Gaming Advance Wars 1 or 2?

[thejellydude]

I'd recommend AWS first. Why? Because it's incredibly fun, but after you play DoR, you'll miss some of the new units. (Like Bikes) At least that's how I felt. I also think Co Zones > Co Powers (The AWS versions at least)

 

[ACQ]

Let's get a few things straight here...

(GBA) Advance Wars
(GBA) Advance Wars 2 (might as well have been Advance Wars 1.5)
(NDS) Advance Wars Dual Strike (AKA Advance Wars 3 for NDS)
(NDS) Advance Wars Days of Ruin (could be loosely considered Advance Wars 4, but it's different enough in story, unit types, unit abilities, and COs that it's a stand alone Advance Wars)

All that being said, I'd say if you're playing GBA, get Advance Wars 2. If you're playing NDS, either Dual Strike or Days of Ruin are good choices. If you were to never have played either and saw each of them played side-by-side, I'd say your decision might boil down to personal taste of the themes. I personally prefer DoR for it's darker theme and exceedingly better soundtrack. I'll never say that DS or DoR is overall better than the other. They are equally superb games, each with their own pros and cons. Obviously, the addition of NintendoWiFi battles sets DoR ahead of DS, but only for that reason. Saying DoR is a better game for only that reason is hardly fair to Dual Strike, which offsets DoR with more content.

You're missing about half the series. It first debuted as Famicom Wars on the Famicom, there's a partial translation patch if you ever felt like picking it up. It does not work in PocketNES/NESDS--unsupported mappers or whatever.

They made a sequel, appropriately titled Gameboy Wars. Take a guess which system.

They made three others. Gameboy Wars Turbo on the Gameboy, GB Wars 2 and GB Wars 3 on the GBC.

Somewhere in between there they released Super Famicom Wars.

They're all pretty much the same exact game, so that makes Advance Wars something like System Wars v7. AW2 System Wars v7.5? Who can even count after all these years?

I left them out because they aren't technically "Advance Wars," even though Advance Wars has its roots in Famicom Wars. Do you think the thread starter was confusing Gameboy Wars or Famicom Wars with Advance Wars? I highly doubt it. Yet another reason they didn't need mentioning. I see your point and I appreciate the info, but that isn't what the guy was asking about.

 

[herbanassault]

I don't know about the guy who started the thread, but I appreciate the info about GameBoy Wars and Famicom Wars. I had no idea.

 

[test84]

Thank you all for your great info about its roots.
I'm playing first one.

 

[Relon124]

I played GBA AW 1 and am currently playing Days of Ruin. Its hard but not that hard. The storyline seems decent.

 

[unpaidassassin]

I don't have Days of Ruin yet and am still in Normal Campaign in Dual Strike.

In terms of single player:
In my opinion, DS seems to be the easiest of the first three with the original being the hardest. The second one has the best overall campaign mode.

 

[frostfire]

I'd say: Finish AWS first then begin playing DoR; they're both awesome. I've finished AWS a year ago and really like how DoR seems to be its successor. New units, new graphical style, new story/characters; it's best to finish DS first before starting DoR imo.