WarioWare Gold is a party game only for 3DS, which was developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo.
It is meant to be a definitive edition of past WarioWare titles including over 300 both new and returning microgames making it the most up to date title in the series.
WarioWare is clearly being one of the strangest game series that makes entirely no sense, but it is also being one of the creative video game series that was known for numerous of wacky microgames, sense of humour, multiplayer, silly presentation, and other cool stuff which had gained many praises from journalist and fanbase thanks to WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgames! making the first debut in the series for GBA.
It had spawned many titles such as WarioWare Twisted for GBA, WarioWare Touched for DS, WarioWare Smooth Moves for Wii, and WarioWare D.I.Y for DS which was also well received as the previous titles except Game and Wario for Wii U are marked as the weakest entries of all WarioWare series.
It's been for awhile that I haven't been played any of WarioWare games since the titles such as WarioWare, Inc Mega Party Games for Gamecube and WarioWare Twisted for GBA, so I decided to pick up the copy of WarioWare Gold for 3DS which I got so lucky that I bought it for £9 from online store, sounds like a bargain am I right everyone?
I have spend time playing the game on my 3DS for good 2 hours of play discovering 300 playable microgames, challenge modes, and 3 play-style based on previous entries which led me quite satisfied to see how WarioWare Gold had nailed so well on the 3DS.
I love the wacky animation on the presentation, the humorous cast of characters, and of course the it had the silly microgames that keeping us entertaining, but it is also shares with few problems in the game that I will explain more further on my review doesn't mean the game is quite let down because I really liked WarioWare Gold.
So without go further do, let's start the review.
Presentation
The game focuses on greedy villain named Wario, who had ran out of his money the following a treasure hunt in the village of Luxeville, as he decides to run his gaming tournament in Diamond City, while his friends joins him to create some new microgames for the event.
It involves the player, who entered the tournament, must beat all 3 leagues to win the tournament will be rewarded with 10 million coin prize.
The story in the game is somewhat quite silly, but fun that made the game quite interesting to play.
You have Wario had secretly plots to take all the prize money for himself which is the reason why I liked him as the villain who had an obsession with the gold and money.
As the story goes further, you have several of the characters with different story plot such as Jimmy want to take his picture with his fans, Mona searches for dress to wear for her party, Dribble and Spitz fighting off UFOs with their space-flying taxi, 18-Volt participates in a rap battle against 13-Amp to win back a classmate's stolen games, and many more to discover which I think the plot in the game is quite straightforward that really adds up the positively for its overall story.
My favourite part in the game was Dr Crygor are one of the funniest character in the game where he get chased after by a robot with the mop stick and the second part where he had struggled to control his stomach during his grand-daughter Penny's weird experiment that really made me laugh the most.
While most of the characters in the game are pretty solid in the game, I got to say the presentation in the game is actually pretty humorous for most microgames.
You have the guy stalling for the toilet in desperation, the person in plank position bouncing the ball around, the gangster cats plays simon says in freestyle dance, squirting ketchup on fast foods, picking nose with the finger, sniffing snots into nostrils, the jumping frog lands into bathtub, plucking the hair out of onions, feeding Wario with fruits while stretching his mouth, and there's lots of more stuff that been added in the game that the series was being wide known for it's weird personality.
Overall it had interesting storylines, memorable characters, and humorous presentation.
Gameplay
On the story mode, the game had divided into 4 leagues with 5 stages of each 3 leagues and 3 remixed stages at last league, so your main goal is to beat all the leagues by completing each stages based on 3 play-style such as mash, twist, and touch in which I will explain these later on the review.
Each of the microgames falls under a specific genre such as sports, life, fantasy, Nintendo classics, and etc. as most of them involve the concept of microgames where the player must complete each game within a time limit, so you will have 4 lives to survive through the microgames.
As the player keeps playing, the game speeds up making microgames time limits shorter and forcing the player to complete them faster.
