While tactical strategy games are bountiful these days, that wasn’t always the case. A couple of decades ago, it felt like Nintendo was one of the only companies keeping the genre alive, in large part due to its fantastic offering on the Game Boy family of systems. While Fire Emblem gets all the credit these days, Advance Wars was the franchise that truly perfected the idea of handheld strategy. That all came to a head with Dual Strike — a truly fantastic tactical entry that built on the rock-solid foundation of the first two for one of the best strategy experiences of all time.
Dual Strike is the third game in the Advance Wars series, and the first released on the Nintendo DS — making full use of the dual-screen feature. This was really the game that proved how smart the layout can be for tactical games, displaying the map on one screen and all of those vital stats on the top screen, from the cities you control to terrain bonuses, and battle forecasts. This exceptionally streamlines the experience by giving you instant feedback and reducing the amount of menu opening you need to do, drastically speeding up the experience.
Dual Strike makes fantastically inventive use of the system’s dual screens.
But what’s even more inventive are the Dual Front missions, where each screen becomes a different section of the battle, and you have to juggle both simultaneously. In these battles, you control two Commanding Officers, who each have their own perks and special abilities in battle. You can send units between the two screens, but any units sent over won’t be able to return.
These dual battles add some fantastic variety to the game and really shake up how you approach your strategies. Juggling two different COs and armies genuinely alters how you have to think about the game, and if you manage to win on one screen, that army will join the second one. It cannot be understated how much of a blast these battles are, and how integrally different they feel from the standard ones.
But that’s not nearly the only thing Dual Strike brings to the table, as the game sports some fantastic map design and interesting new units to boot. This entry makes effective use of unique map gimmicks to spice things up. In the Ring of Fire level, you fight on a Dual Front while dodging exploding volcanoes. In another called Muck Amok, you have to dodge a deadly substance called Ooozium, while having your mobility highly reduced because of desert terrain. Others make you meander through forests laden with Fog of War, or engage in a tug-of-war battle with enemy forces for control of cities.
The charming sprite art of Advance Wars really pops in the DS games.
There’s a phenomenal sense of diversity across Dual Strike’s 28-mission campaign, before you even factor in other modes like Survival, War Room, and Versus. But a handful of new units only help further that sense of tactical variety — from the Black Boat that can transport units and resupply nearby ships, to the Stealth Fighter that sports an invisibility feature.
On a gameplay front, Dual Strike is easily one of the best entries in the Advance Wars series, if not one of the best tactical games ever made. The way it refined the foundation of the series is impeccable, but it also made some interesting moves on the narrative front. A direct sequel to Black Hole Rising, Dual Strike still sported the colorful characters but took itself a bit more seriously on the storytelling front. It doesn’t take a sudden twist into dark and gritty or anything, but the narrative is a bit more intricate and thematic — and it’s easy to see how Dual Strike started paving the way for Days of Ruin years later.
It’s honestly a huge shame that Advance Wars hasn’t remained an active series for Nintendo, outside of the remake on Nintendo Switch. The DS games in particular really proved the strategic depth of the franchise and helped push the envelope for the genre at large. With strategy games on the cusp of a resurgence, hopefully, Dual Strike can be superseded as the pinnacle of Advance Wars someday.
