Wario Ware, Inc: Mega Microgame$ Review

There are two types of games in the gaming business. One type is complicated games, it is pretty much self-explanatory. Most games are complicated. The other type is simplistic games. Wario Ware ends up raising the bar on the definition of simplistic, but who said simplicity was bad?

Wario Ware is an offbeat game that has more than 200 comical mini-games. Each game takes about 3 seconds to finish. You only use the A button and the D-Pad, so you won’t get that confused. Each mini game starts off by saying the objective, and you have a couple of seconds to complete it. The objectives range from stomping on a Goomba to brushing someone’s teeth. There is even a mini-game in which you have to pick someone’s nose. However, the most noticeable mini-games are the ones with “classic� Nintendo games. There will be some mini-games where you play as Link in the original Legend of Zelda (NES) and have to walk to a door. You have to complete about 15-25 mini-games with no more than three losses. The last mini-game is a “boss battle� where there is no time limit to complete the objective. You will really be amazed of what pointless stuff you could accomplish in a couple of seconds!

The game’s story is pretty simple, though stupid. Wario sees that this new GBA game called Pyoro and thinks that he could make a lot of money off of this new trend. Wario gets his friends and starts making games. Each of Wario’s friends (it’s amazing that he has some) has games that are in a certain genre. Dr. Crygor (one messed up guy), for example, has games that are only in the reality genre. Orbulon (a funny-looking alien) has games that are only in the IQ genre. Jimmy T. (a dancer with a really “funky� hairstyle) has games that are in the sports genre. Wario Ware has a great variety of genres as well as mini-games, which make the game non-repetitive.

The game’s graphics aren’t the best. Each mini-game looks like it could be on the NES, even though the GBA’s specs are similar to the SNES’. The audio isn’t that impressive, either. Wario Ware’s winning gameplay formula, however, lets you forget about the graphic quality.

There really is never a dull minute in this game. However, if you count the number of minutes involved, it is not that much. There are about 200 mini-games each about 3 seconds each. If you don’t lose all the time, you could be finished with this game in 10 minutes, yes, it is mathematically possible, but it is more likely to last a couple of hours. Wario Ware isn’t one of those games where you will play it a thousand times. You could probably play this game twice or three times, then you are done with it. Let’s just hope that Wario Ware 2 will have at least 800 mini-games.

Though the mini-games don’t show us anything that we haven’t seen before, nor does it have groundbreaking graphics, the idea to put them all together in one game was a great idea. I know that many other game critics brag about how this game has “infinite replay value,� but I beg to differ. I got only about one hour of gameplay out of this game. Once the price comes down, or if you are able rent it (I prefer the latter), this hour of fun is not to be missed.