In this review, we earn some battle points in the Game Boy Advance game Advance Wars 2 – Black Hole Rising. We find out how well this strategy game plays.
This game was released in 2003 and is a sequel to the game Advance Wars on the same system.
We did previously play Advance Wars. That game got a great score and is one of the best games we’ve played on this system. So, it makes sense to see how well this sequel plays.
The story follows the events of the first Advance Wars game. After Sturm, the leader of the Black Hole, is ousted from the Wars land, peace came to the region. Sturm sees that his plan to pit different factions against each other didn’t work. So, he decides to return and hit all the factions at once with the full force of Black Hole. The different factions find out about the return of Black Hole and decide to, once again, work together and push the Black Hole forces back.
All of the factions do make a return. You have Orange Star, Blue Moon, Yellow Commit, and Green Earth. There is also the Black Hole enemy.
The main mode of the game is Campaign Mode. This continues the storyline. It also allows you to earn points to unlock features.
You start off in the Orange Star region. Not only will you be getting the easiest levels to start off with in the game, you’ll also be guided through some tutorials as well. When you beat a mission or two, you’ll unlock other missions in the area. Eventually, you’ll unlock the final mission in the region. This is denoted with a flag and a star. Beat that area and you’ll unlock two new regions: Blue Moon and Yellow Commit. Be warned, though, if you beat the final mission, you can’t go back and play any remaining region conflicts.
Moving up, if you beat the final mission in Blue Moon and Yellow Commit, you’ll unlock the Green Earth Region. Beat that final mission and you’ll unlock the Black Hole region (the final region in the game).
Like the last game, you’ll get to play as a Commanding Officer (CO). Which CO that is depends on the mission. Most missions will have a CO chosen for you, but you’ll also have a mission or two where you get to select a CO.
Each CO is different and has an impact on how you play. Immediately, the differences are that each one has a different special power. Some will allow you to repair vehicles on the field. Others will grant you better visibility in fog of war missions. Some boost indirect fighting for a turn. One even grants you an extra boost in cash. To use the power, you need to fill up the first set of stars. To fill up stars, you need to engage in conflicts (offensively or defensively). You’ll also have a series of smaller stars. Fill those up as well and you’ll unlock a Super Power which grants additional benefits.
In addition to this, different CO’s have different strengths and weaknesses. Max, for instance, has an advantage with direct combat. However, range with indirect combat is shorter than others.
With the exception of the addition of the Neotank, units remain largely unchanged from the previous game.
You have units that work on foot. These are the infantry and mech units. While they are quite weak in battle for the most part (mech units can be useful against a number of different ground units), they do offer some features that help greatly. The most obvious feature is the fact that they can take over properties as well as operate missile silos. This is critical to your success. Additionally, they can climb mountains. In addition to getting to areas faster, this is beneficial in fog of war situations. Just be wary that they can be attacked directly by ground units if the mountain region touches flat ground.
In addition to this, there are various ground units. This includes tanks, Anti-Aircraft units, artillery, rockets, and Md Tanks. Different units have strengths and weaknesses. Tanks, for instance, can be a good source of cheap direct combat. While great for deploying relatively quickly, they do suffer in the face of the tougher ground units.
Rockets, are great at indirect combat. They can hit enemies several spaces away without getting any return fire. Their weaknesses, however, include an inability to attack in direct combat and their movements can be quite slow.
Md Tanks are excellent for direct combat. Unfortunately, they are completely defenceless against ranged attacks.
Air units are also involved in this game. B Copters are great for attacking a number of different units and their range is very good. Bombers are excellent for taking out ground units, but aren’t capable of defending themselves against other air units. Air jets are the masters of the sky, though taking on non-air units is a different matter entirely. All have the advantage of being able to fly over every kind of terrain except pipe.
Ocean units are also part of the game. Submarines are great for taking out Battleships. Cruisers largely make up for the weaknesses of other vessels. They can take out air units and subs. Battleships are fantastic at indirect battle, but are extremely expensive to make.
In addition to this, you have a unit for each area for carrying different units. These units can help you make ground quickly as opposed to regular movements of infantry. These unites are the APC (land), Lander (water travel), and T-Copter (air travel). They do not have any combat capabilities, but they do improve movements of other units. Landers can also take on small ground units. APC’s also have the added benefit of being able to resupply units with fuel and ammunition (something that otherwise only happens on captures properties).
Unless you start with units, each unit has to be deployed. A factory deploys ground units. Airports deploy air units. Sea Ports deploy ocean units. Only one unit per day can be deployed. If a unit is on top of that property (friend or enemy), then that property cannot deploy additional units unless that unit is moved or destroyed.
In order to deploy units, you need in-battle cash. To build cash, you need to take over city properties. For every city property you take over, you’ll earn 1,000 per day. Cash does not transfer over from battle to battle.
