My Top 10 Games of '08 - #10

Sneaking in at #10 is Advance Wars: Days of Ruin. This may be one of those games that you may have forgotten about, seeing as how it came out back in January. However, that doesn't mean you should have. While the franchise itself is several years old now, DOR is interesting in that it's basically a reset of the franchise, something that people form the GBA era have yet to see.

However, while the changes are mostly aesthetic (darker tone of art and story), there were several gameplay changes as well. Costs of units changed, certain untis were replaced, new ones were added, and most importantly of all, the CO Powers, which, in previous games, were tide-changing super abilities that somewhat underminded the startegic elements of the games, were nerfed extensively, in that they were only effective in certain area within the unit your CO is commanding (another new feature), and even then they weren't very powerful, with a handful of exceptions. The last change was the ability for units to level up and become stronger, which is something that is suprisingly balanced, because the changes are so incremental.

All these changes are also compounded by the Advance Wars traditional gameplay, which was near-flawless to begin with. Additionally, the story is also better than in previous entries. Before, war was treated in a very friendly way, the gravity of the given situation was there, but combat itself was very light-hearted. It wasn't something I had a problem with (it gave it a disctinctive style), but DOR treats war (and the whole 90% of the population being wiped out) with the gritty realism that war deserves.

It wasn't as feature-rich as Dual Strike, and perhaps the stylistic changes aren't for everyone, but its balancing of the gameplay is a bold move that the franchise may have warranted, and all that in addition to a formula that is rock-solid is enough to warrant it this spot on the list.