Along with many new improvements, they also have changed the cast of characters from a wacky ragtag army that fights an evil sinister villain you could find in a Bond film, to a dramatic group of emo soldiers that are more concerned with sharing their feeling than defending the survivors of a meteoric apocalypse.

I miss the cartoony feel of the old “Advanced Wars.” It brought a unique quality to the game that made it less serious but just as fun. One didn’t realize how many people they were slaughtering or sending to their doom on a decoy mission when all the characters looked like they could have starred in a cartoon show from the early 90s.

“Advance Wars: Days of Ruin” seems to have taken that all away. Along with many new improvements they also have changed the cast of characters from a wacky ragtag army that fights an evil sinister villain you could find in a Bond film, to a dramatic group of emo soldiers that are mostly concerned with sharing their feeling than defending the survivors of a meteoric apocalypse.

When I first heard about the new Advanced Wars, I liked that they were taking the story line away from wars started by a master villain controlling the strings, to a post-apocalyptic mission of survival where most of earth population has been greatly reduced to a few messy towns and there are bands of roving raiders out to kill and steal for what they need. All I know is that a lot of watching of the “Mad Max” film series went on while writing the storyline.

Then I began to play the game and it was great, until the storyline went back into the same old tank tracks it used too. The generals were all the same but with anime looks and different names. The beginning of the story followed the same old battle: an old general’s army for no apparent reason until the new evil puppet master controlling the whole thing shows up and messes up the whole day.

They even repeat the “oh you thought you fought the final battle, well guess what there is another campaign” trick again. I wondered if it would ever end, and, much to my chagrin, it didn’t until I had given up on the storyline and begun skipping all dialogue. Fortunately, however, there really were some bright points to the game also.

I did like all the improvement to the game. For the first time in a while, designers really made an effort to add numerous new units. The units are so diverse from others that new strategies must be implemented for a skilled Advanced Wars player to actually advance. The new anti-tank artillery has the ability to counter attack when attacked directly, and that makes it an incredibly valuable asset to a player’s regiment. Another new unit is the gunboat, which is a single unit transport ship that also has the ability to fire a single semi-powerful round at any other navel unit.

The game designers have also changed how some existing units interact. Battleships now have the ability to move and then fire a ranged attack. Carriers now can produce two small seaplane units that are like mini-bombers. And, rigs (formally known as APC) can now build a temporary navel port or airport in areas along with its former duties.

Unfortunately, neotanks appear to have been wiped out by the meteor. It must have something to do with the word neo and since they were already one game old they weren’t that new anymore. Fans of the four-legged death machines will miss them sorely.

But, the best feature added to the game is the ability to challenge your friends around the world to matches whenever you want. The game finally comes with a WiFi play feature, Nintendo WiFi Connect. It’s a great feature if all your friends have a game pack. But what seems to be missing is single pack multiplayer and multiplayer have dropped from 2-8 players to 2-4 players. It seems that all that whiny dialogue took up too much programming space.

“Advanced Wars: Days of Ruin” is a good game in that it had a lot of new elements but over all it really didn’t “Advance” the series. The much-needed update to units was nice, but the game seems to suffer from a plot deviancy much like Mario games have for the past few years.

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