History VideoGame / NintendoWars

* BoringButPractical: Infantry spams, especially mixed with indirects -- thankfully, not a problem in ''Game Boy Wars 3'' despite the Mech being able to move and blast armored stuff from two spaces away on the same turn.

** Pointless Weakness: Rachel's extra costs for extra repairs, Max's indirect issues in the first and third Advance Wars, and Eagle and Drake's sea/air weakness on maps where that doesn't exist. Air units try to avert this issue with themselves with fuel upkeep, with varying results for each installment of the entire series.

*** And ''Game Boy Wars 3'' has a debatable example in the units, which are generally GlassCannon ones. The game's attempt to balance this, the price gaps, [[ItGotWorse ends up backfiring]].

*** [[ItGotWorse It gets worse]]. If this goes on too long, you get Wasteland. The water turns green(Red on the map), the trees die, the ground is dry and hard all the bases look abandoned when we see them in battles. Yes, all this just because [[spoiler:some old guy wants to live forever.]]

* EyesOfGold: All of Caulder's female "children".

* ViolationOfCommonSense: In ''Advance Wars 2'' Flak had a Battleship and a Lander... '''in a tiny, two-square lake.'''

* TooDumbToLive The civilians from ''Days of Ruin''. Although understandable that they don't want to get involved in conflict, they keep forgetting that the Battalion is just about the only thing standing between them and oblivion. In particular, the "Mayor" turns the civilians against the Battalion primarily due to his fear that they will usurp his authority. [[spoiler: Near the end, he makes a deal with Caulder/Stolos for the cure to the Creeper and to be left alone. Caulder/Stolos, being the CompleteMonster that he is, reneges on his deal and kills the Mayor with the supposed "cure".]]

* DroneJam: Even when the units are at completely different altitudes -- yeah, that's right, air units can be 'ambushed' and stopped by running into infantry hiding in woods, or dived submarines. Best not to think about that one too much (world's tallest periscopes?. Of course, the "real" reason for all that is for the sake of balance. If Air units could just go anywhere no matter what...
** Also applies (reversed) to naval and land units attempting to pass under air units.

The ''Advance Wars'' series, known in Japan as the ''Famicom Wars'' series, is a series of TurnBasedStrategy video games produced by {{Nintendo}}. The original ''Famicom Wars'' was developed in-house by Nintendo's R&D1 staff (the same team behind ''{{Metroid}}'' and ''KidIcarus''), while the sequels were all made by Nintendo subsidiary Intelligent Systems (of ''FireEmblem'' fame), with HudsonSoft behind later parts of the ''Game Boy Wars'' series and Kuju involved with the ''Battalion Wars'' series. The series is comprised of the following games, with most of the titles being [[SuperTitle64Advance named after the platform they were released on]]:

* FiveBadBand in ''Black Hole Rising''
** BigBad: Sturm
** TheDragon: Hawke
** EvilGenius: Lash
** TheBrute: Flak
** DarkChick: [[AmbiguouslyGay Adder]]

* DarthVaderClone: Von Bolt bore some resemblance to Darth Vader due to his life support suit, although his personality traits are closer to that of Palpatine or Voldemort. NintendoPower even lampshades it when covering ''Dual Strike''.
** No mention of Sturm? The face plate he had in Advance Wars 2 looks like Vader's with a truck grill on it.

* SNKBoss: Sturm in both of his appearances, giving all of his units a free offense boast, though lowering their defense, and having a CO-power that drops in a huge meteor on your highest concentration of units, though the playable version of him is much weaker. In Black Hole Rising, he gives all of his units a major offense and defense boast with no drawbacks (no weakening other units or raising their price like other [=COs=]) and only has his Super-CO power, no normal one, but that one is all he needs. He calls in meteor again, which like before hits the highest concentration of his enemies units, knocking 8/10 of their max health, doesn't hurt his units while also giving them even more an power and defense boost. Unlike in his first appearance, the playable version is just as strong as one from the campaign. Subverted with Dual Strike, Von Bolt is no wimp, but not as powerful as Sturm. Played straight with Clauder in Days of Ruin, however. He has a 3 by 3 CO-zone that gives all of his units, regardless of type, the highest boost their power and defense in the game, and repairs them by 50% of their max health each turn. His zone never increases and he has no CO-power, but what he was is more than enough. He and Sturm are both banned from tournaments involving their respective games.

