Glory Days 2

The thunder of a hundred roaring bird's mechanical engines deafen the muggy air. The stampede of recoiling metallic substance grates across the dry earth as the ever stretching line of assault vehicles leisurely march forward towards their enemy. The smell of burnt ash and spent gasoline flutters past your nostrils as the first shot rung out just off in the distance.

War, no matter the coat of paint nor the propaganda, is never a pretty subject.

Glory Days 2 - much like Advance wars before it - has taken this bleak concept and not only made a game that is quite fun but also very light on the graphical realities. A sequel to (Super Army War) brought to a whole new platform (GBA > DS) and course hopefully in the process, a brand new audience.

The game aptly straddles the corners of a real time strategy/action hybrid game set on a 2d scene. Main objectives are very very simple. Escort your troops across the screen from right to left. In the process you'll A: pick up civvies (civilians) B: Shoot down the enemies fighters in the sky and C: Build troops/drop off troops (helicopter) and from time to time use special weapons (Unmanned fighters/bombs/parachuters). Most of the ground battles play out in rock paper scissor fashion; soldier's capture bunkers but get destroyed by tanks, tanks destroy bunker's and kill soldier's/any other ground unit, anti air units repel enemy helicopter/jets and then there's the two "special" vehicles with unique jobs to play out on the battlefield. It ends up looking something like this when you get all done:

M...........B......B.......B..C..C..B........B......B.......M
(Main enemy base)      (Civ)       (Bunker)   (Your Base)

Bunkers and civilians supply the forces with money (and if civs die YOU lose money) so you must also protect both as best as humanly possible lest your enemy gain the upper hand and build twice the force as you.

These simple mechanics are the game's greatest assets and (eventually) the weakest. See to handle all these complex jobs at once you'll be required to constantly search for the right button or tap the right selection on the touch screen all during the inane combat that ensues in later levels.

While not overly difficult through the first 15 campaign missions the final mission is not for the faint of heart. And being overly ambidextrous can only save you so much time and conversely so many troops. It's quite unfortunate this micromanagement was not addressed in same way... Like say the game pauses when you pull up the troop list or at the very least include a tutorial/training to ease the burden.

I had one other cringe worthy moment. The game's story (or lack thereof) is buried in the letter's of the video game's imaginary soldiers. These seemingly strike the distinct line between endearing and preachy. And then even after all this, I found it quite perculiar the game's backdrops in at least one level is very clearly displaying two towers in very close proximity to one another. It may be the developers merely wanted to show respect but the sight (and letters) came off a little odd.


Overall:
Still, Glory Days 2 is far from lost to the concept of poorly implented controls. It is far from perfect and can be infuriately annoying at times but all in the all this simply put is hands down one of best unknown games put out for the DS.

Score: 80/100



*I've been very very busy and had a LOT of trouble with the next couples of pages thus why the updates haven't been received yet. Soon however I will post it.*