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Wario Ware Inc.: Mega Microgame$ - Weltall - 12th July 2003
Review: Wario Ware Inc.: Mega Microgame$
Platform: Game Boy Advance
Release Date: 05/22/2003
Rating: 8.0/10
[bq]Wario Ware is by far the most unique game ever made. To the jaded gaming cynic that might sound like a gross bit of hyperbole, but to anyone who has experienced this game, it will seem like a criminal understatement. This quirky little cart is home to a collection of 200 so-called 'microgames'. See, Wario decides that getting into the gaming industry is a quick on-ramp to the highway of easy money. So he calls all of his buddies all over Diamond City and together they come up with dozens of short games, all bundled together in one package. Wario has chosen you to be his beta-tester, and you must complete each series of games from Wario and his friends.
Sound simple? Well, it is. But who plays a game like this for the backstory?
[/bq]
Gameplay: 10.0
[bq]Quite simply, there is something for everyone in Wario Ware. There are 200 different games packed into this cart, and they are volleyed at you constantly. Each of Wario's friends has their own set of microgames, and each microgame has three levels of difficulty.
The basic idea is this: You challenge one of the denizens of Diamond City, and they will throw their microgames at you. As stated above, each of these games is about three seconds in length, and some of the games are radically different from others. Each of Wario's friends features games that are thematic. For instance, Dribble and Spitz's games are all sci-fi based, Dr. Crygor's games are all based on realism, and 9-Volt's games are all taken from classic Nintendo games.
Many of the games involve simple reflex actions, like pressing the A-Button at the correct time, or moving to avoid an oncoming obstacle. You are given one-word clues as to what sort of action is required to defeat the microgame, and no information on what button does what, so your first attempts at the games will sometimes be poor. However, since the games do repeat themselves, you will soon master those, and many of them are pretty obvious anyway. The games are all timed, and the time limit ranges between three and five seconds. Taking too long will result in a loss for the game.
In normal mode, each character requires you to beat a certain number of mini-games, usually fifteen but sometimes as many as twenty. You are given four chances in which to do this, and whenever you screw up or take too long, you lose one of these 'lives'. Every few levels the games will increase in speed, meaning that not only does the timer get faster, but so do the games themselves. When you manage to defeat all of the required microgames, you are faced with a "Boss Game" challenge. Boss games play much like the microgames, but are usually longer and more challenging. Each character has one boss game. After you clear a character's level, you can challenge them again. This time however, it becomes an endurance challenge. The games continue after the boss fight, and the games become more challenging, by way of extra obstacles and such. Beating certain scores open secret games.
The other game mode is Grid. In Grid mode, you can select any microgame you have already faced, and you play an endurance challenge. Unlike normal mode however, you play the same microgame over and over again, with the challenge and speed increasing every single round, and you play towards a high-score challenge. Like in Normal mode, you have four 'lives', and Grid mode only ends when you finally lose all four, so if you're good and you have the reflexes of a cat on speed, you can play up to one thousand levels, each one faster than the last. You can only play the games that you have already played in normal mode, so some will be inaccessable (and keep in mind that you will have to challenge characters multiple times in order to play all the games.)
Whether in Normal or Grid, the games are a blast and the way they are presented is not only incredibly unique but also incredibly fun. There are so many different games to challenge that you will want to challenge all the characters multiple times just to see what else the game can throw at you. With an astounding amount of variety, extreme simplicity and a perfect learning curve, this game is truly the GBA's magnum opus.
In addition to all that, there are a number of multiplayer games that are unlockable, and they are quite unique. They are all adaptations of regular microgames, but they are not timed, rather they are a single endurance challenge. The most notable of these is a fully-reproduced Dr. Wario![/bq]
Graphics: 10.0
[bq]With such an enormous variety in the types of games you will encounter in Wario Ware, it goes without saying that you will also see many, many different graphical effects. It's hard to go into specifics since there are literally hundreds of things to see, but what you do see will include hand-drawn graphics, photo-realism, stop-motion, many Mode-7 effects, graphics taken directly from NES, SNES and G&W games, cartoons, ray-tracing and even simple stick-figures. Add to that impressive animations, nicely-done cutscenes, and more than a few things that will make you laugh out loud at their sheer absurdity, and you end up with a graphical blast that, if not the best the GBA has to offer, it is most certainly the wildest and most varied. [/bq]
Sound: 10.0
[bq]Like with everything else in this game, the sonic experience from Wario Ware is much like a pizza with about seven trillion different toppings, from pepperoni to sausage to pistachio ice cream to sugared watermelon to Philly-style cheesecake. You get a little of everything and too much of nothing. It would be impossible to describe the sound effects in detail but by now I'm sure your imagination, coupled with my prior descriptions of the game can do the job better anyway. Musically, almost every game has it's own tune, short though some may be. Each fits perfectly within the time frame of the game. As above I couldn't possibly overview the whole package but you'll get everything from classic Nintendo themes to children's classics to the short bursts of hilarious J-Pop playing during the short intermissions in Spitz and Dribble's stages. Quirks abound in a game that is all quirk and overall the sound is absolutely perfect for the game.[/bq]
Overall: 8.0
[bq]Okay, now I'm sure you're asking yourself; he's given the game glowing raves for the entire duration of this article, gave it nearly perfect scores the whole way around, so why give a final score of just 8.0?
My answer would be that there is one problem I had with the game, and it unfortunately was a very large problem: The game is far too short! I kid you not when I say that I had completely beaten this game within six hours of purchasing it, and I couldn't help but feel a bit cheated that such a fun experience was also such a fleeting experience. Quite simply, though there is so much to see and do, you will honestly see and do it all much quicker than you will like.
One addition that would have extended the worth of this game tenfold easily would have been an endurance option for each of the minigames, in the same manner as the multiplayer games, where you play one game until you finally lose. Granted, not all of the games really would benefit from such an implementation, but many of them truly would have. Such a small, easy-to-implement addition would have made this game better in exponential amounts.
That aside, this glaring issue is the single, solitary reason I scored this game 8.0 instead of a perfect 10. Everything else about Wario Ware screams quality so loudly your eardrums will burst. Should Nintendo consider a sequel, and I know I'm not the only one who hopes they do, that they implement that one simple extra feature. If they do, I think many people will find a game that they will not be able to put down, ever.
In any case, Kudos to Nintendo for creating a truly memorable game that is outside of and beyond the realms and boundaries of any game ever created before. Wario Ware is a true melding of insanity and balls-out gameplay that no one will be able to resist. Even if the game lasts a mere six hours, I guarantee you that six hours will be one of, if not the most fun quarter-days you'll ever experience in your life. [/bq]
Ryan Usher, 7/12/2003