WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgames!

WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgames!
"Get ready for video games, done Wario-Style!" — {{{speaker}}}
Protagonist(s): Wario Genre(s): Action Party Platform(s): Game Boy Advance Release Date: jp: March 21, 2003 EU: May 23, 2003 NA: May 26, 2003 AU: June 6, 2003 CHN: July 4, 2005Mega Party Games! JP: October 17, 2003 NA: April 5, 2004 PAL: September 3, 2004 Developer(s): Nintendo R&D1 Intelligent Systems (MPG!) Publisher(s): Nintendo Country: Japan Series: WarioWare Successor: WarioWare: Twisted!

WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgames! (stylized as WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$!) is a minigame compilation game developed and published by Nintendo. Released for the Game Boy Advance, the first game in the WarioWare sub-series. It's mainly about the rapid completion of short microgames given to the player consecutively and with increasing speed per each game complete. A remake titled WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Party Games! (stylized as WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Party Game$!) was released for the Nintendo GameCube co-developed by Intelligent Systems.

Plot

One day while loafing on the couch at home in Diamond City, Wario sees a report on TV about a fictional game Pyoro that made tons of money. Wario thinks of all the cash he could get if he made a game. Wario buys a laptop and turns his house into the headquarters of a newly found company called WarioWare Incorporated. After attempting to make a video game by himself, Wario became lazy and calls up his close friends to help out. Since Wario didn't want to spend too much money on the game, they developed a lot of simple microgames rather than a single full-fledged game.

Why It's 最多 最短 最速 (More! Shorter! Faster!)

1. The concept of microgames that are just a medley of minigames is such an interesting concept of a choice.
2. Introduced a new cast of characters aside from Wario himself. Rather than just simply using already existing Mario or Wario Land characters, we got original characters created for the game and later on joined in later games. The cast consists of the hip Jimmy T., the animal Taxi driver duo Dribble and Spitz, the high schooler Mona, the gamer 9-Volt, the mad scientist Dr. Crygor, the ninja twins Kat and Ana, and the extra terrestrial Orbulon.
3. There are a lot of Microgames to play through with Wario and his friends. Each of the Microgame set is themed on something like Wario's Microgames are more beginner-friendly, Jimmy's is based on sports, Dribble & Spitz's are based on sci-fi, 9-Volt's are based on Nintendo's IPs, and Wario's second stage at the end of the game are a mix of the other genres, but with Wario included one way or another.
4. You can unlock single-player games like Jump Forever and Pyoro. You also get those that are based on some Nintendo IPs like Dr. Wario (a parody of Dr. Mario) and the Gnat Attack minigame from Mario Paint. Dual-player games also exist like the VS Chicken Race.
5. The Kat and Ana's theme, "Four Seasons" and the Dribble and Spitz's theme, "Drifting Away" have vocals that are implemented well for a Game Boy Advance game. They don't sound too low quality and instead sound crisp.
6. The graphics here are just colorful as expected from a high-quality Game Boy Advance game. The colors don't look nauseating. The sprite animations are animated well enough like in the cutscenes.
7. Has a Grid mode. This allows players to play any microgame they have encountered in the Games mode and get target scores in them.
8. Very clever menu. The menu in this game is set up like a computer from the 2000s given the fact that Wario bought himself a laptop as well as the game being released in the early 2000s.
9. In the options menu, you can change the background music in the name change screen by pressing the L button. The only three songs used for the menu are Drifting Away (Dribble and Spitz's stage theme), Dr. Crygor's Bathroom Jam (Dr. Crygor's stage theme), and Four Seasons (Kat and Ana's stage theme). It's a great way to listen to the songs without having to play through the respective stages.
10. You get to have a player character who can have a specific gender. The gender doesn't affect the gameplay, but some cutscenes do depend on the player's gender. For example, Kat and Ana's stage involves them rescuing the player who happens to be the owner of a castle (can either be a prince or a princess).
11. There are some funny moments in the game like in the cutscenes or the microgames themselves. The tone of this game is a good source of laughter if you want to see what kind of antics there are.
12. Has gotten a port on the GameCube called WarioWare, Inc. Mega Party Game$! which focuses more on multiplayer in particular. It has different multiplayer modes like Jimmy's Survival Fever, Wario's Outta My Way, or 9-Volt's Card-e Cards (requires e-Reader cards).
13. Also the graphics in the GameCube port are an improvement compared to the GBA version since it's mostly in crisp 2D.
14. The unlockable VS games (VS Chicken Race, VS Hurdles, etc.) only use the L and R buttons on the GBA (L for P1, R for P2), so no Link Cables are required for multiplayer.

Bad Qualities

1. Voice clips are overused a lot due to the quality of the Game Boy Advance. Despite this, the sound quality isn't bad at least. Even if the sound quality is fine on GBA standards, the non-Wario characters (Jimmy, Mona, Dr. Crygor, 9-Volt, Kat & Ana) have voice clips that are almost monotonous or robotic. Dribble and Orbulon don't really have that problem.
2. It's never explained how Wario met his friends.
3. To unlock Microgames, you have to play the genre the game is in over and over until you see a random new game comes out.
4. A lot of the sound is recycled from Wario Land 4 (especially Wario's voice clips).
5. Despite Mega Party Game$! being focused on multiplayer, it's mostly copied from Mega Microgames!.
6. WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Party Game$! lacks some things that Mega Microgame$! had, like the minigames you can unlock (Paper Plane, Pyoro, Skating Board, etc.).

Reception

The game was critically acclaimed, Eurogamer gave it a 9/10, Nintendo Power gave it a 4.6/5, and NintendoWorldReport gave it a 9.5/10. The game received 89/100 on Metacritic.

Trivia

• Takes inspiration from the Sound Bomber segment from Mario Artist: Polygon Studio from the Nintendo 64DD
• The development team used post-it notes in order to come up with microgame ideas; whenever someone had an idea for a microgame, they would write it down on a note and stick it to the director's table.
• Some microgames were cut because it was either too obscene or "too Japanese" simply because the game developers just wanted players to understand the entire game.
• Wario was chosen as the main character because the developers can't think of anyone else that would be suited for the game. Yoshio Sakamoto said that Wario was chosen to be the main character because he is always doing stupid things and is really idiotic.

References

• Known as Made in Wario (メイド イン ワリオ, Meido in Wario) in Japan and WarioWare, Inc.: Minigame Mania in PAL regions.

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