Advance Wars: Days of Ruin is most certainly a welcome addition in what I viewed as an unfortunately dying series. The original, while I enjoyed it immensly, had childish and annoying dialogue. The second, Black Hole Rising, had a wider cast and a similar storyline. Dual Strike was terrible. Overly complicated gameplay, superfluous units, and an unbearably long and uninventive storyline.
DoR has a much more realistic and gritty campaign, with quite a few memorable moments (I wont spoil them for those who haven't finished), but I have to say that closer to the end it gets heavily anime. If you have ever seen Eureka 7 or Neon Genesis Evangelion you will know immediately what I mean. Map Design is improved, you no longer have to buy COs or Battlemaps, and Wi-Fi and voice chat (friends only though) is always fun. The Trial Maps seem kind of unnecessary, but some of them are good. They've resimplified CO Powers and haven't added too many new units.
The only thing that really annoyed me was the ranking/ medal system. WTF! Like the previous games, it doesn't require skill, only the ability and patience to perform horrifically repetitive tasks. The graphics (both unit encounter and overmap) haven't changed much, and the overmap zoom feature is pretty pointless.
Overall I really liked this game and would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of turn-based-strategy games. Even chess.
