Wargroove

There's no doubt to be had that Wargroove is a game that is wholly inspired by the GBA strategy classic that is the Advance Wars series from way back in 2001, given that it goes out of it's way to scratch a good 'itch' of sorts that hasn't been met in such a joyful and satisfying way from way back when, and I say that as somebody who played the first Advance Wars game as a young kid for about a week or two but promptly dropped it due to what was essentially a mixture of stupidity on my part as a relatively new gamer but also a lack of experience in actual strategy games.
Although I can't say for certain if I'm all that much better in the latter, I have grown to appreciate all sorts of genuinely great games that I either couldn't get into as a kid or simply did not appreciate them at the time, which is why Wargroove struck a particular chord with me, in part due to not having revisited the Advance Wars series in so long but also wanting to see how an indie that is passionate about such tactical gameplay helps to improve the formula after over a decade since it's last entry, Days of Ruin, from as far back as 2008. (Christ, over 15 years since an actual entry into the AW games, not including the less-than-stellar remake for the Nintendo Switch!)
So without further ado, Wargroove can be essentially described as having the setting of a Fire Emblem game (focused primarily in the medieval era but with various high fantasy elements coupled with charming aesthetics and memorable characters) but with the gameplay elements of an Advance Wars game, by which I mean the former is more 'character-focused' in that each character is powerful in their own right but can potentially be killed and lost for the remainder of the game (unless you save scum and reload that is!) whilst the latter puts the bigger focus on your general units, each one having it's unique strengths and weaknesses much like the characters of FE but are expected to be lost and generally aren't as powerful on their own.
Whilst the two series share a similar tapestry of sorts where this particular strategic gameplay is concerned, it does help that Wargroove helps to further differentiate itself from the two and become it's own thing as it introduces the element of 'Commanders', basically your team's leader that is a powerful unit of their own but losing them WILL cost you the battle, that help to keep the tide of each match engaging as generally most battles in Wargroove are won by either defeating the enemy's commander or destroying their stronghold, whichever is easier for you to accomplish.
Though any experienced player with the AW series will be quick to call out what I just said here as Days of Ruin did introduce the very same idea, seeing as Wargroove shares the same gameplay idea of having a commander on the field that each have their own ability to affect the battle (whether direct/indirect, aggressive/defensive, supportive/sole-focused etc) as well as the removal of global abilities in exchange for centering it around the Commander directly benefits all nearby units within a specified radius, albeit this takes a different format as commanders in that game instead took over a unit of their choice whilst Wargroove has the commanders themselves appear in person and doing away with passive abilities in favour of 'Grooves', power ups that commanders can use once they deal or take enough damage to afflict upon enemies, buff their own units or even forming defences to counter any attacks as it were, hence the namesake of this charming indie game.
Alongside other things that aren't included in this game, such as individual units (from the classic Famicom Wars way back in 1988!) and commanders (only just introduced in Days of Ruin!) being able to level up after killing a certain number of units for increasingly higher power levels and defence alongside the aforementioned loss of global abilities leaving only the commander's power up and no 'super' version to boot, one might think that Wargroove is in some ways a downgrade as far as the potential complexity of such a strategic game inspired by the Advance Wars series itself.
Truth be told, I won't deny that this does dumb down the formula a little, something that'll be a dissapointment to veterans of the series, however one could describe this as a 'double-edged sword' as it also helps to make what is a fairly demanding game become more accessible to newer fans of the genre as well as those who loved such charming tactical games as these but simply couldn't master it for themselves.
I'll admit to having had my fair share of struggles once getting past the initial tutorial levels, playing three levels in particular upwards of a dozen times trying to conquer the stronghold, defeat the commander or simply meeting the mission's objective, never mind going for the full three stars (a sort of 'currency' I'll touch upon shortly) or even the prestigious S-Rank that is truly for the achievement hunters and completionists, so I have no shame in admitting that I eventually had to turn the challenge down halfway in as, for anyone who's played this already and found it quite hard for something that is more 'simplified', the reason that may be is that the game starts you off on hard mode by default, with easier difficulties giving you more income to work with and taking less damage from enemies alongside boosting your groove faster.
It's an odd choice for sure, although one can easily breeze through the entire game by reducing it to easy mode (note that lower difficulties prevent getting S-ranks and lowering the amount of stars one can attain) or even make it a cakewalk by going through story mode that eliminates all challenge and really dumbs down the tactical gameplay, albeit a word of warning for those tempted that the final true mission WILL require a minimum of 100 stars to access, meaning players will need to at least learn the game somewhat to get enough stars for the true ending!
On that note, stars mainly act as an indication for how much of the game you have completed, but they also act as a means of unlocking additional codex entries (a nice read for those interested in the lore) alongside neat artwork and concept art for the memorable cast of this lovely indie game, seeing as it can not be stated enough just how much charm oozes out of the excellent pixel animations and the colourful aesthetics that matches, if not rivals, the older Advance Wars games that it's based on!
One last point I'll make here is that the game also has free DLC on offer, Wargroove: Double Trouble, that not only offers an extra 3 whole commanders to the roster but also expands upon the story of the original game coupled with it's own host of difficult missions to test those who have already beaten the game and are eager for some new and refreshing challenges to test their strategy knowledge, worst-case scenario is that it's not the kind of content that's up your alley but, seeing as it's essentially free, I can commend Chucklefish for giving fans something of substance without putting a price on it!
Though it is a shame that the online scene for this game is pretty much dead, seeing as I struggled to find any matches against human players for multiplayer, however with the new sequel that's been released earlier last year, most likely that's where the bulk of player activity is at these days.
In short, Wargroove meets and also, to some degree, exceeds it's inspiration as the sorely-missed games of Advance Wars from the GBA and Nintendo DS days makes an unofficial return here with this lovingly-made indie and I can wholeheartedly recommend anyone with either a burning passion for the AW series or casual strategy fans that wish to be eased into the complexity of such a game to give this a shot, as I can thankfully say that I'm now no longer terrible at the Advance Wars style of gameplay, merely adequate at it, which is a stepping stone in the right direction at least!

