warelander
Some random guy online
WarioWare has a very defined formula and specific ways we see the cast play out their stories, with occasional diversions or content in other places.
I'm curious to see which games everyone felt were the best and weakest for every character.
My personal opinions are as follows:
Lulu:
Best for me is surprisingly Move It. It's her most minor appearance to date, but she does come off like a rascall-y troublemaker with a lot of energy, befitting of the ''May as well be Wario's daughter'' energy her design gives off.
Worst to me is Get It Together. I do like playing as her and the unlockable art featuring her, but outside of that all she gets to do is whine and fawn over Cricket, just a tad boring.
5-Volt:
Gold gets my vote for best game for her. The one game to give her a stage of her own and she is incredibly adorable across the board. Also the one time Gamer wasn't overemphasized in portraying her.
A bit of a cop-out, but being a one-screen cameo, Touched is an easy worst.
Young Cricket:
Gold is easily his best appearance. It gives him a hook I feel was missing before, taking something dumb and mundane as life threatening training, it's just fun.
DIY is an easy worst. Being just a menu host with no real dialogue will do that.
Penny:
Not even a question, DIY clears. She gets so much dialogue and fun interactions with Wario, easy choice.
Move It gets my vote for worst. Not really bad, but apart from Wario's cameo at the end I found that whole story really boring.
Mike:
Mic microgames suck, but the actual story portion of Mike's stage and theme song are fun, so Touched for me.
Meanwhile in DIY he is literally just a stamp cameo. Easy pick.
Ashley:
It feels weird to say Touched since she does very little in it, but her theme does do a lot of carrying.
There isn't a really bad Ashley appearance, but Move It is a pretty whatever one.
18-Volt:
Gold, very handily. It's the stage that makes best use of the full voice acting too, given the sheer whut-ness of the characters suddenly rapping, I love it~
Touched literally just has him say ''Word'' over and over. Not sure what that was about.
Kat & Ana:
These two are a bit odd. I vote for Mega Microgames since I love the contrast of these cute little girls having this more dramatic stage, especially how it's presented. Later games don't go for that anymore which I both get, but also feel like something got lost.
DIY is literally just a stamp cameo like with Mike, though I don't want to cop out with characters in A version of DIY, so I say Showcase, just for there being nothing really to it.
Dribble & Spitz:
Game & Wario gets my vote. It takes themes we have seen with them before and expands them into a genuinely neat game concept I'd be game to see as just a full-blown spin-off.
Touched is literally just a cameo for them, easy pick.
Orbulon:
It may be the sheer fever dream shitpost energy of it, but Mega Party Games is my favorite take on his failed attempts to do alien stuff.
Worst is Game & Wario, just for how I have genuinely nothing to say about his appearance there.
Dr. Crygor:
Smooth Moves. Something about the entire presentation of his stage, the outfit and the music just has the perfect Crygor camp to me.
See Penny.
9-Volt:
Twisted is his best for me and the best to sum it up is cute. It's cute to see him befriend 18-Volt and with 5-Volt also being introduced, this is basically the introduction to 9-Volt beyond just the game stuff. Hell, even the ending is basically the basis for Gamer.
Move It gets my vote for worst. It's not bad, but they're really running the horror elements with the Volts into the ground by this point.
Jimmy:
Jimmy is a bit hard to find a best and worst for, but I'll go for Twisted and Touched respectively. They are both basically the same thing, but Twisted has the funnier ending. Touched is still fine, but the most disposable Jimmy story for how little it adds, even though I like his siblings.
Mona:
I'm not someone who is that down on how most of the cast progressed, but I do champion the wilder, more rowdy parts of Mona, so Mega Microgames is still a very easy pick.
Mona's Smooth Moves story isn't even really about her, but a rando guy who is neither funny nor endearing. Just very whatever,
Wario:
Despite my adoration for it, I haven't gotten to list Get It Together as the best game for anyone yet, but Wario fits the bill. He truly gets to be the main character, interact with the others, show his tougher side, especially with his extended fight with Pyoro and is the wacky uncle of the group without devolving into a pure joke.
This to me, is the perfect WarioWare Wario.
By contrast, I hate how Move It treats him.
I do think he starts off okay. He acts arbitiarily stupid to make a Smooth Moves callback happen, but fine. Him actually doing something nice for the others and outside the english translation, being very genuine with it, is a nice change of pace.
It makes the final stage feel all the more unearned though. A attempt at treasure hunting leads to him being made victim of the volcano's curse, effectively left with no agency, for everyone else to solve the problem, only to be spat out and get degradingly stuck to get humiliated some more.
