Advance Wars: Dual Strike

Advance Wars: Dual Strike concluded the storyline from the Game Boy Advance games...by focusing mainly on its new characters. The Japanese version's dissimilar name doesn't make even that connection readily apparent.

Unused Content#

Survival Maps#

There are three Survival Modes (Money, Turn, and Time) that each consist of 11 maps. There is actually map header data that indicates there would have been 12 maps for each mode.

This is what the map header data contains:

• Placeholder names are used.
• They all use the Bean Island map.
• The opponents would have been:
  • Survival 34 = Sensei
  • Survival 35 = Nell
  • Survival 36 = Hachi
• The mode they would have appeared in:
  • Survival 34 = Time
  • Survival 35 = Turn
  • Survival 36 = Money

Text#

Test Islands#

Text for "Test Island 4" through "Test Island 8" remains, starting at 1CC7D4 (US version).

Sturm's Profile#

Unidentified COs with
the Black Hole Army.


Hit: ?
Miss:?

Text that may have been used for Sturm's profile (who isn't playable in this game) starting at 4E44C (US version) in the overlay_0000.bin file.

War Room Win Quotes#

Andy:
"All right! And I'll win
 next time, too!"

Sami:
"Mission accomplished!
 Awaiting orders!"

Max:
"Wahoo! Piece o' cake!"

Nell:
"Nicely fought!
 We will meet again."

Hachi:
"Done already?
 Better luck next time!"

Olaf:
"Olaf's troops have
 no equal!

Grit:
"Ain't that a shame? But
 you weren't half bad!"

Colin:
"Whew... I won! 
 I really won!"

Kanbei:
"Kanbei is victorious!
 I would fight you again..."

Sonja:
"That settles that!
 It takes brains to win!"

Sensei:
"Hm hm hmmm... I've
 still got what it takes!"

Eagle:
"Another victory! Was
 there ever any doubt?"

Drake:
"I won! I'm invincible"
 at sea!"

Jess:
"Never give up...
 That's my motto!"

Jugger:
"Jugger...wins.
 Enemy...lame."

Lash:
"Tee hee hee...
 Broken already?"

Koal:
"Heh heh heh...
 What did you expect?"

Hawke:
"You're not weak...
 I'm simply too powerful."

Von Bolt:
"I am...hhh...Von Bolt! Hear my
 name and...hhh...tremble!"

In Advance Wars 2, each CO had a unique win quote (two lines) when you won a War Room map. A different set of Win Quotes (one line) are used in all modes. The text has still been left in the overlay_0000.bin file. Jugger's, Koal's, and Von Bolt's quotes however are new, since they were planned to replace Flak, Adder, and Sturm (Flak and Adder were later added during development).

Unit Highlight Code#

Eagle's CO Power from Advance Wars 2 increased the firepower and defense for all his Air Units. During the power animation, only his Air Units will be highlighted.

While there is code to only highlight Air Units when a Power/Super Power is activated, this code goes unused as Eagle's COP was changed to allow all his Non-Infantry Units to move again, but have reduced firepower. So the code to only highlight Non-Infantry was used instead.

.org 0xE24F0 ; Highlight - Air Units

Unit_Highlight_Air_Units:

    LDRB    R1, [R0, 1]
    ANDS    R1, R1, 8
    MOVNE   R0, 0
    BXNE    LR
    LDRB    R2, [R0, 0]
    MOV     R0, 0x6C
    LDR     R1, [Air_Units_Sub]
    MUL     R0, R2, R0
    LDRB    R0, [R1, R0]
    
    ADD R0, R0, 0xFD
    AND R0, R0, 0xFF
        
    CMP     R0, 1           ; Is unit an Air Unit?

    MOVLS   R0, #1          ; If yes, highlight unit
    MOVHI   R0, #0              ; If no, don't highlight unit

    BX  LR

Air_Units_Sub:
    .dw 0x022F4FD4  

Rank Skills#

Slots#

In addition to the standard 43 Rank Skills that can be equipped to the COs, the game has data assigned to support an additional 35 Rank Skills. These Rank Skills can be equipped (through the use of memory editing) and function normally in the menus. Each one is allocated a flag in RAM, two text table string pointers, a name string, and a description string. Each Rank Skill also has an entry in the SKILLS RANK equip table that assigns the Text IDs and Rank Unlocked of every skill. Each one also has a generic numbered icon. None of the unused skills have any in-game effect since there are no subroutines that check if these Rank Skills are equipped.

The icons are contained as part of the uncompressed graphical data in the "res/res_skill" file

The text is located in "Overlay9_0000.bin".

Every unused Skill has a name string and a description string of "Blank" in the US English version.

