I have played a lot of strategy games on various systems over the years and seen many approaches, numerous styles and diverse settings. From real time to turn based, historic to futuristic, factual to fiction and combinations of the two, strategy has probably seen more genre development than any other and it could be said that some of the best games from the point of view of setting and concept have come out of this type of game. Consoles, by and large, have steered clear of most forms of strategy gaming, as it normally relies on large time commitments and efficient control systems that allow quick, easy and free-roaming movement - something that consoles struggle with. There have been some attempts, most recently - and some would say most successfully - with the next generation consoles to bring strategy gaming to console gamers, yet there are still so few titles around that you would probably be pushed to name ten. The last place I expected to find a strategy game was on the Game Boy Advance and the absolute last thing I expected was for Advance Wars to be any good.

In fact, Advance Wars is more than just good - it's great, no not just great, it's one of the best strategy games I have played on any format, ever. The gameplay is fluid and fast, the control is easy and intuitive, there are many intricacies that you would not expect to find, it offers a real challenge (unlike many PC titles of this genre!) and has an abundance of replayability.

The setup is quite straightforward; you take the role of an advisor (a General of sorts) to the good guys - the Orange Star Army. As you progress through the game, you meet numerous army commanders and hopefully lead them to victory against a number of different enemy generals. The opposing forces vary in their style and method of war, which is largely based around the character of their commanding general. The Blue Moon Army, for instance, has two commanders: Olaf, who is an all-rounder and his counterpart Grit, who specialises in range fighting and as such his army is largely made up of artillery pieces. Other specialisations include air and sea forces and there are also three variants for your own forces. Using the strengths of your chosen commander and trying to exploit the weaknesses of the opposing force, you must complete a series of missions that together form a storyline and campaign. This will naturally see you making peace with all of your opponents to ultimately face and defeat a greater threat to you all, in a typical love thy neighbour and the enemy of my enemy is my friend kind of attitude.

The fact that the gameplay extends to this level of difference between army commanders means that there may not necessarily be one easy way of doing things and each level offers the opportunity for victory to any commander chosen, if they are intelligently used. It also means that during the course of the game you are forced to change your style of play and also adapt to new situations - further to this, it has the big advantage of preventing the gameplay from becoming repetitive.

Commanding an army is also far more involving than just moving your units into combat with opposing sides. You have to worry about the fuel and ammunitions levels of your troops and vehicles, making sure that they are regularly resupplied and rearmed. The units differ greatly; so air, sea and land units will not always rearm or resupply in the exact same way, requiring you to think ahead and plan carefully for this supply. Other nice touches include submarines running out of air if they are left submerged for too long and aircraft dropping out of the sky if they are not refuelled.

Not all missions see you starting with a complete force, or even a balanced one in light of the enemy's numbers. To this end, a simple construction and unit production method exists for you to buy new units to reinforce your frontlines. Money to buy these units comes in each turn and is dependant upon the number of buildings you own (including those you have captured) - if there are too few buildings under your control then cash will not accumulate quickly enough for you to replenish your dwindling forces. It is also possible to capture production sites elsewhere on the map other than at your base and, once caught, these can be used to build new units away from your base and normally closer to the frontline. You can capture enemy buildings, taking their cash flow and securing it for yourself, but this can also be done in return, so care and thought needs to be given to such actions. On each map, each army has its own HQ building and capturing this will result in their defeat, meaning that a tactical approach to any situation can extend beyond the simple destruction of all enemy forces. Again, this shows a level of thought that makes this game not just fun to play but great to keep coming back to, if not just to see if you can complete the level in fewer turns.

As that last statement indicates, everything is turned based, which can make this more like playing chess than a standard strategy game. Before making each move, thought can and should be given to where your unit will end up, whether it will be in range of another unit or likely to be attacked whilst unprotected. Normally, turn-based titles in this genre suffer because of the unnatural way in which things progress during the course of the game. Advance Wars avoids falling into this category and instead works and plays all the better for its inclusion.

There are more than a couple of modes of play too; aside from the campaign mode there is also a series of tutorial missions that acquaint you with the game and all the little nuances to the combat system. There is a single mission mode, in which you can take on the Game Boy in a number of missions to see how quickly and efficiently you can defeat it and also the link-up play modes, that allows up to three other players to join you and fight for control of a map. It doesn't stop there either; there is a map editor so that you can create your own battlefields and fight your friends or the Game Boy on it, meaning that the potential for tactical warfare is almost endless.

Every time you complete a mission you will naturally receive a score and a rank but you will also receive a number of coins as well. These coins can be taken to the battle shop where new maps and even new characters can be bought, further increasing the size of this already impressive title.

Graphically this title is superb, using the natural cartoon style animations that the Game Boy and older Nintendo Systems are famous for. Clean cut and to the point, there is still room to add embellishment to the different units and make them distinctive to the armies of the different generals that command them. The animations that make up the battle sequences are great, being nothing overly fancy but at the same time not being too basic or boring. The Game Boy is never going to deliver groundbreaking visuals but it can deliver perfect graphics for the job that it needs to do and Advance Wars is an example of just that.

The sound is just as well done as the graphics, with each commander having their own distinctive sound and theme. The effects of the gunfire sound great, even with the small speaker and limited sound processor that lies inside the Game Boy. That being said, when in a lengthy battle the music begins to drag a little, as it repeats many times over. But since it's no problem to just slide the volume down to nothing and continue, this never manifests itself in such a way that it terminally detracts from the game and there is an option to turn it off altogether if you wish.

The controls are as expected for a console with only four main buttons - efficient and intuitive because it's kept simple. None of the game's functions are any more than a button's press away and all are so simple to remember that before the end of the first mission you will be using them without thinking about it.

Since starting Advance Wars I have played nothing else on Game Boy and I think that no higher praise can be given to a game. If it makes you reluctant to remove it from the console to play another because it's so good, then it gets full marks. The fact that Advance Wars has done this now for over a month (and I am holding off playing the new Zelda game until I complete it) is again further testament to the brilliance of the title. If you have and Game Boy and don't have this title then get out there and buy it, you will not be disappointed.

Reviewed by AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).