Video Game / Advance Wars Alpha

Advance Wars Alpha: Back in the Black is a hack of Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising made by Ephraim225. With 20 new commanding officers, new gameplay mechanics, and units from other games introduced to Advance Wars 2, this ROM hack is probably the closest thing to a proper sequel (first written before Dual Strike and Days of Ruin came about, but further updated long after those games were released) and takes place between the first and second games. - complete with two campaigns of 33 missions apiece and 30 brand new War Room challenges.

You can find out how to get the hack for yourself here.

This fan game provides examples of:

• All According to Plan: Upon the final Green Earth mission, it turns out that all of the Alpha COs' victories were Sturm's intentions from the start. Xabat did step outside his boundaries with the whole meteor thing, but that's of no matter to him now. And Fortune confirms this to John and company when they follow her instructions to reach his base of operations.

• Arms Dealer: What Richie is. In fact, Sturm requested his help in order to instigate the Cosmo Land conflict. And Richie used that opportunity to convince Olaf to defect (back) to Blue Moon, given he had been forcefully recruited into Orange Star for a time. Which happened to be what Sturm needed, and he had been willing to back Blue Moon once Olaf was back in his home country.
• Big Eater: Rocky apparently eats a lot, and it shows on his rotund belly.
• Book Dumb: While a decent CO, John has problems with reading stuff and staying awake during Field Training simulations.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: After Reiji wins the mission "For Honor", Rocky invites him to do the next mission, but Reiji rebuffs him by saying that he needs to gain experience if he wants to stop relying on others.
• Casanova Wannabe: John. He even considers Fortune cute, to Summer's frustration.
• Confusion Fu: Fortune's Super CO Power, Show Time, since renamed to Mirror Flip, allows her non-naval direct attack units to swap places with whoever they're fighting, leading to some tricky plays if the player knows what they're doing.
• Continuity Nod: Apparently, Sakura is responsible for Kanbei's missing sock that he was looking for in AW2.
• Cool Mask: Sakura has a white fox spirit mask, though she doesn't actually put it on her face.
  • Mantis has a gas mask over his face to hide the scars he got from Irene's disaster.
• Cowgirl: Bessie's aesthetic in mirror to Grit.
• Cool Old Guy: Treant, the Green Earth forest CO.
• Dark Lord on Life Support: Sturm turns out to be on this, having been put on it by his forces long ago when they were the Meteor Legion.
• Discount Card: Richie's units cost 10% less, but also get 10% less ATK and DEF, worse than Colin.
• Ditzy Genius: For all her wackiness, Fortune is the one who's behind the development of new weapons.
• Expressive Mask: Variation: Fortune's makeup gets a purple tear painted over whenever she's in a negative mood, and disappears whenever she isn't. It's later implied that Sturm's mad genius (probably Lash) was responsible for Fortune's face being ruined and looking like what it is now permanently.
• Eyepatch of Power: Irene sports one over her right eye, which was injured after a bombing accident, when she set up explosives on Sturm's own ships once, but made the mistake of setting the timer too low, costing the lives of her men while she got off "lucky" with only a lost eye. She swore to never handle explosives again after that, but Condor trusts that she won't repeat it on the mission "Detonation". And it seems Mantis is privy to this incident, since he was Irene's munitions expert, and suffered worse injuries than her.
• Failed a Spot Check: During the first mission "A New Start", John is busy flirting with Summer to not notice the Black Hole troops in the area until she points them out at him.
• Fiction 500: Richie is rich enough to deploy a sizable army just as an intel team, as seen in the mission "Mud Flood".
• Fighting Clown: Fortune is a version of this, though she calls herself a jester.
• A Glass of Chianti: Xabat has a glass of wine in one hand, and a sword resting on his shoulder in the other.
• Graceful Loser: At the end of the last Orange Star mission, Fortune congratulates the COs for their victory. This confuses and annoys Summer, while John confirms that there's something else going on here.
• Honor Before Reason: Reiji's first response to hearing of a scouting party captured is to rescue them posthaste, despite Rocky saying they don't have enough men to pull it off. And then he deduces the real reason; given how expensive they are, Reiji cannot afford to let them go to waste.

