One of those games from ages ago that I was really looking forward to, but it took forever to come out and when it did, I’d sort of stopped caring. At least, enough to pay for it anyway. But for free, on my Steam Deck? Ah, gwan then.

Yes, it’s Advance Wars. Graphically and mechanically, anyway. In fact, in those respects, it’s so close to Advance Wars that I’m amazed the normally trigger-happy Nintendo Fun Lawyers didn’t set upon it like they do with all the Mario and Metroid fan games. Of course, it’s not exactly the same. It’s a fantasy setting a bit closer to Fire Emblem, with horses and caravans and archers (and tree people and giants and mer-folk and turtles?!) rather than soldier and tanks and bigger tanks and huge tanks – but most Wargroove units are effectively Advance Wars unit analogues. They’re just a bit unusual.

A big set of thumbs up for being like Advance Wars are that it plays as well as Advance Wars, is as addictive as Advance Wars, and fills a big old hole where Advance Wars hasn’t been for what, a decade or something now? Sure, there’s the remake of the first two games on the way, but who knows when that will actually land.

Wargroove is a perfect fit for a handheld, and really I should have bought it for my Switch long ago as I really enjoyed it. Even if the last few levels were clearly impossible and I had to knock the difficulty down a notch – whereupon I found that Hard is the default! Madness.