GAME-BOY-ADVANCE
9.5
Advance Wars
Intelligent Systems' turn-based strategy masterpiece brought their Wars franchise to the West for the first time with a perfectly calibrated tactical experience. Advance Wars' accessible mechanics mask deep strategic complexity, and its map design creates endlessly replayable competitive battles.
💡 Advance Wars — Key Facts
- → Advance Wars was developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo
- → Released in 2001 on GAME-BOY-ADVANCE
- → Genre: Strategy
- → We rate it 9.3/10 — an absolute classic
- → Part of the advance-wars franchise
- → Intelligent Systems' turn-based strategy masterpiece brought their Wars franchise to the West for the first time with a perfectly calibrated tactical experience. Advance Wars' accessible mechanics mask deep strategic complexity, and its map design creates endlessly replayable competitive battles.
Overview
The Wars franchise had been a beloved Japan-only strategy series since 1988, producing games across Famicom, Game Boy, and Super Famicom without ever making the journey West. When Intelligent Systems decided to bring their GBA entry to North America in 2001, they were testing whether turn-based military strategy could find an audience outside Japan.
The timing was unfortunate — Advance Wars was released days before September 11, 2001, causing its marketing to be pulled and reviews to be held. Despite this, the game succeeded critically and commercially, driven primarily by word of mouth from players who recognized something exceptional.
Gameplay
Advance Wars presents tactical battles on grid-based maps between forces commanded by different Commanding Officers (COs). Units range from inexpensive ground infantry to costly sea battleships, each with defined attack types, movement ranges, and effective targets. The fundamental rock-paper-scissors of the unit system — anti-air beats air, artillery beats tanks from safety, submarines beat battleships — creates a strategic vocabulary that rewards investment in learning.
The terrain system adds depth: forests hide ground units from distant enemies, mountains give indirect-fire units range bonuses, and roads accelerate wheeled unit movement. Positioning units to exploit terrain advantages while denying the same to opponents creates complex spatial decisions on every turn.
CO Powers — activated when a power meter fills through combat — provide each CO with distinct abilities that can swing difficult battles or accelerate favorable ones.
Why It’s a Classic
Advance Wars earns its standing through perfect mechanical calibration. Every unit has a cost that matches its power; every CO Power has a level of impact appropriate to its charge requirement; every map provides tactical scenarios that reward knowing the system. The game never feels unfair, and victories — particularly in the later campaign’s harder scenarios — feel genuinely earned.
Legacy
Advance Wars established Intelligent Systems’ strategy design internationally and led directly to three GBA and DS sequels plus the 2023 Re-Boot Camp remake. The franchise’s influence on portable strategy games, particularly the genre of “accessible-but-deep” tactical games, is substantial.
Our Review
9.3
Outstanding / 10
🎮
Gameplay
★★★★★
🎨
Graphics
★★★★★
🎵
Audio
★★★★★
🔄
Replay
★★★★★
Gameplay
The unit roster — infantry, tanks, artillery, copters, battleships — each with clear strengths, weaknesses, and costs — creates a strategic vocabulary that rewards learning and application. CO Powers add tactical wrinkles to the base mechanics, and the terrain system (forests hide units, mountains give range bonuses) makes positioning critical. The Commanding Officer match-ups provide meta-game depth.
Graphics
Colorful, chunky sprite work that communicates all relevant tactical information instantly. Unit animations during combat are charming, and the map design is clean and readable at a glance. The distinct visual language for each terrain type is well-executed.
Audio
Yuka Tsujiyoko's upbeat military-themed score is appropriate to the game's colorful aesthetic. Each Commanding Officer has a distinct musical theme for their CO Power activation, adding personality to the tactical experience.
Replayability
Very high. Campaign mode, War Room challenge maps, Versus mode (link cable, up to 4 players), and the built-in map editor provide extensive content. The Map Editor's designs can be shared and competed on, creating essentially unlimited additional maps.
Historical Significance
Advance Wars was the first Wars franchise game released in Western markets after being Japan-exclusive since 1988. Its commercial success and critical acclaim established it as one of GBA's finest games and introduced Western audiences to Intelligent Systems' strategic design philosophy. GBA game reviews were delayed post-9/11 but the game became a commercial success.
✅ Pros
- + Perfectly balanced unit roster creating a deep strategic vocabulary
- + CO Powers add memorable tactical variety without disrupting balance
- + Excellent campaign progression from simple to complex scenarios
- + Built-in map editor enables essentially infinite custom content
- + 4-player link cable multiplayer is an exceptional competitive experience
- + Terrain system creates meaningful positioning decisions on every map
❌ Cons
- - Lacks permanent progression between missions — unit experience doesn't carry over
- - CO Nell's special power is widely considered overpowered
- - No online multiplayer (standard for the era, but limiting)
- - Tutorial is mandatory and somewhat long for experienced strategy players
- - Map editor content cannot be easily shared without link cable physical presence
Also Known As
ファミコンウォーズアドバンスFamicom Wars Advance
In the Series
Advance Wars FAQ
What are CO Powers?
CO Powers are special abilities unique to each Commanding Officer that charge as units deal and take damage. When activated, they provide significant battle modifiers: Andy's Super CO Power repairs all units by 5 HP; Sami's allows infantry to capture enemy HQs in one turn; Max's boosts all direct combat units significantly. CO Powers add a timing-based tactical layer — when to save your Power for maximum effect — on top of the base strategic decisions.
What is the Wars franchise?
Advance Wars is part of the Nintendo Wars (Famicom Wars) franchise that began in 1988 on Famicom in Japan. The series includes Famicom Wars, Game Boy Wars, Super Famicom Wars, and the GBA Advance Wars games. Advance Wars was the first entry released internationally, and its success led to Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising (2003) and Advance Wars: Dual Strike (2005). The series was revived with Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp (2023), a Switch remake.
How does unit capturing work?
Infantry and Mech units can capture buildings — cities, bases, ports, airports, and HQs. Capturing takes multiple turns based on the unit's current HP (a full 10 HP unit takes 2 turns, damaged units take more). Capturing the enemy HQ instantly wins the mission. Capturing cities and factories provides funds and unit production capability, making capturing undefended properties a priority strategy.
What is Fog of War and how does it change the game?
Fog of War mode limits unit visibility to their specific sight range, hiding the rest of the map unless a friendly unit is within sight. This changes strategy significantly: terrain that provides hiding (forests) becomes tactically crucial, and advance scouting with infantry or recon units becomes essential before committing tanks to attacks. Many experienced players consider Fog of War the preferred mode for competitive play.
Can Advance Wars be played multiplayer?
Advance Wars supports 2–4 player local multiplayer via GBA link cable. Remarkably, only one cartridge is needed — a single cartridge can be used to play multiplayer via DS Download Play functionality, though a second cartridge enables additional options. The 2023 Re-Boot Camp remake added online multiplayer for the first time.
