Nintendo Wars: Difference between revisions
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* ''Advance Wars: Days of Ruin'' (2008, ''Advance Wars: Dark Conflict'' in Europe/Australia)
* ''[[Battalion Wars II]]'', officially abbreviated ''[[Wii|BWii]]'' (2008, ''Totsugeki!! Famicom Wars VS'' in Japan)
* ''Advance Wars 1+2 Re-Boot Camp'' (2023 by [[Way Forward Technologies|WayForward]]) for [[Nintendo Switch]]
The original ''Famicom Wars'' had no plot at all. You would choose to control one of two rival armies, Red Star or Blue Moon, and fight off the other until completing all the maps. ''Super Famicom Wars'' is essentially a remake/sequel, featuring all the maps from the original, as well as brand new ones. It was also the first game to feature 4-player maps, with the Green Earth and Yellow Comet armies joining the battle, as well as selectable commanding officers (COs), each with their own specialty and weakness that affect the whole army.
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The ''[[Battalion Wars]]'' games (which have their own page) are for the [[Game Cube]] and Wii and are [[Real Time Strategy]] games with a view and style more reminiscent of a [[Third-Person Shooter]] than an overhead game like [[Warcraft]]. They form their own separate continuity and story. In addition to commanding your forces in real time, all gameplay is from the point of view of a single unit that the player can switch between at any time, while at the same time actively controlling the viewpoint unit itself.
''Advance Wars 1+2 Re-Boot Camp'' is a remake of the 2 original games, released on the Nintendo Switch.
There is a [https://web.archive.org/web/20130710200125/http://warswiki.warscentral.com/index.php?title=Main_Page wiki for the turn-based games], [[The Wiki Rule|of course]]. Battalion Wars also has [http://battalionwars.wikia.com/wiki/Battalion_Wars_Wiki its own wiki].
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* [[Commanding Officer Powers]]: As units under a character's command damage units or are damaged themselves, their CO Meter fills up. Once the CO Meter is filled enough (each character needs a different amount) they can unleash a CO Power that increases the attack and defense of all units under their control on the map till the start of their next turn in addition to other, character specific, benefits.
{{tropelist}}
* [[Ace Pilot]]: Eagle; According to his [[Backstory]], his father was much the same.
** If you think Eagle's bad, you've never met Waylon/Finn, who manages to be a complete [[Jerkass]] at the same time.
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* [[Artificial Stupidity]]: The APC fetish in the first ''Advance Wars'', as well as the Battlestation's method of attacking the destruction objective in the last mission of ''Battalion Wars 2''.
** The AI also seems to have a pathological fear of sending units to the second front in ''DS'', even when it would be extraordinarily useful to it.
** The first two ''Advance Wars'' games, the AI will '''always''' move unit types in a particular order. This ''normally'' works OK, but putting transports last in priority means they will frequently block themselves with units that move earlier and means transports will move away from any escorting units at the end of a turn, leaving themselves vulnerable.
** Also in the first two games, the AI will always make sure it has a lander if it has a port and units it ''could'' carry, even if there's no value to a lander in that port. It will constantly blow funds and waste a port to keep that lander healthy, and even replacing it if destroyed.
** The AI will generally only capture properties outward from their bases. This means a player can easily grab properties in the center with transports before the enemy even tries. If this includes a base, the player can easily dominate the match through just this early advantage.
** In ''Advance Wars 2'' units created by a factory are assigned one of seven random AI types. This means artillery (which can't move and shoot, and struggles with terrain) could be ordered to escort infantry (who can move through otherwise impassable terrain), expensive units can be ordered to do nothing but guard the HQ (the player's objective in factory missions is to disable the factory, not capture the enemy HQ) or fighters (who can only attack air units) can be ordered to attack the player's HQ which has no air units nearby among other useless behavior. [[Luck-Based Mission|Unfortunately this means there's also a chance the AI will select patterns that are flat out impossible to counter at the start of a map]].
** ''Super Famicom Wars'' has an AI that reserves funds for naval units if it has a harbor. It will keep these funds even if all its harbors are blocked, meaning it will only build cheap units to conserve funds and be unable to remove the block on their harbor.
