Developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo in 2003, Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising is the sequel to Advance Wars and is a turn-based tactical strategy war game with cartoony graphics and a variety of single and multiplayer game modes.

The core gameplay of Advance Wars 2 is the same as its predecessor, but this sequel contains more content, more game modes, and a non-linear single-player campaign. The aim of the game remains the same: defeat all enemy (Black Hole) troops in each mission, or capture the enemy HQ. Sometimes a special objective must be completed to win a mission.

The main campaign takes place over the game’s five continents, each focusing on one of the five countries in the game. You start by choosing a Commanding Officer (CO) and can choose from several missions to start the game. As you progress new missions will unlock, depending on how successful you are and whether certain requirements have been met. When the main campaign has been completed, a more difficult ‘Hard Mode’ campaign unlocks, featuring modified maps and units.

New additions include: eight new Commanding Officers (taking the number of available COs to nineteen); new maps; one new unit (the Neotank); two new terrain features (the Missile Silo and the Pipeline); new special Black Hole buildings (including destructible buildings); “Super CO Power” – an enhanced version of the special CO Power, as seen in Advance Wars (which gives the Commanding Officers special powers that can be unleashed whenever their CO Meter is filled during battle); design mode (which allows the player to customise colour palettes for existing Commanding Officers, and create their own maps); and an extended shop where you can buy new COs, maps, palettes and other goodies.

While Advance Wars 2 does have a few small graphical tweaks here and there it is essentially the same presentation-wise as before, with cut sequences telling the story, overhead maps, and real-time battle scenes showing individual units fighting it out in the field.

Advance Wars 2 is both an excellent game and worthy sequel and has a lots of content built-in. While the game did receive some criticism for its similarity to its predecessor it’s probably fair to say that it is the better game. The game sold well in North America and Europe, but was cancelled as a stand-alone release in Japan, where it was developed. It was later released in Japan in 2004 as part of an Advance Wars 1 & 2 bundle on a single cartridge.

Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising is considered by many to be an essential game to own for the Game Boy Advance.

More: Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising on Wikipedia