now ride in your unit of choice and have Veteran status CO Zone has been incorporated, giving your CO specific power-ups based on what kind of CO that person is. Also, your CO will strengthen nearby units. The rest of the information in the post is old hat, if you frequent our site on a regular basis.%Gallery-8563%
Promotional Consideration: Black Hole Advertising
Promotional Consideration is a weekly feature about the Nintendo DS advertisements you usually flip past, change the channel on, or just tune out.Considering that you've put up with the dozens of posts we've published for Advance Wars: Days of Ruin so far, we're sure you'll forgive us for revisiting War Worlds again so soon with this column. This week, Promotional Consideration examines the print ad Nintendo rolled out in 2003 for Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising. Position your units, end your turn, and peek past the break for more text.
Our day is anything but ruined by this new Advance Wars 2 trailer
As with all JeuxFrance videos, you might have to put up with some longer-than-usual load times and buffering issues, so keep that in mind. The video has some of the screens from our gallery below, so portions of it may be familiar, but for the most part it is brand new. Deliciously brand new. And with all of the other videos available, we're finding it to be incredibly difficult to keep our jaw off the ground.%Gallery-8563%
Joystiq hands-on: Advance Wars: Days of Ruin (DS)
The "Days of Ruin" addendum to the standard "Advance Wars" title is more than a surprising acronym that doesn't stand for "DS." (DR? What?) Days of Ruin marks the bleak setting and style for the latest version of this turn-based strategy game. The plucky Advance Wars characters have been retired in favor of an all-new, more tempered cast. And while this is still a Nintendo game -- don't expect anything too edgy -- the company anticipates it'll earn a T-rating for the game's language and tone. The plot is about a more serious, war-decimated planet, after all. More than just the setting, this Advance Wars was described as an Intelligent Systems relaunch of the series. CO powers have been reduced; don't expect them to let a losing side suddenly win the game. And the dual-screen gameplay from the previous DS version has been removed; the top screen shows dedicated battle info, while the bottom screen shows the game area. We recently played a few levels of the new title, and we're looking forward to an Advance Wars game again. We never liked the dual-screen battles, and the CO powers seemed to have gotten out of control in the previous version. Days of Ruin felt like a much needed course-correction for the series. Features like Wi-Fi play with voice chat, and map creation and sharing, remake the title while keeping its addictive strategy gameplay. %Gallery-8675%
Advance Wars: Days of Ruin to support online, voice chat, and Map Center
Previews for Advance Wars: Days of Ruin reveal that the game's cheerful tone isn't the only thing Intelligent Systems stripped from the turn-based strategy title; fans of the series can expect to find a lot of the "distractions and unnecessary elements" that plagued previous games to be missing. Dual-screen battles and "many advanced units" were cut, and unbalancing CO powers have been softened in favor of more strategic maneuvering.Gamers waiting for online support's inevitable addition can rejoice, however, as Wi-Fi battles and voice chat made the list of new features planned for Days of Ruin's January 21st, 2008 release. A Map Center system of sharing, rating, and downloading online maps will also come included with the 170 scenarios on the cart.New troops like the Motorbike (lightly-armed vehicles that can capture territories), Flare (infantry capable of clearing fog-of-war from a distance), and Duster (air units equipped to fight off aerial and ground opponents) promise to add creative angles to past tactics. Check past the post break for more off-screen videos of those units in action.Read - 1UP's Advance Wars: DoR hands-on impressionsRead - GameSpot's Advance Wars: DoR hands-on impressionsRead - Kotaku's Advance Wars: DoR hands-on impressionsRead - IGN's Advance Wars: DoR off-screen videos
Nintendo remembers that war isn't always so jovial
Along with its grittier, browner, and more next-gen art style, Advance Wars: Portrait Days of Ruin brings a much darker story to the turn-based strategy series, deviating from Wars World's usually colorful and light-hearted tone. The apocalyptic plot begins with a storm of meteors devastating the planet, setting off a chain of natural disasters that kill 90% of mankind. Cutscenes show Commanding Officers contending with non-combat issues like starvation and disease, a drastic departure from Jake's inane quotes that peppered Dual Strike.While we're on the topic of maturing the brand, we wonder if the game will take a chance and tackle themes from current wars and conflicts -- occupying a country in the midst of a civil war, outsourcing private military firms, or suffering losses to unconventional threats (e.g. IEDs, suicide bombers). It's unlikely, but it would be interesting to see executed.Nintendo also put out over a dozen English screenshots for the game which you can view in the gallery below. The new images betray a great deal of unannounced details, like an improved map editor, new terrain and terrain stats, and a unit leveling system. %Gallery-8563%
