WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$!

"A game that involves sticking fingers in some guy's nose? Count me in!"

When Wario Ware, Inc.: Mega Microgames was unveiled for the Game Boy Advance, some thought that Nintendo had truly lost its marbles. Others simply used that tired message board cliché and wondered just what the game giant was smoking. Minigames that lasted a few seconds each? How could anyone possibly make a good game out of that?

But it worked, and Wario Ware has proven itself to be a mainstay in my GBA to this day. Sure, the game is short, but it's one of those games you can pick up and get right into without much trouble, and it features a plethora of extras to keep casual gamers occupied.

Everyone's favorite greedy slob, Wario, is sitting around watching TV one day when he sees a news report about a new game, Pyoro, which has become really popular! Always one to jump on a get-rich-quick scheme if it looks promising enough, Wario pulls a Microsoft maneuver and starts a game-making business called Wario Ware, Inc., and he calls up some of his buddies to help him develop it. As you progress through the game, you'll meet Wario's friends and eventually challenge Wario himself at the top of the ladder.

Each character in the game has his or her own set of microgames that centers around a particular theme. For example, Jimmy, a disco-going guy with a cell phone, starts out with sports-related microgames, but later on, he dishes out combinations of microgames from previous characters. The alien Orbulon has microgames that challenge not only reflexes, but the mind. And Mona, a time-pressed girl working in a gelato shop... well, her microgames are just plain strange. Perhaps the most heralded microgames in Wario Ware are those of 9-Volt, a little kid who just loves old Nintendo games... so much, in fact, that all of his microgames are based on classic titles and even Nintendo accessories! In one, you must stomp Goombas in Super Mario Bros., while in another, you must destroy the Mother Brain from Metroid (don't worry; it's easier than it sounds!). And for all of the microgames in the game, the controls are incredibly simple; they just use the control pad and the A button.

As the great NES Archive webmaster, |tsr, once lamented, the focus in today's games is not on getting a high score, but beating the game instead, thus making it difficult for some to get into older games. With Wario Ware, both beating the game and getting high scores is important, because then new features are unlocked. Once you play a microgame in the story mode, it becomes unlocked in the Game Grid. There, you can play that particular microgame over and over and over again until you miss four times. Of course, the games not only have variations on themselves, but they get faster and more insane until you die - just like life! By passing the default top score on a microgame, you earn a badge for it.

As I said earlier, Nintendo knew that the microgames weren't enough, so they also threw in some other games that don't last just a few seconds. And they're enjoyable! Dr. Mario returns to the handheld scene in color... but it seems Wario has stolen Mario's outfit and renamed the game ''Dr. Wario''! The game is just the same as Dr. Mario for the NES, but the playing field is smaller and there are fewer viruses (to compensate for the difference in resolution, of course). The Pyoro game from the intro is in there, as well as its sequel. And Nintendo even snuck in a Wario-ized port of a really old arcade game called ''Sheriff''. These are just a few of the extras that help to enhance Wario Ware's life.

I do have complaints about Wario Ware, including the annoying fact that several of the microgames repeat themselves. While this is sort of okay if you're playing a wide range of games (such as Thrilling, Hard, or a particular character's set), it's irritating if you need to get a high score in a particular game because you find yourself having to repeat the process a few more times. In Jimmy's set, there is a microgame in which you have to press the A button at the right time to get enough power to chop a log in two. A strength meter at the right goes up and down, and you must stop the meter while it is in the red (the top three sections of the meter) to win. There are three more microgames that are exactly like this. Sure, they look different, but the objective and method are EXACTLY THE SAME! Plus, there are numerous microgames in which all you do is mash the A button. No strategy at all... just mindless button mashing. One microgame, Classic Clash II, is even more brainless... just hold right on the control pad. Of course, you can't just hold it forever (you have to stop and start holding it again at the beginning of the next play), but other than that, it's definitely the easiest, most boring, and most ill-conceived microgame of all. Fortunately, though, most of the microgames avoid falling into these templates.

Visually, Wario Ware isn't all that spectacular when compared to other GBA games. The graphics get the job done, and they're often pretty bizarre, as is expected in a Wario game. Not all games have the same graphical style, however; some even incorporate digitized images of real-life objects, and I enjoyed that. There's also some Squigglevision-like stuff in there (think of the TV shows ''Dr. Katz'' or ''Home Movies'' - the pre-Flash one). I was most impressed with how 9-Volt's microgames accurately emulated the NES and SNES games they were based on. The F-Zero microgame, like all others, is only a few seconds long, but the game engine is duplicated so well that it looks and feels like the real thing!

The game's music is nothing that you'll find humming at any given time, but with all of the barks, boinks, and cartoony effects, the audio manages to fit Wario's whimsical style. As with the graphics, 9-Volt's microgames, for the most part, sound like their real-life counterparts. The characters talk during the gameplay... a LOT. This happens mainly between microgames, though, so it doesn't really interfere with the gameplay itself. Their dialogue is clear and not scratchy like the digitized speech in other games such as Pokemon Yellow Version, but it has a tendency to be somewhat muddled at times.

Like a prescription drug, Wario Ware isn't for everyone. It'll take some eye-hand coordination to keep up with the game's pace. But for those who are willing to take the challenge, Wario Ware is easy to get into, and once you get hooked, it's hard to put down. Plus, even the game's instruction manual is rather amusing, so be sure to get a copy of the game that includes it.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/15/04