Fire Emblem: Awakening - 3DS/2DS

Fire Emblem is back with a bang.

The world is on the brink of war, and it's up to you to assemble an army of heroes that can stand against a dark dragon and an undead army.

For those new to the Fire Emblem series - the game is a strategy RPG. Victory means assembling and developing your army, commanding units on the battlefield against enemy forces and putting them to optimum use to crush (or, more likely, narrowly defeat) your opponents.

The biggest stride forward this game makes is in the relationships characters form on the field of battle. Placing units adjacent to each other or pairing them on the same square will lead to them developing a relationship. If a unit has a friend nearby it will get a performance boost. This is a crucial element of the game, and deepening relationships becomes crucial to improving your chances. Once characters get close enough, they'll even (without any prompting from you) get married.

Another feature is the class change system. This means that as you get on you'll be able to use certain hard-to-come-by items to enhance or swap a character's class.

There's Double Duel mode, which enables two players to team up and fight on the same battlefield. For those who don't quite want to get so stuck in to online play, there's also a StreetPass feature that allows you to swap teams with other players.

All in all Fire Emblem is a big, deep game with plenty to offer strategy-lovers. more