Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising is a turn-based strategy video game created by Intelligent Systems and released by Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance. It was first sold in North America and PAL regions in 2003. This game is the second in the Advance Wars sub-series of Nintendo Wars. It came after Advance Wars and was followed by Advance Wars: Dual Strike. Although the game was made in Japan, its original Japanese release was canceled. Later, it was released in Japan along with the original Advance Wars as part of a compilation called Game Boy Wars Advance 1+2 in 2004. The game was also made available on the Wii U’s Virtual Console in North America and Europe in 2015. At E3 2021, Nintendo announced that Black Hole Rising, along with the original Advance Wars, would be remade and released together for the Nintendo Switch by WayForward in a compilation called Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp.
Black Hole Rising is very similar to the previous game in terms of how it is played. It has only small changes in its visual style and some added content. The story continues from the previous game, Advance Wars. Black Hole has recovered from its earlier loss in Cosmo Land and is now preparing to invade Macro Land under the leadership of Sturm, the same commander who led the invasion of Cosmo Land. The Allied Nations, the game’s main characters, work together again to stop the Black Hole forces and protect Macro Land.
The game received good reviews and won the European Computer Trade Show’s Best Handheld Game of the Year award in 2003.
Gameplay
The goal in the game Black Hole Rising, which is part of the Nintendo Wars series, is to defeat all enemies. This can be done by either destroying all enemy troops or capturing the enemy's headquarters. In some campaign maps, players must complete special tasks, such as capturing or destroying important buildings like the Black Cannon, a new feature in Black Hole Rising.
The Campaign mode in Black Hole Rising is different from its earlier version, Advance Wars, because players can choose missions in any order. The campaign takes place across five continents, each representing one of the five countries in the game. Players control leaders from the main nations and fight against the enemy, Black Hole. Each continent starts with several missions that players can choose to play. As players complete missions or meet certain conditions, new missions become available. After finishing the regular campaign, players can unlock a harder version called the Hard Campaign, which includes modified maps and starting units.
After completing a mission or a War Room challenge, players earn a rank based on how well they perform. Once the campaign is finished, players receive an overall rank, which unlocks more content in the in-game shop.
Many of the game's extra modes are the same as in Advance Wars. In War Room, players must defeat enemies who have advantages at the start of each mission. In Versus mode, players can use existing maps or create their own, and set up games with custom rules. This mode allows players to compete against the computer or other players using hotseat gameplay. Multiplayer games with multiple consoles are possible using Link mode, which requires a Game Boy Advance Game Link Cable.
In Design mode, players can change the colors of existing leaders (after unlocking color options) or create their own maps. The map size is fixed, and players cannot use new Black Hole buildings introduced in Black Hole Rising. Players must follow specific rules to ensure maps are playable. Maps saved in this mode can be stored on the game cartridge and used in multiplayer or shared with others using the Game Link Cable.
Battle Maps is the game's shop, where players can buy new content using points earned in other modes. As players progress, more items become available, such as new leaders, maps, and color palettes for use in Design mode.
Black Hole Rising is very similar to Advance Wars in how it plays, but it adds more content. Eight new leaders join the original 11, making a total of 19. Many new maps are added for War Room and Versus mode, though most are not available at the start and must be bought from the shop after meeting certain conditions.
Only one new unit, the Neotank, was added to the original set from Advance Wars. Two new terrain features were introduced: the Missile Silo and the Pipeline (with breakable Pipe Seams). The Missile Silo can be used by foot troops to attack enemies in an area, and the Pipeline acts as an impassable wall. Players can use the Pipeline to make smaller maps than the default size, which was not possible in the earlier game.
In addition to the terrain features, new Black Hole buildings were added, but they only appear in the campaign. These buildings change how missions are played, adding new objectives like capturing or destroying them. For example, the Black Cannon is a large building that attacks one non-Black Hole unit each turn. It has "health" shown by a heart icon. When units attack it, the health decreases. If it reaches zero, the building is destroyed.
A major new feature in Black Hole Rising is the Super CO Power. The CO Power, first introduced in Advance Wars, is a special ability unique to each leader that activates when their CO Meter fills during battle. These powers help allies or hurt enemies. Black Hole Rising changed the CO Meter to use small and large stars, but it still works the same way. A regular CO Power activates with small stars, while the stronger Super CO Power requires filling the large stars.
