Warbits in IOS

★★★★★

★★★★★ Competent but forgettable

This game is an Advance Wars clone. I don’t use the term lightly; it’s not just that the units are almost the same, even the end-of-stage scoring system rates you on Power (% of enemies destroyed), Skill (% of your units that survived), and Speed... even when it doesn’t make sense to do so. On stage 4-4, for instance, you have an ally who helps you against your foe- every unit your ally destroys does not count towards your Power score, making it literally impossible to earn top scores. Now don’t get me wrong, Warbits is not a bad game. Its core systems, such as its economy, unit balance and variety, mostly copy Advance Wars, which is a really solid system to copy. The reason I give it three stars is because it’s worse in all the areas it cannot directly copy (storyline, aesthetics and visual clarity), and the one area where it tries to innovate and improve upon the old formula with its HQ abilities, it mostly fails. The abilities are poorly balanced, the AI is shamefully poor at using them, and their inclusion harms the game’s overall unit balance. As a result of the above, Warbits is a competent game and if you like the genre, you won’t regret playing it. It’s also forgettable- it doesn’t advance the genre in any way. When the next game of this type comes out, it will still be compared to Advance Wars, not to Warbits.

★★★★★ Nostalgia

I know a lot of reviews say this, but this game is just like advanced wars. However this game does have the unique mechanic of charges instead of the CO powers which makes the matches a lot more even since every team can do the same things. You can use the charges to suit your play style and since there are so many charge abilities theres always one that works best no matter what situation you are in. It also is very smooth and I have yet to run into any glitches at all. The only thing that I really would want added to this is a map maker which would add endless amounts of extra content. Overall its very good and relies entirely on good strategy and getting the best use out of your charges.

★★★★★ Good but issues with multiplayer

This is great AW clone. There are few modifications to the base AW game, a unit or two is different and there are different rules on how units carried in a transport behave. The tweaks are good and I miss out on using the Ranger when I go back to AW. All of this makes for great game play! There is, however, an issue with the game. Multiplayer games suffer from frequent errors "communicating with Game Center". I don't know what this really means, but in practice it means that a player cannot end their turn and must wait 24 hours for their turn to auto-end. I reached out to the developer to report the issue and the response was that I must have a spotty WiFi connection. So...I wasn't very pleased with that response, not sure if they didn't understand the issue or didn't care, but it didn't inspire a lot of faith in the company for me. The group I play with have put up with this issue for a couple years but it's gotten old and we're about ready to move on to another game so we don't have wait 2-3 days to lay one round (of a 4 player game). Hopefully the issue will be resolved at some point, other than that, Warbits is fantastic!

★★★★★ Miss Advance Wars? This is the game for YOU

I grew up on gameboy handhelds and to this day the one game I miss is the advance wars series. Warbits has a similar style and feel, but the units are distinct enough that it feels like a new game. If you have never played the series, warbits is worth your time just on the writing alone. I lost track of how many times I've laughed out loud (in the literal sense) because of the writing and I'm always sending screenshots to friends. I haven't dabbled in online play or challenge mode yet but if it's even 10% as good as the campaign then I would say this is the best value you'll find in a strategy game. My only desire is that they optimize the game for iPhone X, but that's just nitpicking at this point.

★★★★★ Really amazing!

Almost flawlessly executed turn-based strategy game. The single player campaign and challenges will provide many hours of play time. The AI is pretty good but not as good as a skilled human. The multiplayer is good but could use some improvements such as: rankings/leaderboards, better game matching system, and a better way to message other players (e.g. Being able to directly invite other players to a game). I never played Advanced wars, but was big into the browser-based Weewar back in the day. Weewar didn't have a campaign, but the multiplayer was amazing. If Warbits can improve the multiplayer, then it would set the bar for turn-based strategy battle games.

★★★★★ 100% amazing (unit suggestions included)

Tactically and strategically superior to Advance Wars. No issues to report. Here are some unit suggestions: Assault scout unit that can either move twice or attack and move. Low armor, medium attack Area of effect mech transport unit that deals damage to all adjacent enemy units when it arrives at a location. Deals more damage when "loaded" with an infantry unit who is manning the guns. Elite ranger unit, which goes into stealth mode when in the mountains. More expensive than the regular ranger. A ballista-type unit that automatically fires a shot on the first unit that enters its firing radius, cannot actively fire if it has already shot during the opponents turn. Mine-deployment mech. Three land mines thAt can be "unloaded" on the ground and triggers when an enemy ground unit rolls over it. Great for laying traps in the brush. A ballista unit that fires a weaker shot than the standard, but strikes a radius of 2x2 damaging all, ground units within the 4 tiles.

★★★★★ Buy this if you love AdvanceWars

Excellent update to advanced wars concept. Plays great on iPad. Versus mode is cool though it can take a while to finish a battle. To the developers- the only reason I rated 4 is because of a crucial mistake in the movement mechanics. I am unable to specify the exact path a unit takes. Causes some annoying strategic issues that was not an issue in the original. Perhaps you could update it so that if a user individually taps on all the desired movement squares the unit will follow that path and if user just taps on the destination square then it will take the default route. Also, more levels in single player PLEASE! Story mode was a bit short