N-Philes :: News :: Wario Ware Inc. Mega Party Game$

Viewing Entry

Wario Ware Inc. Mega Party Game$

It was a long, long walk back to my house. I had just walked to my local game shop to pick up Mario Party 5, for my friends and I craved a new party experience. It's those types of games – party games – that can keep my XBOX friends interested in gaming during the droughts that they grudgingly face. It's these types of games that we want, nay, need to play constantly to keep the boredom from settling in. There's nothing to do outside. Why even bother when we can camp out inside, staring at a television screen, waiting for our skin to get pastier and pastier as hours pass. Oh, do those hours pass.

Typical party game scenario. You invite some friends over. No special occasion, maybe to see the latest Ben Stiller/Owen Wilson spectacle, kick back, and enjoy your library of games. It all starts off in good, competitive fun – You're all yelling trivial "mother" jokes back and forth as one destroys another's vehicle in a light-hearted game of Kirby Air Ride. You've got a variety of snacks laid out in front of you while two enjoy the couch – right in front of the action – while two others sit directly in back with Wavebirds in hand. Eventually you notice something – the playful insults have stopped. The snacks have not been touched for a half an hour. If you look to the right of you, you'll see blank stares. A part of them are in a trance. Another part of them may be a little bit hungry, or even bored. Now you only move – albeit slightly – during the win/lose dialogs.

It was another long, long walk back to my house. This time a friend decided to come for the walk. Being lazy gamers we decided that taking driving lessons would be a pointless waste of time, so we just walk everywhere. Armed with $50 (After tax, just short of the copy of Virtua Fighter for the Sega Saturn that I had no idea the game shop stocked), I had purchased the Gamecube incarnation of one of my favorite handheld games – Wario Ware Inc. Mega Micro Game$. I had always figured, ever since it was announced in Japan as Atsumare!! Made in Wario, that this game was specifically made for people just like me. I love party games, I love Wario Ware and most of all, I love quirky Japanese things. And whatever was previously conceived in any three of the categories doesn't matter, because Wario Ware Inc. Mega Party Game$ outperforms in every aspect.

Yes, that was a lot of aimless jargon that I could probably do without, and I'm probably starting to sound a little diffuse, but all of this drivel has a good cause. My point is that Wario Ware transcends these trance-inducing party games of the past. There is not one moment of playing Wario Ware Inc. Mega Party Game$, whether it be with a single friend or with 16 people crammed into your basement (not to be pretentious – I'm lucky if I know 16 gamers at all), where you will not be smiling. You will always be yelling and laughing at your friends during the games, and you will never forget any attribute of the playful competition that so many party games before have tried to achieve. Wario Ware Inc. Mega Party Game$ is the epitome of these games because it manages to fuse a unique visual experience with physical activity – almost like a giddy, over-the-top game of charades.

From the moment you look at the packaging you'll notice the immense amount of charm this game contains. Everything is written as if Wario himself were speaking to you. The back of the package says in noticeable type, "HEY! BUY MY GAME!". The instruction booklet says right on the front, "My mysterious diary of mystery," indicating that Wario and the crew are going to be on a more personal level with you than some drab, run-of-the-mill instruction manual. The manual even has some games, much like the one from the Game Boy Advance game. Yes, I realize these are fictional characters, but this all adds tons to the charm of the game and really shows some of the wacky personality of the developers.

When you boot up the game, you're immediately assaulted with a random Monty Python-inspired animation. It might be Wario's face on a fish body flying through the air. It might be just some scary looking person staring at you. Whatever it is, you'll always smirk at its somewhat-humbling presence, knowing that the world of Wario Ware is a strange one. It's random scenes like this that you may find in these colorful games that constantly make you realize how much talent and creativity developers still have in this somewhat predictable industry – in that sometimes you need these games of a different aesthetic. It's a shame that more games like these aren't released outside of Japan to really give other markets a better mix of culture. The sleeper success of games like Wario Ware, Parappa the Rapper, etc. should have proven that the American market sometimes look for these quirky titles from Nintendo, Namco, Nana OnSha and the likes.

Naturally, with any capricious title such as WW:MPG, the aspects of the game that you see and hear need to be equally as eccentric. Those familiar with the graphical style of odd games such as Panic! for the Sega CD (sorry, just had to drop some completely obscure Sega CD reference there), Game Boy Camera and Wario Ware Inc. Mega Microgame$ will feel right at home here. The meat of the gameplay revolves around the microgames from the previous Wario Ware, so fans of the game should be at comfort with its strange presentation. The new animations made specifically for the game – and by these animations I mean the surprisingly straight-foward menu Nintendo has developed – are not nearly as high in "What the..." value as the actual microgames themselves, but once you get in game the weird comes metaphorically raining down on you.

