What's keeping Nintendo from making a new Advance Wars?

It's been coming up to a decade since we last saw Advance Wars, the brilliantly characterful turn-based strategy game from Intelligent Systems, and it seems it might be a little while longer until there's a new one. We at least have some insight into why it's taking so long, though.

Speaking to Eurogamer in an interview for Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia , Nintendo's Hitoshi Yamagami - who worked as producer on three Advance Wars titles, including the last entry, 2008's Days of Ruin - said he'd be keen to return to the series. The problem, though, is how it could assimilate one of Fire Emblem's most popular features - the relationship-building that takes place on the battlefield.

"Personally, I'd love to do Advance Wars, but since it's harder to create relationships between its characters compared to Fire Emblem, I don't have a clear idea of what kind of setting it could have," Yamagami told Eurogamer.

Really, though, who doesn't want to see two MD tanks get it on in order to make a little baby MD tank?

Intelligent Systems, at least, seems just as keen to return to the series. "The Advance Wars series is one that I personally have a lot of interest in," said Masahiro Higuchi, a producer on Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia and a contributor to 2001's Advance Wars. "I hear some of the staff here saying that they want to make one too, so if we have a chance it's something I'd like to do!"