Advance Wars introduces a full 1-Player story campaign, along with a range of fleshed-out Commanding Officers. The Orange Star, Blue Moon, Green Earth and Yellow Comet armies are all at war in Cosmo Land, pushed into action by the underhand tactics of the Black Hole army.
Each army has particular strengths (for example, Blue Moon excel at naval combat), and each Commanding Officer is armed with a unique CO Power that charges up over time and can be unleashed to give your army an edge in battle.
The game also comes with a multiplayer mode and a Map Editor for creating your own campaigns.
Japanese Cancellation
Advance Wars was planned to be the first game in the series to be released in the United States, with other regions to receive the game in the following week. Screenshots of the Japanese version showed Commanding Officers as less-serious caricatures than those in the US version (for example, Olaf was dressed like Santa Claus, explaining his strength in snowy conditions).
Unfortunately, the US release fell on September 11th 2001, the day of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, prompting other regions to delay or cancel the game. Even Nintendo of America has gone back and altered the "official" release date to September 12th.
The game was eventually released in Japan in 2004 on the Game Boy Wars Advance 1+2 cartridge.