Although the Super CO Power is more powerful, it drains the CO Meter completely, while the regular CO Power leaves some charge remaining. This gives players more choices in strategy, as they must decide whether to use weaker abilities more often or save up for stronger ones.
Plot
While the Allied Nations were still recovering from the war in Cosmo Land, the Black Hole Army had already recovered and decided to launch a large invasion of Macro Land. In addition to the original Black Hole Army's commanding officers (COs), four new COs were added, all under the leadership of Sturm. These new COs included Flak, who was responsible for invading Orange Star; Lash, a girl who created many of Black Hole's technologies and led the invasion of Blue Moon; Adder, a self-centered commander in charge of invading Yellow Comet; and Hawke, who was second-in-command to Sturm and his most trusted ally. Sturm ordered each CO to capture one of the four continents controlled by the Allied Nations: Orange Star was assigned to Flak, Blue Moon to Lash, Yellow Comet to Adder, and Green Earth to Hawke. Lash also created new weapons, such as the Black Cannon and Mini Cannons, for use during the invasion. The four Allied Nations' armies now had to work together to remove the Black Hole Army from their world permanently.
After the Black Hole Army was driven from the Allied Nations' continents, their COs gathered in Black Hole's territory, near their base of operations. There, they fought Sturm, the leader of the invasion. The final battle occurred near the Death Ray, a powerful weapon guarding the entrance to a missile. If the missile was not stopped, it would destroy half of Wars World.
The Allied Nations' COs eventually destroyed the Death Ray, disarmed the missile, and trapped Sturm. In a last attempt to cause damage, Sturm tried to destroy the base and trigger the missile's self-destruct. Andy tried to stop Sturm but failed. However, Hawke, who was Sturm's second-in-command, betrayed him by killing Sturm with the Black Storm weapon before the self-destruct could begin. Hawke then became the new leader of the Black Hole Army and, along with Flak, Lash, and Adder, left Macro Land with the remaining troops.
Development
After the success of Advance Wars, Intelligent Systems, the company that created the original game, started working on a follow-up game. In January 2003, the sequel was announced as Advance Wars 2 and was planned to be released in North America in June of that year. Super Mario Club was responsible for testing the game, and Nintendo would handle its publication. Since Advance Wars was not released in Japan, Black Hole Rising also was not released there, even though both games were developed in Japan. Later, before the release of Advance Wars: Dual Strike, both games were made available in Japan on a single cartridge called Game Boy Wars Advance 1+2 for the Game Boy Advance and on the Wii U Virtual Console. This version included both games and had small changes in the graphics, mainly in the portraits of the commanding officers.
When images of the game were shared in April 2003, it was clear that the original visual style of Advance Wars would remain the same. It seemed that most changes would be minor and not affect gameplay. When a demo of the game was shown at E3, it became evident that the gameplay would be very similar to Advance Wars, but new content would be added. After E3 2003, IGN journalist Craig Harris noted that Black Hole Rising did not feel like a significantly new game.
Reception
The game Black Hole Rising received mostly positive reviews, according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. GameSpot stated, "Every GBA owner should have this game, and anyone who owns a new GBA for the first time should play Advance Wars 2 as one of their first activities." The publication later named it the best Game Boy Advance game of June 2003.
IGN praised the game as "one of the finest games for the Game Boy Advance." GameNOW described it as "one of the most substantial handheld games available" and noted that it "performs especially well" during long matches against human opponents. 1Up.com highlighted the series' core gameplay, stating, "The game has changed enough to satisfy loyal fans, and when a formula creates such an engaging experience, there is no need to change it."
Some criticism focused on the game's similarity to its predecessor. GameSpot noted that some might "call it a repeat," and IGN commented that "the number 2 in the title does not seem fair." Eurogamer shared similar concerns, stating, "It is a classic, but it clearly feels like a £35 mission pack and likely costs twice as much as it should." GameSpy's Michael Vreeland said the game "feels too similar to the first game."
The game earned Editor's Choice awards from both GameSpot and IGN. It also received the Best Handheld Game of the Year 2003 award at the European Computer Trade Show. At the AIAS 7th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, Black Hole Rising was nominated for Handheld Game of the Year.