He's barely around and at his least deliberately malicious, yet only exists to be abused and humiliated and it's unfun and outright unpleasent to watch.
I'm curious to see which games everyone felt were the best and weakest for every character.
My personal opinions are as follows:
Lulu:
Best for me is surprisingly Move It. It's her most minor appearance to date, but she does come off like a rascall-y troublemaker with a lot of energy, befitting of the ''May as well be Wario's daughter'' energy her design gives off.
Worst to me is Get It Together. I do like playing as her and the unlockable art featuring her, but outside of that all she gets to do is whine and fawn over Cricket, just a tad boring.
5-Volt:
Gold gets my vote for best game for her. The one game to give her a stage of her own and she is incredibly adorable across the board. Also the one time Gamer wasn't overemphasized in portraying her.
A bit of a cop-out, but being a one-screen cameo, Touched is an easy worst.
Young Cricket:
Gold is easily his best appearance. It gives him a hook I feel was missing before, taking something dumb and mundane as life threatening training, it's just fun.
DIY is an easy worst. Being just a menu host with no real dialogue will do that.
Penny:
Not even a question, DIY clears. She gets so much dialogue and fun interactions with Wario, easy choice.
Move It gets my vote for worst. Not really bad, but apart from Wario's cameo at the end I found that whole story really boring.
Mike:
Mic microgames suck, but the actual story portion of Mike's stage and theme song are fun, so Touched for me.
Meanwhile in DIY he is literally just a stamp cameo. Easy pick.
Ashley:
It feels weird to say Touched since she does very little in it, but her theme does do a lot of carrying.
There isn't a really bad Ashley appearance, but Move It is a pretty whatever one.
18-Volt:
Gold, very handily. It's the stage that makes best use of the full voice acting too, given the sheer whut-ness of the characters suddenly rapping, I love it~
Touched literally just has him say ''Word'' over and over. Not sure what that was about.
Kat & Ana:
These two are a bit odd. I vote for Mega Microgames since I love the contrast of these cute little girls having this more dramatic stage, especially how it's presented. Later games don't go for that anymore which I both get, but also feel like something got lost.
DIY is literally just a stamp cameo like with Mike, though I don't want to cop out with characters in A version of DIY, so I say Showcase, just for there being nothing really to it.
Dribble & Spitz:
Game & Wario gets my vote. It takes themes we have seen with them before and expands them into a genuinely neat game concept I'd be game to see as just a full-blown spin-off.
Touched is literally just a cameo for them, easy pick.
Orbulon:
It may be the sheer fever dream shitpost energy of it, but Mega Party Games is my favorite take on his failed attempts to do alien stuff.
Worst is Game & Wario, just for how I have genuinely nothing to say about his appearance there.
Dr. Crygor:
Smooth Moves. Something about the entire presentation of his stage, the outfit and the music just has the perfect Crygor camp to me.
See Penny.
9-Volt:
Twisted is his best for me and the best to sum it up is cute. It's cute to see him befriend 18-Volt and with 5-Volt also being introduced, this is basically the introduction to 9-Volt beyond just the game stuff. Hell, even the ending is basically the basis for Gamer.
Move It gets my vote for worst. It's not bad, but they're really running the horror elements with the Volts into the ground by this point.
Jimmy:
Jimmy is a bit hard to find a best and worst for, but I'll go for Twisted and Touched respectively. They are both basically the same thing, but Twisted has the funnier ending. Touched is still fine, but the most disposable Jimmy story for how little it adds, even though I like his siblings.
Mona:
I'm not someone who is that down on how most of the cast progressed, but I do champion the wilder, more rowdy parts of Mona, so Mega Microgames is still a very easy pick.
Mona's Smooth Moves story isn't even really about her, but a rando guy who is neither funny nor endearing. Just very whatever,
Wario:
Despite my adoration for it, I haven't gotten to list Get It Together as the best game for anyone yet, but Wario fits the bill. He truly gets to be the main character, interact with the others, show his tougher side, especially with his extended fight with Pyoro and is the wacky uncle of the group without devolving into a pure joke.
This to me, is the perfect WarioWare Wario.
By contrast, I hate how Move It treats him.
I do think he starts off okay. He acts arbitiarily stupid to make a Smooth Moves callback happen, but fine. Him actually doing something nice for the others and outside the english translation, being very genuine with it, is a nice change of pace.
It makes the final stage feel all the more unearned though. A attempt at treasure hunting leads to him being made victim of the volcano's curse, effectively left with no agency, for everyone else to solve the problem, only to be spat out and get degradingly stuck to get humiliated some more.
He's barely around and at his least deliberately malicious, yet only exists to be abused and humiliated and it's unfun and outright unpleasent to watch.