* [[Avoid the Dreaded G Rating|Avoid The Dreaded E Rating]]: In order to solidify itself as a [[Darker and Edgier]] [[Retool]], ''Days of Ruin'' has some mild gratuitous swearing in it, earning it a E10+ rating from the ESRB for Language and Mild Violence.
* [[Awesome but Impractical]]: Earth and Sky, the Eagle/Sami tag-team power in Dual Strike. Yes, being able to take three turns in a row -- with instant captures on the third turn -- is very awesome. However, a combined total of seventeen stars' worth of charging (and the very real prospect of an opponent countering with [[Mana Burn|Sasha]]'s Market Crash) ruins this somewhat.
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* [[Born Lucky]]: Nell, and to a lesser extent, her little sister Rachel.
* [[Bowdlerise]]: The North American release of ''Days of Ruin'' replaces the "DAMN!" text bubble when units get ambushed in Fog Of War with "NO!".
* [[Bragging Rights Reward]]: ''Dual Strike'' only provides a wallpaper for obtaining all 300 medals; some of those 300 medals have borderline ridiculous conditions to obtain.
** Days of Ruin is even worse. Getting all the medals doesn't get you anything.
* [[Brother-Sister Team]]: Colin and Sasha in ''Dual Strike''. And their abilities really mesh: Sasha can rack up tons of money and deplete her foe's CO bar, while Colin gets discounts on his units. Can anyone say [[Zerg Rush]]?
** And that's not counting their Dual Strike (Trust Fund), where Sasha gets money for every enemy unit destroyed and Colin gets more power based on how much money he has. How's that for synergy?
* [[Brutal Bonus Level]]: For the first three ''Advance Wars'' games, beating the main campaign unlocks the Hard Campaign. Usually these are just the same levels, slightly modified to give the computer an advantage.
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* [[Chuck Cunningham Syndrome]]: While they're still playable outside of Campaign mode, Flak and Adder mysteriously disappear from Black Hole for the duration of ''Dual Strike's'' campaign. Possibly justified in that their abilities were too similar to Black Hole newcomers Jugger and Koal/Zak, and the newbies were more integral to the new [[Big Bad]].
* [[Climax Boss]]: In Dual Strike, Koal and Lash in the mission where you destroy your first Black Crystal, and Kindle and Koal in mission 22 where you destroy a Black Obelisk for the first time. Days of Ruin has The Beast, Forsythe, and Greyfield, all of which counts as [[Disc One Final Boss|Disc One Final Bosses]]. Each of these serve to end some plot points, wrap up an act, introduce more questions, and the victory music that plays when you win is more upbeat and triumphant.
* [[Cloning Blues]]: Barely touched upon in the first 3 ''Advance Wars'' games, but a huge part of ''Days of Ruin''.
** To clarify, the main characters were all cloned by the enemy in the first 3 games to lead enemy troops, but the issues with that were never discussed.
* [[Cold Sniper]]: Gage/Trak from ''Days of Ruin''.
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** As a more conventional example, in AW1 and AW2, the CPU-controlled armies were not affected by vision ranges in fog of war and could attack your unit even if none of their units could technically see it (although they did have to uncover your units hiding in forests before they could attack it - the computer acts as if they don't exist otherwise).
** Ever notice how the computer will rarely leave its battleship within range of that sub you've had submerged for the past three turns?
** [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FapmYe4r-4A The AI knows the result of luck damage ahead of time, and will determine engagements based on this]. This is mainly meaningful when fighting Flak or Nell, who have more extreme luck damage spread.
* [[Cool Bike]]: The Bike unit in ''Days of Ruin''
** [[Cool Sidecar]]
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* [[Cue the Sun]]: The epilogue of ''Days of Ruin''.
* [[Cutscene Incompetence]]: Colin in ''Black Hole Rising'' and ''Dual Strike'': Always portrayed as under confident, put upon by his big sister Sasha -- yet in game terms he's one of the most powerful COs, to the point of being a problem in terms of game balance.
