Wario who does not know him? The pleasantly disturbed counterpart of Mario was once known for his crazy mini-game compilations on Nintendo handhelds. However, it remained the last few years – in addition to his performances in Mario Kart & Mario Tennis – remarkably quiet around this crook, his last feat Game & Wario dates already from 2013.
Our Japanese friends at Nintendo thought it was time to change that and that’s why we can now enjoy a completely new – well, yes we can do better old new – WarioWare title. With as many as 300 minigames the biggest Wario compilation ever. We have to mention that the lion’s share of this compilation consists of mini-games from previous parts. We are curious if they have stood the test of time well.
Fast! Faster! The Allersnelst!
As mentioned above, WarioWare Gold is a compilation of 300 mini-games from previous parts with a few new ones in between. All mini-games have been brought to 2018 in such a way that you do not even realize whether you are playing an old or new mini-game. You do not actually have time to think about it because everything is being thrown at you so quickly.
The game also has a campaign mode in which Wario again makes up a snood plan to get rid of their gold for everyone to eat. Of course to you as a player the clean task to show who the mini-game is the boss and thus save the world – well, rather their wallet. The nice and also innovative to the campaign is that all dialogues of the characters have a voice over. I have to admit that the story was not strong and I really had the feeling of a Sunday morning cartoon, but you do not play this game for the plot either, I thought so.
With a little bit of minigame skills, however, you have the campaign within 2 hours – sometimes the WarioWare madness was even too crazy – played out and I found that even a bit too fast. But do not worry, because the real fun begins only when you start the challenge mode.
Can it get even crazier?
It took a while before I realized what the game was really about. Of course you do not save the princess and you see the credits, but after 2 hours and sore fingers I felt a bit of a genesis. Because even though I had played a lot of crazy things – Let a granny do 6 squats, pull out the right nose hair or keep the bogey out – by no means 300 minigames.
No, the real fun only starts with the so-called challenge mode. In this mode you play again a collection of minigames but besides the absurdity of the minigames in itself, a set of crazy rules is thrown at it. So I played a series in which I could adjust the speed of the games by tilting my handheld forwards or backwards. But I also played a series while Wario tried to distract me, he does this by showing objects in front of my screen or throwing ink on my screen.
While I am of this type, I also realize that as a reader you now think that you really do not play this mode for fun. Secretly I have to admit that those extra challenges make playing a lot nicer, but there is also plenty of odds and ends to be gained after playing a series of mini-games. Think of a kind of gallery with all Nintendo related products, but also playing cards – without playing that again – or the possibility to record voice overs in the cutscenes that you unlock.
The 3DS is therefore still relevant
All this makes WarioWare Gold a nice package with sufficient replay value. I have to admit that I had doubts about the compilation approach because I would rather have seen a completely new title instead of a kind of “ best of “. Nevertheless, everything plays great and you do not have any problems with that as a player. Please note that you do not try to play everything in a joke because some mini-games pass through a bit of danger for boredom.
We were also afraid that the Switch – partly because of his ability to also gaming on the road – the 3DS had sent to the console sky. Nevertheless, Nintendo has certainly claimed that this is not the case and they still support the handheld.
With such a crazy title like this they act by word, because on holiday the 2DS can also last a bit so that I can play some crazy mini-games.