Wario Ware, Inc.: Micro Megagame$
Fast-paced crazy fun
Tags: Wario Ware, Inc.: Mega Microgame$ Categories: GBA Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Jake McNeill on Sep 20th, 2003
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Wario Ware, Inc.: Mega Microgame$ (title page) | 4 | ||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Action | No | ||
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Wario strikes me as the perfect mascot for this title. Wario games have always been quirky, slightly off-key and bizarre, yet still amazingly fun and full of style and attitude. Why, Wario himself is a fat, deformed, bizarro mirror image of Mario, and yet still so bursting with energy and enthusiasm that he’s oddly lovable. On that note, Wario Ware is an odd, deranged, off-kilter representation of the videogame industry whose absurd qualities only make the game stronger.
Wario Ware’s story starts on a day when Wario realizes that videogames make big bucks. Always scheming to get some extra cash, Wario decides to form a videogame company, Wario Ware, Inc., and gathers a rag-tag crew of some old friends of his to work for him, designing games. Wario is apparently a bit of an impatient gamer though, because he wants all his games to be “Faster, faster, faster!”, and to that end, his crew has assembled 200+ games so fast-paced that most only last for five seconds, tops. You’re role in this crazy company is as a game tester: You’re to play through these games in random order, while Wario and his crew keep ramping up the speed and difficulty.
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Now, let’s back up a second. I’m going to repeat something so it can seep in. The majority of Wario Ware’s games last, at most, five seconds. As in, blink and you lost. As the speed of the game increases, five seconds become four, four becomes three, until everything becomes so fast-paced that you break down and cry.
To emphasize the speed of everything, these games are played in rapid succession, one after another. Games are generally simple, and can be anything from “Drive a car without crashing” to “Press A five times”, but a part of the fun is that you’re never given more than a vague hint of what you’re supposed to be doing. Before each game, a one-word clue appears on the screen, and then the five-second countdown commences as you try and figure out what it means. For example, the word “Brush!” followed by a game with a toothbrush and a set of teeth. You’re never told how to brush, or how this particular game controls, but you have five seconds to figure it out. Four… Three…
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That last paragraph should also be an indication as to the variety these games have. Some games are space shooters, some are racing games, simple platformers, logic puzzles, tests of skill: It runs the whole gamut. Many of Wario Ware’s games are outright bizarre, including goals that have you getting a girl to sniff snott, having Wario catch falling clothes to get dressed, and using an eye dropper on an eye.
These games are organized by category, with each of Wario’s friends heading up a specific genre of games. Afro-wearing disco-dancing Jimmy does sports games, Dog-and-cat team Dribble and Spitz specialize in sci-fi games, and grade-schooler 9-Volt works with classic Nintendo games. Yes, amongst the oddities of Wario Ware’s minigame bonanza is an entire section devoted to Nintendo games, from classics like Metroid and Zelda to more obscure titles like Sheriff and Mario Clash. At the end of every set of minigames is a “boss” game that acts as the one title in its genre to last more than a few seconds, which adds even more variety to a game already filled to the brim with a bubbling lake of originality.
Every single minigame in Wario Ware features its own style, and while the game’s graphics may not be outright incredible, this extremely eclectic style makes it hard not to love. The sound, ranging from classic game themes to overly-serious melodies accompanying cartoony screams and cutesy voice samples, reflects this eclectic mix that adds to the feeling of frenzy and lunacy that surrounds the title.
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To add longevity to the game, players are given tons of options on how they want to play. Any games that have been beaten can be played on repeating loop over and over again on their own, to challenge players to see how long they can last, or give them the opportunity to practice. Players can also go back and challenge genre sets they’ve beaten to see if they can unearth more of the games, as everything’s random and you could play through a set of games a dozen times and still not see everything there. Furthermore, the game has lots of hidden unlockables, from remakes of classic Nintendo games to two-player games for play on the GBA Player (Or a single GBA, if you and a friend can share).
In short, not only is this a game you can easily play with only a few minutes of time, but it’s one that has a great amount of replay value. It’s extremely fun, wonderfully original, and in short one of the best surprise hits the GBA has ever recieved.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
|
+ Extremely fast-paced and fun + Quirky and original + Tons of style + Plenty of replay value |
9.3 |
| What Doesn't | |
| - Not exactly a graphical powerhouse | |
| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| Wario Ware, Inc. is a must-own GBA game, no matter what type of games you enjoy | |
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Tags: Wario Ware, Inc.: Mega Microgame$
Posted by Jake McNeill on Sep 20th, 2003 and is filed under GBA Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