That being said, the graphics aren't impressive by any extent – although it may as well be with very good cause to keep the action fun and simple enough for the whole party to pick the game up and play (which, isn't always what will happen, but I'll touch on this later). For those of us with the pleasure of owning both a Game Boy Player and Wario Ware, you will notice that the graphics seem to be halfway between "Normal" display and "Smooth" display. Now, this may very well be a visual trick – the game itself frequently switches from the crisp, hand-drawn graphics to the Game Boy emulation. However, this is barely noticeable and nothing that will hinder the gameplay to any extent. You'd have to pay attention really carefully to really even notice these subtle effects as I may be a bit over-analytical. Regardless, these are Game Boy Advance graphics on your Gamecube console, so don't expect any true graphical feats.

Like I mentioned earlier, one can't help but be humbled by some of the visuals that you will come across in this game. It truly is difficult to judge the overall graphical presentation contained in the party games because the style changes far too frequently. At one point you may be controlling a fire hose which will be shooting circles (indicating water) at this splash of red hanging out of a box in a rectangle, which clearly indicates a building. Five seconds later you're face to face with a realistic picture of a motionless collie - a quick 5 seconds that is extremely reminiscent of the classic accessory known as the Game Boy Camera.

Unfortunately, WW:MPG is missing the animations between microgames in the overly-apt single player mode. Gone are the animations of water being flushed down the toilet – say hello to an open-shut elevator door with the character's faces on it. This was a letdown for me as it does take away some of the single player magic that the first game captured (or rather, because Wario Ware had no significant multiplayer mode that these quirks almost seemed necessary). Gone also are the original movies that played before facing the character's bank and after completing it. These have been replaced with brand new movies – unlockables – that seem to tie the characters into eachother for... whatever they were doing. There's no real story to Wario Ware, not like there should be, but these animations seem dispensable and are more for some kind of a fan service rather than add anything to the game.

To compliment the strange graphics there is an equally abnormal sound to Wario Ware Inc.. It's a unique sound, it's easy on the ears yet oftentimes genuinely confusing. The music for the microgames, as well as the sound effects, all seem to be reworked. However, it becomes quite apparently – to any seasoned Wario Ware player – that the music is just the Game Boy Advance's synth cleaned up. Thankfully, the Game Boy Advance has a decent enough synth for the music to sound unusually fantastic when the staticy white-noise is removed. It's proof that any Game Boy Advance game that has a decent score (for example, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance among others) can sound very clean when listening to the soundtrack in its true form.

Wario Ware can oftentimes feel like somewhat of a music-based game. The 5 second songs fit in extremely well with the tone of each microgame – which the designers obviously knew would fit well depending on the graphical style of the game thereof.

Many of us remember from the Game Boy Advance game (or should remember) when first playing Dribble & Spitz or Kat & Ana's bank. A friend would turn around and say, "...are these vocals in this Game Boy Advance game?" Yes, you got your vocals in my Game Boy Advance game, and you did it quite well. When Atsumare!! Made In Wario was first announced, the first thing that popped into my head was, "I hope they remake Kat & Ana's theme." After playing nearly every aspect of Wario Ware I was saddened by the fact that I had not heard arrangements of either Dribble & Spitz's theme or Kat & Ana's theme. The next day I had discovered one of the greatest unlockables (read: fan service) in any Wario Ware game – music videos. I will not spoil, but although the music videos are kind of bland (albeit humbling, again), they still keep me in awe every time I watch them.

Now we get to the meat-and-potatoes of Wario Ware, or what should be the most important part of any game, the gameplay. By now we're pretty certain that there's no deep story mode, there's no princess to save, nor is there a majestic main character (or villian). There are no pretty, high-quality rendered cinemas, or an award winning orchestrated score. The casual gamer wouldn't give it a second look before putting it back on the rack – the friend might go, "Hey, I heard this game was fun because internet superman (note: much credit to Mike Sharp) Steven DeSiena of popular gaming super-site N-Philes.com said so." "No, let's buy Ninja Gaiden instead."