Finally, you have your own HQ. Often, the conditions for victory include being able to take over the enemy HQ. This can greatly help speed up victory depending on the circumstances.
Otherwise, winning often involves just taking out a certain property or destroying every enemy unit on screen. Sometimes, you have to survive a certain number of days. In a few missions, all you need to do is part any unit on an enemy HQ.
Achieving victory involves a lot of strategy. This includes that knowing that attacking will deal more damage on the enemy as opposed to simply taking hits. Protecting ranged units with units that can take the damage is also useful. If you have APCs, you can use them to delay enemy ground troops (or simply park them on enemy factories to prevent more from coming out). If you start with neutral cities nearby, but have little cash, pump out infantry units quickly to start taking over properties. On the other hand, if neutral cities are far away, an APC would be a good early investment.
There are, of course, countless other strategies one can employ for success, these are just a few of those strategies that can help bring victory in general.
Another new feature in this game is the various points system. While the ranking is largely the same, points are also earned. Points are earned after victory. They are divided into three categories: speed, power, and technique.
Speed is earned based on how quickly you achieved victory. Power is based on how much damage you unleashed on the enemy. Technique is based on how little damage you receive from the enemy. You can receive 100 points on each category. In all, you can earn a maximum of 300 points per battle. The combine score determines your ranking for the battle. S Rank is the highest rank you can earn. After that, ranks go down from A to B to C.
While that is the main part of the game, there are other modes of play as well. War Room, for instance, has you pick an available CO to take on a pre-selected enemy. Simply beat as many maps as possible and earn additional points.
There is also the store which allows you to buy items that enhance your War Room experience. This includes an ability to change colours, new maps, and the availability of new CO’s. If you buy some items, exit, and return, items will get restocked. Don’t think that what’s available immediately is all that is available in the game.
You can also take on other modes that allow for quick battles as well as being able to take on other human opponents.
For me, it’s great to see another title in this series on the system. It makes sense given how great the previous game is. What’s more impressive is the fact that little has to change in order to maintain that ability to enjoy the game.
A problem I see with the game is that it depends a bit on having experience playing the previous game. While this game does offer a good amount of explanation at the beginning of the campaign, the information is fairly dense. It’s a good refresher for those who already played the game, but if you are new to this game, it would feel like a textbook was thrown at you and you can easily be overwhelmed at the beginning.
A minor problem I see with this game is the difficulty. The first few missions are very straight forward. Subsequent missions in the Blue Moon region can be challenging. By the time you reach Yellow Commit, the levels are quite difficult. I see most players dropping out somewhere between Yellow Commit missions and Green Earth missions. This is simply because the missions are just extremely difficult. I see having tough missions towards the end of the game as a way of testing players, but those missions are just plain frustrating for the most part.
A lot of people criticize this game for not being different enough from the previous game. To some degree, I agree. The thing is, however, there was a lot that the previous game got right. So, changes may not necessarily be something you want to do too much of in the first place. At the same time, you have an additional unit and a number of brand new CO’s to work with. I personally only see this as a minor issue, though.
At the same time, this game does retain a lot of what made the original great. There are a number of methods to achieve victory. Those methods narrow down when trying to figure out how to maximize your score of course. You can also pick and choose the order of missions you want to play in to some degree. The large amount of content is certainly here in this game as well.
Overall, this game has good variety and content. The learning curve can be a bit steep for new players and the beginning and the difficulty curve can be a bit much in the later portions of the game. There isn’t much in the way of new content, but that is only a minor issue. This is because the previous game did get a lot right, so too many changes would have been a bad move. All in all, a very solid game.
Graphically speaking, I was expecting more from this one. There were animated sequences when battles took place, but the CO’s were just pictures unlike the previous game. What I do like is the fact that different unites from different factions were actually different. Just look at Orange Star mech units versus the Black Hole mech units in battle sequences for instance. Since the previous game actually did a lot to blaze new trails for handheld games, this game seemed to rest on its laurels. Solid, but not amazing by this point in time.
Audio is pretty decent. The music, generally speaking, is great. The super power music is probably the best track, but there are a number of CO themes that also work quite well too. Sound effects are OK. By this point in time, plenty of handheld games were incorporating speech samples. This game doesn’t seem to have any of that. Thus, this game was held back by this aspect.
Overall, this is a very solid sequel to the previous game. It’s got solid game play, solid graphics, and good audio. Difficulty can be an issue and the steep initial learning curve didn’t help play. The lack of new content might be offputting to some, but so much of what made the previous game great is still present here. A solid game all around.
Overall
Furthest point in game: Beat 22 missions.
General gameplay: 20/25
Replay value: 8/10
Graphics: 7/10
Audio: 3/5
Overall rating: 76%
Drew Wilson on Twitter: @icecube85 and Facebook.
