In this review, we play games in the Gameboy Advance game, WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgames. We find out how well this action game plays.
This game was released in 2003 and is the first game in the WarioWare series.
The story is that Wario is watching TV. He notices a news report about a video game. At first, he dismisses the report. It is then that his greed takes over. He realizes he could make his own game and make lots of money off of it. He then breaks out his laptop and begins coding his big new game.
When one starts up this game, they might think of a number of Wario games made previously. Games like Super Mario Land 2 – 6 Golden Coins or Wario Land 3 could pop into your head. So, you might sit and think that this is going to be another adventure or platform style game. This is definitely not like those previous games.
Instead, this game is actually a series of “Microgames”. If you’ve played any of the Mario Party games, think of this WarioWare game as an industrial strength super high concentrated version of that. The Microgames can be rhythm, timing, action, simple logic, or puzzle style games. You might ask, “what makes a game a microgame?” The answer is how fast it takes to play. For a vast majority of these games, it takes about 5 seconds to go from introduction to finding out if you beat it or not. Yes, by the time you get through the opening fanfare of a track in a standard racing game, you play through the entire microgame.
Of course, this game doesn’t just give you a selection of games and let you play them at your own pace. Instead, at least in the main mode, you are given a random set of games to play through in rapid succession. That, of course, is part of the challenge. You are given a one to three word instruction at the beginning of the game. After that flashes on the screen, you need to accomplish the goal of the micro game. If you win, then you quickly move on to the next game. If you lose, you lose a life before moving on.
In all, you get four lives in each section. Complete the section with at least one life and you beat that section. Lose all of your lives and you’ll have to start over from the beginning of the section again.
Of course, there is one really important aspect to each section. At the end of the section, you’ll encounter a boss game. This boss game has the length of a general mini-game. If you lose, you lose a life and must try again. Beating this game is the only way to win that section.
There is a tree of game sections. A number of these represents a different character with its own mini-storyline. There are three “remix” sections along the way. If you beat a remix section, save for the last remix, you then have the chance to challenge three different characters. You can take on those three in any order, but you must beat all three to move on. Each character has its own theme. Themes include logic, sports, and weird.
One thing to note is the fact that, as you get further along, the difficulty of the microgames increase. Margins for error decrease and overall speed increases. An example of this is the LP microgame. You need to stop Wario on the needle. At the beginning, you have a quarter of the LP to get the timing right. Towards the end of the game, you’ll have closer to an eighth of the space to land the needle.
As you beat different sections, you’ll gain access to optional mini-games. Many of them are 2 player, but others are single player. This includes a paper airplane minigame and a skateboarding obstacle course.
If you beat the whole game, you’ll be given the opportunity to take on three different towers. The goal is simply to get the highest score possible. The blue tower is the easy games. You pretty much play a random selection of games with the standard four lives. The yellow tower is the thrill tower. In there, it is the same thing as the blue tower, but uniquely, you only get one life. Fail anything and it’s game over. Finally, there is the red tower. You get four lives, but all you play are the boss mini-games. You cycle through all of them repeatedly until you lose all of your lives. Your score is the total wins you got before dying.
For me, this was probably one of the most bizarre games I’ve played since Ninja Golf. I can see it being enjoyable to those who have really short attention spans. The microgames are so short, it’s really difficult to fully appreciate them. Not only are they short, but the art styles can vary widely. You might get Atari style stick figures. Other times, you might be playing with compressed images. Sometimes, you are seeing what looks like MS Paint hand-drawn animations. In the end, it is almost like you’re playing a game with an identity crises. Only a few basic rules really stitches this game together.
As for the games themselves, since you are given them at random, you might get lucky and get a few easy games. There are a few games where it is possible to win with no data inputs. Other times, you might be thrown into a screen where you need to search with a magnifying glass where it’s luck if you successfully find the tiny object you are looking for. It’s like the game is constantly shouting, “think fast!” before hurling who knows what at you.
Of course, credit where credit is due. This game is an experimentation into a seemingly novel concept. It could be a workable concept with some re-tooling, but as presented in this game, I don’t really see it working all that well.
As for graphics, as already hinted, this game is a real random collection of different styles. Sometimes, the graphics are quite good. Other times, the graphics look like they’ve been put together in about a minute. There are special effects involved that vary just as much as the main graphics. I believe this game is going for a massive collage, but I’m not sure it ended up working all that well. So, in the end, the graphics were passable, but that’s about it.
As for music, it was great hearing so many voice samples. That, to me, is the games strongest point. Music-wise, it’s pretty much the same complaint with the games themselves. Too short to fully appreciate. Some of the general music outside of the games were OK, but that’s about it. So, passable, but nothing amazing.
Overall, this game does strike forth and tries to push the envelope of the concept of gaming. While mini-games have been around for a bit by this point in time, the concept of microgames seems like an interesting concept. Unfortunately, the way everything was laid out, it made it difficult to really appreciate this one. It’s so weirdly random, I could barely understand what was even going on half the time. The graphics were and odd mix that wound up only being passable. Audio is pretty much the same story, although the voice samples are good. Some people apparently really like this game, but I don’t think this one is for me. A game you can skip.
Overall
Furthest point in game: Beat the game.
General gameplay: 16/25
Replay value: 6/10
Graphics: 6/10
Audio: 3/5
Overall rating: 62%
Drew Wilson on Twitter: @icecube85 and Facebook.
