WarioWare: Get It Together Review – Mega Co-Op Microgames

I’ve always considered WarioWare one of Nintendo’s more underrated franchises. They’re not exactly well known but you can tell they don’t get quite the fanfare of one of their flagship series like Mario or Zelda. But that’s part of the charm, the surreal wacky art, and humor combined with the innovative gameplay. WarioWare: Get It Together brings all of these and more.

Wario’s been a bit of a slump in the last couple of years with only the compilation WarioWare Gold having come out a couple of years back, but WarioWare: Get It Together is a good return to form. It brings in a new set of microgames and combines them with a fresh new concept in the form of playable characters and multiplayer.

Bugs in The Game

The story is that WarioWare Inc’s likely underpaid staff have made a new game but when they try to beta test it, it glitches out and they all get sucked into the console. It turns out there are bugs in the game and the only way to leave is to defeat them by playing each of the levels.

It’s a basic plotline and for a WarioWare game, you do wish there was a bit more pizazz to it. These games have never had fleshed-out plots, but they made up for that with a zany sense of character with wacky scenarios that start each level. Here there’s are still cutscenes and they are the highlight of the story however most of it is told with the sprite models. It’s barebones and just not very interesting compared to what’s come before. WarioWare Gold had full-on voice acting but even that didn’t make a return.

It’s a shame too because I love the Warioware cast. Even for Nintendo standards, they’re such as weird and likable bunch with very distinct designs. The story ultimately isn’t the point of WarioWare but I do wish it was a bit better just so I can spend more time with them.

Micro Game Madness

The defining feature of WarioWare is of course the Micro Games. Instead of playing mini-games, Wario has created an obstacle course of 2-10 second long microgames. Each game gives you a prompt and you are even given minimal time to understand the situation and perform the task, then it’s on to the next one in a course of around 15 of them. As the level continues, the microgames become faster and faster until you reach the boss micro game which is usually a bit longer and harder.

I’ve always loved the microgame concept, it’s electrically fun to frantically go through the games one after the other, figuring them out as the game urges you to hurry up. The microgames have a great variety, from the classic pick the nose to stopping the giant ice cream from falling over. The fan favorites are course are 9-Volt’s Nintendo-themed microgames which are back in full force, and they’re just a good as ever.

Getting It Together

WarioWare: Get It Together adds another new innovation to the microgames, playable characters. Now one of the WarioWare characters appears on screen and must perform the microgame. There are anywhere from 3-5 characters that will rotate out with each new microgame.

I was worried when I heard this as a felt it could limit how varied each microgame would be but it was actually the opposite. Each of the 18 playable characters has different abilities like Wario can fully move in any direction and use his elbow dash, some like 18-Volt stay in one place but can fire a projectile, some like Kat and Ana as they movie. Each character functions differently and therefore must tackle each microgame differently and some are definitely better at certain microgrammes than others.

This adds another layer of challenge to Get It Together’s gameplay. Not only do you have to watch the microgame but who going to be doing it and how their skills and limits can achieve the goal. And all within seconds. It does a great job of keeping the player on their toes. It makes the already hectic nature of the microgame montage even more exciting.

Even better though, you can now also beat the game with two players. As you can imagine, this just adds another layer of insanity into the game. Keeping track of the other player when you both have the figure the next game out and what characters your stuck with could lead to some fun times or potentially end friendships. Such is the fate of those that play WarioWare.

The Art of Wario

Graphics-wise, I’ve always loved the surreal artistic toilet humor of the microgames. The developers really threw everything at the kitchen sink when designing these. Want one that involves plucking armpit hairs from a Greek statue, sure, cover kitty business in kitty litter, why not. It’s beautiful.

I also enjoy the art style of the cast. The designs were made by Ko Takeuchi, who also designed the Rythym Heaven characters. I love the more cartooney yet distinctly anime-like art he makes for WarioWare Inc, it’s like Mario meets Katamari. It fits the strange nature of the series and makes it feel distinct. When I was younger I often forgot that Wario was meant to be Mario’s bad counterpart after playing WarioWare games since they always made him feel like such as different character. Get it Together feels very much the same.

This also extends to the music, with quirky little bops the get through the stage. This of course includes the mandatory WarioWare vocal track, this being Penny’s Song. It’s sung like a cheesy karaoke track, as it should be.

The Mini Games

Not Micro Games, Mini-Games! WarioWare: Get It Together has both. It kinda needs them. As fun as the microgames are, the story mode is also pretty short as a result, only being around 2 hours long. It’s fun but that isn’t a lot of content for a $50 game. To make up for this, WarioWario comes with a ‘variety mode’ a set of mini-games, and other extras.

Most of these are pretty fun side content. There’s some pretty simple stuff like a small platformer about trying to get to work on time (I know the feeling). There’s also a couple of Smash Bros’-esque modes. A multi-player mode where players fight one and other, which doesn’t really work because these characters were obviously not made with competitive gameplay in mind and certain characters (Orbulon, Ashley) are way better than others (Penny, 9-Volt). The other is a multi-man smash mode where you go up against evil versions of the characters and a master hand like Wario. This one is pretty brainless but the novelty is fun.

Extras and Prezzies

Firstly beating the campaign unlocks all of the characters and microgames which you can then play individually for high scores on the microgame page. You can also play specific challenge rounds such as endless microgame and one life microgame challenges.

Playing microgames and mini-games also gives you in-game coins. These can be traded for ‘prezzies’ which can be gifted to each of the characters. These unlock different color palettes and unlockable artwork. These are neat little collectibles that help add more replayability to the game.

Thoughts on WarioWare: Get It Together

WarioWare Get It Together is frantic, energetic, and overall fun. The pure fun of running through a course of weird and wacky microgames still feels fresh. The new concept of playable characters and co-op just adds to the feeling of chaos and brings a more challenging dynamic to the game.

The number of extras and collectibles also bring some extra value to the game and can bring you back. What holds the game back is that is it still quite a short game. You will likely finish the main story mode within an evening or a weekend at most and whether the extra content grips you will really come down to you as a person. Personally, I can see myself flicking back on to WarioWare every now and then for a crash course of microgame mayhem but I know that others would likely find it getting stale after a while.

WarioWare’s flare and personality are definitely more than to get you to dive in but it right not be enough to get you to stay for long.

As of writing this, the game is currently at the top of the Nintendo E-Shop charts. And consider how well the Switch is doing, that means it’ll probably make a good amount of profit. I’m glad, I want the Wario series to get bigger and better!

WarioWare: Get It Together

Publisher: Nintendo

Developer: Intelligent Systems

Release Date: 2021-09-10

Nintendo Switch

Wario is back in the world of microgames—literally! Take on over 200 quick and quirky microgames—lightning-fast minigames filled with frantic fun—solo or with a friend! When his latest harebrained business scheme goes awry, Wario must use his signature style (and smell) to fix it. How? By playing twisted collection microgames of course! From assembling a robot to pulling out a statue’s armpit hair, the WarioWare: Get It Together! game is a comedic, cooperative microgame mashup.

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