** Kanbei as well. His troops are extremely strong, despite being more expensive, and yet, Kanbei is constantly lectured by his daughter Sonja, and in one scene, when Sonja runs in with important news, Kanbei's first response is to ask if she's seen his sock. Oh, and being extremely overprotective of his daughter (although that is mostly positive). This ''could'' just be [[Crippling Overspecialization]]: Kanbei is a master commander...who's an airhead with anything that isn't war.
* [[Cutscene Power to the Max]]: played straight with Black Hole in ''Dual Strike''.
* [[Darker and Edgier]]: ''Days of Ruin''/''Dark Conflict''. Done reasonably well. The ads even used this trope as a selling point!
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* [[Dronejam]]: Even when the units are at completely different altitudes -- yeah, that's right, air units can be 'ambushed' and stopped by running into infantry hiding in woods, or dived submarines. Best not to think about that one too much (world's tallest periscopes?. Of course, the "real" reason for all that is for the sake of balance. If Air units could just go anywhere no matter what...
** Also applies (reversed) to naval and land units attempting to pass under air units.
** The AI always moving their transports last means they will frequently subject themselves to this.
* [[Easy Amnesia]]: Isabella, who [[Retcon|remembers tons of useful information]] [[Deus Ex Machina|right when it is needed]].
** [[Justified Trope|Justified]] in that {{spoiler|she was basically designed to be a walking, breathing database of military information. Other than what she picks up after Will finds her, that's ''all'' she knows.}}
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* [[Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep"]]: [[Mentors|Sensei]] and Days of Ruin/Dark Conflict's "Mayor".
* [[Evil Albino]]: Caulder/Stolos from ''Days of Ruin''.
* [[Evil Counterpart]]: Flak, Lash, Adder, and Hawke from ''Black Hole Rising'' seem to be evil counterparts of Max, Sonja, Grit, and Eagle.
** An interesting case, as the pairs also represent opposites. Grit and Adder are both gaunt men who rely on precision, but Grit is nice, laid back, and he forces anyone playing as him to take things slow, while Adder is a [[Smug Snake]] with a [[Fragile Speedster|quickly charging power bar and CO powers that allow his units to sprint across the map]]. Both Sonja and Lash are [[Teen Genius|hyper competent young women]] with terrain based gameplay, but Sonja is polite, formal, calculating, and [[Lawful Good|does things by the book]] (unless [[If My Calculations Are Correct|her own research proves to be better]]), while Lash is a childish, selfish, [[Chaotic Evil|erratic]] brat who [[Stripperiffic|dresses much less conservatively than Sonja]] and has [[Anime Hair|much wilder hair]]. Hawke and Eagle are both [[White-Haired Pretty Boy|White Haired Pretty]] [[Jerkass|Jerks]] who [[Serious Business|tend to take things seriously]], but Eagle is very [[Hot-Blooded]] and Hawke is [[The Stoic]]. Flak and Max are the most similar pair, but Max is more blunt while Flak is an idiot. Basically, Max prefers not to think too deeply, while Flak outright can't.
*** That last bit is called attention to in ''Black Hole Rising''; Flak mentions that Max strongly reminds him of himself, "Except... I'm me." The fact that they're so similar is implied to be the ''cause'' of their mutual hatred, as well.
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* [[Faceless Goons]]: Black Hole infantry and mechs in the ''Advance Wars'' series. Xylvanian Rifle Grunts just wear bags and gas masks over their heads.
** In their "conversation" portraits, the distortion of their helmets makes them appear vaguely alien. Not that this helps...
* [[Fake Balance]]: plenty of it, listed below.
** Skill Underestimated/Overestimated: [[Zerg Rush|infantry/indirect flooding]].
*** Infantry/direct rushing in the third game.
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*** And ''Game Boy Wars 3'' has a debatable example in the units, which are generally [[Glass Cannon]] ones. The game's attempt to balance this, the price gaps, [[It Got Worse|ends up backfiring]].
* [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture]]
* [[Five-Bad Band]] in ''Black Hole Rising''
** [[Big Bad]]: Sturm
** [[The Dragon]]: Hawke
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** And Recon units in the Advance Wars series, although the higher than normal movement cost for tires over plains makes them less on the "speedy" side and more on the "fragile" side.
