Advance Wars: Days of Ruin | 
| From: Nintendo
List Price: $29.99
Buy New: $20.67
You Save: $9.32 (31%)
New (22) Used (9) from $19.00
Rating:  37 reviews
Sales Rank: 514
Format: Nintendo
Platform: Nintendo Ds
Genre: Military and Historical Strategy Games
ESRB: Everyone 10+
Media: Video Game
Batteries Included: No
Operating System: Nintendo DS
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 5.4 x 4.9 x 0.6
MPN: DSNTRPYW2E
UPC: 045496739447
EAN: 0045496739447
ASIN: B000XJNTMY
Release Date: January 22, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | New characters and settings | | • | Online battles via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection | | • | Map trading |
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| Editorial Reviews:
From the Manufacturer
Advance Wars has been reborn. Set amid a world in chaos and boasting new characters and settings, the latest game in the series features a gritty look, an engaging storyline and online battles and map trading. It's the most stunning Advance Wars ever.- New COs and units, realistic graphics and a new environment bring the world of Advance Wars to life like never before. After a cataclysmic meteor strike exterminates 90 percent of the population, the survivors must battle barbarians, disease and megalomaniacal strongmen who seek only to secure their own power.
- Strategy fans will rejoice over the long-awaited inclusion of online play, which promises to add almost unlimited depth and replay ability. Hop on Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection and battle against a friend halfway across the world, or use the powerful map editor to create, trade and battle on custom maps.
Game storyline:
Advance Wars: Days of Ruin features a new group of COs and supporting characters, as well as a new setting. After a terrible asteroid strike that leaves few survivors, the world is in chaos. Toxic dust clouds are choking out the food supply. New diseases strike without warning. Terror runs rampant as people do whatever is necessary for their own survival. Against this background, one small band fights to restore human dignity in a world gone mad, but the mission seems impossible. Their own country is being led by a dictator. Their former enemy thinks only of revenge. And behind the scenes, a scientist with unbelievable power dreams of eliminating the human race once and for all.Game-play Modes:- Single-player: Players battle their way through a lengthy campaign and the twists and turns of the main story.
- Free Battle: Players challenge themselves or up to three friends on more than 170 two-, three- and four-player maps. When playing with friends, players use one Nintendo DS and pass it among players.
- Battle: Fight up to three other players on more than 170 maps via local wireless communication or Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. Each player must have his or her own game card.
- Design Room: Players use the touch screen to design their own maps, controlling every aspect from troop placement to terrain features.
- Trade Maps: Link to a friend via local wireless communication or Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection and swap topographical masterpieces.
Special powers/weapons/moves/features:
Multiplayer has always been the backbone of the Advance Wars game play, and the addition of playing via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection makes it even better. Here's a brief overview of the online experience:- Exchange Friend Codes with a close circle of military geniuses, then declare war against one of them over Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. While battling, players can communicate with each other using full voice chat.
- Players pit their skills against the world as they take on random players. They can choose to fight against people of their own skill level or engage whoever dares to take them on.
- Advance Wars: Days of Ruin contains one of the most robust map-creation systems ever seen. Use the stylus to paint and create the perfect map, then send it to a friend for a test run. It's easy, fun and very, very addictive.
Product Description
Almost 90% of mankind has been killed off following a devastating meteor strike that has caused a massive dust cloud to blot out the sun. Scattered survivors pick through the wreckage, and the remnants of several military superpowers patrol the ravaged landscape, some factions protecting the innocent while the others prey upon them. The two rival world superpowers, Rubinelle and Lazuria, continue to fight among the ruins of their countries, the few surviving military leaders of each side carrying on the conflict begun before the catastrophe. In their wake, various warlords rise to power, seizing scarce food rations from the defenseless survivors and attempting to assert their dominance in the absence of law and order. Follow the Rubinelle COs Will, Brenner, and Lin as they embark on a mission to rescue as many of the survivors as possible, with the help of the mysterious Isabella, an amnesiac girl who seems to know vital military secrets, and various other sympathetic factions.
ESRB Rated E10 For Ages 10 and Up
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| Customer Reviews: Read 32 more reviews...
 Outstanding War Strategy January 24, 2008
Roger Green (Fargo, ND United States)
18 out of 21 found this review helpful
Days of Ruin is the second Advance Wars title released for the DS, the first being the now hard-to-find Advance Wars: Dual Strike. With over 120 hours logged on the first game, Dual Strike provided excellent entertainment for under 25 cents per hour. Based on my first 5 hours on this new release, I'm sure I'll get the same value out of Days of Ruin. One can easily spend over 100 hours completing every map, mission, and rank in the game.
