Game & Wario

Sorry I haven't updated lately. I've been having problems with my wisdom teeth, and it's had me in no mood to do much of anything. I'll try to do better.

I'd like to talk a bit about Game & Wario. In the past I've written reviews for games, or at least what I called reviews. I'm not going to do that anymore. I've never really liked reviews. Everyone has different tastes. Who am I to say what is good or what is bad? All I can really do is say what I like and what I don't. So I'm going to do that now with this game.

I've seen some reviews from around the web for this, and most of them haven't been spectacular, but I've really been enjoying the game. If you've played any of the numerous WarioWare games you'll know what to expect with this one, but at the same time you won't. It's a bit different. That might be why they didn't actually call this a WarioWare game. Instead of numerous crazy microgames, you're given a series of minigames to play. About a dozen are single player, and a handful more for multiplayer. Each game is much more involved than the microgames we used to see in Wario games, and they feature multiple difficulty levels. Playing through and beating all the games on all the difficulties will take you some time.

Nintendo tried to incorporate the Wii U Gamepad into the games, clearly, with many featuring touch and tilt controls, but there's not much groundbreaking here. The real gem is the minigame called Gamer. This is the one minigame that really shows what dual screen gaming can be. You play as the kid 9-Volt. You're supposed to be in bed, but you're playing a handheld game. On the Gamepad screen is the game. These are the traditional WarioWare-style microgames. They all use just the d-pad and A button. On the TV you see 9-Volt's bedroom. You have to pay attention for clues that your mother is about to come in and check on you. If she catches you up, it's game over. And she can come from all over. At times she even comes out of the TV like the little girl in The Ring! If she comes in, you need to hold ZL and ZR to pretend you're asleep. If you do this too long, though, you'll actually fall asleep and it's game over. The entire time this is going on you need to also concentrate on the microgames on the Gamepad. Fail too many times and it's game over! So you really need to split your attention between the Gamepad and your TV. It's a very cool game that gets really tough, and it shows what kind of stuff the Wii U is capable of brilliantly. It's just a shame this is the only minigame that does. All of the others are fun, but they're not anything we haven't seen before on the DS systems.

When all is said and done, I would recommend the game to those who are a fan of the WarioWare series, or those looking for something fun to waste time with on the Wii U. And you can spend a lot of time on it. There are 240 collectibles to get, each requiring a token to spend in a virtual vending machine. You only get the tokens from playing the minigames, so you'll be playing a lot if you want to unlock everything. Considering how much time you can put into it, I'd say the game is a pretty good value at $40.

Have you played it? Let me know what you think in the comments below. As always, thanks for reading. Tell your friends if you enjoy the blog, and follow me on Twitter @RevLink_GI!