• I Owe You My Life: Mantis joined Black Hole after the incident that damages Irene's eye because Sturm came to him with that offer in exchange for reviving him.
• Irony: Despite his CO Theme being a rendition of Guile's theme, Surge sucks at indirect combat while Guile is one of the most famous zoners in fighting game history.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: After Summer's first battle against her, Fortune retorts to John that their battle is a game called war, but a little more advanced than that. An advance war.
  • Earlier than that, Summer asks John if he read the README file. Which you should too since there are a few significant changes from the vanilla.
• Long-Range Fighter: Bessie serves as the indirect combat specialist for Orange Star after Grit defected to Blue Moon. She desires to eventually surpass him in this forte.
• Malevolent Masked Man: Besides Sturm, there's also his new right-hand man Mantis, who essentially serves Hawke's role (and is essentially him mechanics-wise).
• Mildly Military: As per the norm for the series. Most egregious is Fortune, whose attire is not just out of code for military, but for the circus too.
• Mythology Gag: During the mission "Clean Sweep'', when Surge introduces the new unnamed plane type Nell wants to have tested out, John decides to call it the Duster (after changing his mind from naming it LiteFight). When Surge disagrees...
  John: What were you gonna call it? Fighter B? Interceptor? Tomcat? (Interceptor is what it's called in Dark Conflict, and Surge prefers the name Tomcat).
  • After driving off Black Hole from Blue Moon, Evan tells Richie of a pair of orphans whose named start with "Co" and "Sa". Upon hearing that they have CO Powers based on wealth, Richie jumped in at the chance to back them for the sake of his legacy.
  • While ranting about Ayano's newspaper, Reiji makes an aside that the next article will be about a little girl and her teddy bears attacking. A sort-of reference to Penny and Mr. Bear, though she only has one of him.
  • When John is in awe of Sturm's grand plan using Clone Andy, Fortune states that he's actually a commission, and that Black Hole paid some tech lab called "Intelligence (something)" to make it for them. IDS, Caulder's company, it seems.
• Noodle Incident: Apparently, Kanbei's statue was graffiti'd once, and it had made Sakura upset, as much as when the Staff ends up stolen by Xabat.
• Obligatory Joke: At the mission "Verdant Fortress", upon cornering Mantis, Condor declares it's time for him to start "praying". Mantis argues it's time for him to start "preying" instead. Freud calls him out on his lame pun.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: When the real Andy shows up, Surge asks him what an airport is in order to confirm that it's the real him. Andy is tired of everyone thinking he doesn't know that.
• Pirate Girl: Eph is a self-proclaimed one who ended up joining Blue Moon from parts unknown.
• Puberty Superpower: Apparently, this is how CO Powers manifest, and why nutjobs like Fortune and kids like Andy, Sonja, and Colin can become COs. Prospective COs' potential can be figured out not long after they turn 13, and most civilians don't have powers, which makes those who do valuable. However, Sturm has been experimenting with these Powers, and managed to make new officers such as Fortune and Mantis by implanting a weak CO Power. And unlike natural-born COs, none of them have very strong powers (and have far less potential than natural-born COs), and there's also a chance that they'll go mad, but they use less energy, which is to Sturm's advantage as the rest of that power goes somewhere else entirely.
• Pungeon Master: Evan is all about the winter puns, to Eph's consternation.
• Purple Is the New Black: John identified the enemy soldiers as colored deep violet, which he calls tacky while reporting it to Nell (who is not amused given that is her default outfit color).
• Psychic Link: Apparently, COs have a minor level of Synchronization with the units they command, feeling some of their pain as they take damage. Gifted commanders channel that pain into a boost for their men as a CO Power.
• Rags to Riches: Downplayed since Richie didn't actually start out poor, but he didn't use to be as rich as he is now. but investing in the stock market and the right people paid dividends for him. While that is the truth, he became a billionaire thanks to a deal with Sturm, who wanted to instigate war in Cosmo Land, but needed Olaf (who was forcefully recruited to Orange Star at the time) in Blue Moon first (since Blue Moon was no threat to them without him). Once Richie made that happen (having been from the same hometown as Olaf), he invested in arms dealers and that's how he became who he is now. Oh, and he also did this as revenge for Blue Moon conscripting Jack into the army. Despite his scheming, Richie still genuinely cares for Jack.
