Advance Wars

Advance Wars for Game Boy Advance is Nintendo's 2001 turn-based strategy game from Intelligent Systems, bringing the long-running Wars formula to a broad international audience. On colorful grid maps, players direct the Orange Star army through a conflict that grows from a border war with Blue Moon into a struggle involving Yellow Comet, Green Earth, and the invading Black Hole Army. The North American version arrived on September 10, 2001; its European release followed in January 2002. Although developed in Japan under the name Game Boy Wars Advance, the original Japanese release was cancelled, and the first game later appeared there with its sequel in the 2004 Game Boy Wars Advance 1+2 compilation.

Each battle unfolds one turn at a time. A commander moves infantry, vehicles, aircraft, and naval units across roads, plains, cities, rivers, mountains, and sea, then attacks, captures property, or prepares a defensive position before the opposing army responds. Most maps are won by routing every enemy unit or taking the opposing headquarters, though particular missions can set other goals. Captured cities provide daily funds, while bases, airports, and ports produce new ground, air, and naval units. That economy makes territory important: a player has to decide when to spend on reinforcements, when to protect a vital property, and when a single infantry unit can safely press toward an HQ.

The Game Boy Advance entry gives its units distinct movement, weapon, ammunition, fuel, and terrain rules. Tanks and infantry excel in different engagements, artillery and other indirect units need range and positioning, transports support an advance without attacking, and air or naval forces open routes unavailable to ground troops. Direct attackers can face a counterattack, while indirect units must remain still to fire. Terrain can bolster a unit's defense or obstruct travel, and optional fog of war limits what an army can see. Supplies also matter: units use fuel, primary weapons have limited ammunition, and stranded air and sea units are especially vulnerable when their fuel reserves run out.

Armies are represented by commanding officers, or COs, whose strengths change how a force performs. Orange Star begins with Andy, Max, and Sami, while rivals and eventual allies include characters such as Olaf, Grit, Kanbei, Sonja, Eagle, and Drake. A CO's normal abilities can favor particular unit classes or styles of play, and battle fills a meter that enables a temporary CO Power. Those powers can improve friendly forces or interfere with an opponent, so commander selection is as important as a map's layout. In the campaign, choices of which CO to advise can also lead to different missions and story paths before the plot converges on its final confrontation with Sturm.

Advance Wars GBA offers more than its narrative campaign. Field Training introduces the systems through guided battles, while the War Room presents standalone scenarios graded for speed, power, and technique. Progress earns coins for the Battle Maps shop, where additional maps and COs can be opened. A design mode allows players to create maps, and the game supports up to four players in local matches. Versus play can be passed around on one Game Boy Advance, while Link Mode connects multiple systems; both one-cartridge and multi-cartridge link options make the portable strategy game suitable for different group setups.

As the first Advance Wars game and the seventh title in the wider Wars series, this Game Boy Advance release translated military strategy into clear menus, compact maps, and a deliberately approachable presentation without reducing the importance of planning. Its campaign, multiplayer rules, map creation, and large selection of battle maps give the GBA game several ways to revisit the same mechanics. Nintendo later made the original available on Wii U Virtual Console in 2014 in North America and Europe, and WayForward's 2023 Nintendo Switch compilation, Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp, remade it alongside Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising.