Game Review: Game & Wario

Game: Game & Wario
Console: Nintendo WiiU
Developer: Intelligent Systems
Release Date: 23rd June 2013

I am a huge fan of the Warioware Series, its microgames and general humour. Having played a short demo of this game at MCM London Expo, I was fairly confident that it would be pretty fun upon release. Unfortunately, as much as I would like it to be a great game, it isn't. Whether or not it's under the Warioware banner is debatable; certainly it's not in name, and only features microgames in one of it's 16 minigame segments, but even without the expectation associated with the Warioware series, the game feels like little more than a misguided tech demo.

Many gamers will recall Nintendoland, released alongside the WiiU as its pack-in game, featuring a selection of Nintendo based minigames, each showing off a different function of the WiiU gamepad. In many ways the overall impression given by Game and Wario is similar to this; its 12 single player stages and 4 multiplayer stages feature an array of ways to hold and interact with the gamepad; some clever, others not so much. The problem is that unlike Warioware: Smooth Moves on the Wii, there's less of a fun, party game atmosphere.

I don't want to simply list each stage and compare flaws between them, since most problems are common to the game as a whole, however I will provide a few examples of stages featured in the game. In Mona's game 'Shutter', players must search for specific targets to photograph on their tv screen before taking a picture of the target with the gamepad. As with most stages in the game, there are 5 different levels for players to try, progressing in difficulty as players continue. Patchwork features Kat and Ana, challenging players to piece together knitted puzzle pieces to make shapes. This is a contender for worst minigame, but there's no shortage of options.

The better minigames include Pirates, Wario's minigame which is rhythm based and fairly fun once the gameplay has been mastered, Kung-fu, which sees Young Cricket jumping across platforms towards Master Mantis, using the tv and gamepad for different viewpoints, and bowling. Which is literally bowling, but it's in my top 5 minigames simply for not having too many faults.

The game I take most issue with, however is Gamer, featuring 9-Volt and 18-Volt. The premise is simple, stay up late and complete your videogame, whilst pretending to be asleep when 9-volt's mum enters the room. This game features microgames from the Warioware series as the videogame 9-volt is playing (much like previous Warioware games have done), and was the minigame which I played during the demo at MCM. Having advertised the game in its demo as featuring microgames, I was fairly surprised to find that this was the only one actually sporting them, and reused ones at that.

It seems to me that either this is a game, entirely unrelated to the Warioware series which was meant to serve as a tech demo for the WiiU gamepad, released too late to do so and thus Warioware themed so as to avoid having to release it as Nintendoland 2. Or worse it's meant to be part of the Warioware series (I mean it does feature all the same characters, and a similar concept) but has taken the series in a new direction of minigames, rather than microgames. If this is the case, the then latter is far worse but the former isn't exactly good for my opinion of Nintendo.

With every newly completed stage, players earn coins which can be exchanged for minigame/collectible prizes, but it's also clear that this gimmick is an attempt at infusing some replayability into the game. Without collectibles and an incentive to continue it'd be fairly easy to stop playing after unlocking and trying each minigame. Having said that, most of the minigame and collectible prizes are pretty rubbish anyway so there's little point unlocking them all.

Graphically it's unclear what overall style the game is going for with cartoon and 3D elements mixing together in a far less coherant way than Smooth Moves. Musically the game is alright, but doesn't seem to feature as much of the instantly memorable tunes that other games in the Warioware series have done. Overall Game & Wario is a fairly poor mish-mash of games, in the same vein as Nintendoland with Wario's face slapped on the front to increase sales. Perhaps young gamers who aren't expecting the Warioware legacy to be continued in the game might find a little enjoyment, but I'll stick to the classics.

Rating: 65/100
Grade: C