If the player wins the microgame then you are moved on the next ones, while if the player loses then your one of four lives will be taken away, while losing all of them causes the game will end with the best 3 scores, so these are the basic rules that made the game quite simple to play.
The mash gameplay involves button mashing mechanics which is based on WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgames as you simply using the d-pad and single button for some microgames.
For example, the microgames such as preventing solicitors entering into Wario's house where you had to mash single button rapidly, jumping over potato and sausage cars, sprinting through 100 meter dash, catching the baseball, sawing the logs, matching the one of 4 fronks, and pin-balling all over the places.
The twist gameplay focuses on gyroscope system based on WarioWare Twisted where you have ability to rotate your system from left to right, but it also included single button as well.
There are some microgames that are highly designed for gyro-motion gameplay mechanics such as lighting up candles, shaving the beard off, lifting up two dumb-bells, hitting assassins with samurai's sword, unlocking safecracker, putting the golf ball into hole, deflecting the hazardous objects, and selecting star screen on Wii menu.
The touch gameplay utilising the touch screen system based on WarioWare Touched where you can navigate the touch screen using the stylus pen.
The microgames that uses the touch screen play such as slicing the food in fruit ninja style, sterling your coffee, empty all toilet paper as possible, wiping off whiteboards, writing Japanese character letter perfectly, petting your animals, and shooting the cans off.
There's one of the new play-style were included in the game called ultra league where you can play each of the micro-games with all 3 play-styles that I've mention above, but is also featuring a mics mechanics that you can use the built-in mic on the 3DS system for some microgames such as blowing up balloon till it pops and shooting grapes with spit dart.
Three of these playstyle had worked really well for most microgames as the mash buttons are quite simple to use that does not require all buttons to get it work which means you only need a d-pad to move and navigate, as well as the single action button.
I got to say the twisting system are surprisingly playable due to system's built-in gyroscope are feeling tight smooth and responsive which is the reason why I liked WarioWare Twisted for its tilting mechanics had worked flawlessly for most microgames.
The touch mechanics is also pretty good when using the stylus pen to navigate things on the bottom screen are also responsive for most microgames, but my least favourite part of the game is the mics system on ultra league which I don't really want to keep blowing at the 3DS mic system because it got pretty lazy for some microgames with zero variation whatsoever, but overall the controls system of all 3 play-styles is actually played well for most part.
The story mode is pretty good for overall because the game is not ridiculously long that only takes 1 to 2 hours to beat the game which I think it's a fair length play filled with great leagues and has amazing selection of microgames to play, but I over heard the people saying that they finding the story mode is somewhat lacking challenge in comparison with challenge mode because most of the pro players finding the game way too easy to play which may not going to satisfy them enough, but to me I didn't have a same problem as everyone do because no matter what difficulty you are playing on as long as you can enjoy the game properly.
I got to say I really liked the challenge mode on WarioWare Gold because it features 8 amazing game modes that you can able to enjoy even more such as all mixed up, thrill ride and super hard which mixes all the microgames from all stages but makes the game even harder to beat and the better it's plays.
You have Wariowatch where you have to complete microgames as possible to get high scores till the clock reaches 0, the Wario Interrupts involves all microgames where he can unleash a distraction to block with or mess with the microgames, the cruise control focuses on controlling speed with 3DS's tilting mechanics while playing all microgames, the split-screen focuses on Kat and Ana take turns at playing microgames on both different screen, and my favourite of all challenge mode is sneaky gamer where you take control of 9-Volt playing microgames after bedtime while avoiding being caught by his mother 5-Volt.
With all the great challenge mode, there are a local 2-player versus mode called battle time where both of the players battle against each other by playing the same microgame at the same time as well as the objective is to keep playing microgames until the opponent loses their last life which is pretty cool, but it's kinda bummer they didn't include several of the multiplayer modes from WarioWare, Inc Mega Party Games which could have made the game even fun with families and buddies.
