Image from Ign.com

I've been playing a whole lot of Advance Wars Days of Ruin for the Nintendo DS, and it rocks. Of course, nobody does turn based combat games like internal Nintendo studio Intelligent Systems.

Much has been made of the new character design and art style. Yup, it is darker, but it is more of a subtle shift than radical scene change. The characters still have that cardboard cut feel, with a few characters that are, to be honest, embarrassing from a writer's point of view (the Admiral is particularly poorly written).

What of the online play? It works pretty well, and Intelligent Systems did a thorough job, offering a ranking system (that seems to work), good common sense online rules like a time limit for moves, and lag free matches.

I would certainly recommend this game to DS owners.

Grade: B+

Read IGN.com's take.