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Posted on July 22nd, 2005 - 1494 Reads

Rated Everyone WarioWare, Inc.: Mega MicroGame$ Game Boy Review Silver Award

-- Written by Clark Kent Nielsen



 Wario is like Nintendo's alter-ego they express through game design in order to alleviate their corporate frustrations. Wario hasn't gone adventuring for a while and has instead opted to stay at home and make crappy games as a scheme to score money. In retrospect, it may seem like Nintendo is doing the same with the questioningly bizarre WarioWare series. My first experience with this zany franchise was the GameCube iteration with the subtitle "Mega Party Game$." Despite being refreshingly fun, the game strongly felt like a cheap port and a major rip-off. Now that I've gotten my hands on a copy of the original WarioWare, I can finally see why this is such a universally acclaimed (and financially exploited) design.

Do you have a short attention span? If so, WarioWare is perfect for you. The game consists of over 200 mini-games fired randomly in rapid succession at the player. Each mini-game only lasts a few seconds before the next one comes up, and the whole process gradually gets faster and faster. The mini-games require quick reflexes and a sharp mind to beat. Some games are finished by mere Mario Party button tapping. Other games are more intricate and involve balancing, dodging, shooting, catching, counting, matching, or remembering something. It sounds simple, but when you have only a few seconds to accomplish the task, and each round is somewhat random, it gets to be really challenging. All this is done with the least bit of seriousness, too. One game involves a girl sniffing a booger back into her nose. Another game is a spin-off of the Virtual Boy's Mario Clash. Not all 200 games are original, however, because many concepts repeat themselves. There are about four or five games where the objective is simply steering a car down the street.

The game isn't just one run through all 200 mini-games (or better known as microgames). Wario is joined by several friends who have their own set of games to tackle with a "boss battle" showing up every 15 rounds. The boss battles are longer and a bit more intricate, but having to play them repeatedly gets kind of annoying. The microgames are also randomly picked and won't always appear in the same order (or at all). Thus, seeing all 200 games requires playing the subsets multiple times. The mini-games can be played in a nonstop unison as more options become available, giving you the chance to relax in Easy mode or take on the harder settings (which subsequently ups the speed and complexity of the mini-games). Depending on how many continues are available, the game won't end until you simply can't keep up with how insanely fast it gets.

The similar (but extremely slower in comparison) Mario Party franchise suffers from every mini-game requiring the player to know all the nuances of the controls. WarioWare eliminates that problem by stripping the controls down to their very basics: the D-pad and A button. This lack of intricacy doesn't hurt the game but lends to a more accessible design. However, it's sometimes confusing what you're supposed to do for a particular mini-game. The screen will flash "Dodge!" and suddenly you're in the middle of a mini-game that ends before you knew what to do. It takes a little getting used to, but the learning curve is worth it. Once you can understand and anticipate how this game works, it's more a matter of saying, "Darn! I missed!" than "I hate this game!" Really now, who can get frustrated at a silly game that requires nothing more than a couple of well-timed button taps?

Mega Party Game$ was supposed to deliver a great multiplayer experience that would extend the formula into many hours and several days. It didn't. The Game Boy version actually has more to do (or at least, more fun stuff to do) than the GameCube's. Naturally, the option exists to attempt nabbing that high score spot in the different modes. If that fails to amuse you, WarioWare offers several unlockable mini-games. These aren't just more microgames. These are fully-fledged classics like near-perfect renditions of Dr. Mario and the infamous Fly Swatter game from Mario Paint. Seriously, both of these are part of the package and together make buying WarioWare worth it! As further bonus, there are two-player split-screen games. While it's awkward for two people to use one Game Boy Advance simultaneously (via the L and R buttons), the inclusion is a charming way for non-gamers to join in the fun. Admittedly, WarioWare is so simple and quick, the novelty soon wears off, but that's really the game's only drawback and doesn't affect the fact that this is still a lot of fun to play.

When I played Mega Party Game$, the visual presentation abhorred me. The raw, rough, pixilated mini-games looked downright terrible blown up on a large TV screen. In the perimeters of the GBA, however, WarioWare looks very slick. Granted, the mini-games are still cheap-looking, but it's used artfully to make WarioWare even more of an amusing experience. Some mini-games are black and white drawings, others poorly animated jpegs, and the occasional is a reused image from an NES game. All of this is held together with a clean interface which can boast better cut scenes than the GameCube version. Fancy that.

WarioWare is a bombardment of sounds. Character voice-overs complement the action that is already quirked with sporadic music and glowing sound effects fit to each different mini-game. In my Mega Party Game$ review, I mentioned that the sound department was way overdone. For the GBA, all of this still retains a fair bit of displeasure, but the fact that they can fit lyrical music into a GBA game excuses any irritation it may bring. WarioWare just sounds better from a Game Boy speaker.

Final Comments: When I sit down in front of a home console (i.e. the GameCube), I expect to be entertained in at least one hour intervals. WarioWare is not that kind of game, and that is why Mega Party Game$ failed. On a handheld, however, the simple and quick nature of WarioWare turns it into one heck of an engaging experience. It works really well as a GBA game to pick up and play in small spurts. If you're not a fan of the Game & Watch or classic arcade style where the goal is to keep playing as long as possible, nothing about WarioWare will appeal to you outside its crazy presentation. After playing this game, however, I can't see how any GBA collection is complete without it.

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