FIRST AND FOREMOST, I MUST WARN YOU OF SPOILERS. IF YOU WANT EXPERIENCE THIS GAME BLIND, DON'T READ THE REVIEW.
While playing through the Wario Land games, I decided to also dip into the Wario Ware series a bit.
Wario Ware inc. was actually my first Wario game. The first time I ever played Wario Ware was when I was about 5 years old. I still remember it clear as day, and I played it on a friend's gameboy advance. Unfortunately I didn't have my own.
I remember immediately falling in love with the minigame format. Some time later, as the crafty kid of a computer-enthusiast father I was, I proceeded to emulate GBA on my dad's PC, and played the heck out of Wario Ware. I basically unlocked everything in the game.
As with previous reviews, I'm going to be rating aspects of the game in WAAHs. 1 WAAH being lame, 5 WAAHs being excellent.
STORY:
Now a general disclaimer: I've never cared for the Wario Ware stories. I didn't care for them as a child and I still don't really care for them.
That being said, I'll still evaluate the story from the viewpoint of a writer/reader.
The story is pretty simple if you just follow Wario, but the thing is there's so many characters which have their small individual stories during the game. I'm going to be sticking to Wario's story here. Wario basically sees an ad on television about how a videogame has made a bunch of money, and goes out to get a laptop to make his own games on. He gets help from his friends whom he presumably promised to pay. In the end, the microgames end up making the bank. Wario, being the greedy punk he is, doesn't pay his friends but instead runs away with two suitcases full of banknotes. He tries to escape in a rocket, but accidentally hits Dr.Crygor (one of his acquaintances), which causes the rocket to crash into the sea, along with all the banknotes.
The main story here isn't amazing, but it's entertaining enough and Wario's character is spot on. I give the story a solid 3 WAAHs.
GRAPHICS:
First of all, the graphics in this game are very dynamic. There's top-down segments, 2D platforming segments, 3D segments and more.
The art, while often improvised and mismatched from different sources, is charming in it's own right, and definitely uses the GBA hardware to it's extent.
I give the graphics 4 WAAHS, because they are so dynamic and random, and yet still good looking and charming.
SOUNDTRACK:
This game has an amazing soundtrack. There's short tracks for minigames, and the spaces between such minigames, but there's also thematic music for certain characters and cutscenes. I absolutely love how they nailed the soundtrack too, despite the random nature of the game. One of my favorite songs is the one that plays when you're playing through Dribble&Spitz's story.
The game of course reuses soundtracks from various games for the minigames, but not only that- it also reuses music from Wario Land 4 for the game's cutscenes. They don't feel out of place at all though, which is good.
I give the soundtrack a whopping 5 WAAHs, I absolutely love it.
GAMEPLAY:
The gameplay in Wario Ware is random, but straight forward. You play series (stages) of minigames, each with vague advice on how to beat them, with a boss minigame at the end of each stage. You have multiple lives for each minigame series and if you lose a minigame or fail to complete the minigame before the time limit, you lose a life. In the story mode, there's 9 stages in total. There's different themes for the minigames, ranging from sports minigames to small slices of retro games and more.
Overall there's a huge variety of games to play, and I would like to highlight my favorite set of minigames.
Jimmy is one of Wario's friends, a groovy dancer and he will have you play a series of minigames related to various sports.
At the end of Jimmy's stage, there's a minigame inspired by Punch Out! It's Jimmy's boss stage, and since I love punch out, I also really enjoyed this Boss.
The minigames don't stop on the storymode though, as afterwards you can unlock various bonus stages and modes to complete or get a high score on. This game has insane replay value, and it's easily one of my most revisited games because of it's huge content.
Overall, the gameplay really is how Wario Ware came to be. Unlike Wario Land, it wasn't built on a character, but instead characters were introduced through minigames.
I give the gameplay in Wario Ware inc. a whopping 5 WAAHs since it really is original, and I would even say genre-defining.
CONCLUSION:
Wario Ware inc. is the first ever Wario title I played, and I don't regret starting out with it. It doesn't exactly have any classic Wario action, but it makes up for it with it's unique art style, gameplay and characters.
I give Wario Ware inc. a very solid 4 WAAHs, as it is a good looking, engaging, funny and overall well made minigame collection. The game could be under a completely different title and lack nintendo characters and I would still love it for all of its randomness.
