Advance Wars: Dual Strike is celebrating its 20-year anniversary right this moment, August 22, 2025. Under, we revisit the user-generated-content options of the sport that had been forward of their time.
The rain drenched my infantryman’s helmet as he marched ahead. He may barely make out the jagged silhouettes of the gray buildings 100 ft forward, however it might solely be a second till he reached them. Or so he thought–until the ambush fell. Tanks, recon vans, and bazooka-wielding foot troopers poured out of the fog and into my trenches, chopping via my defenses earlier than I may even get my bearings.
For me, Advance Wars: Dual Strike was a grid-based chess match the place every bit may explode, however the single-player marketing campaign felt like squaring off towards a row of toddlers nonetheless determining how pawns labored. The missions had been charming, however I needed one thing sharper. Dual Strike’s different modes, particularly Versus, had been the place the actual battlefields waited, prepared for me to customise my method into intense engagements–including horrific defeats just like the one I simply described. This mode was each a canvas for my tactical creativity and an early signal of the place the sport business would go sooner or later.
I used to be barely 12 years outdated once I first shoved the Dual Strike cartridge into my Nintendo DS. Even then, I knew I needed technique, not simply spectacle. I might already poured dozens of hours into Hearth Emblem: The Sacred Stones, fastidiously guaranteeing each character survived the marketing campaign. I appreciated the stress, the psychological math of predicting enemy actions three turns forward. I used to be additionally greater than conversant in the intense battlefields and deceptively difficult techniques of earlier Advance Wars video games.
However these early missions throughout Omega Land? They did not precisely take a look at my mettle. Even at larger problem settings, I may route the Black Gap Military with out a lot of a plan. The introduction of CO skills–special powers like giving models a second flip or buffing their attacks–was enjoyable at first, nevertheless it felt like dishonest. Omega Land would at all times be protected so long as Max and I stood watch. I craved eventualities the place I wasn’t the unstoppable pressure.
That is once I frolicked with Dual Strike’s different modes, together with the Warfare Room and, most significantly, Versus mode. Versus was my laboratory. Right here, I may disable Max’s skills, strip away my enemy’s typical restraints, and see what I used to be actually made from. I might set the climate to a downpour, throw in dense fog so I could not see past just a few tiles, and pit myself towards my most revered rival–Hawke–on a map that demanded mastery of all three battlefronts: air, land, and sea.
As soon as the match started, there was no hand-holding. It was pure techniques. Each flip was a take a look at: What models ought to I construct? The place ought to I ship them? Which entrance ought to I reinforce, and which ought to I danger leaving weak? Typically the sport settled right into a tense stalemate, every of us probing for weaknesses whereas build up our forces. Different instances, it turned a frantic race to outmaneuver the opposite earlier than the tide of battle turned. And yes–more instances than I might wish to admit, my total military was steamrolled into the dust.
It wasn’t in contrast to Garry Kasparov’s well-known chess matches towards IBM’s Deep Blue within the Nineteen Nineties–me, the human thoughts, versus an unflinching machine that by no means made an emotional transfer. Besides on this match, Deep Blue may churn out an limitless provide of bomb-dropping bishops.
What saved me coming again wasn’t simply successful. It was the method of working via every situation’s puzzle. Defending a seize level towards an amazing air assault. Outmaneuvering infantry hidden in dense forests. Timing a naval invasion to coincide with an armored push on the other flank. The recreation rewarded endurance and punished vanity.
And once I bought bored of the sport’s prebuilt challenges? I made my very own. Dual Strike’s map editor was a treasure trove. I might design elaborate island chains the place naval management determined the warfare, or create resource-starved wastelands that compelled either side to make determined, high-stakes gambles. Typically I might stack the deck towards myself on purpose–giving the AI further funds, advantageous terrain, or perhaps a head begin in unit production–just to see if I may claw my method again from the brink.
There was a particular satisfaction in successful these battles. Not as a result of the sport instructed me I used to be good, however as a result of I knew I had crushed one thing I constructed to be unfair. It was like crafting my very own tortuous impediment course after which daring myself to outlive it.
The Warfare Room provided its personal model of pleasure. These standalone missions had been extra polished than my selfmade ones however nonetheless gave me freedom in easy methods to strategy them. I might replay sure maps again and again to check new CO pairings and work out absolutely the best method to dismantle the enemy’s plan.
Trying again, I notice Dual Strike made me snug with failure–because I failed a lot–and it made the eventual victories that a lot sweeter. It additionally planted the seed of creativity in my thoughts. This version of Advance Wars was one of many few video games, and one for DS no much less, that provided user-generated content material instruments many years earlier than they’d form the way forward for gaming. That early expertise is a part of why creation tools–like Fortnite Inventive or Battlefield Portal–have develop into a central focus of my profession. One of many best methods to empower gamers is to offer them the instruments to construct the experiences they need.
Even now, I gravitate towards that very same custom-built chaos once I revisit Advance Wars: Dual Strike. The campaigns are enjoyable for nostalgia’s sake, however I am happiest once I’m staring down a near-impossible map I’ve cobbled collectively, questioning if I’ve created a monster I am unable to beat. The rain continues to be falling. The fog continues to be thick. Hawke continues to be someplace on the market within the mist. And he is most likely going to beat me.