*** Bikes as well. They have the most move points of any infantry unit, but have no way to counter vehicles.
* [[Freudian Trio]]: Particularly in ''Black Hole Rising'', each good guy team seems to have one
** Orange Star: more of a power quartet, but...
*** Id: Andy/Max
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* [[Giggling Villain]]: Lash, in keeping with her role as a [[Psychopathic Manchild]]. "Tee hee hee!"
* [[Glass Cannon]]: In ''[[Advance Wars]]'', Mechs have the attack power of Tanks, but the armor of [[We Have Reserves|Infantry]].
** Ironically, Mechs and Infantry often get ''used'' to defend frontlines, because their defensive power per unit cost is better than most units and no unit is capable of destroying more than one unit per turn regardless of how weak. Other, more traditional examples of [[Glass Cannon|Glass Cannons]] include Artillery, Rockets, and Missiles.
** ''Game Boy Wars 3'' has quite a few examples:
*** The Mech, of course. They get to snipe armored stuff from a small distance too.
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* [[Hypercompetent Sidekick]]: Sonja, Grit, and Drake in ''Advance Wars'' and ''Black Hole Rising'' and Lin in ''Days of Ruin''.
* [[I Am Legion]]: {{spoiler|Countess Ingrid}} in ''Battalion Wars''.
* [[I Was Just Passing Through]]: In ''Black Hole Rising, Hawke describes {{spoiler|turning up after faking his own death, killing Sturm and saving everyone else's lives}} as "a test of his power".''
* [[Idiot Ball]]: One sentence: "What's an airport?"
** Also, Olaf in the field training mode of ''Advance Wars''. He places units in locations making them useless, leaves his HQ totally unprotected, forgets to fuel his air units, and leaves his units hanging out right in the line of fire, among other things.
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* [[Lightning Bruiser]]: Sturm, who levels forests instead of walking through them. For units, there are Neotanks and Bombers.
* [[Lost Forever]]: the Excellence Medal in ''Game Boy Wars 3'' requires you to clear all 45 maps in 54 battles
* [[Luck-Based Mission]]: While the AI of the ''Advance Wars'' games is largely deterministic (meaning that they'll always respond the same way to the player's moves if the player makes the exact same moves between games if luck damage isn't a factor), factory missions in ''2'' are a notable exception. Each unit produced by the enemy factory is randomly assigned a certain behavior (such as guarding a particular unit type), and each behavior can make the level trivial or very difficult.
*
** The final mission of ''Days Of Ruin'' is nearly impossible unless you follow a day-to-day guide, and even if you follow the walkthrough for every single move you make, you can still lose.
* [[Mad Scientist]]: Caulder/Stolos in ''Days of Ruin''.
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* [[Meganekko]]: Sonja in the non-american releases for the first game and Dual Strike. Her alt costume in the American version of Dual Strike retains this.
* [[The Messiah]]: Jake in ''Dual Strike''; Brenner/O'Brian and Will/Ed in ''Days of Ruin''
* [[Mighty Glacier]]: [[Tank Goodness|MD Tanks, Mega Tanks, War Tanks]], Anti Tanks, Battleships, Carriers, and [[Blob Monster|Oozium]]. [[Cool Plane|Stealth Planes and Seaplanes]] also fit, not because they move slow, but because [[Cool but Inefficient|they constantly have to head back to be resupplied]].
*** Seaplanes can be made [[Awesome but Practical]] by using four of them and rotating them in and out of an aircraft carrier. Essentially, they work in pairs: one pair attacks while the other pair sits in the carrier.
** Constructors in ''Game Boy Wars 3'' are this in a sense, not so much being decent in combat as they are more expensive than the Humvee and have only 5 Movement Power in combination with the worst Movement Type out of land units, but they can build up properties to improve repair jobs and funding, and also alter the terrain to speed up the arrival of reinforcements. Of course, they get ''five'' Beginner Mode maps dedicated to their usage for this--not exactly a beginner's unit.
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* [[Perky Goth]]: Lash.
* [[The Player Is the Most Important Resource]]: In ''Advance Wars'', you, as the tactician, get frequently commended by the Commanding Officers you play as for allowing them to win.
