Last verified: July 2026 | Category: Franchise Emulation Guides
Advance Wars is Nintendo's turn-based tactical strategy franchise developed by Intelligent Systems — the same studio behind Fire Emblem. Unlike Fire Emblem, Advance Wars never received a PC port, a Nintendo Switch Online archive entry, or any kind of modern digital re-release library until Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp arrived on Switch in 2023. Every original GBA and DS entry in the series is playable exclusively through emulation if you do not own original hardware. This guide covers the complete franchise: both GBA originals, both DS entries, and the 2023 Switch remake.
Quick-Reference Table
| Game | Platform | Emulator | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Advance Wars | Game Boy Advance | mGBA | Full speed; no config needed |
| Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising | Game Boy Advance | mGBA | Full speed; save states carry over |
| Advance Wars: Dual Strike | Nintendo DS | melonDS | Touch screen maps cleanly to mouse |
| Advance Wars: Days of Ruin (Dark Conflict) | Nintendo DS | melonDS | Different title in PAL regions |
| Battalion Wars | GameCube | Dolphin | Action-strategy spinoff; full compat |
| Battalion Wars 2 | Wii | Dolphin | Full speed at 4× IR |
| Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp | Switch | Eden | 2023 remake; async shaders |
Game Boy Advance Era
Advance Wars (2001 — GBA)
The original Advance Wars was released in North America in September 2001 and almost did not make it to Western markets — Nintendo nearly cancelled the shipment following the September 11 attacks due to its military theme. It shipped weeks later and became one of the most critically acclaimed GBA games of the era.
The game revolves around a small cast of Commanding Officers (COs), each with a unique passive ability and a special CO Power that charges during battle. The Campaign introduces the formula in a 28-mission arc. Design Mode (unlockable) lets you build custom maps and share them via link cable — in emulation, you can share maps as save files.
mGBA setup:
- Download mGBA from mgba.io.
- Load the Advance Wars ROM. No additional configuration is required.
- Scale the window to 4× or 5× for a clean GBA screen at standard monitor sizes.
- Enable "Skip BIOS" under Emulation settings if you want to skip the GBA boot logo on each launch.
Save states: mGBA's save states (Shift+F1 through F9) carry over between sessions. Advance Wars has long per-turn sessions; save states between enemy turns are useful for long Campaign missions.
Versus mode: mGBA supports link cable emulation for local versus play between two instances on the same PC. Set up a Local Link Server under Tools → Local Link Server; launch a second mGBA instance and connect both to the server. Advance Wars' versus mode was designed for single-cartridge link play; both instances must have the ROM loaded.
Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising (2003 — GBA)
Black Hole Rising is a direct sequel using the same engine. The campaign is longer (26 missions), introduces two new COs (Lash and Flak on the villain side, Hachi as a hidden CO), and adds Super CO Powers — a second, more powerful CO ability that charges from the same meter but requires more energy. The strategic layer is deeper because enemy CO selection reacts to your chosen CO.
mGBA setup: Identical to the first game. Advance Wars 2 save files from real GBA hardware (.sav) can be loaded directly in mGBA — back up your cartridge saves using a GBA save dumper if you own the original.
Custom maps: Both GBA Advance Wars games shipped with a robust map editor. Community-created maps for both games exist as .sav file patches available on fan forums. Import them by replacing mGBA's save file for the game.
Nintendo DS Era
Advance Wars: Dual Strike (2005 — NDS)
Dual Strike was the franchise's first DS entry and introduced the dual-screen layout in a clever way: one screen shows your active battlefield, and the second screen shows a separate front-line and back-line that interact. You can deploy units from the back line to support the front. The mechanic adds genuine strategic depth not present in the GBA games.
Dual Strike also introduced Tag Powers — two COs on the same army can tag-team their CO Powers together. The result was some of the most powerful CO combinations the series has seen.
melonDS setup:
- Download melonDS from melonds.kuribo64.net.
- Load the Dual Strike ROM. melonDS does not require BIOS files for basic gameplay (it has a built-in HLE BIOS), but providing real NDS BIOS/firmware enables Wi-Fi features.
- Touch screen: the DS bottom screen is where you select units and issue orders. melonDS maps the bottom screen to mouse input automatically — click where you would tap.
