Advance Wars 2--a sequel to possibly the best game ever for the Game Boy Advance--is finally here; it's exactly the same as it was before, and for once that's a really good thing.
A turn-based strategy game of the type that PC owners regularly use to send their children to sleep, Advance Wars 2 should by rights be just as dull; but a combination of slick presentation and an insistence on keeping the rules simple and the unit types and map sizes to a minimum means it's actually one of the most insanely addictive games since Tetris. Manipulating armies of tanks, battleships and air-force bombers has never been so much fun.
As noted, there's nothing very different about this sequel except for a few new enemy-fixed gun emplacements and one new unit, the slightly dull neotank. Perhaps the most significant change is that the COs (the commanding officers who act as personification of either side in the battle) now have two levels of special ability, which ups the tactical considerations of the game a notch.
The full-featured map designer is also maintained from the previous iteration, as is the facility for two players to compete against each other using the same console and cartridge, or for four to gang up using a Game Link cable. It is, in short, one of the best things ever.
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