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When you're around four or five or maybe even six years old, carpets suddenly become very interesting. They provide the topography for the varied worlds of your imagination: the gentle plains of the moon or Mars, the battlefields of ancient myth. As a kid, I spent an inordinate amount of time carefully getting out my various toys and arranging them on the carpet in the living room. My secret shame - I sensed it even then - was that, once the arranging was taken care of, I couldn't really think of much else to do with them, so I carefully put them away again. That's a classic weekend right there.Years later, Advance Wars would come to the rescue. Sure, the greatest cart that ever slid into your GBA - give or take WarioWare, of course - is a cold-edged tactics machine if you want it to be. As pure games go, I'd be happy to argue that it's pretty much peerless in its class. You take in the snug little stretch of no-man's land you're faced with, weigh the enemy's congregation of units in your mind, and then decide how to destroy them all as elegantly - or as spectacularly - as you fancy. It's so much more than that, though. It's a game that has never forgotten that it's also a toy. It sticks you back on the carpet with all your old action figures and chipped-paint cars, and it gives you something to use them for.
Advance Wars hardly tries to hide this dual nature. Its maps are products of endless refinement, the strengths and weaknesses of its units are gloriously balanced, the special powers of its commanding officers are perfectly pitched for changing the tide of a battle - and yet look at the way all this stuff is delivered. Look at the cheery spring-sunshine greens and blues and yellows of the landscapes you pick your paths across. Look at the diecast solidity of your tanks and your choppers, at the poseable plastic bulk of the likes of Andy, Max, and Olaf, who chatter away in between missions. I used to tell myself I played through Advance Wars the first few times because I was in love with the tactical possibilities of its tiny sandboxes: what if I took those guys out with air power? What if I was better at using APCs, or smarter when it came to gathering resources in cities? In the years that have followed, though, I've let that charade go. I've played it again and again and again because it's simply so nice to fiddle around with all the bits and pieces - to hear the plasticky ratchetting of a movement arrow as you stretch it across the grass, to see the jello-ish squash of a trooper capturing a city by stomping it down into the ground.
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