Days of Ruin is functionally similar to the original, keeping most everything that made the original so addictive. Still, Days of Ruin departs from previous Advance Wars titles in enough ways to keep the new game fresh. As previously, a campaign mode provides a story-line series of increasingly difficult maps for the one-player gamer. Multi-player modes are also available including a Nintendo Wi-Fi mode that allows you to challenge players around the globe. The artificial intelligence of the computer players is enough to challenge anyone, but the ready availability of human players makes the replay value of this title nearly infinite.
Bottom line:
Outstanding value.
Outstanding fun.
Outstanding replay value.
 The Best Just Got... Not Quite as Good February 11, 2008
E. David Swan (South Euclid, Ohio USA)
18 out of 27 found this review helpful
In an earlier review I declared the Advanced Wars the best games ever for the GBA and Dual Strike met or exceeded everything the previous two achieved. So Days of Ruin had a lot to live up to and.... didn't.
Let me start with what I didn't like. After three iterations of Advanced Wars I grew rather fond of the cast of Commanding Officers but DoR ashcans them all replacing them with a whole new cast of characters. It reminds me of when Capcom decided to swap out almost all the Street Fighter characters in SFIII. It just doesn't feel right. There is also a much smaller selection of CO's compared to Dual Strike and you don't even get to choose your CO during the main campaign. There are no more dual commanders, commander advancements and even the shop is gone. Another thing I have to take an issue with is the music. It's a blaring beat on a short loop that grows maddening after a while like Chinese water torture. At some point I had to completely turn the sound off on my DS or go crazy. Finally, this is the most verbose Advanced Wars ever and it can get tedious. I just want to fight not read a novel.
On the plus side there are some great new units including motorcycles to get troops to cities faster and flares to temporarily get rid of fog of war for a section of the map. My worry is that the more units they add the more complicated the game gets and the whole allure of Advanced Wars is in its simplicity. The Duster, for example, is a new aircraft that can attack both air and ground units. Isn't that what the helicopter is for? There are also additional training missions during the main campaign that can be a lot of fun. Actually the training missions are sort of a replacement for the purchasable missions. In this case you have to earn them rather than buy them. The CO powers have been toned down and made more difficult to use. Whether this is an improvement or not is debatable but I think the CO powers had become more annoying than useful. The single best improvement is the addition of unit advancements. As a unit destroys enemy units it can advance up to veteran level with slight increases in power.
Days of Ruin takes a departure from the previous three games with few improvements. The world differs, the commanders are new, and even the style of art has changed dramatically. What remains the same is the gameplay which continues to be excellent. My feeling is that games in a series should always improve and unfortunately, in almost every way, Dual Strike was superior to Days of Ruin. Because of this I cannot in good conscience give DoR anything higher than four stars.
Spectacular January 28, 2008
N. Durham (Philadelphia, PA)
14 out of 17 found this review helpful
Proving that change can be quite good, Nintendo's long running portable turn-based strategy series Advance Wars gets a fresh coat of paint with Advance Wars: Days of Ruin. Taking a more mature themed storyline, Advance Wars: Days of Ruin still features pretty much the same tried and true gameplay that fans of the series will come to expect and will be quite easy for them to pick up and play. Besides a more mature themed storyline, Days of Ruin also features a more comic-style artistic design scheme and a less cartoony feel to it as well, making it a pleasure to look at as well as play. Sadly, the Shop that was in previous installments of the series has been done away with, but what we get instead is some spectacular multiplayer and Wi-Fi options that only up the replay value even more so than ever before. The single player mode, which has been shortened when compared to Dual Strike, is still great as well, but the multiplayer options are where the most fun is to be had. While there's really nothing new in terms of the overall gameplay mechanics of Advance Wars, Days of Ruin remains a spectacular strategy game that delivers on all fronts. All in all, fans of the Advance Wars series will should cry with joy once they pop in Advance Wars: Days of Ruin, which is undoubtedly one of the best installments in the series, and one of the best strategy games and multiplayer experiences you'll have on your DS.
The latest and greatest Advance Wars January 24, 2008
Ronald Ian Bantayan (Los Angeles, CA USA)
13 out of 13 found this review helpful
Being a veteran of the 3 prior games (Advance Wars 1 & 2 for the GBA and Dual Strike for the DS), my expectations are very high for the latest title in this fantastic strategy franchise. I'm happy to report that this Advance Wars satisfies most of those expectations. The addition of several new units adds even more depth to an already deep gaming experience. Surprisingly, a few units were taken out as well to keep things pure and simple, and I applaud the developer's brave decision which ultimately is for the best.
A new take on war gives this game a fresh feeling, although feeling familiar at the same time. It sheds it's cutesy, almost comical approach to war, for a more serious and rugged post-apocalyptic setting.
The addition of the CO system adds an exciting new layer to the already deep gameplay. This time around you can actually have a CO out in the field in the fray with your army. The dynamics of boosting your CO bar in order to use your CO power have been modified dramatically.
