| Advance Wars | |
|---|---|
 North American box art | |
| Developer(s) | Intelligent Systems |
| Publisher(s) | Nintendo |
| Director(s) | Toru Narihiro |
| Producer(s) | Takehiro Izushi |
| Artist(s) | Ryo Hirata |
| Writer(s) | Masayuki Horikawa |
| Composer(s) | Taishi Senda |
| Series | Wars |
| Platform(s) | Game Boy Advance |
| Release | |
| Genre(s) | Turn-based strategy |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
Advance Wars[a] is a turn-based strategy video game developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance. It is the seventh title in the Wars series of video games, and the first in the Advance Wars sub-series. The game takes place on a fictional continent, where two nations, Orange Star and Blue Moon, have been fighting each other for years. The conflict enters a new stage when an Orange Star commanding officer named Andy is accused of attacking the armies of two other nations, Yellow Comet and Green Earth, without reason, resulting in a worldwide war.
As with previous Wars titles, Advance Wars was not originally intended for release outside Japan, due to Nintendo feeling that Western consumers would not be interested in turn-based games because of their complex mechanics.[citation needed] In order to alleviate this, the developers made the mechanics easy to understand, adding in an in-depth tutorial that did not require players to read the manual. Designer Kentaro Nishimura commented that the game's success shifted Nintendo's attitude over Western tastes [citation needed], and that same success is frequently credited [citation needed] as a driving force for Nintendo bringing another Intelligent Systems franchise, Fire Emblem, outside of Japan beginning with the seventh installment.
Advance Wars was released in North America on September 10, 2001.[1] Its release in Japan and Europe was delayed, supposedly due to the September 11 attacks in the United States.[2] Although eventually released in Europe in January 2002, it would not be released in Japan until the Game Boy Wars Advance 1+2 compilation in 2004 alongside its sequel Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising, whose original Japanese release was cancelled. Advance Wars has been re-released for the Wii U Virtual Console simultaneously in Europe and North America on April 3, 2014. On April 21, 2023, the title was remade for the Nintendo Switch alongside its sequel Black Hole Rising in a compilation developed by WayForward titled Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp, which was announced by Nintendo at E3 2021. It was released in America and Europe, but not Japan.
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