* AwesomeButImpractical: Earth and Sky, the Eagle/Sami tag-team power in Dual Strike. Yes, being able to take three turns in a row -- with instant captures on the third turn -- is very awesome. However, a combined total of seventeen stars' worth of charging (and the very real prospect of an opponent countering with [[ManaBurn Sasha]]'s Market Crash) ruins this somewhat.

* SelectiveCondemnation: In ''Dual Strike'', the BigBad Von Bolt dares you to shoot him in order to stop his evil scheme, claiming it would [[IfYouKillHimYouWouldBeJustLikeHim make you as bad as he is.]] This in spite of the hundreds, possibly thousands, of enemy units you've killed and allied units destroyed under your command to get this far. Not to mention the deaths that would be caused if he did succeed.

** Several times in ''Dual Strike'', you meet up with allied [=CO's=] who demand that you fight them to prove your own worth. Though these could be handwaved as friendly practice wargames, it's possible that the characters treat their soldiers as chess pieces. Which is about as well as players treat their units.
*** Most likely the worst example is Mission 12 where you fight two friendly [=COs=] because one of them wants to test you a bit. What makes this case noteworthy is that it's also the mission that introduces [[WeaponsofMassDestruction Missile Silos]].

*** In Days of Ruin, factory-built units are explained as being more or less remotely controlled from the factory. Though this was mostly to explain why you can't take them with you, it implies that they are unmanned drones of some sort.

* SuspiciouslySmallArmy: Very guilty of this. No more than 50 units under your control ever. Note however that every unit in the Advance Wars games except for Megatanks/Wartanks is a literal unit composed of no fewer than ten of whatever you're specifically talking about.

* SheatheYourSword / ReviveKillsZombie: In ''Black Hole Rising'', you can win "Two Week Test" by doing '''absolutely nothing''' except ending your turn. It works, without fail, and it's a magnificent display of the AI's ability to screw itself over, but of course your ranking at the end will suck.

* EasyLogistics: Partially averted, as ground vehicles, aircraft, and seagoing vessels all run on fuel, and ground vehicles at least have ammunition, so you'll need to either bring them back to your own airports and ports every now and then, or top them off using your [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AwesomePersonnelCarrier APCs]]. On the other hand, while they resupply only one unit adjacent to them at a time when on the move, at the start of a player's turn before any actions are taken they automatically resupply any unit adjacent to them. Also, these benefits apply to aircraft without the APC having to make any sort of adjustments other than being adjacent.
** Played completely straight in that APC's provide ammo for *all* units and any old ground property repairs vehicles. It gets pretty absurd when an APC simultaneously re-arms a Bomber and a Battleship and Cities in the middle of nowhere cough up spare parts for your heavy tanks.

* WeHaveReserves: '''Rachel'''[[ColonCancer :]] [[http://inyuo.deviantart.com/#/d2va7rm "These troops are on loan from Blue Moon!"]] On loan? [[FridgeLogic Don't they DIE?]] Although this is pretty much a given, see WarHasNeverBeenSoMuchFun.
** Also, ''Lightning Strikes'' in ''Dual Strike''. Two allied factions are essentially wasting lives and resources by "testing each other".
** It could be a training exercise, with rubber bullets and sacks of flour. Just disregard the actual battle animations, and... oh, screw it.

** Pointless Weakness: Rachel's extra costs for extra repairs, Max's indirect issues in the first Advance Wars, and Eagle and Drake's sea/air weakness on maps where that doesn't exist. Air units try to avert this issue with themselves with fuel upkeep, with varying results for each installment of the entire series.

* InSovietRussiaTropeMocksYou: Blue Moon, which [[CanadaEh also resembles Canada]]. The Tundran Territories in ''Battalion Wars'' really takes this and runs away with it (Their leader is an {{Expy}} of ''[[{{Rocky}} Ivan Drago]]''.)