- Screen layout: go to Video → Screen Layout → Horizontal (side-by-side) for a more natural split on a widescreen monitor. Dual Strike's two battlefields benefit from a horizontal layout.
Performance: melonDS runs Dual Strike at full speed on any modern CPU. No accuracy compromises needed.
Advance Wars: Days of Ruin (2008 — NDS)
(Known as Advance Wars: Dark Conflict in PAL regions)
Days of Ruin is the tonal outlier of the franchise and the most divisive. It replaced the bright, Saturday-morning-cartoon visual style of previous entries with a post-apocalyptic setting: meteor strikes have devastated the world, the old wars are irrelevant, and surviving soldiers pick through ruins. The CO cast was entirely new, and the light-hearted humor of previous games was gone.
The gameplay improvements are real: unit balance was tightened significantly (the infamous super-unit exploits from Dual Strike were addressed), map design is more conservative and fair, and the CO Power system was redesigned to reduce dominant strategy exploitation. Many players consider it the mechanically tightest Advance Wars game. If you approach it as a standalone title rather than a sequel to the previous tone, it holds up extremely well.
PAL vs. NTSC ROMs: The North American (Days of Ruin) and European (Dark Conflict) ROMs are mechanically identical. Some save files and cheat codes are region-locked. Use whichever region your ROM belongs to and do not mix cheat codes across regions.
melonDS setup: Identical to Dual Strike. Days of Ruin is a later DS game with the same engine; melonDS handles it cleanly.
GameCube / Wii Spinoffs
Battalion Wars (2005 — GameCube) / Battalion Wars 2 (2007 — Wii)
These two spinoffs are not turn-based strategy — they are real-time action-strategy games where you directly control one soldier while commanding a squad. The connection to Advance Wars is thematic and art-directional rather than mechanical: the same nations (Angleans, Solar Empire, Tundrans, etc.) appear, but combat is entirely different.
They are worth mentioning because they are sometimes confused with mainline Advance Wars when searching, and because they are GameCube/Wii exclusives that have no re-releases.
Dolphin setup (Battalion Wars, GCN):
- Download Dolphin from dolphin-emu.org.
- Load the Battalion Wars ISO.
- Set Internal Resolution to 4× Native.
- Enable "Widescreen Hack" — the original game ran at 4:3; widescreen hack extends the viewport cleanly for this game.
- Battalion Wars uses the GameCube controller's C-stick to aim and fire; map your right analog stick accordingly.
Dolphin setup (Battalion Wars 2, Wii): Same as above, but BW2 uses Wii Remote pointer controls for targeting. In Dolphin, configure a Wii Remote emulated with mouse pointer mapping. Mouse + WASD movement works if you set it up in Dolphin's Wii Remote profile.
Nintendo Switch
Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp (2023 — Switch)
Re-Boot Camp is a ground-up visual remake of the first two GBA Advance Wars games by WayForward. The gameplay is faithful to the originals — same missions, same CO roster, same mechanics — rendered in a colorful 3D art style. It was originally announced in 2021, delayed twice (once for redesign, once due to real-world events), and finally released in April 2023.
Re-Boot Camp is the most accessible starting point for new players because of its modern UI and visual clarity. Veterans of the GBA originals will find the gameplay identical with a fresh coat of paint.
Eden setup:
- Download Eden from eden-emu.dev.
- Install the Re-Boot Camp ROM dump + update file.
- Graphics → API: Vulkan.
- Resolution: 2× (1440p on a 1080p display) or 1× if you want an exact match to Switch output (900p docked).
- Enable "Use asynchronous shader building" — the game has a non-trivial shader set that compiles on first play; async mode pushes this to background threads.
Performance: Re-Boot Camp is not a demanding game visually — the 3D art style is clean and low-polygon by design. Even mid-range hardware (GTX 1660 / RX 580 equivalent) runs it at 60fps with no issues at 2× resolution.
Save compatibility: Re-Boot Camp saves are not compatible with the GBA originals. The remake tracks Campaign progress separately.
