Wargroove 2: Pocket Edition review

I'm going to get something out of the way upfront here: I think I'm generally unimpressed with the Advance Wars-style of game that Wargroove: 2 Pocket Edition is at its core.   I'll dig into why this is over the course of the review, but I want to start here because the degree to which you find enjoyment in commanding largely disposable units to fight individualized skirmishes in what typically boils down into a grinding war of attrition (to me, anyway) will go a long way in determining whether you should play Wargroove 2: Pocket Edition, especially since just about everything but that core leaves quite a bit to be desired in this mobile version of what is otherwise a pretty well-regarded game.

The Wargroove series of games are an inspired spiritual successor to the Advance Wars games on the Game Boy Advance. They are pixel-art, grid-based, turn-based tactics where opposing players control different factions that have minor unit differences, leaders, and powers, with the general goal of any skirmish being to be the last forces standing.

The game freely lets you hop into contextless battles against cpu or humans, though I'd contend that the main draw of the game is its Campaign Mode, which contains a few different story arcs for different factions, provides some important tutorial information for understanding the nuances of its combat, and serves up a decent amount of level designs that go out of their way to create some novel situations and objectives.

If you just want to play Wargroove 2: Pocket Edition's story — rest assured — there is a ton of game there. Each of the game's five campaigns feel like a full experience in their own right, telling complete story arcs that end with climactic showdowns followed by ending credits. Once those are done, Wargroove 2: Pocket Edition also has a single-player Conquest Mode that offers up a pretty neat roguelike-type experience.

If these things aren't quite up your alley, that's where I have some hesitation in recommending this game. While a multiplayer mode exists, there are very few people playing online, and playing local multiplayer — while possible — is not always practical.

Without the drive of narrative, Wargroove 2: Pocket Edition really just feels like grinding away at a kind of game that feels old because it kind of is. When you're not zipping through short encounters to learn more about the world of Wargroove or scraping by on novel survival levels, the game ultimately does end up feeling like fighting a symmetrical war that asks more time of you than skill or strategy. So long as you build counter units and pay attention to where you place units, you can outmaneuver everything eventually. It's just that doing so is not all that thrilling.

Now, to talk about this mobile port specifically, I'll start with the single best thing about Wargroove 2: Pocket Edition: its saving and cloud syncing is the most seamless and flexible impementation of cross-device play I've seen. I never had to think about losing progress from exiting the game since it always picked up wherever I left off, and it also includes the ability to export saves so you can even retain progress on non-mobile devices or play across devices without having to use iCloud.

Unfortunately though, that's where Wargroove 2: Pocket Edition's mobile-friendliness ends. The rest of this port is bafflingly inelegant. The tap controls are very poorly explained and take a long time to figure out, on-screen buttons for menus like the codex are so tiny that you question whether they even work (they do, just keep tapping and maybe you'll hit it eventually!), and a ton of screen space feels wasted on some maps that not even zooming in can really help with thanks to its bizarre implementation.

I cannot imagine dealing with these issues while trading turns in a war of attrition with some tryhard online, but the single-player offerings in Wargroove 2: Pocket Edition thankfully offer enough refreshing gameplay to make toughing it through that stuff feel rewarding.

I do not think that Wargroove 2: Pocket Edition is capable of winning over many new fans to this series or genre. There's just too many things about how it works and plays that will more immediately rub folks the wrong way before they can reach "the good stuff."

But! If you are a veteran of these kinds of games and have enjoyed them in the past, Wargroove 2: Pocket Edition can provide some fresh thrills despite being very much like the games that came before it at its core.