* [[Polluted Wasteland]]: Xylvania in ''Battalion Wars'' is revealed to be like this, due to Vlad's abuse of the environment for military resources. In fact, one of his primary reasons for expansion is to gain more resources.
** Although, oddly enough, Old Xylvania looks just about the same in Battalion Wars 2, except everything's on fire instead of poisonous and green.
** Bizarrely, it looks like this 200 years before Vlad's stuff, and had steampunk orcs.
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* [[Super Soldiers]]: Days of Ruin has a twist on this. Caulder's "children" are super ''commanders'', meant for command room action.
* [[Suspiciously Small Army]]: Very guilty of this. No more than 50 units under your control ever. Note however that every unit in the Advance Wars games except for Megatanks/Wartanks is a literal unit composed of no fewer than ten of whatever you're specifically talking about.
* [[Tactical Rock-Paper-Scissors]]: Several triangles exist in unit interactions, though how useful they are varies. If a map has viable airports, Battle Copters beat Tanks, which beat Anti-air, which beat Light Tanks. Naval units try to be a case, with Cruisers beating Submarines, Submarines beating Battleships, and Battleships beating Cruisers. Unfortunately, Cruisers (despite nominally being anti-air units) and Battleships fold to Battle Copters and Bombers, and Battleships are overly expensive so this one rarely gets used in practice.
* [[Theme Music Power-Up]]: Whenever a CO Power is activated in any of the ''Advance Wars'' games, it's time to ''RAWK!'' Evil characters even get their own version that's a bit darker and heavier.
* [[The Theme Park Version]]: ''Every'' nation in ''Battalion Wars'' is this, with the Western Frontier as the US, the Tundran Territories as Soviet Russia, the Solar Empire as a combination of China and Japan, the Anglo Isles as Britain, and Xylvania as WWII-era Germany... but {{smallcaps|[[In Space|kinda sorta vampires!]]}}
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**** That's only true of the first timed mission, though. The ''second'' one, Crystal Calamity, is one of the hardest in the game (although admittedly the time limit only plays a small part in that difficulty).
** ''Dual Strike'' and ''Days of Ruin'' also feature missions that are must be completed within a set number of turns/days. Both this and the more typical timed mission are the subject of one of ''Dual Strike'''s Survival campaigns. Time Survival is much harder than Turn Survival.
* [[Too Dumb to Live]] The civilians from ''Days of Ruin''. Although understandable that they don't want to get involved in conflict, they keep forgetting that the Battalion is just about the only thing standing between them and oblivion. In particular, the "Mayor" turns the civilians against the Battalion primarily due to his fear that they will usurp his authority. {{spoiler|Near the end, he makes a deal with Caulder/Stolos for the cure to the Creeper and to be left alone. Caulder/Stolos, being the [[Complete Monster]] that he is, reneges on his deal and kills the Mayor with the supposed "cure".}}
**
* [[Totally Radical]]: Due to another [[Woolseyism]] (see below, Jake from ''Dual Strike'' speaks in a somewhat grating 90's slang dialect, using "words" such as "sup?" and "dude" when they're not especially appropriate. His Japanese counterpart, John, is extremely serious and uses his headphones for military communications.)
** Waylon in ''Days of Ruin'' pulls a pretty similar "Why are these Lazurians all up in my business?" Somewhat ironically, he's otherwise a total [[Jive Turkey]] whose slang is stuck in the ''50s''. Granted, Waylon was clearly intended to be an annoying jerk, unlike Jake, who is somehow supposed to be a likable protagonist.
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** [[Two Words|Three Words]]: [[Rule of Cool]]
* [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness]]: Von Bolt towards {{spoiler|Hawke and Lash}} in the middle of ''Dual Strike'', which prompts their [[Heel Face Turn]].
* [[Zero Effort Boss]]: Two Week Test in ''Advance Wars 2'' is an accidental example where the only way to fail is to forfeit. Due to what is presumed to be a glitch, losing all units on this map doesn't result in a loss and due to AI weirdness the AI will refuse to capture the player's HQ.
* [[Zettai Ryouiki]]: [http://i.neoseeker.com/ca/advance_wars_days_of_ruin_conceptart_hTw53.jpg Tasha] from Day of Ruin.
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