While playing through the Wario Land games, I decided to also dip into the Wario Ware series a bit.
Wario Ware inc. was actually my first Wario game. The first time I ever played Wario Ware was when I was about 5 years old. I still remember it clear as day, and I played it on a friend's gameboy advance. Unfortunately I didn't have my own.
I remember immediately falling in love with the minigame format. Some time later, as the crafty kid of a computer-enthusiast father I was, I proceeded to emulate GBA on my dad's PC, and played the heck out of Wario Ware. I basically unlocked everything in the game.
As with previous reviews, I'm going to be rating aspects of the game in WAAHs. 1 WAAH being lame, 5 WAAHs being excellent.
STORY:
Now a general disclaimer: I've never cared for the Wario Ware stories. I didn't care for them as a child and I still don't really care for them.
That being said, I'll still evaluate the story from the viewpoint of a writer/reader.
The story is pretty simple if you just follow Wario, but the thing is there's so many characters which have their small individual stories during the game. I'm going to be sticking to Wario's story here. Wario basically sees an ad on television about how a videogame has made a bunch of money, and goes out to get a laptop to make his own games on. He gets help from his friends whom he presumably promised to pay. In the end, the microgames end up making the bank. Wario, being the greedy punk he is, doesn't pay his friends but instead runs away with two suitcases full of banknotes. He tries to escape in a rocket, but accidentally hits Dr.Crygor (one of his acquaintances), which causes the rocket to crash into the sea, along with all the banknotes.
The main story here isn't amazing, but it's entertaining enough and Wario's character is spot on. I give the story a solid 3 WAAHs.
GRAPHICS:
First of all, the graphics in this game are very dynamic. There's top-down segments, 2D platforming segments, 3D segments and more.
The art, while often improvised and mismatched from different sources, is charming in it's own right, and definitely uses the GBA hardware to it's extent.
I give the graphics 4 WAAHS, because they are so dynamic and random, and yet still good looking and charming.
SOUNDTRACK:
This game has an amazing soundtrack. There's short tracks for minigames, and the spaces between such minigames, but there's also thematic music for certain characters and cutscenes. I absolutely love how they nailed the soundtrack too, despite the random nature of the game. One of my favorite songs is the one that plays when you're playing through Dribble&Spitz's story.
The game of course reuses soundtracks from various games for the minigames, but not only that- it also reuses music from Wario Land 4 for the game's cutscenes. They don't feel out of place at all though, which is good.
I give the soundtrack a whopping 5 WAAHs, I absolutely love it.
GAMEPLAY:
The gameplay in Wario Ware is random, but straight forward. You play series (stages) of minigames, each with vague advice on how to beat them, with a boss minigame at the end of each stage. You have multiple lives for each minigame series and if you lose a minigame or fail to complete the minigame before the time limit, you lose a life. In the story mode, there's 9 stages in total. There's different themes for the minigames, ranging from sports minigames to small slices of retro games and more.
Overall there's a huge variety of games to play, and I would like to highlight my favorite set of minigames.
Jimmy is one of Wario's friends, a groovy dancer and he will have you play a series of minigames related to various sports.
At the end of Jimmy's stage, there's a minigame inspired by Punch Out! It's Jimmy's boss stage, and since I love punch out, I also really enjoyed this Boss.
The minigames don't stop on the storymode though, as afterwards you can unlock various bonus stages and modes to complete or get a high score on. This game has insane replay value, and it's easily one of my most revisited games because of it's huge content.
Overall, the gameplay really is how Wario Ware came to be. Unlike Wario Land, it wasn't built on a character, but instead characters were introduced through minigames.
I give the gameplay in Wario Ware inc. a whopping 5 WAAHs since it really is original, and I would even say genre-defining.
CONCLUSION:
Wario Ware inc. is the first ever Wario title I played, and I don't regret starting out with it. It doesn't exactly have any classic Wario action, but it makes up for it with it's unique art style, gameplay and characters.
I give Wario Ware inc. a very solid 4 WAAHs, as it is a good looking, engaging, funny and overall well made minigame collection. The game could be under a completely different title and lack nintendo characters and I would still love it for all of its randomness.
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