Gorgeous game, with wonderful presentation that is meant to satiate your hunger for AW, but you yearn for AW more.
If you are looking for a casual strategy game, I'd reccommend it.
If you're looking for AW, this isn't it.
It feels more like a chess-like puzzler than a war strategy game.
Units are either far too durable or melt like butter.
Units are prohibitively expensive and slow, and your production capabilities are only for 1 unit a turn in most maps, so you can't afford to waste money and spawns on trash units - leaving your frontline very open, allowing enemies to walk straight through your defences and target your squishy expensive support units.
The biggest dissapointment are naval battles, its purely Turtles vs Turtles.
tl;dr Beutiful game, but held back by low unit production, lack of unit diversity and key balance issues.

As a single player game it felt very lacking, especially compared to "Advance Wars", but as a co-op game it is tons of fun. Be sure to also get the mod that allows you to play the campaign mode in co-op, as the official co-op campaign is quite short. What I prefer in "Wargroove" over "Advance Wars" is how you can check the exact stats of each unit.

Fantasy Advance Wars. But its great on its own. Personally, for what this game is, I give it a solid 11/10. Every negative review I have read is literally crying because they can't beat the story. Yes, the story is tough, very tough, but not unbeatable. With some training (and a few losses) it's completely doable. Yes, you are supposed to have a disadvantage during the story, cause otherwise 90% of people would steamroll through it, me included.
Now to rate the game for every aspect of it:
Story: Plot: 7/10. It's corny, it's nothing new, or too new, it's fun to read between the hardcore missions.
Story: Missions: 9/10. Even as a strategy veteran, I consider these to be hard. Perfect, but I can see why many people complain in their reviews. For new and casual strategy players, this will have them slamming their keyboard in rage.
Multiplayer: GG EZ GAME. 8/10. Do not listen to the negative reviews. There is more than one winning strategy, as I've beaten the 'meta' players multiple times. Just play around and find out ;). It's fun.
Unit diversity: 7/10. Not bad, not good. Better than many games with much better graphics. You will survive without your 40 units per faction. But yes we could do with more of it.
Commanders: Valder my beloved. The Valder spam is amazing. 9/10. Commanders do not feel special to the casual player, yes. But they are. Their grooves (abilities, call them whatever) play very differently, and each commander has their counter commander of sorts. And yes, commanders are extremely useful and can change the flow of the battle. Wargroove 2 improves on this (will review that game once I clock more hours there as well.
I won't rate puzzles and challenges, as they are personally not my thing. But fun to have.
Overall. Worth it. Great game. I am addicted.

