LogFAQs > #951316340

9. WarioWare, Inc.: Mega MicroGame$! (GBA, 2003)
There are all types of games in this Wario collection, and they're the best in the world!

WarioWare was definitely one of those games that I (and possibly the public at large) didn't quite know what to make of when it was released right in the middle of the GC/GBA era. Off the heels of compilation games like Game & Watch Gallery and mini-game extravaganzas in the Mario Party series, WarioWare boasted "microgames" and a really bizarre aesthetic that combined...Nintendo nostalgia and gross humor? It seemed like a game that didn't really know what it wanted to be. Funnily enough, though, I think WarioWare always had that part nailed, and it was the public that just hadn't seen anything quite like it before. Five (or more, depending on what you're counting) main games later, and WarioWare still is absolutely the same as it's ever been - innovative and energetic and absurd and brilliant, and there's nothing like it at all - and despite my love for the series in its entirety, the original is the one I'm always coming back to, year after year, to best my high scores just one more time.
The game's internal premise is that Wario, watching TV on the couch, catches a news report of a hot video game selling mad numbers, and schemes up his own game as a means of making big bucks. Of course, he's too lazy to do any of the work himself, so he offloads it onto his "friends", the motley crew of characters that comprise most of the game's stages. (Wario heads the introductory and final levels.) Externally, the game is about clearing series of "microgames", three-second challenges that give a quick command (Jump! Run! Dodge!) and the user has to complete a simple task, which will demand no more than the D-Pad and/or the A button. In the story levels, you've got about 15 or 25 per level, culminating in a slightly more complex boss mini-game. Clear all 11 story stages, and you beat the game, hooray! Of course, that's not really where it ends, because WarioWare is, for the most part, an oldschool arcade "high score" game in disguise. After clearing any stage, you can replay it, but it will last infinitely (well, scores do cap out at 999), and the goal is just to keep going as it gets faster and more difficult. There are also a handful of extra unlockable challenge stages, and a few endless versions of some of the microgames. There's even several actual arcade-style games, such as remade versions of Sheriff and the Mario Paint Fly Swatter mini-game, along with original games like Pyoro and a full playable version of NES Dr. Mario (retitled Dr. Wario, of course) that add a lot of depth and replayability.
But it's the main stages that are the real winner - the merging of the aforementioned high score-game sensibility with the unique (and constantly randomized) microgames builds a challenge equal parts execution and reaction time. And as a player gets more intimately familiar with every detail of the microgames, and is able to progress farther and farther into a stage, their ability to remain focused and anticipate is as keenly tested as it was at the beginning. The concept here isn't that any of the individual games are very deep or even particularly interesting, but they encompass such a broad range of challenges that the possibility of the next moment is always going to keep you on your toes, physically and mentally.
And I think it's lovely that a game that can absolutely get stressful or overwhelming, in theory, doesn't take itself seriously in any capacity; the game's lead is Wario, for goodness' sake. All of the story missions are varying degrees of absurd and silly - Mona's stage has a monkey throwing banana peels using a VR headset to keep chasing cop cars at bay so she can speed off to work on time. And while I adore the character designs (even if some of the in-game art is downright ugly, which is of course fitting anyway somehow) I have even greater reverence for the inside-jokes that span both the game itself and the entire series, ranging from an abundance of stages about picking noses to a doofy little sit-up guy who appears when you successfully saw a log in half.
WarioWare is one of those games that I don't expect everyone to really love, and it probably seems a little out of place in an all-time top 10, but I still have yet to play a game that does anything quite like it. While it has the same vague structure as a classic arcade game, what I love about it is that it doesn't feel like you lose at the end of a stage when it's simply gotten too fast to do anymore (this excludes the "play a single game over and over until you fail four times" mode, which is by far my least favorite part of any of the WarioWare games). Your game overs feel fair, but also tantalizing in a "I know I can absolutely do better" kind of way. And the original game just seems to have the perfect balance in its stages (okay, Orbulon's is too easy and I have gotten 999 on it, but the rest of the game...) that makes me return to this one more than the more novel Touched, Twisted, or Smooth Moves, or even the outstanding compilation of Gold. I've put in hundreds (possibly even a thousand) hours into the original, and hey, I have some pretty good scores that at least rate well enough with some of the leaderboards I've found online. WarioWare's portability and the ability to jump in and out of games quickly makes it something perfectly suited to my gaming tastes, and undoubtedly, there's gonna be a time when I get lost into it all over again.

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it's an underwater adventure ride