The truth of the matter is, and you can quote me on this, Wario Ware Inc. Mega Party Game$ is one of the best party games for the Gamecube, and quite possibly one of the best party games of all time – on the television screen or off. There is no way to comprehend the sheer amount of amusement and absurdity that is Wario Ware until you invite some friends over for a couple games of everything it has to offer.

In that sense, Wario Ware is a very fun game which stays true to the original game – ironically notwithstanding the single-player mode, in which is there is little incentive to complete if you've been through some of the more tedious moments in the Game Boy Advance game – even if this was highly unnecessary for it to be a successful game altogether. It's because of its unique multiplayer experience that manages to mix real-life physical activity with over-the-top visuals flawlessly that make Wario Ware Inc. Mega Party Game$ what it is, and shows the true genius of the designer's complex thoughts wrapped up in this simple package.

When you first turn on the game and select "Multiplayer" mode, you'll notice that only one game is unlocked – the 4 player "Survival" type game. Other games are unlock by simply playing every other game unlocked (and for the record, I never insisted that the replay value will revolve around unlockables, because it's one of the most blunt aspects of the entire game). This is fine, because it's probably the first game you'd play anyway. Once you unlock all the modes, however, the fun simply does not end.

In Balloon Bang, one player controls the mini-game while the remaining players tap the A button to blow up a balloon sitting on top of the television set. If the player currently engaged in a minigame defeats it, he moves to the back of the line and the next player in queue gets to play. However, if the player misses, he or she must continue playing until they win. These matches generate some of the most intense games in any multiplayer event – when the balloon is almost ready to pop a siren wails and the screen starts flashing red. The panic and bedlam this has caused in my basement could quite possibly be picked up by the Richter scale. It's one of the most complex and entertaining variations of hot potato I have ever seen.

Another game, and quite possibly one of the most important games in Wario Ware since it was one of the most hyped, is Listen to the Doctor. In this minigame, players take turn completing microgames which doing whatever the psuedo-cardboard cut-out figure "doctor" tells you do to. A small example would be "While saying "WOW" like you're surprised..." isn't nearly enough to show how zany these matches could get. Although this game also seems to rely heavily on the personality of the players – especially since the winner is determined by how much the other players liked your performances.

There are many other games for players to get into, ranging from 16-player Survival modes (which, although I admittedly have not been able to try, is incredibly pointless with anything less than 5 non-seasoned players) to cooperative games to simultaneous 4-Player games consisting of variations from WW:MMG unlockables. Every game seems to incorporate the general wackiness of the microgames quite nicely. A very welcome feature to Wario Ware Inc. Mega Party Game$ is the ranking feature. That is, each character's file (you must create a file for anyone playing – up to 16 files may be created) have Game Data that shows your rankings. This shows you various aspects of your performance including speed, intelligence, agility, etc. The higher your levels in your ranking, the more difficult the microgames will be when playing the multiplayer mode. This gives the game a well-needed handicap to those not familiar with the microgames. This game will not make first-time friends happy until they get the general idea of what each microgame consists of. The microgames, not being incredibly deep, are usually simple timing games, and any new gamer should be able to get a good grasp of what's going on in at least a half an hour.

If I may stray from the path a bit – this game is not the second coming of Christ, I'm just being incredibly audacious right now. The single player mode, at least in my house, is rarely touched. It's significantly worse than the one in the original because of a few major things. The second I picked up Wario Ware Inc. Mega Microgame$ I immediately knew two things. One, this game is great on the go and two, this game would make a great party game. My attempts at making Wario Ware as a party game by alternating controls playing through a single-player mode via Game Boy Player were a success (or at least I thought so). Atsumare!! Made In Wario was the answer to my prayers, and the American version was well worth the wait.

I think the biggest problem, regardless of the fact that the microgames seem harder in the Gamecube incarnation, is complete and utter lack of variety. You can still play through the character's banks (indicated by one option in single-player mode), as well as obscure Easy, Hard and Thrilling options. In addition, you can also play each microgame by flipping through a "photo album" (yes, you still need to complete the scores of each to unlock something, no, it's not worth it) containing every microgame unlocked from the start of the game. There goes that aspect of Wario Ware's fantastic replay value.

This game gets an N-Philes score of A.

If you need to read anything, please read this. Wario Ware Inc. Mega Party Game$ is so much clean, innocent fun, it transcends nearly every party game before it. It is perfect for parties and gatherings, even if the attendees aren't all into video games.

Posted in: Reviews