Game music of the day: Advance Wars Dual Strike

Welcome to GamesRadar's daily blast of all things pertaining to the ever-growing field of game music. Each post will introduce new sounds, games, composers and fan-made remixes of gaming's greatest aural achievements.

Game: Advance Wars Dual Strike

Earlier today Nintendounintentionally revealedits next handheld - the Nintendo 3DS, a device that will employ 3D effects without any fancy glasses. Word is it arrives in 2011 (and willprobably be teasedduring this year's E3), which got me thinking about the launch of the original DS. Specifically, how shit the first year was (Canvas Curse aside) and it wasn't until mid 2005 that we saw the first wave of ass-kicking titles. The first of which was Advance Wars Dual Strike.

"Black Hole Power" erupts from your speakers every time you finish a turn and hand control overto the evil Black Hole army. It's classic Advance Wars through and through, with hard, eclectic beats and a character-specific feel (i.e. the good guy music is chipper and inspirational,while bad buy music is haunting and creepy). Every single track in Dual Strike is outstanding, but this one really gotme pumped - and nervous as well, because anytime it was playing, your precious units were at risk of being annihilated.

Advance Wars has been around for nine years in the US, but in Japan it started all the way back in the NES/Famicom days with Famicom Wars (seen above). The term "Advance" Wars comes from its Game Boy Advance release, while in Japan it always keeps "Famicom" in the title, despite the platform it's on. Even this DS edition is called Famicom Wars DS.

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