After a week-long hiatus, Retro Weekend returns to Invisible Gamer. Today we take a look at Advance Wars for the GBA and talk about how its colorful and charming look go a long way in turning "war" into a fun experience that's nearly impossible to put down. Where are all the rest of the quirky, colorful, games?
Looking for games like Advance Wars? Here‘s a list of alternatives you can find on Steam and play on Steam Deck.
Advance Wars is a strange series with a history of massive critical acclaim, only for it to disappear for over a decade.
Waifu's & husbandos saved Fire Emblem. Its why FE Heroes generates more money than any other of Nintendo's 1st party mobile entries and why the sales of the 3DS and Switch entries performed so well. People gotta have those bikini clad variants of Rhea, Dorothea or Byleth after all. lmao I would like to say it was because of gameplay updates like casual mode or being able to be more hands on with how each character develops over time but I know the aforementioned waifu's is the biggest reason. I hear enough about it from my friends and when I venture online. lol
I myself started playing Advance Wars and Fire Emblem around the same time on the GBA. I ended up preferring Fire Emblem as I grew up playing RPG's with that similar medieval theme. When it comes to Advance Wars I liked Days of Ruin on the DS the best as I liked its darker tone and setting but that performed so poorly that it caused the IP to go dormant for 12+ years. Something that would of happened to Fire Emblem if not for Awakening taking off. Awakening was an aptly named title as it certainly got people to wake up and buy a FE game. The one before FE Awakening titled Shadow Dragon sold about as well as Days of Ruin leading Nintendo to issue a warning about future of FE entries should Awakening fail. I'm glad it didn't come to that. I just hope people buy the remake of Advance War 1 & 2 because it will probably be another lost decade if they don't. Just saying. Nintendo is clearly not afraid to drop support for its IP's if sales are not up to snuff. Being critically acclaimed is great and all but in the end Nintendo is more worried about sales.
After twenty years, Advance Wars is still one of the best and most influential games ever released on the GBA