Advance Wars: Days of Ruin for the Nintendo DS

Now that I'm also posting these game reviews for examiner.com I have to try and keep the word count a little limited. So sorry for the length. If my readers ask for more details I can start doing a more detailed version here and a simpler version for examiner.com if people want.

Concept: 4/5

Take an established franchise with its own characters that the fans of the series have known for years and chuck it all out the window. Then keeping the same play mechanics reinvent the story and artistic style. This is the concept that formed Advance Wars: Days of Ruin and make it stand apart from the rest of the series.

Graphics: 4/5

The graphics are great no doubt about it. The developers chucked the cartoony anime style of the past and replaced it with a more serious anime style. It definitely works too because it would be jarring than seeing the old comedic cartoony characters talking about serious and depressing things, that are central to this game’s plot.

Sound: 4/5

The sound is great in this game. It does what is necessary of sound and then goes above and beyond that to actually make the player focus on playing. The soundtrack is one of those musical masterpieces that energize the player into a rhythm which is conducive to playing the game.

Playability: 3/5

The missions are challenging but not too difficult. It is usually possible to beat a mission on either the first try or the second try once some element of gameplay has been revealed and shows the player one strategy is the key to winning on this battlefield. The fact that it sometimes takes two attempts is a little disheartening but not overall game breaking and the mechanics of the turn based strategy game are so tight that it makes the game worth buying.

Experience: 4/5

The characters and the story of what has happened are enthralling, if you let it be. If you’re willing to dive into the story and care about the characters then you’re in for an emotional experience and you’ll love it. If you’re a type of player that doesn’t care about story and thinks it gets in the way than you’re missing out.

X-Factor: 4/5

Advance Wars: Days of Ruin definitely has the X-Factor to make you want to keep on playing. Whether it’s to play through the campaign and follow the story, try some of the challenge missions in the campaign, or to play with friends and see who the better commander is. The game will suck you in and make you want to keep playing.

Total: 23/30 Very Good

This is a great Turn Based Strategy Game. If you like Strategy games in general give it a try. If you don’t, who knows this game may change your opinion about the genre but don’t hold your breath on that.

Pokémon SoulSilver

This month I take a look at one of the latest games in the Pokémon franchise. I believe the only differences between SoulSilver and HeartGold to be what pokémon are available to you and nothing drastically different in terms of gameplay so I guess this review can work for both.

Concept: 1/5

Continue the remaking of old Pokémon games with updating Gold and Silver to HeartGold and SoulSilver. Overall, knowing how much money Pokémon games make there really wasn't a lot of new thinking put into these games. They just took a couple ideas from other games and put it into this remake. Most noticeably being having a pokémon follow you around from Pokémon Yellow. Nothing else really felt new.

Graphics: 2/5

The graphics are good for the Nintendo DS. Not amazing but it's still nice too look at. I especially liked the pictures they showed when you enter a new area, like the Ilex Forest, or the Ice Path. I feel like they set the world a little better and I'm more immersed. But that's about it. Otherwise it's just the DS pokémon engine... nothing really awesome.

Sound: 4/5

The sound is average. Does what it needs to do, the sound effects and songs are the same ones we've known since the beginning. So that's average, they are updated however from the original midi files to newer better sounding audio. But after you beat the game you can unlock the ability to play the original sound clips which is amusing and gives a good sense of nostalgia that I enjoyed.

Playability: 2/5

The playability is to be expected. It's another pokémon game. You have to wander from town to town beating gym leaders gaining Hidden Moves and the ability to use them outside of battle to unlock new areas of the map. You can still only carry 6 pokémon and they can only know 4 moves. Really a case of same old same old. This formula has not changed since the original. Which is the thing that really ticks me off. They've released more than a dozen games by now, and the formula is still exactly the same? Can we not get any innovation on this section of the game? Are the developers so unwilling to try something new? Or have they been trying things behind closed doors and discovering it doesn't work? I don't know but I can tell you this style of gameplay is getting really old really fast.

They did add a new gameplay element with the pokéwalker. But is a tamagotchi minigame with the element of you need to walk to gain things really new? I feel like they just took some other people's ideas and tried to fit them into the pokémon universe. Again where's the innovation? Where's the newness to the game? Why do I continue to feel like I'm playing the same thing over and over again and again?

Entertainment: 3/5

The game is entertaining. It's a pokémon adventure. It makes you feel like you're a kid again and that you can actually do some of these epic events and journey with friends on a wonderful adventure without fear of death like a normal rpg/quest with monsters/goblins/demons/etc. There is still a bit of fun to have in this game because of it.

X-Factor: 1/5

There's no new X-Factor to this game. It's a pokémon game and it'll be enjoyable on that basis. There's nothing that grabs you. Nothing that makes you think, "Oooh, this is surprisingly fun." There is no soul to this game. Just another game off the pokémon game factory line. Which makes good pokémon games. But it is again just another of the same.

Overall: 13/30 It's Ok...

This game is actually a bit of a weird overall rating. Because when I announced I was going to review games and explained my rating system I said that the rating this game received would make it best received by fans of the series. But as a fan of the series I felt like this was sort of just the same old same old. It's got differences from the others but I felt like I had played this before, just like the latest Zelda games. I felt like it was just another one in the series... nothing to write home about.