WarioWare Inc: Mega Party Game$

Written by Jeremy Siegel  on March 11, 2004

Final Glimpse: Wario's cool, but I still like Waluigi better.

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You've got to love the crazy logic behind the new Wario Ware game, this time set on the GameCube. For those who aren't familiar with the series, the first Wario Ware was a crazy game on the GBA consisting of constantly changing mini-games. Only Nintendo could take such an absurd concept and make it work. And only Nintendo could employ the aforementioned crazy logic without blinking an eye. What "logic" am I talking about? Well, picture that you are Nintendo. You have a huge hit on the GBA, and you get the idea to make a sequel to this game on the GameCube. BUT?you decide to ignore the superior graphics capabilities of the GameCube and make it look like a 16-bit GBA game. That's right, not only do the graphics look like a GBA, but the game interface itself is made to look like there's a GBA in your TV!

The great thing about Wario Ware for the GBA was the fast-paced gameplay. The developers really did a great job of coming up with a bunch of mini-games that were fun, different and, most importantly, instantly playable. The user had to be able to jump right into each mini-game without reading instructions. Not only did the user not know which game they were going to jump into, but they also had to deal with the fact that the games change at a faster and faster pace as you progress through the game!

Wario Ware for the Cube promises to bring that frenetic experience to the Cube, with one welcome change: this time, the focus is on multiplayer. There is still a single-player game, but the ideal way to play this game is with three other friends. There are some games where your friends are trying to block your way to completing whatever it is you're supposed to accomplish. There are other games where you're supposed to do something while you're playing, like stand on one foot or hop up and down, that sort of thing, and when you're done with the game your friends get to decide (by tapping A) how well you did. There are also games where all four of you are playing at the same time, and you can decide with your buddies if you want to team up against each other or just play everyone for themselves.

The GBA Wario Ware had some great cameo appearance by old-school Nintendo games. No, not characters, games. Some of the mini-games were ripped straight from Metroid, Zelda, Dr. Mario, etc. I'm pretty sure Nintendo would employ the same method with the GameCube version. It'd be really cool if, in addition to the 8-bit snippets seen on the GBA version, we see some SNES or GameCube classics turned into Wario Ware mini-games for this GameCube version. It remains to be seen what will happen in that respect. But even if we don't these later games Wario-cized, rest assured there will be plenty of fun mini-games to hold your interest. Everything's in this game, from card games to starfighter games to a game where the four players try to stick their fingers into the rotating nose first.