Wario Ware: Mega Microgame$!

[A Genius]

The Game Boy Advance is a cool system , yes, but I can't deny that the number of remakes on it is annoying. It's a very capable system , and there are too many remakes. Well, let me give you an insight on what sprang the idea of this odd game.

Developer: Wa-HOO! SO, they * think * thatwe should stop redoing games, EH? WELL I'll show * them* ! YeS, I"lL SHOW THEM ORIGINAL! They will get originalItY! YES!YES!YES!YES!YES!YES!YES!YES!YES! MuHuHuHAHUHuhUHuhUUhhUuhUAhAH!

And it goes on like that for a few pages. Anyway, Wario Ware is an absurd game, and it stars, well, not actually stars, in fact, he barely even appears in this game, but Wario is the star, and he rules!

Wario is starting his own video game company this time around. But he's lazy, and doesn't really know how to program, so he calls his friends. They all help him out by making they're own game. And none of them last over 5 seconds (10 seconds in Orbulon's case, or maybe it was 15)! This sounds like crud until you realize that there's over 200. Which means, over 16 minutes of gameplay!Astounding!

Okay, seriously. It sounds short. Heck, it IS short. But beating the game will take 2 days. Unlocking everything, I'll say a week or less. It's replay value relies mostly on it's games themselves, and there are some good ones. There are a LOT of good ones. But first, the characters.

You see, Wario hired 7 people to help him. Jimmy has sports games (and does the remixes, in which you play random previous games). Mona's levels are appropriately strange. Drizzle and Spitz do sci-fi games, which means a lot of shooting. Orbulon does thinking games, and thus, requires a bit more time to complete. Kat and Ana (Get it? Katana?) make nature based games. And the annoying Dr. Crygor just uses photos instead of regular graphics.

You'll notice that that's only 6. If you bothered to count, that is. That's because I gave my favorite character his own paragraph. 9-Volt. His genre of choice is... Nintendo. Maybe Nintendo should've put in a secret ending for when they sue Wario. Anyway, 9-Volt's games feature classics like F-Zero (dodge the cars), Zelda (enter the door), Super Mario Bros. (Kill the Goomba)*, and Duck Hunt (Yes, they included the laughing dog.). More to come. They just get better.

And I can't forget the bosses. Each character has a boss. 9-Volt has a game based on some Japan only pariphei... parafi... pariphia... add-on for the NES. Jimmy has a VERY cool Punch-Out stage. Dribble and Spitz have a cool vertical space shooter. Orbulon has an odd remix of what seems to be, oddly enough, Sega's first venture into the RPG world, Phantasy Star (although I'm probably mistaken). The Final Boss pits you against a whole series of challenges with different goals. Very fun.

And, by completing certain tasks, you get unaltered** complete games of Dr. Mario (now titled "Dr. Wario"), Fly Swatter (Not much fun anymore, since you don't get to use a mouse), and Sheriff (Or Wario Sheriff, if you prefer.). Dr. Wario gives you the simple but fun task of eliminating virusses by throwing pills into a jar. Fly Swatter is what it sounds like. Wario Sheriff is a cool little shoot-em-up. All 3 of them are fun, except Fly Swatter, especially Dr. Wario. Great fun.

And now, graphics! You usually don't have enough time to notice the graphics in the games, since, if you try, then typically you'll miss something and lose. The cut scenes are pretty cool, though. There's not much detail in them, but that can be excused, since there's quite a lot of movement. I don't believe I've seen much movement in most GBA games with cut scenes. Which is cool.

Music, alas, isn't great. There are some cool tunes here and there, but it's mostly average on this level.

As for replay value, everythings been done within the period of a week, so that leaves only high scores to get. And Dr. Wario's always fun. And Sheriff. And the Punch-Out boss. And 9-Volt's level.

Gameplay: 9/10
Graphics: 8/10
Music/Sound: 7/10
Replay Value: 8/10
Overall: 8/10

*There's also a freakish version of the same game called "Super Wario Bros." that looks so cruddy it's funny.

**Well, in Dr. Wario, you can't change the music, but I don't think that's too big a deal.

-A Genius (You're serious! An overall average score that's not an decimal?)

[ June 02, 2003, 09:19 PM: Message edited by: A Genius is cruddy ]

This game rules.
The sound's not that bad.Some part have lyrics and voice samples playing at the same time.