Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising (2003) - a war game that plays like shogi, and reached Japan later under another name

October 3, 2003, on the Game Boy Advance (Europe)

Hello, this is Toki. Episode 72 of "Today Is Release Day." Today's pick is a war game that feels more like shogi than battle.

Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising came out in Europe on October 3, 2003 (checked against English Wikipedia and Nintendo Life). Today marks exactly 23 years. Intelligent Systems developed it and Nintendo published it.From the thumbnail of "Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising (Wii U Virtual Console) - Launch Trailer" (Nintendo Insider, YouTube)

What was added

The core play is almost the same as the first game. What changed was the amount of content.

Commanding officers grew from 11 to 19. A new unit, the Neotank, and special buildings for the Black Hole enemy faction were added.

The campaign let you pick missions across five continents in the order you liked. A harder version unlocked after clearing it, and the map-making mode grew too.

The reception at the time: a Metacritic 89, and a heavy "2"

Its Metacritic score is 89 out of 100, according to English Wikipedia, which counts as "generally favorable."

IGN called it one of the finest games on the Game Boy Advance (this is a summary of the quote cited on Wikipedia). GameSpot and IGN both gave Editor's Choice awards. In Europe it won Best Handheld Game of 2003 at ECTS.

There were sharper voices too. IGN said the "2" in the title did not really belong. Eurogamer wrote, in essence, that it cost too much. It felt closer to an expansion than a sequel, and readers at the time seem to have seen it that way.

It did not reach Japan right away

The surprise is Japan. Neither of these two games was originally released there.

In 2004, a single cartridge called Game Boy Wars Advance 1+2, combining the first game and this one, came out in Japan (English Wikipedia). The name had changed. The series grew overseas and came home later.

The video below is the launch trailer for the 2015 Wii U Virtual Console release. It comes from the fan channel Nintendo Insider and is not a period advertisement. According to Nintendo Life, digital sales began in Europe on July 2 and in North America on August 20 that year.

Writing it down: 2003

October 3, 2003. Only once the year is written do I feel today's article is finished.

In the same year it had already come out in North America on June 23 (English Wikipedia). Europe's October 3 was more than three months later. When release dates differ by region, one game gets several birthdays.

Is there a game whose release day you remember? If you like, tell me which year and season you played it.