Overall, it has great selection of microgames, good story mode, entertaining challenge mode, and of course solid gameplay mechanics.
Graphics
I got to say the graphics are pretty outstanding in whole game. I really liked the cartoony style of presentation filled with colourful environments and goofy animation that looked pretty good on the actual cutscenes. It has strange game's design for most microgames filled with wacky sense of humour and silly looking art style that made the game look funnier and comedic which is the reason why it looked spectacular on handheld gaming device and I also liked the overall design of all characters with great facial expression that really adds their overall personality.
As the game has appealing visuals and characters, the 3D functionally wasn't included in the game which totally makes sense as you don't really need a 3D effects to make the game look good because it's looked better the way it should be, cuz it's f***ing WarioWare, duhhhh!!!
Overall, it has cartoony presentation, colourful environments, goofy animation, and wacky looking game's design.
Music and Sounds
The original music in whole game is sounds terrific for most part. You have the cool character's theme songs such as spooky Ashley's theme is kinda has the Addams Family vibes, the Mona's Pizza song makes you wanted to eat pizza hut, the Rap Battle between 18 volt and 13 amp are sounds totally rad dude, and of course lets start partying with Wario de Mucho are the most recognisable parts in the game which was composed by Daichi Aoki and Yasuhisa Baba.
The sound effects in the game is sounds remarkably amazing for most microgames as it has cartoony jingles, background noises, and chanting voice which I find the overall sound design sounds pretty good on the 3DS's stereo speaker.
It is one of the first WarioWare games featuring fully voice characters on most cutscenes which is fantastic for most casts in the game especially with Wario was voiced by Charles Martinet, a recognisable voice actor behind Mario series, did a stunning job on his role in the game.
Overall, it has catchy soundtrack, comedic sound design, and fantastic voice cast in the game.
Special Features
The game came with the unlockables where you can unlock all the souvenirs from the capsules after earning enough coins from the microgames.
It features records to listen your favourite soundtrack, the studios lets you dub the lines on the cutscenes, it had mini games to play such as mewtroid, micro golf and other random stuff, the phone lets you contact by using one of the phone's codes, the movies has selection of watchable cutscenes, the cards lets you discover all the character's cards, and of course have a fun playing with the capsule toys which included the small details on the description.
While it had over 300 unlockable souvenirs which is cool, but I kinda think it is not enough features in the game, so I wish they could have been done better by adding more extra stuff in the game that will rewarded you with many surprises, but overall it's okay at best.
Overall, it has over 300 unlockables souvenirs, but lacking surprises.
Advantages
Wacky Presentation
Wicked sense of humour
Great selection of microgames
Solid gameplay
Good Story mode
Entertaining challenge modes
Amazing visuals
Disadvantages
Lazy mics microgames on ultra league
Not enough multiplayer modes
Lacking extra surprises
Final Verdict
Presentation 8/10 - interesting storylines, memorable characters, and humorous presentation.
Gameplay 8.5/10 - great selection of microgames, good story mode, entertaining challenge mode, and of course solid gameplay mechanics.
Graphics 8.5/10 - cartoony presentation, colourful environments, goofy animation, and wacky looking game's design.
Music and Sounds 8.5/10 - catchy soundtrack, comedic sound design, and fantastic voice cast in the game.
Special features 6/10 - over 300 unlockables souvenirs, but lacking surprises.
Overall 8.5/10 - Despite the few problems, WarioWare Gold makes the fascinating return to its roots since the abysmal title like Game and Wario for Wii U didn't live up to series reputation, but this game has everything you need from WarioWare series filled with strange visuals, fun packed microgames, and addicting game modes that keeps you more busy with the game.
I am glad that I had a tons of fun playing this game over and over because WarioWare is a family fun party game that everyone should gets a hands on with the series.
Is this game deserves an recommendation to all? the answer is yes, go pick this copy up and it only cost between £10 to £20 from online retail store which is not an expensive price to purchase this awesome game.
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