Me and Wario both have a lot in common. We both enjoy the sweet smell and taste of garlic, we’re both a bit on the tubby side, we are both relatively poor, and, most importantly, we both have a passion for games.

Wario and his ‘friends’ from Diamond City are finally back, now with over 300 different microgames. You better get ready to pick some noses, pull off some smooth moves, and much more before time runs out in WarioWare Gold for Nintendo 3DS Family Systems.

WAAAAH! I’m not tubby, just big boned… yeah, big boned. Also, I have plenty of friends, I paid them plenty of coins to hang around me. Some would I was being two generous giving them ten whole coins (to share), so I gave them five instead. Why did I even give you this game for FREE when you’re just gunna insult me!

Errrm, okay… so, is WarioWare Gold’s fun factor as hefty as a lovely bar of gold, or is it more empty than Wario’s wallet? Find out in our review, after the break!

HEY!

WarioWare Gold
Nintendo 3DS Family Systems
Developed by Intelligent Systems
Published by Nintendo
Released: 27th July 208
Review copy provided by Nintendo

It may seem a bit odd or out of place that a game like WarioWare would have a story, but it is still a nice touch to bring everything together, and at least gives the progression some sort of purpose. In WarioWare Gold’s case, Wario has just come back from ‘totally not’ stealing some shiny treasures, but returns home to find out that he’s broke.

Instead of doing the logical and, you know, selling some of his treasure for cash, he instead comes up with the idea to rope his ‘friends’ to create games for his Wario Bowl Competition. The entry fee is 10,000 coins, but the grand prize (whether or not Wario decides to part with it) is 10,000,000 coins! Sure, there’s someone who seems to have a grudge against of Wario, but what could possibly go wrong.

That treasure was rightfully mine, I found it fair and square. So what if it was in someone’s home, no one was watching it!

Okay, whatever you say. Of course, when it comes down to it, WarioWare is all about the microgames, and WarioWare Gold doesn’t shy away from this, in fact, the title has 300 different microgames, and this doesn’t even include the boss games. Roughly fifty of these are brand new, but the rest are all olden goldies (or is that golden oldies), which aim to make WarioWare Gold the ultimate compilation to boast the series’ frantically fun history.

In the Story Mode, each character’s set of minigames will have a different theme, for example Jimmy’s games are all about sports, whereas 9-Volts set celebrates Nintendo’s history. Each character will also be split into three different leagues: the Mash League, the Twist League, and the Touch League. Depending on the league will determine which controls you need to use… which should be pretty self explanatory. For the most part, you won’t need to change controls mid set, but as you progress through the story, this will surely change to keep you on your toes.

HEYYYY! You talk too much. We have sporty games, weird games, and Nintendo games. In the mash league you mash mash mash, in the twist league you twist twist twist, and in the touch league you touch touch touch! There, explanation OVER!

The microgames may be short, but a lot of them are bizarre enough to leave a lasting impression, that’s the beauty of them. One game has you tilting the system to poke candies out of someone’s cheeks, another has you guiding theatre guests to the correct bathroom based on ones or twos (who knew there were different bathrooms for that). If a microgame doesn’t happen to have that bizarre of a premise, then there will surely be some bizarre result at the end. It only becomes more frantic and hilarious as the speed and level increases, assuming you don’t loose all four lives.

Once the ‘story’ has been completed, there is still plenty more to do afterwards. Some may choose to revisit old story stages, as not only will it allow you to play microgames you probably missed in the first run, but each stage becomes endless after completion, so you can try to beat your best score. If you want more of a challenge, then you better go to… well, the Challenge mode. The challenges here essentially present you with a random succession of microgames, this time with a different set of rules.

You’ll find your regular selection of challenges you’d see in WarioWare games, such as all the microgames set at the highest difficulty while only having one life, or playing all the games at hyper speed, but there are also some really unique challenges too. Sneaky Gamer, which originally debuted in Game and Wario for the Wii U, is a personal favourite. You play a 9-Volt who is playing microgames when he should be sleeping, if you see 5-Volt (your mother) come by on the top screen, you’ll need to quickly make it look like you’re sleeping.

Parents are so lame! Giving you bedtimes, taking away your games… telling you off for going through their wallet, they’re no fun!

Speaking of rude interruptions, another rather cool challenge has you playing microgames as per usual, but Wario will make frequent interruptions, such as turning the game upside-down, or even farting on your screen… ewwwwww! Luckily you can try to get rid of those distractions earlier by rubbing the screen, tilting the system, mashing buttons, or even blowing into the microphone. These challenges offer a lot more variety in how you play microgames, and trying to beat your scores is sure to increase that replay value even further. There are a few other challenges, but I’ll leave that up to you to discover… either through playing the game or Google.

While playing microgames, or even completing the many missions (essentially achievements),Ā  you’ll start accumulating gold coins. These coins can be used in the virtual capsule machine to unlock a vast range of different goodies. You could unlock brand new mini-games (including the ultra popular Super Pyoro), cutscenes that you can dub your own voice over, character cards (these can be used in a fun deck building game later on), musical tracks from previous WarioWare games (including their Japanese counterparts), mysterious yet pretty useless telephone conversations, information on a range of old Nintendo gizmos, and plenty of other nicknacks… who know’s what you’ll get. You could even earn more coins by selling Amiibo paintings. Be sure to watch out for Meowtroid 2: Return of Sameow! Even though some of the souvenirs are pretty useless, there’s still quite a lot to have fun with.

Hmmmmmmm… maybe I shoulda charged more for this game, looks like it’s packed full of top quality games and gizmos… too many games and gizmos!

WarioWare Gold, for the first time in the entire series, boasts full voice acting for all the characters. Before, you’d just hear certain phrases while playing mini games, but now each character is fully voiced in the cutscenes too. The majority of the casting is really good, and supports the quirky writing.

WarioWare Gold doesn’t really add anything new to the franchise. You know what though? I think that, although it’s a tad disappointing, that’s absolutely okay. It’s brilliant to actually get a brand new WarioGame after nine long years, and this one boasts of of the best WarioWare has to offer, which is frantically fun microgames, lots of little things to play around with, and totally bizarre content… though I’ll always miss Wobbly Bobbly from WarioWare Inc. Mega Party Games, I destroyed people with that in game nights. Whether you’re entering a relay race with a gorilla, wasting bog roll, playing an extreme version of patty cake, you’re in for a barrel (or 3DS) full of fun and laughs!

Want a game with a fully fledged story and a full on adventure… then why are you even considering getting this game, however if you are looking for a game perfect for short yet totally bizarre bursts which has a lot of content to keep you occupied for multiple games, then I fully recommend WarioWare Gold!

Final Rating – 4 out of 5

You heard the twerp’s totally unbiased review. Go buy my game! NOW NOW NOW!!!

WarioWare Gold is out now for Nintendo 3DS Family systems.

Leon Fletcher

I am a huge Nintendo fan, hence why NintyBuzz exists. I especially love all things Zelda and Metroid. NintyBuzz was started by me back in the Summer of 2014, it started out mainly as a hobby, though the site has gradually grown, and I hope it grows for many years to come!