WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$!

"For the people who like fast paced minigames"

Ill admit, I was quite skeptical and laughed to myself when I saw this game. Then when I first started playing this psychotically fast paced game crammed with mini games every couple seconds, my opinion changed quickly. This game is really really fun. Well enough of that, onto the review.

Gameplay - 9/10
Yeah you didn’t read wrong, its actually good. Almost every game uses only the D-pad and/or A button. Very quick games, 5 seconds or less, easily. Each set of games is broken up into themes, the first theme is Warios boombox, second being on a disco dancers cell phone, and so on and so forth. Each set you have only 4 lives, and you might have to do 20 games that get progressively faster and harder. After the amount of stages you do you have a boss “fight.” these bosses don’t have the usual time limits, but actually require something more than point and click. The first of these bosses is hitting a punching bag the classic Nintendo 3 times. If its so great why does it only get a 9? You might be asking. Well its cause some of the games go by so quickly that you have no idea what to do, and when your done with them sometimes you think to yourself, “what the hell just happened?”

Story - 7/10
There is actually a story in there, somewhere. My knowledge of kanji is lacking pretty severely, so I only know parts of the story. Well here goes: Wario is watching tv and sees a commercial for a new gba game, called Po Ro I think, and thinks to himself that’s where the moneys at. So what does this conniving large man decided to do? Instead of creating a full game, Wario and his equally greedy friends decide they’ll just gather a bunch of mini games and put them into one large game. Each of the different sets of mini games is another stage in the game. So there really is a story and much like other Wario games, it’s a doozey.

Control -10/10
Like I said in the gameplay section, very very simple. D-pad and the A button are all you need for over half of the games. Ive played over half this game and still havent had to use any other buttons. So no complaints here.

Graphics - 7/10
The cut scenes look fantastic and fit flawlessly into this game, but many of the mini games look like either cell phone or calculator games. Not all of the games, some of them are quite graphical and look awesome, but some of them you are a stick man so its kind of a downer. The over world map is also quite detailed and unique. Overall its easy on the eyes but there are some problems, the good outweigh the bad, even if it is just barely.

Sound - 9/10
Actual voice. You heard me right this game has real voice clips. Quirky lines saying things like “great” or “good going” in a plethora of different voices surprised me the first time I heard them. The music is up beat and sets the mood the way it should be, FRANTIC. Starting out slow and mellow and picking up as the speed of the game increases just makes the game that much better. One last thing, some of the music hints of older Nintendo tunes, just another reason why there is a high score in sound.

Replay - 10/10
But it might drive you into having an epileptic seizure.

Closing Statements:
Wow is all I can say. I thought this game was gonna be utter tripe, but then it turned out to be a phenomenal game. The really fast paced and quirky mini games make for a good run. This game is definitely worth atleast a rental. Don’t miss out on this one, it could be one of the best sleeper hits of the year.

Gameplay - 9/10
Story - 7/10
Control -10/10
Graphics - 7/10
Sound - 9/10
Replay - 10/10
Total - 8.6667, rounded up to a 9

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/12/03, Updated 04/12/03