Pong and Beyond

407th played so far

Genre: Action
Platform: Gameboy Advance
Year of Release: 2003
Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo

The first time we played a WarioWare game, it came with what would have been an accelerometer gimmick. A collection of minigames that rely on it.

It was the second part in the series, with today’s game being the first. A minigame collection with a thin narrative, themed around Wario and his friends.

Our Thoughts

It’s tough, really, to judge a collection of minigames. They’re all simple and quick, with graphical quality differing between them, but it never really mattering. Some are a bit odd, some don’t give you a whole lot of time to understand the objective, but they do tend to hold together well.

The game hits it right, simple games that can escalate in difficulty and put you under more pressure. It feels fun and fair and frustrating only after you’ve been going for a bit when the difficulty ramps up.

It’s the theming where the game really stands out and turns this into more than just a collection of random diversions. The first and last levels mix a bunch of different games, but in between especially the games tend to focus a bit more – some more action-based, but one that seemed mostly based on quizzes and word association, which felt different enough. The surrounding cutscenes and graphics also adapt, with the quiz based level having a strong space focus, including dancing rabbits with astronaut’s helmets on.

What probably works best is how much of the game is a pick up and go thing. I had a savegame on my 3DS copy of the game (through the ambassador program) which must date back a few years now, but when playing it I didn’t need much. I didn’t do as well on the higher levels straight away, but I simply didn’t get as overwhelmed as I could have been dropping into the middle of any other game, something that helps as much in keeping the game entertaining.

Final Thoughts

The Warioware games, by nature, aren’t going to provide you with a big overarching theme or memory. Instead, everything about it is so bite-sized that there are always fun parts, and any bits that you don’t get along with, minigames that don’t work for you or minor errors you make while playing just don’t matter. It’s good still to pick up, play and let go a few hours later, all that you really need for a commute or break from other work.

As good as this game is I would wager that WarioWare: Touched! is actually the better game (if only for the introduction of Ashley and her theme music). Still, this started off a good franchise, one that sadly appears to have run out of ideas if Game and Wario is anything to go by.