Review // 6th September 2020
I can’t stop thinking about ‘Catchphrase’ when I sit back and think about what how I feel about this game. Specifically the version of the show in the 90s (when I was a child), that doo-do-doo-de-do-dooo as a bit of the crudely animated picture is revealed to a hapless contestant, they don’t have a clue, they are struggling here and they trying to glean a solution from those few squares of curiously fast animation. They shout out a wild guess, it’s obviously, obviously wrong.
Roy Walker, quickly & smooth as you’d like would reply “It’s very good, but it’s not right” and that was that, onto the next question. Return back to staring at the partially completed Mr Chips awkwardly jolting between his three or four frames of animation, hoping that next square will be a good one…
Anyway, this game makes me feel like Roy, but in an earnest way. As I do think this game is very good. Absolutely, but it’s not quite right for me.
They really nailed the aesthetic
Wargroove is a packed product, there’s so much content, folks can make their own campaigns and share them online, there’s multiple modes and the campaign is lavish, with side quests, cutscenes, multiple armies & lovely animation - it’s wearing it’s Advance Wars influences without shame, perhaps even holding them up on a banner. But it just doesn’t quite work for me & I feel bad for even saying that as fundamentally I fully approve of the developers specialisation in retro themed games. Not to mention the fact that this game is polished and really well put together, I can feel the love put into it.
To be fair, I’d be bricking it myself if 3 hooded blokes with bows and a complete inability to stand still came and mugged me!
But it’s not quite for me chief, for one, it’s a touch too hard for my tastes. Battles can drag on for ages into attritional grinds which detracts from the pick up and play aspect I’m after when playing something on Nintendo Switch. My selfish pride preventing me from dropping the difficulty down to easy. I’m into act 3 and I’m still getting served up tutorials, adding to a feel of being railroaded mostly. It’s difficult to fight on your own terms, each stage is like a puzzle to be solved, which is fine I guess, but not quite what I’m after. I’m definitely not enjoying the hero combat, having your commander character getting ganked on turn 25 ending the game instantly never feels like a fun experience or that I’ve learnt something, just feels unfair.
The art style isn’t quite for me either, or the super cutesyness of the theming & story. “Battlepups’ and chibi-like vampires, I don’t hate it, but I don’t love it either, nor the rapid idle animation cycles that makes the characters all look like they are doing some HIIT - the archers animation in particular is so distracting to me.
I’ll typically see this screen 2/3 times a level, my disappointed face probably isn’t a million miles away from that
I feel a bit disappointed in not having this game click for me, I’m desperate for that next Advance Wars hit, but this just isn’t the one for me. On face value I feel that this should tick so many boxes for myself and it was a game I was aware of and wanting to try for some time. As a result it makes me a little sad that I didn’t fall in love with this game, but at the same time, in the absence of alternatives, you could do a lot worse than this.