Game #36/200 The first WarioWare title really impressed me. The gorgeous pixel art accomplishes a lot here, but it mainly impresses with its depictions of super odd and absurd characters like Jimmy the clownish dancer, Dr. Crygor the one-eyed cyborg, and Wario himself, whose redesign separates him from being an anti-Mario and reintroduces him as a slobbish biker who retains …
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Game #36/200 The first WarioWare title really impressed me. The gorgeous pixel art accomplishes a lot here, but it mainly impresses with its depictions of super odd and absurd characters like Jimmy the clownish dancer, Dr. Crygor the one-eyed cyborg, and Wario himself, whose redesign separates him from being an anti-Mario and reintroduces him as a slobbish biker who retains all of the charming selfishness that he had always suggested. All of the character designs seem so random, but in an organic way, like they all fit together (the ninja girl, the alien, the talking dog and cat, etc.) because there is simply no unifying theme among them all. The story is minimalistic, but there are plenty of funny cutscenes sprinkled in between the bits of gameplay. The gameplay loop of WarioWare involves beating a specific number of "microgames" from a set that cohere to a theme based on the character whose "story" you've chosen. The ministories accompany the microgames, and they're mostly just puerile bits, like Dr. Crygor clogging his toilet or Anna evading the police to clock into work on time. The game themes were fun and interesting ("realistic" was a good one, "IQ" had a lot of fun ones, "Wario" and "Retro" were probably consistently the two best). And the jarring transitions between games not only keeps you on your toes from a gameplay perspective, but reveals how thoughtfully the microgames were crafted -- each utilizing a different gimmick and graphical style. Nothing beats the microgames that pay homage to many vintage Nintendo games, ranging from Balloon Fight to The Legend of Zelda and so much more. In the spirit of Wario, many of these games subvert the themes of these older titles (an obvious example being a game where Wario must steal a mushroom from Mario). But it's also just plain fun to see what's coming up next. It's all super random and peculiar; a burst of creative weirdness. A small gripe I have is that, although there is a sufficient number of microgames, there aren't all that many. Especially as you advance through the 2-hour "story mode" (if it can be called that), you'll see many games repeat or be remixed. It's fun to replay harder versions of levels, especially as they speed up, but I also felt like if you had trouble with a particular set of levels, you were sort of stuck playing the same ones over and over until it was beaten (which I acknowledge is the whole point, but still the games do not contain that much variety). The "boss stages" were also a lot of fun and contained untimed challenges that usually provided some anxiety and entertainment. Overall really fun! For me, not a huge amount of replay value, but there are definitely some unlockables that can provide a few extra hours of entertainment if you don't mind beating the same levels over and over.
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