The online portion is also fleshed out: you can battle with others online, and you can upload and download maps from Nintendo WiFi Connection to keep the gameplay experience fresh through the addition of new maps. Voice chat through VOIP is also present, but you can only do this with people in your friends list, so don't expect Halo-like trash talk fests. :)
The only drawback is the lack of unlockables (which to me was icing on the Advance Wars cake). Overall this is a worthy addition to a very high Advance Wars pedigree, and a title that's worth adding to your videogame library. 5 stars.
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*Addendum*: So far I have clocked in 51 hours into this game, and I see no end in sight. I am completely hooked, even more so than the three previous games combined. I find myself downloading recommended maps every day and creating new ones every few days while whistling Gage's and Brenner's BGM. This is truly the best Advance Wars yet.
Best tactical strategy game on the DS, but just shy of perfection February 15, 2008
Rorke Haining (Seattle)
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
I like tactical strategy games in general (e.g. Panzer General, Final Fantasy Tactics, Heroes of Might & Magic series), and I adored Advanced Wars: Dual Strike. I play exclusively 1P games, I don't use the multiplayer functions of this game at all, so I write my review from this perspective.
Clearly, AW:DoR is the best, most refined AW game to date, and so far, it's the best strategy game I've ever found for the DS. It definitely deserves a full 5 stars, as I've been glued to it non-stop for about a month. If you enjoy strategy games at all, pick up this title, you definitely won't be disappointed.
And yet I have to admit, I'm a little disappointed. The two major improvements were to the touch screen control system and to the online capabilities, both taking greater advantage of the DS platform. Unfortunately, I'm just not that interested in either advancement. I do not use the touch screen for this game at all, I definitely prefer the direction pad and buttons (though I have to admit, the touch screen option is very well done and fun to use). I also don't use the wireless options of any DS game. It's not that the wireless options are bad, just that I prefer single-player games in general as there's no need to coordinate schedules, no delays at all. The DS in particular is an excellent system to fill dead time during bus or air travel, neither of which work well with other players. The multiplayer options of this title are actually very tempting (not only can you compete against your buddy in another location, but you can voice chat while doing so!), but multiplayer gaming just doesn't fit well into my busy life these days.
As a 1P game, AW:DoR is the best 1P strategy game that I have yet found for the DS. But it's just not better *in every possible way* than the previous title, Dual Strike. This is disappointing, and I considered rating the product 4 stars. But given how well designed it is, and that I've enjoyed 100 hours of gameplay already and look forward to more, I feel it deserves the full 5 stars.
The rest of my review is a detailed wish list of ways the 1P experience could be improved, along with some praise for noteworthy improvements over Advanced Wars: Dual Strike. If you're not interested in those details, my bottom line is that I highly recommend this as the best strategy game available for the DS today.
Wishlist for improvements:
The campaign is linear, with no optional side quests to explore. I miss the little secret labs, and the ability to unlock special unit types for later in the campaign! I wish there were more optional goals, side quests, and perhaps some strategic choice about how the campaign proceeds.
The game no longer keeps track of your score for the extra "free play" maps, nor do you get medals for solving them, nor do you win points for solving them, nor do you have to win access to unlock them. In short, the designers basically gutted all the reinforcers that made playing the extra maps fun! This is my single biggest complaint about the new game.
I wish free play maps came pre-configured for different default scenarios (e.g. this one has fog of war, this one has snow, this one uses these COs, etc.). It's great that the game allows you to tweak all settings for every free play map, but provide interesting and unique defaults for each map so you can more readily compare your experience with others. (Note that this also undercuts the fun of trying to complete a "checklist" of beating all "free play" maps, because now every map has identical defaults unless you expressly choose otherwise.)
Like other reviewers, I miss the Shop. Basically, the previous game required you to rack up points by playing the game, which could be spent to unlock various things (maps, CO uniforms, etc.). Human nature being what it is, having to win these little things is more fun than being given them up front. In this title, all the free play maps and CO outfits are available immediately, which is slightly disappointing.
The one multiplayer / community aspect I'd love is some sort of scoreboard, or score comparisons with your friends. This would allow me to play at my own pace w/o having to coordinate schedules with others, while still competing on the big board.
But even given the above limitations, the 1P game is still better than AW:Dual Strike. I love the new CO system, whereby the CO is attached to a specific unit. I prefer having a single CO over having tag team pairs like before. I like the fact that the units have been streamlined (stealth units weren't that interesting), though I would like the occasional oddball unit in the campaign mode. I love the fact that units can gain experience -- an excellent gameplay mechanic. I love the new tutorial screens, as well as the strategic advice screen. All in all, this game is extremely well done.
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