Glory Days 2 is one of those games that you`ve never heard of that reaches up, grabs you, and takes hold of you for a little while. I was contacted before the game was released last week and asked to check the game out. I figured it would be something cool to check out but something that I would pass on to Sean "Lord of the DS" Colleli. The game came in and I played it for a bit, then played it a little more, and then started playing it more and more and soon got hooked on the game.

Glory Days 2 is an interesting action/strategy hybrid. The action part of the game has you providing air cover for your ground units and the strategy part involves you picking which units you will send out against the enemy. It`s an interesting mix that takes some getting used to as you have to learn how to fly your plane/helicopter and dispatch units at the same time. The simple controls make this easy but as the action heats you I learned that making troop selections is best done while you are stationary (it`s a lot like talking on the cel phone while driving).

When I say strategic don`t expect to be plotting out pincher movements or any kind of complex strategy. Rather the strategic element is determining which units you want to deploy and how far you space them from each other. Spacing is important because the battlefield is just a single line. On the right side of the line is your base with the enemy forces entrenced on the left side of the line. Located between the two bases are several command bunkers which you can capture with infantry. It is important to capture the bunkers as they generate revenue for which you can use to purchase more infantry and vehicles to wage war with. You can bomb occupied bunkers to prevent the enemy from gainign revenue from them but you need infantry to convert them to your side. Another source of revenue is to pick up the civilians that are trying to escape the war zone with giant wads of ill gotten cash. I don`t know if that`s really the case but that`s the fiction I created for the little blue shirted people that I have to rescue. Of course you can only pick up the civilians if you`re flying the helicopter as picking them up in a plane would be messy. This part of the game is very reminiscent of Choplifter, except now you have guns, bombs, and missiles to defend yourself with.

The key to Glory Days 2 is learning to manage these two elements. You are constantly flying to the frontline to take out enemies, drop off troops, pick up civilians, and then flying back to re-arm/re-pair your vehicle . Later on in the game you can deploy mobile re-arming units but it`s not until much later in the game. To make life easier on you teh game uses both DS screens to give you a picture of the battle. The top DS screen shows where you are in the battlefield while the lower screen shows what is going on at the front line or if something of interest is happening. While it`s hard to watch both screens while you are engaged in combat you can quickly glance down at the lower screen to see if something needs your attention or not.

The single player side of the game features 16 missions and tells the story of several different pilots as they progress through the wars. Between the missions you get letters home from each of the pilots which provide the narrative for the game. The letters are a little on the schmaltzy side but do a good job of providing some context for what you are doing. Over the course of the 16 missions you`ll get new weapons and aircraft as you move from WWII era aircraft to modern day aircraft. The difficulty does ramp up pretty quickly as you get new units and get new challenges thrown at you but it never gets overly frustrating. Most missions will take a few tries to get ...