Advance Wars: Dual Strike

       Think "turn-based strategy" and if you're not one of the Games Workshop crowd, you're probably thinking of beardy man pushing lead models of Napoleon around a felt-carpeted, historically accurate battlefield. But "Advance Wars" is about as far from the fussy world of real wargaminh as it's possible to get. After successful version for Famicom and GameBoy in Japan, plus two sleep deprivingly brilliant GBA sequeals over here, the world's most playable strategy game has arrived on what feels like its natural home.

     Not only is "Advance Wars:Dual Strike" arguably the best thing currently available for Nintendo DS, it's also one of the finest handheld games I've ever play.If computers were around back when the first cavemen were inventing board ga,es, this is what chess would be like. Probably.

     For the benefit of anyone with this game series, the gamneplay is incredibly simple to pick up. You play on a small map, against one or more enemy armies using a selection of land, sea, and air units. Each one can beat certain other units with ease but will take a pounding in a mismtached battle, so the aim is to outwit your foes by luring them into fights they can't win. You deploy all of your units as you see fit, then sit back and watch what happens as the computer or other players make their moves. Plant it correctly, working your army as a well-oiled machine with each unit covering another one's back and you'll make steady progress towards the enemy base. Get it wring and you'd better have a Plan B up your sleeve.

This the default combination

      I could fill an entire magazine talking about the game's tactical nuances and subtle strategies, but you'll soon develop your own based on your personla style of play.On DS, there are mroe possibilites than ever before.

     The upper screen sometimes shows a second, simpler battlefield, which you can play yourself or leave to a computer ally. Reinforcements can be sent whenever they are needed, at the expense of leaving yuor main army short of firepower. And if you win the other battle then you get the benefit of game-winning tag team attack that lets you move twice in one turn. If it sounds complicated in theory, playing the game is a breeze. The difficulty level is beautifully turned, via series of tutorial levels, and by the time you finally get a full army and two battlefields to control, you'll most likely to have no need to refer to the instructional menus again.

   Throw in eight player wireless support, using just one cartridge, and an all new arcade style Combat mode, and you've got something that's ging to ruin your sleep and possibly wreck family relationships for the foreseeable future. Absolutely unmissable.

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