Wargroove Review
Wargroove is a fun turn-based strategy game from Chucklefish.
Wargroove is similar to other strategy games in that you battle on a top-down map taking control of units. However to say Wargroove is simply a clone of Advanced Wars is to not do it justice. It stands on it’s own two feet, has a fun gameplay loop and has enough content for many hours of post campaign gameplay.
Strategic battles are the name of the game which means eliminating your enemies before they eliminate you. You tend to start from one side of the map and your enemy on the other, you meet in the middle and battle it out. Along the way you can take hold of buildings with your units to help generate more units at a cost. Understanding your unit’s abilities and skills are key to winning the game.
The graphics are a throw back to SNES style 16-bit pixel art. The audio is good, light hearted tunes with some funny voice acting.
This game has a lot of content is is great value for the price. Campaign, Arcade, Puzzle, Mutiplayer (online and local) and creator modes.
The Campaign mode is fun with a good story. The first few missions take you through a good tutorial describing in detail different types of units, attacks and strategies. As you start the game you witness the assassination of the King of Cherrystone and you take on the role of the young Queen taking on the Felheim Legion. As you progress through the game you meet (and battle) different factions which are varied an entertaining. The campaign is a reasonable length with some of the mid campaign levels taking a fair amount of time to complete.
To compliment the campign mode there’s also Arcade mode which has shorter storied and smaller maps, so if you’re getting bogged down in the longer campaign missions then arcade mode might be more suited to you. Puzzle mode sets up various set pieces allowing you test your skills in certain scenarios. The game has great multiplayer options with both local and online modes. There’s also cross play for Switch, PC and Xbox One.
The key to keep people playing past the campign is the creation mode. You can make detailed maps, campaigns with cut scenes and side missions. Check out reddit for some great community created maps. Unfortunately at the moment there isn’t a rate and review mode for created maps, but hopefully that will come sometime soon. This feature is what gave Mario Maker it’s longevity and perhaps the same could hold true for Wargroove.
This is a great addition to the already strong indy line up on the Nintendo Switch. I’m not normally drawn in by turn based strategy games, however I enjoyed my time with Wargroove and I’ll be taking this game on my commute and my travels for months to come.
The game available now for Nintendo Switch, PC and Xbox. The game was reviewed on Nintendo Switch.
| Graphics | 80 |
| Audio | 80 |
| Gameplay | 80 |
| Replay | 85 |
| Fun | 80 |
| Value | 90 |
| Final Score | 83 |