Custom Skills#

By modifying the game, it's possible to add your own Rank Skills. The images above show a new Rank Skill called "Bill Gates", which reduces the unit production cost by -50%.

Icons#

RECORD#

An unused RECORD button is stored in the "res_tpicon_lang_E" file. While the icon is loaded into memory, it is never used in the game (and was not changed in the USA version to match the DS Buttons). Based on the fact there is a pen in the icon, this was most likely used to record (verb) something by pressing the R button, and could have been displayed on the Main Menu.

Y X#

These unused Y and X buttons are stored in the "res_tpicon3_lang_E" file. While these icons are loaded into memory, they are never used in the game (and was not changed in the USA version to match the DS Buttons). These were not used as there are a different set of Y and X buttons that are used to change the PAGE when selecting a map to play.

Terrain: Lake#

Located in the list of Unit and Terrain names is an untranslated Terrain name (a copy and paste from Advance Wars and Advance Wars 2). The name of the terrain is 湖, which translates to Lake.

The Lake terrain was originally used in Super Famicom Wars, where only air units could fly over.

Regional Differences#

To do: Any renames of interest, like CO powers? This includes comparing the Japanese names of the new COs (returning characters are already covered on their respective pages).

The Japanese and international versions have several differences.

Japan	USA

In addition to the new logo and smaller copyright symbol, "TOUCH START!" became "Touch to Start".

Japan	USA

The intro's text was rewritten to flow better.

Japan	USA

More wording differences. The background graphic changes "Farthest bounds of the ocean" to "A world under siege". The menu button icons also now resemble the DS' controller buttons.

Japan	USA

The bonus map, accessible by holding L + R while entering the map editor, is completely different. The background also removes the hyphen from Omega Land.

COs#

Designs#

Olaf, Grit, and Sonja retain the same international design changes from Advance Wars 2.

Japan	USA/Europe

The color of Olaf's beard was changed from white to brown (colors 1 & 3 were swapped around).

Japan	USA/Europe

Grit's hat was changed from a trimmed cowboy hat to a Russian-styled military cap.

Japan	USA/Europe

Sonja's glasses were removed (although she still wears them in her alternative uniform). Her uniform was also changed from red to green (colors 1 & 4 were swapped around).

Names#

USA	Europe

Kindle's name was changed to Candy in the European version.

USA	Europe

Koal's name was changed to Zak in the European version.

Powers#

USA	Europe

In Advance Wars 2, the European version changed the name of Adder's Super Power from "Sidewinder" to "Snakebite". It seems the translators were not aware of this change, and "Sidewinder" was not changed in the European version.

Battle Exclamations#

During the battle animations, the COs use one of the exclamations as shown above. These were changed to sound more natural in the English translation.

Translation Errors#

Congratulations Message#

USA	Europe

So what do you get when you've collected all 300 Medals? You unlock the ability to use the Girl Power wallpaper in the Display Editor, along with a Congratulations Message with a spelling error and a missing word. The e is missing at the end of You're (which was fixed in the European version), and the letter a is missing between the word choose and new.

Rank Skill: Mistwalker#

Japan	USA

The English description is incorrect, and the Japanese description is imprecise. The skill Mistwalker actually allows every single counter-attack from their units to act as if their units got the first strike during their Super CO Power.

This skill is also used by Sonja during her Super CO Power. Her Japanese name is Asuka, hence why the Japanese rank title references her name. Note that "待ち伏せ" is the Japanese name of the Vantage skill from the Fire Emblem series which like Mistwalker allows units to attack first even during enemy phase.

For more information on the Mistwalker translation, check out this article: https://lostinlocalization.com/advance-wars-mistwalker/

Rank Skill: Tower Power#

Japan	USA

The English and Japanese descriptions don't make it clear that the skill Tower Power will ONLY give an additional +5% firepower from each Com Tower the CO owns. So if Javier is equipped with this skill, he would NOT gain any additional defense from Com Towers (they would provide +15% firepower and +10% defense).

Rank Skills: APC Guard | APC Boost#

Japan	USA

The English description makes it seem the skills APC Guard and APC Boost only affect APC Units. The skills actually affect all Transport Units (APC, T Copter, Lander, and Black Boat).

Battle Maps#

USA	Europe

In the English translation from the European version, when you buy Zak from Battle Maps, Hachi will call him Koal. This doesn't occur in the French, German, Spanish, or Italian translations.

Bugs#

Silo Sweep (Survival Map)#

The first Money map on Survival has a small issue where Jess' HQ doesn't belong to her. This is because the map data uses the HQ ID for Player 3 instead of Player 2. The reason the HQ is still green is because the map header data is set for Player 2 and Player 3 to be green.

This means that Jess can't heal any of her Neotanks, and if the player was to capture the HQ, they would not win the game since they have captured a Neutral HQ.