• Revenge: Despite Irene being responsible for Mantis's facial condition, he doesn't hold it against her, but he considers it a bonus for becoming a Black Hole CO.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: At least according to Mantis, Richie doesn't actually have CO Powers, but merely uses his wealth to simulate them.
• Separated at Birth: John of Orange Star and Evan of Blue Moon, as revealed by the latter in the final battle. In fact, John was originally from Blue Moon just like Olaf before being drafted into Orange Star.
• Shout-Out:
  • Evan is mostly a reference to the NES game Slalom, which is the name of his CO Power. Him being a skiier, the penalty to woods, the bonus on mountains, and his Super CO Power being called Mount Nasty.
  • While Ayano's newspaper and it being unreliable is a reference to Aya Shameimaru, her CO theme and Super CO Power Tornado Hold is a reference to Tengu Man.
  • Treant is a reference to The End from Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, an extremely old sniper who can photosynthesize to recover energy. He also sometimes shouts "THE END!" when using his CO Powers.
  • At the end of the Green Earth tunnel mission, Clone Andy had this to say when Condor and company corner him: "This is a message from Lord Sturm. 'I await you in Black Hole.'" He says this three times, then ends with "Also, I'm Andy!", which he had been ending his sentences with at the start of the mission. It's annoying enough that Condor chooses to let him go.
• Sleeves Are for Wimps: Surge, just like Max.
  • Subverted with Nell's current look, as it's apparently as a result of Max tearing them off by accident a while back. At least, according to John, whom Surge is skeptical in listening to.
• Stage Magician: Jack, on top of being a Blue Moon CO. In fact, before the joined the army, Jack was trying to pass off his CO powers as stage magic, and it lasted until his conscription.
• This Cannot Be!: Once again, Sturm is in a breakdown when his enemies defeat him once again at the final battle. He retreats once again and vows to return, with his Andy clone to bring his troops to full once more.
• Uniqueness Value: John's gimmick in that his units are stronger the less of each of a single type there are, and get weaker the more you have. For example, If John has just 1 Tank, it has +20% ATK, if he has 5, no bonuses, and if he has 9 or more, -20% ATK. His Super CO Power, One For All, grants all of his units +5% ATK for each unique type of unit in his army.
• Villainous Breakdown: After spending much of the main campaign composed, Mantis starts crumbling after losing the last Green Earth mission, bemoaning his lost chance of revenge.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: At least in the Normal Campaign, the fates of Volkner, Xabat, and Mantis are undetermined at the end, unless you interpret some of the dialog as invoking Screw This, I'm Outta Here for the first and third, and the second having been disposed of by Sturm.
• Wild Card: Despite being in Black Hole, Fortune is pretty unpredictable, going so far as to leak intel to the enemy. Volkner doesn't know why Sturm allows her to get away with this. And as the game goes on, it's apparent that she hopes Black Hole's enemies defeat them, and she eventually betrays Sturm to help them win.
• Winged Humanoid: Ayano has a pair of black wings on her back to go with her tengu motif. Whether or not it's actually just a backpack accessory is not said.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: At the start of the last Green Earth mission in the campaign, after listening to Sturm, Mantis requests to eliminate the Green Earth officers given that Sturm is already so far along in the plan that they're surely no longer needed. Sturm calls him out on using this as an excuse for vengeance, but allows it anyway. After Mantis takes his leave, turns out Sturm doesn't count on his survival, win or lose, like with Xabat.
• You Shall Not Pass!: At the end of "The Reveal", when Sturm orders his Clone Andy to use his CO Power on all of his troops, Fortune tells the Orange Star COs to retreat while she holds them off, allowing them to eventually make a comeback. Fortunately, Fortune comes back alive and announces herself upon hearing Andy calling out for a party, and expresses her tiring of the whole army business.

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