Advance Wars gets name change to Dark Conflict

Nintendo's imminently arriving strategy game Advance Wars: Days of Ruin will be renamed Advance Wars: Dark Conflict for its European release at the end of this month.

More details about the game were also released by Nintendo alongside its new title. Among the information was that the number of single player missions will total 60 and that players will also be able to play through additional 38 trial stages in Story Mode. Although independent of the Story mode, these stages will apparently add to its challenge and to the game's depth.

As well as familiar military units, there will be new ones such as the Motorbike and Flare - a tank-like unit which can light up areas affected by the Fog of War - and new strategies are also included - such as creating Command Zones by ordering a Commanding Officer to enter a unit.

On the multiplayer side of the game, up to four players can compete online over the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, locally or by simply passing a DS among players to take turns. The game also includes a map creation tool and you'll be able to upload your 10x10 tiles sized maps for playing and rating online.

As reported previously, Advance Wars: Dark Conflict features a darker look and storyline than previous games in the series. 90 percent of the world's population has been wiped out by meteor storms, earthquakes and tidal waves, and the survivors have been split between two rival superpowers.

The game's basic turn-based strategy premise remains the same however and as CO of an army, you need to defeat your opponent by either destroying all of their units or taking over their HQ building.

Dark Conflict is released here on January 25th. We'll have a review for you then.