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| Platform: |
GB Advance |
| Genre: |
Action |
| Publisher: |
Nintendo |
| Developer: |
Nintendo |
| Released: |
05/21/2003 |
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So, big 14 hour car trip to Iowa. Nothing to look at in the car ride but corn. To save my sanity, I decided to go and pick up a GBA cart. I had to make a decision between WarioWare and Advance Wars 2. I've never made a better decision in my life, albeit losing my sanity any ways.
At the first look, it may look like just another mini game collection or some crap like Mario Party. However, the way this game launches bizarre, hilarious mini games one after another at the player gives it a incoherently frenetic pace of a game like Tetris.
WarioWare, unlike most mini game collections, has a small plot to it, but it's fast and very loose. While watching TV, Wario sees a commercial for a very popular video game. In another one of his exploits to make money, Wario gets a bunch of his friends to assist him in the game business. Each of his friends represents a different level, and each level has it's own theme. For instance, Orbulon will throw IQ quizzes, while some tech-savvy DJ kid has a collection of Nintendo classics.
All of the games in WarioWare are as straightforward and strange as they possibly can be. You never use more than the D-pad and A button. They're all based on a simple action such as timing or mashing buttons. You may end up shaking a dog's paw, covering Wario's beer belly, or picking someone's nose. By themselves, the games aren?t too spectacular, although you can play the same game over and over to see how high of score you can get at an increasing pace, but I'll get to that later. Seem simple? There's another factor, however. Time.
The most a game will last is five seconds. This adds a new dimension of difficulty to the game. Not only must you complete it, but you have to figure out what you're supposed to do, execute it properly, and do it in less than five seconds. As you progress through more mini games they're thrown faster, and each mini game has three levels of difficulty. The only hint you usually have at all is a single word before the mini game starts, but at higher scores it's often too fast to even read the title. You start with four lives, and are rewarded one for every boss stage you complete, more complex games without time limits. The first time you complete a boss stage you can proceed to the next level, but you may want to stay and get a higher score, and experience more mini games.
Boss stages generally come at level 10 or 15 intervals, so many times there are more mini games than it takes to reach a boss stage. The reason you would want to experience others is because once you complete a new game it is added to "The Grid", which allows you to play that same game over and over again at increasing pace. After a certain score has been achieved on The Grid, a flower icon will appear in that game's place. There is an incentive for clearing a certain amount of games, such as more unlocking games on the main menu, such as a full version of Dr. Mario, multiplayer games, and extended versions of mini games.
WarioWare has suiting graphics, for at one instance you'll be looking at a crudely drawn hand and nose, while the next second there will be a 3D fast-moving rendition of F-Zero for the SNES. In the end, it comes down to pure style. The music, some of which even has lyrics, heightens in both speed and pitch as you proceed, effectively making the game feel more manic. The sound effects are also high quality.
Although the game isn't as exciting once you've seen every game it has to offer, WarioWare is highly replayable and successfully fills a large frequency of gamers needs at certain times once completed - fast, cheap thrills.
© 2003 Nintendo
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| WarioWare screenshot 2.
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| WarioWare screenshot 4.
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| WarioWare screenshot 5.
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| WarioWare screenshot 8.
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| Graphics: |
9 |
| Sound: |
9 |
| Control: |
- |
| Camera: |
- |
| Plot: |
- |
| Gameplay: |
9 |
| Overall: |
9.5 |
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