A shallow Tech-demo…Writer’s note: This was supposed to be a quick pit-stop for my reviews but life happened. Anyway, There isn’t much to say about this one. It’s a spin-off of WarioWare and I treated it as such. It’s not WarioWare I know that and approached the game with that in mind.

Game and Wario is here to show the several ways you can use the Wii U pad. Turn, twist, rotate and flip the gamepad in more than a handful of games. Or you can get Nintendo Land for just about the same price and have way more bang for your buck.

I’m gonna design the best game ever and make MILLIONS!!!

Game and Wario doesn’t have that much of a story. It’s the release of a brand new system that has the entirety of Diamond City in its grasp. Wario notices the system’s popularity and in traditional Wario fashion comes up with the idea of making a game that he believes is going to make him millions. Games such as these don’t have any need for a set-up, but it’s as good of an excuse as any to have the nice and colorful cut-scenes. Maybe it was to connect more with the WarioWare brand and give it a bit more recognition or maybe the team just wanted to make some animated cut-scenes. In the end, while Game and Wario’s plot doesn’t matter it’s a great excuse to see these nice scenes and characters come over from the WarioWare series. Game and Wario still manages to have the same visually pleasing animated cut-scenes that don’t use any voice-overs and instead rely on texts. The game makes it lack of voices in cut-scenes work extremely well and it manages to have a charm that in a way feels very similar to mute movies from the days of yore. While Game and Wario doesn’t need any story the cutscenes and intros still look nice and are fun to watch.

The Rhythm Heaven redesigns really help the colorful and incredibly charming cut-scenes.

A new way to play?

Game and Wario is a spin-off of the WarioWare series. That being said it’s not a WarioWare game. Game and Wario has just over a dozen of games which are all longer and make some use of the Wii U’s unique features. The problem however is that there are barely a handful of great games and a lot of unimpressive mediocre ones. The best of the collection is ironically the WarioWare compilation with a spin called Gamer. In Gamer the player assumes the role of 9-Volt who must play WarioWare’s microgames which are shown on the gamepad. The twist however is that 9-Volt is playing during his sleep-time and his rather obsessed mother constantly checks in on him to see if he isn’t playing games. While players must do simple microgames on the gamepad they must also keep an eye out on the TV screen for 9-Volts mother. If she spots you it’s an automatic game over. In order to avoid her, you pretend to sleep which drains energy. It’s an intense and often nerve-wracking challenge when you try to beat the microgames and not get spotted as you avert your eyes for a few seconds between the TV and gamepad. Gamer is an absolute blast. Other games like Pirates, Taxi and Shutter are also pretty fun. Games like Patchwork, Sketch(which is just Pictionary) and Design are also good but lack any depth or variety that they shouldn’t have taken a spot as one of the “main” games and instead should have been in a compilation part of the game. And then there are the games like Ski and Kung Fu which are just boring and a drag to play. Arrow is certainly the worst of the bunch. Arrow requires the player to hold the Gamepad sideways and fire arrows by dragging their finger across the screen, as they would pulling a bow. aiming is done with the gyroscope in the Pad and the further you draw the arrow the farther it will fly. The problem is that the gyro sensors are very sensitive and combined with the pressure of taking your finger off the gamepad it can result in a lot of missed shots. This gets extra bothersome as bosses kill in one hit and are incredibly hard to hit with the before mentioned problems. Another problem is that Arrow is the first game unlocked and you are forced to finish it before you can unlock another game. It makes for an incredibly bad first impression and might even get players to drop the game at the first level. Game and Wario has some neat games, however most of the other games are either boring, a drag, a novel distraction for thirty minutes or just bad.

Ironically the best Game and Wario game is basically WarioWare.

Every style a feast.

Game and Wario is a spin-off of WarioWare and as such it uses a lot of the art design concepts from said series. While the main cut-scenes and characters are done in traditional animation with heavy black outlines, everything else is done in its own and unique style. Much like WarioWare’s microgames which all use different visual styles, Game and Wario keeps up tradition with every game having a distinct and different style. The Taxi game for instance is done in a blocky/”pixel”-esque art-style which looks great and colorful. Every game looks different and all have a unique charm to them. The tittle-screens are some of the highlights of the game. The title screen for Patchworks for instance doesn’t only look just like something a five-year-old would draw but the title music for the game itself also sounds like a melody two five-year-olds learned in art class and are trying to play. It’s clear a lot of attention went into making everything look as wacky and visually appealing as possible. The music is also very great. Most of the songs are the character themes remixed but there are also some really good new tracks in the game too. Game and Wario nails its visuals and music perfectly.

Game and Wario uses a unique art-styles and all of them look great.

An okay tech demo…

Closing note:

Game and Wario nails the design, art, music and charm from what it spun of off, the problem is the actual gameplay part of the game. It’s very bare-bones and with only a few really engaging games players might get bored with it as soon as they finish it the same day they started.The game manages to do the Wario part very well. It’s the Game part that misses its mark. Game and Wario is not worth a forty dollar price of admission but at five bucks it might be something you can waste an afternoon with. The question is if you would rather skip lunch for a day to waste some time on the very bare-bones game.

6/10

This game was reviewed on Wii U. If you are interested in this game you can get it from the following places:

Wii U:

http://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/iKg5eR8WOqF1aGk4hOm6cJSbhwgppTi4