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.

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.