First off, a bit of a shameless plug- I used to run an AW fansite, but I gave it to my staff almost two years ago. With the impending release of AWDS I decided to become a little more hands on during my freetime, because I love the AW community and how incredibly hardcore it is. So anyway. http://www.advancewarsnet.com has full artwork for all the AWDS COs, the complete AWDS soundtrack, and the staffers are cooking up some other cool stuff for the next month or so. Anyway, onto the official thread...
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We had a Famicom Wars topic, but the game is in English now, bitches. It also rules hard. I don't have a lot to say because my review copy just came in the mail today, but I have some general thoughts:
-For hardcore AW vets, the game takes a long time to ramp up, difficulty-wise. I have perfectly S-ranked (300 points) the first 8 campaign maps without even really trying. I made mistakes on some of them and still got a 300 pt S-rank. I'm not saying the game is EASY by any means, b/c I'm very, very into AW. I'm just saying...
-This game is the biggest leap in terms of added content of any single AW game yet. At least of the ones released in the US, and possibly of the entire series. Combat mode, in my opinion, is more of a gimicky addition than anything. Still, at least it's something genuinely new to the series for the first time, and I enjoyed my first go-round. It's also an EXCELLENT way to earn coins.
-The game includes a Smash Bros.-esque stats page that tracks ALL KINDS of shit including total turns taken, totals built and destroyed for every individual unit type, etc. It'll be interesting to look at once I've put 100 hours into the game.
-The new COs are a mixed bag so far, but like Combat mode, I can't fault Int Sys for the effort. There's only so many good ideas for COs. Jake's CO specialty is kind of a "WTF." His units are extra powerful on plains? Blah. That said, I'm LOVING all the new CO music mixes. Sonja's is probably my favorite of the moment, but I honestly like all of them.
- I haven't had the touch input problems some other people have reported. I haven't found the menus to be too small. Besides, the old D-Pad input works just as perfectly as it did on the GBA with no drawbacks, so there's no complaints there.
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I put an INCREDIBLE amount of time into AW1, but I didn't feel like AW2 was a sequel as much as a cash-in, and I'm not even sure if I beat the game's campaign or not. With AWDS I can already tell that I'm re-hooked as all shit. So as a huge AW fan I'm probably more critical of the game than any of you will be, and I can safely say that at first glance the game seems to be 5 shades of awesome.
~~~
We had a Famicom Wars topic, but the game is in English now, bitches. It also rules hard. I don't have a lot to say because my review copy just came in the mail today, but I have some general thoughts:
-For hardcore AW vets, the game takes a long time to ramp up, difficulty-wise. I have perfectly S-ranked (300 points) the first 8 campaign maps without even really trying. I made mistakes on some of them and still got a 300 pt S-rank. I'm not saying the game is EASY by any means, b/c I'm very, very into AW. I'm just saying...
-This game is the biggest leap in terms of added content of any single AW game yet. At least of the ones released in the US, and possibly of the entire series. Combat mode, in my opinion, is more of a gimicky addition than anything. Still, at least it's something genuinely new to the series for the first time, and I enjoyed my first go-round. It's also an EXCELLENT way to earn coins.
-The game includes a Smash Bros.-esque stats page that tracks ALL KINDS of shit including total turns taken, totals built and destroyed for every individual unit type, etc. It'll be interesting to look at once I've put 100 hours into the game.
-The new COs are a mixed bag so far, but like Combat mode, I can't fault Int Sys for the effort. There's only so many good ideas for COs. Jake's CO specialty is kind of a "WTF." His units are extra powerful on plains? Blah. That said, I'm LOVING all the new CO music mixes. Sonja's is probably my favorite of the moment, but I honestly like all of them.
- I haven't had the touch input problems some other people have reported. I haven't found the menus to be too small. Besides, the old D-Pad input works just as perfectly as it did on the GBA with no drawbacks, so there's no complaints there.
~~~
I put an INCREDIBLE amount of time into AW1, but I didn't feel like AW2 was a sequel as much as a cash-in, and I'm not even sure if I beat the game's campaign or not. With AWDS I can already tell that I'm re-hooked as all shit. So as a huge AW fan I'm probably more critical of the game than any of you will be, and I can safely say that at first glance the game seems to be 5 shades of awesome.