Wargroove is a really solid 8/10 strategy RPG. Great sprite work and a solid amount of content, especially for the price. I would say this game would be well-priced even at $35 or $40, so $20 is a bit of a steal. The units are generally well-balanced and five years of patches and free(!) DLC content has only made the game tighter.
My one warning regarding this game is, speaking from experience, even if you're a completionist do NOT attempt to 100% this game. It kind of ruins it. Doing all the Arcade runs takes three times the length of the main campaign and is much less fun. Plus, there's this preposterous late-game fishing mechanic you can unlock that's based on RNG where you can cast a fishing line once every time your groove (your ultimate ability) is charged. This usually takes 3-8 turns depending on the character. I used a custom achievement-hunting map someone made to speed up this process where the map had been edited so the groove was fully charged every turn and it still took *around 300 casts* to catch all the fish. Literally no idea what the devs were thinking with this. I know this is a small part of the game, but it's clear nobody looked at the numbers on this one. Or if they did, they're an asshole.

A Wars clone, but it's different enough and well enough designed that I'm really not sure which I like better. While it is only really similar in it's most basic mechanics and presentation, as I see it there are a few things which make the game stand apart.
The Commander unit: a powerful free ground unit each side has which loses you the match when destroyed.
Criticals: special conditions unique to each unit which cause it to do significantly more damage.
Grooves: though they are CO Powers, since your CO is a unit they are local instead of field-wide.
This game has a sequal now, which is probably simply better, but yet this game is good.

A thumbs up by a sliver of reasons
Wargroove is a fun, albeit incredibly tedious, turn based strategy game much akin to games like ZeD (for the oldies among us) with various gamemodes and coop.
Basic gameplay consist of starting with a small amount of troops and a barracks which allows you to train up more troops to deploy in an attempt to destroy the enemies barracks OR leader whilst being wary of losing either your own barracks of commander.
Here's where the rub starts....and your enjoyment of this game will VERY HEAVILY rely on whether you can deal with this.
The fog of war on the map ALWAYS puts you at a seeming disadvantage as the enemy will wait you out, knowing where you are at all time and waiting for you to make YOUR move before they will engage. In effect this means that your scouts that uncover the fog of war are usually SoL as you can only attack AFTER you moved but can't attack what you can't see and move and attack have to be declared during the same turn. This means the enemy will wait until YOU uncover THEM after which they can gang up on that scout and kill it...rinse and repeat. The resulting strategy usually means you'll have to move across the map as a deathball; being able to kill most of what you can uncover before the enemy gets their turn...
Add to this that the enemy obviously gets more resources to play with to make up for the singleminded AI and every map turns into a tug of war until either side makes a mistake or you win.
As if this wasn't annoying enough; the enemy WILL use guerilla tactics ALL the time on units that have the ability to do so meaning that as soon as you uncover the enemy you better make 100% sure you have a sturdy backline because EVERYONE and their grandma will focus on it and if they happen to catch your commander alone you might as well just restart the entire mission.
Now I'm a glutton for punishment so I don't mind...but I won't deny that after the more difficult missions I usually just close down the game; having had enough of the very cheap tactics the enemies employ that basically force you into building only 3 units...dogs (the best scouting unit in the game), Knights (which get a bonus on charge and are your best offensive dps) and Catapults/trebuchets (the best defensive dps). Everything else usually is more of a liability rather than an asset as they are either slow (which means they get singled out and picked off through gangups) or just weak (which means the Ai will nuke them from orbit via range attacks).
The story is cute and breezy; nothing special
The music is nice but nothing special either
The ranking system is nice; motivating you to replay missions and make up for mistakes you made the first time around...
So why do I like this?
1. It has coop mode with full access to anything the game has to offer ranging from maps to all the different faction armies. 2. An arcade mode which definitely adds a fresh breeze to replaying the same map over and over again
3. plenty of maps for plenty of playtime
So going by the thought that all is fair in love AND WAR the game offers a decent challenge IF you can handle an AI that uses every dirty trick in the book AND gets the advantage.