2 Hours ’till Limbus.

First new game I’ve purchased since November.

I’ve got beer, I’ve got brats, I’ve got Good & Plenty…

…

… What the fuck is the plural of “Good & Plenty?”

In any event. Where’s my lucky chopstick…

19:57 – I could really use a piece of software to make liveblogging more efficient. I guess this could be considered liveblogging, right? I’m eager to incorporate a new buzzword.

20:00 – Switch on. (Hello, old friend…)

20:01 – Looks like it’s retaining all the important parts: Campaign, multiplayer, map-building utils (Always fun, that). Conspicuously missing is a shop to buy new maps, though I get the feeling that the ability to trade maps online is meant to supplant that idea. Also, I think I spy a sound test. Rockin’.

20:02 – “Restore hope to a dying world as you lead your ragtag  army through a postapocalyptic wasteland.” I think this is the first Nintendo title to use the word “postapocalyptic.”

20:04 – Campaign mode, start. This is usually how one jumps into an Advance Wars title…

20:05 – My God. It’s Fist of Advance North Star Wars: Obligatory Subtitle.

20:07 – Ok. This sure feels different. I’ve seen quite a few Advance Wars in my day, and this has me a bit jarred. I will sit enraptured through the tutorials.

20:11 – It plays like Advance Wars. It looks… nothing like Advance Wars. Gone are the days of chibi infantry. Gone are cute split-screen fights. The battle takes both screens now, looks more cinematic but I’m not sure if I’m sold on the top-and-bottom feel. It’s… similar enough to make me kinda comfortable, and many of the existing strategies seem to apply, but… it’s just different enough to keep you on edge. And I think that’s what they want.

20:15 – Units can LEVEL UP? Should I be posting this at RandomNPC? I’d wished long and hard for something just like this.

20:18 – I think I like the idea of mid-battle intel briefings. The Advance Wars series has always had a good deal of hand-waving when it comes to accuracy of concepts; Days of Ruin seems to be bringing the out-there, pseudo-fantasy combat a little bit closer to earth. (A little bit.)

20:20 – DS Stylus be damned. The last Advance Wars game felt comfortable enough without touch-controls; this one doesn’t seem to be forcing the matter, either. (Perhaps this is because I picked up the series on the GBA and have been more comfortable with this style from the get-go. Still, more options are more options.)

20:21 – Victory seems to be tabulated the same as in previous iterations. However… I don’t think I’m a fan of the fonts. They just look kinda blocky and out-of-place. Either give us something really rugged-looking or… I dunno. It just doesn’t feel right.

20:24 – “That was your stomach rumbling? I thought we were under attack!” Oh, you goofy heavy. Always with a dull sense of humor, even in the most hellish nightmare world! (Also, canned bread? I’ll take my chances with the meteors, TYVM.)

20:29 – Familiarity breeds contempt… Or, in other words, I’m used to having to double-select a unit, first to select it, then to select “Move” from the menu. Here, selecting it once puts you in “move” mode, and the second selects “Stay…” This’ll take some un-learning.

20:31 – Hey, I found a hot chick in the rubble! Can we keep her?

20:35 – 150pts. for Technique? Must be from fulfilling a plot condition or something. I wonder how many endings might be branching off of something like this…

20:37 – We interrupt this Advance War to bring you a point-counterpoint discussion on the nature of human civilization. I actually have to commend ‘em for this one. In these post-apocalyptic scenes, one tends to find the scraps of humanity hanging onto “law,” but has anyone really questioned “why?”

20:40 – “You’re too young to be one of them raiders. Maybe you’re OK after all.” EXCELLENT SURVIVAL STRATEGY, BILL. Someone’s never seen Elfen Lied…

20:42 – “They have tanks! We have sticks and rocks!” QUOTABLE.

20:48 – Well, at least the tutorial fights don’t seem -as- tutorial-ish as they have in previous iterations. I’m going to take that as a good sign.

20:51 – I’m going to refer to this NPC as “Mayor McAbouttodickyouoverwithcheese.”

20:53 – DEAR GOD, THEY’VE MANAGED TO FIT FOG OF WAR INTO THE STORYLINE. Took ‘em long enough!

20:55 – There’s something to be said about putting the NPC interactions into what would be the most logical moves on the board… It takes confidence on the part of the designer to trust the player to behave logically… And I don’t know if that’s ever a safe assumption.  (Also, the difference between plains and wasteland is really tough to see.)

20:57 – Hey, another new unit! Flare Cannon: exposes a two-square radius area in Fog of War conditions. Useful. There’s something to be said about innovation…

21:08 – Yay, we drove off the bandits! But what’s this? Mayor McRecedingHairline doesn’t have the purest of intentions? That’s just the way things go, in Albuquerque!

21:13 – So, meteors fell, and the mayor’s a tool. I think that’s the story so far.

21:14 – Amnesiac chick is a walking, talking botanical textbook. Thank you for the details on the Cattleya, princess, now do you do shiny shit or not?

21:15 – Or, she names herself after the fucking flower.

21:16 – Will: OBJECTION!!!

21:17 – Sustained! Isabella it is.

21:19 – LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, REGINALD VELJOHNSON!

21:20 – “I used to be a resident… but now I’m a PRESIDENT!” Oh ho! Oh ho ho ho ho ho!” Nintendo, next time, can the Paper Mario team when trying to write post-apocalyptic dialogue. If this were an actual End of Days, this guy would’ve taken a shotgun butt to the mouth by Mel Gibson or Denis Leary, or both!

21:24 – Aww, no more chibi foot soldier jumping up and down on a building to capture it?

21:28 – It’s gonna take me a while to get used to things not being in the places they used to be. (Of course, I parked a bike on a city, shouldn’t the default be to capture?)

21:35 – “He’s an amazing man, but his jokes are terrible.” Really? Didn’t notice.

This seems like a good spot to break it off. I’d been eagerly anticipating a new Advance Wars title… and while the setting might not do it for me, the gameplay seems as good if not better than Dual Strike (without the cartoonish spamming of CO Powers all over the place… although I have been known to play a mean Colin…)