WarioWare Gold

The WarioWare series is modern Nintendo at its best. In an age of New Super Mario Bros. (a name that feels more ironic as the series goes on) and countless Pokemon games blurring together, WarioWare is there to let you know that the 128-year old company isn't set in its ways. The original game, 2003's WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$!, was a revelation, introducing the world to a redesigned Wario, a vibrant cast of offbeat characters, and most importantly, a new take on minigames that are as brief as they are bizarre. In the fifteen years since its debut (or eighteen if you want to be a nerd about it), the series has only become more experimental, having dabbled in gyroscope controls, touchscreen gameplay, and even user-generated content. WarioWare Gold throws microgames from every entry, even D.I.Y. Showcase and Game & Wario, under one roof, with new cutscenes and visuals gluing it all together.

Despite acting chiefly as a compilation, there's enough new content to satisfy fans looking for more than just the same old stuff. There's about 60 new microgames, as well as a fresh batch of unlockable toys and minigames (imagine a bigger microgame, if you can) to mess around with, but the biggest attraction is the brand new story mode, which segments the games based on both theme (sports, fantasy, etc.) and control style (buttons, Twisted-style rotation, or touchscreen). It's standard WarioWare fare, for the most part, but the cutscenes and late-game content distinguish it from its predecessors.

The cutscenes that precede and follow gameplay are as endearing and goofy as ever, and for the first time in the series' history, all of them are fully voiced, making it all feel like an animated series. It's crazy, even for something as strange as WarioWare, to see Wario talk in full sentences, but even with the veteran performance by Charles Martinet, the voice acting is surprisingly uneven. The portrayals of classic WarioWare characters are either spot-on or, at best, questionable. Dribble & Spitz sound just like I imagined, but Jimmy's voice leaves a lot to be desired, especially with his "c'mawn" voice sample from earlier games etched into my brain.

It's a minor quibble in the grand scheme of things, though, since the story mode is a blast. Once you've been re-acclimated to the various control schemes and have cleared the first set of challenges, they start to throw all of the microgames together in the "Ultra" mode, resulting in some of the most frenzied gameplay in the series. The endgame often forces you to clutch your stylus and prepare to twist, touch, or mash at a moment's notice (especially in the final stage, which pulls something particularly devious), and it's some of the most fun I've had with a WarioWare game. The unlockable post-game modes also put a lot of clever, engaging twists on the gameplay, but it's shortly after the credits roll where the game's issues start to detract from the experience.

With the majority of the game's source material being tied to the series' past, it inevitably opens itself up to some unfavorable comparisons. For example, many of the classic microgames get a new coat of paint, but as a result, a lot of the roughly sketched, hand-drawn games look a little too clean and sterilized, almost as if they were trying to fit into the Rhythm Heaven style. It's not the end of the world, but a bit of the original charm ends up being lost.

The more pressing concern with WarioWare Gold, however, is how it handles its unlockables. The original entries would dole out new minigames, challenges and doodads at a steady pace, typically tied to progressing through the game or hitting high scores. Here, there is but one reward: whether it's progressing in the story, hitting target scores in individual microgames, or completing "missions" in yet another one of Nintendo's half-measure answers to achievements and trophies, you're given coins. You spend these coins at a gachapon machine for a random reward, ranging from minigames, playable music, collectible cards, or phone cards (which contain numbers you dial for bits of unspoken dialogue). It's not a bad idea on paper, but in practice it removes most of the incentive to playing games and modes you don't care for, and turns unlocking everything into a considerable grind. By the end of my 12 hours with the game, I had unlocked only 5 of the game's 14 minigames, with only two of those five being particularly enjoyable. Depending on your luck, unlocking a specific thing could take one hour or dozens, and it puts a significant damper on the game's replay value, with the rate at which you collect coins not helping things much, either. Playing for hours in hopes of unlocking more minigames, only to be treated to some more cards and alarm clocks is a very real possibility, and it makes it difficult to stick with the game. Between the gachapon mechanic and the "Would you like us to collect your gameplay data?" question asked upon booting the game up for the first time, it makes me wonder if they're testing out a potential mobile entry in the series.

WarioWare Gold is a great reminder of just how excellent the series has been over the years, but it unfortunately doubles as a reminder of things it's done better in the past. That being said, even if I wish I was able to spend more time with it, the good outweighs the bad, and I'm hopeful about the next fully-original WarioWare. I mean, they can't not put one of these on the Switch, right?