Buy vs. Emulate
| Game | Buy Option | Worth Buying Instead? |
|---|---|---|
| Advance Wars (GBA) | No re-release | Emulate — no legal digital option |
| Advance Wars 2 (GBA) | No re-release | Emulate — no legal digital option |
| Dual Strike (DS) | No re-release | Emulate — no legal digital option |
| Days of Ruin (DS) | No re-release | Emulate — no legal digital option |
| Battalion Wars (GCN) | No re-release | Emulate — no legal digital option |
| Battalion Wars 2 (Wii) | No re-release | Emulate — no legal digital option |
| Re-Boot Camp (Switch) | Nintendo Switch eShop / physical | Buy if you own a Switch; emulate your own dump |
The entire original Advance Wars franchise has received no legal digital re-releases as of mid-2026. The only way to play any of the GBA or DS entries without original hardware is emulation from your own cartridge dumps.
Recommended Play Order
- Advance Wars (GBA) — the original. Campaign teaches all core mechanics over 28 missions.
- Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising (GBA) — direct sequel; import your CO rank from the first game is not supported but the game acknowledges returning players.
- Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp (Switch) — play this alongside or after the originals to compare art directions; mechanically equivalent.
- Advance Wars: Dual Strike (DS) — biggest roster, most CO combinations; best after you know the core strategy well.
- Advance Wars: Days of Ruin (DS) — play last for the tone shift to land intentionally; the mechanical refinement is best appreciated after the more chaotic design of Dual Strike.
If you only play one, the original Advance Wars GBA in mGBA is the purest, most focused version of the formula and the appropriate entry point.
Troubleshooting
| Problem | Game | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| GBA save file not loading | GBA games | Ensure mGBA's save type is set to "Autodetect"; Advance Wars uses SRAM (32KB) |
| Link cable versus not connecting | GBA games | Both mGBA instances must be on the same PC; start the Link Server before launching the second instance |
| melonDS black screen on boot | DS games | Provide real NDS ARM7/ARM9 BIOS and firmware files; HLE BIOS handles gameplay but not all boot sequences |
| Dual Strike touch controls inverted | Dual Strike | Calibrate melonDS touch origin under Video settings if your screen layout is non-default |
| Re-Boot Camp shader stutter | Re-Boot Camp | Enable async shader building in Eden; first-play stutter clears after cache warm-up |
| Battalion Wars crashes on GCN | Battalion Wars | Update to latest Dolphin stable; older builds had a GCN video plugin bug affecting this title |
| Audio desync in Days of Ruin | Days of Ruin | Adjust melonDS audio latency to 80ms; DS audio latency defaults can cause desync on some audio drivers |
| Re-Boot Camp freezes at CO briefing | Re-Boot Camp | Update Eden to latest release; a 1.0.x build had a scripting regression affecting cutscene triggers in this game |
FAQ
Is Advance Wars coming back? Any announced sequels? As of mid-2026, Nintendo has not announced a new mainline Advance Wars title beyond Re-Boot Camp. The franchise has been dormant since Days of Ruin (2008). Re-Boot Camp's sales were moderate; fan interest remains high.
What is the difference between Days of Ruin and Dark Conflict? They are the same game. Advance Wars: Days of Ruin is the North American title; Advance Wars: Dark Conflict is the PAL title. Nintendo of Europe used the name change without explanation — the gameplay and story are identical.
Can I play the GBA games on my phone with an emulator? Yes. mGBA has an official Android port (available on Google Play). Advance Wars plays well on touchscreen with the on-screen D-pad since it is turn-based; you can take your time with inputs.
Does Re-Boot Camp have any content the originals don't? Re-Boot Camp adds an optional "Classic" display filter that overlays the 3D graphics with a retro pixel aesthetic. It also includes a two-player versus mode with online matchmaking (via Nintendo Switch Online). The base campaigns are faithful to the originals with no additional missions.
Is the Advance Wars series related to Fire Emblem? They share a developer (Intelligent Systems) and some thematic DNA (tactical grid combat), but the mechanics are entirely different. Advance Wars has no permadeath, no RPG level-up system, and centers on unit production rather than a fixed roster. Fire Emblem's emotional investment in individual characters is absent from Advance Wars by design.
All emulators linked above are free and open-source. Provide your own game dumps from hardware you own. EmuDesk does not host or link to ROMs.