Wargroove

This Indie strategy game, with its anime story, great pixel graphics, and addictive turn-based gameplay makes it great for strategy fans and tactical newcomers alike. Players young and old will be immediately sucked into Wargroove's land of Aurania thanks to charming, colorful pixel art and a noble, brave heroine -- Princess Mercia of Cherrystone. An expert tutorial teaches you and Mercia how to fight, making rules that could feel overwhelming feel accessible and fun. After that, turn-based combat in the single player Campaign mode gives you plenty of time to learn strategy and think about your next moves. The twelve hour Campaign spins a good (if typical) fantasy yarn full of emotion and unexpected humor, and finishing it unlocks additional Commanders, Wargroove lore, and the entertaining single player Arcade and Puzzle modes. It also gives you the skills you need to take on multiplayer.

Multiplayer pits two to four players against one another in real time or turn-based matches via Quick Play or friend code. While Wargroove has no text chat, it's got a built-in link to the voice chat service, Discord, and allows for cross-platform play among players on Nintendo Switch, PC, and Xbox One. This is all great stuff for strategy game lovers, but perhaps better than all of that are the built in tools that gives you the power to create your own maps and cutscenes and share them online. These tools are so amazingly intuitive and easy, you can make your own custom map in minutes. There's a healthy number of player-created maps in the Custom Content menu already, and it's easy to imagine ambitious types creating some incredible story campaigns. It's unfortunate that the PlayStation 4 version doesn't support cross-platform play, but it does let players access all player created content. With all of this on offer at a reasonable $19.99, Wargroove is good, kid-friendly entertainment that will keep your kids busy for hours. It's so good in fact, you'll be sneaking off to play it once the kids are in bed.