Wargroove takes no shame in riffing Advance Wars. It completely copies the turn-based tactical formula that made Advance Wars such a hit on the GBA and DS. The game mimics even the minute details such as terrain bonuses and unit types. While I enjoyed my time playing Wargroove there was always a sense of deja-vu, as if I’m not playing a new game but rather a fantasy mod of Advance Wars.

Wargroove has a few original ideas. The first of which is that the commander is a playable unit on the field. In order to charge the commander’s special meter you have to use him/her in combat. The specials or “grooves” aren’t as game changing as in Advance Wars but nevertheless give you a slight combat advantage such as a short range healing aura or defense barrier. Play too aggressively with the commander and you lose. If the commander dies, it is game over. The same goes for the enemy, eliminate their commander and you win. While it might seem like a winning strategy is to keep your general “at home”, I found that Wargroove encourages the opposite.

Wargroove favors aggressive moves. Buildings can be fully captured regardless of unit health. Healing is fairly expensive and costs a proportionate amount of the unit’s build cost. All ranged units except for the Trebuchet and Ballista can move and attack on the same turn. These changes make turtling disadvantageous in most situations. Unfortunately there are a few missions in the campaign that require you to hold a defensive position completely going against the game’s ethos.

The second striking feature of Wargroove is how each unit can land a critical hit. Instead of an RNG value (like in the Fire Emblem series), critical hits are based on specific conditions and varies from unit to unit. Spearman can land critical hits if they are next to other Spearman, Archers land critical hits if they do not move before shooting, etc. This feature makes battles more tactically interesting and encourages players to use all units optimally.

The campaign is serviceable and gives players an opportunity to meet all four factions. Just like in Advance Wars, the different factions are color-coded in red, blue, green and yellow and they all have access to the same units. The story is a generic coming of age story where Princess Mercia has to avenge her father’s death and eventually become the leader of the Cherrystone Kingdom. While on her journey, Mercia runs into the different factions who all seem to want to fight her for odd reasons, eventually they all become allies and defeat the evil plaguing the land. The story is nothing to write home about and can be completely skipped. The campaign itself however features some challenging missions that would even cause an Advance Wars veteran to sweat.

Wargroove also features other modes to pass the time. There is an arcade mode where you play as one of the commanders through a series of mini-quests. There is also a puzzle mode that challenges your ability to win the scenario in one move. There is local and online multiplayer and also a custom map editor that you can play around with. I haven’t played through all of the arcade mode scenarios or completed all the puzzles but I can guarantee you that there is a significant amount of varied content that can keep players entertained for weeks.

All in all, Wargroove doesn’t place any huge bets and sticks closely to the Advance Wars formula. The introduction of commanders being on the field and the critical hit feature are nice touches which add strategic depth to battles. The campaign has a story as generic as video game stories come, but the missions are well designed and challenging with the minor exception of the turtling missions. While I question the legitimacy of copying another game so openly, I do recognize there is an Advance Wars drought. The last Advance Wars game, Days of Ruin was released in 2008. For Advance Wars fans itching to play anything close to that in 2019, Wargroove will fill that void.

Like everyone is saying, this game is definitely fantasy "Advance Wars." There are people already remaking Advance War maps in the Wargroove map editor. But this game obviously tried to improve on the Advance Wars legacy, offering some simple gameplay tweaks to the original Advance Wars formula that help to make this game more dynamic and interesting. I just don't think they went far enough. Here are my experiences:

--The Good--

Everything you loved from Advance Wars is here in some form, from the pleasantly simple unit lists to the fun (but somewhat bland) game characters. For any fans of Advance Wars that hasn't played this game yet though here is a quick list of the differences between the two games that mattered the most to me.

• The different factions and armies basically play the same, they just have different aesthetics. So less variety in game-play, but a less complicated experience overall.
• Each army has a commander who is actually on the field. If your commander dies you lose. But your commander is also very powerful compared to other units, offering some interesting tactical choices.
• The way buildings work in this game is different, especially when it comes to capturing and healing. It would take too long to give all the details, but capturing buildings and healing with buildings is more tactical and requires careful decision-making.
• The AI is a little more reactive and smart. It sometimes still makes stupid decisions (especially with how they handle long-range units), but it is not as mindless as Advance Wars.

There are lots of other changes, such as the way archers work and the entire concept of the "Mage" unit type. I count all these changes as good because they all work to better the game, especially compared to the original Advance Wars.

--The Bad--

Even though there have been some solid improvements and interesting changes, the main problem with this game is that it is (perhaps unashamedly) a copy of something else. That makes it hard to see this game as something unique and original. Everyone (including me) is talking about this game compared to Advance Wars and other Intelligent Systems titles. Did it live up to Advance Wars? Are Commanders as fun as the heroes in Fire Emblem? In what ways is it different than Advance wars, or worse, or better?

Maybe that's not such a bad thing. Maybe that's what the developers intended, even. I personally would have enjoyed a little more uniqueness in this title though. Not too much. Just a little something more, so that it could be said that this game is definitely inspired by Advance Wars but also brought some new toys to the playground.

--The Verdict--

Whether you will like this game or not really depends on whether you enjoy Advance Wars or other Intelligent Systems games like Fire Emblem. If you like those kinds of games (like I do) then this will fit nicely in your game rotation. Don't expect anything ground-breaking, but this is a solid recreation of those kinds of games.

My second completion of 2020 is wholly different from my first, Little Nightmares. Wargroove is every bit as colorful and charming as Little Nightmares was dark and haunting. It's a game that really only does one thing but does it really well. In Wargroove you take control of different commanders and their factions on your way to victory. I spent the majority of my time in the campaign and after completing that I played a little of the Puzzle and Arcade modes but it was nowhere near the amount invested in the campaign.

As it turns out I'm not really good at strategy games or at the very least not as good as I thought I might be. Wargroove quickly let me know that without well-thought out plans I was going to be seeing the "Defeat" screen more often than not. The campaign has four different difficulties ranging from just here for the story to hard. As I journeyed through the campaign I eventually found myself knocking the difficulty down to easy. After a couple times of losing 30 minutes plus of gameplay I was ready to drop it down and move on. This could be a balancing issue or me not wanting to bash my head against the same level repeatedly. A mid-battle restore point feature could have helped solve the difficulty issues as well. Sometimes all it took was me making a bad move and it was over. I have zero regrets about putting it down to easy as it still provided some difficulty but in a fun way.

I don't want it to seem like I hated this game because I really didn't. I don't play a lot of strategy games or what I do I fall off quickly, so the fact I stuck through to the end of the campaign helped me realize how much I enjoyed my time with it. The campaign is 7 acts with around 3 main missions and 2-3 side missions per act. Needless to say it is pretty lengthy and introduces you to all the main commanders and infantry fairly well. By Act 6 you're still learning new concepts, which was nice as it kept the combat feeling fresh. Your objectives are varied sometimes but for the most part it's defeat the opposing commander. So, if you're looking for something more than that you might be left disappointed.

The characters and writing are better than I initially thought it would be. I grew to like each character and what they brought to the table. Each providing a very unique look and feel. For example, you play as vampires, dog generals, and plant people to name a few. Armies are beautifully animated with pixel art, the colors really popped off the screen.

I liked my time with Wargroove and it's a game I might revisit in the future to get better at. For the meantime however, I've gotten my fill after about 12-15 hours of gameplay. If you love strategy games then I highly recommend you pick Wargroove up, if you're not you mind still find some enjoyment.