WarioWare Gold
WarioWare Gold | |
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WarioWare Gold
Similar to previous entries, in WarioWare Gold, the player is tasked with completing consecutive "microgames" at increasing paces. Gold features both microgames from past entries in the series and some new ones for a total of over 300 microgames, the most featured in the series to date. After completing the story mode, additional modes such as the challenge mode are unlocked. The game's creative director, Goro Abe, put careful planning in determining which 300 of the 1,100 microgames across the series would be featured. Gold also featured voice acting, a first for the series. Intelligent Systems focused less on collectible items and more on core programming after deeming them not as important.
Gold received generally positive reviews, being praised for its graphics, additional modes, and the introduction of voice acting in multiple languages. Reception of its various collectibles was split, with some finding them worthwhile while others on the contrary. The game sold poorly at first but later spiked in 2020 in the United Kingdom. A follow-up for the Nintendo Switch, WarioWare: Get It Together!, was released in 2021.
Gameplay
As is tradition for a WarioWare game, the player is tasked with completing "microgames"—various
As a collection game, most microgames that appear have once existed in a previous title in the WarioWare series. These include
Gold features full voice acting in the story mode, a first for the series, with an additional unlockable feature allowing players to redub their own voice over the game's cutscenes.[11] Alongside the story mode, there are missions for the player to complete that awards them with coins that can be used to purchase rewards such as additional minigames. The challenge mode is one of the multiple modes unlocked after completing the story mode. In the challenge mode, the microgames are reintroduced alongside various distractions and complications to the original format.[9][12] For example, sometimes the screen will be covered in ink or other objects to obscure vision.[9] There's also a local multiplayer mode where players compete in an endurance competition of who can complete the most minigames in succession.[12]
Plot
Having to run out of money following a treasure hunt in the village of Luxeville, Wario decides to organize a tournament in Diamond City, convincing his friends to design some new Mash League, Twist League, Touch League, & Ultra League (that also include blowing games & short pop-up games) games based on the Sports, That's Life, Fantasy, & Nintendo Classics themes, for the event, promising them payment. For an entry fee of ten thousand coins, he offers a ten million coin prize to the tournament's winner, although he secretly plots to take all the prize money for himself. While the player competes in the tournament, a girl from Luxeville named Lulu who has tracked Wario down calls him out and begins training to challenge him, seeking to retrieve the town's prized treasure (a large golden pot) that Wario had stolen from her village.
The rest of the game consists of self-contained vignettes for all of Wario's friends; these range from Jimmy T trying to impress two girls at Sapphire Street, Mona going to Joe's Clothes trying to find a dress to wear for her party, Dribble and Spitz fighting off UFOs with their space-faring taxi, 5-Volt doing a workout to become fit, Ashley and Red fighting a demon known as Hungraa, Dr. Crygor and Mike coming across one of Crygor's old inventions, Doris-1, in the spooky Agate Forest, 18-Volt engaging in a rap battle with newcomer 13-Amp to win back a stolen game console at Emerald Street, Penny trying to cure Dr. Crygor after her elixir to help make her a mega pop star gives Dr. Crygor a stomachache, Kat and Ana mistaking Mrs. Munches, a gourmet master, as their ninja trainer while trying to get ninja learners permits at Diamond City Castle, Fronk helping 9-Volt realize that math's fun, Young Cricket and Master Mantis training at an amusement park, Orbulon trying to acquire pigs in order to complete his order at a fast food restaurant called Gigantaburger, the hosts of the Sports and That's Life themes, along with Mike and Fronk, partying at Club Joe, and the hosts of the Fantasy and Nintendo Classics themes, also with Mike and Fronk, having a potluck at Peridot Campgrounds.
In the game's final level, Wario refuses to give the player the prize money, as he already declared himself as the winner of the tournament. Putting the pot of Luxeville on top of his head, the pot grants him superpowers and turns him into the extra-evil, extra-powerful, and extra-unstoppable supervillain version of him called "Wario Deluxe". With Lulu's help, the player manages to beat Wario Deluxe and win the tournament, she then knocks the pot off Wario's head with a water gun and changes him back to normal. Returning the pot to Lulu after she reveals that it is actually Luxeville's public toilet, Wario attempts to flee with the money he made from the tournament when he is intercepted by his friends. Taking the small amount of money (Wario spent most of the money for his hot air balloons) that Wario refused to pay them for their work and splitting it evenly, the player receives their entry fee back and the group even decides to share some of the money with Wario as well in an act of generosity, though Wario still claims that all the money is his and breaks down crying over his loss. Meanwhile, Lulu returns to Luxeville with the pot, only to learn that the townspeople had bought a new high-tech toilet in her absence, making her whole journey a waste of time.
Development
WarioWare Gold was developed for the Nintendo 3DS by Intelligent Systems, the developers behind most previous WarioWare titles, and published by Nintendo.[9] According to Goro Abe, the game's creative director, despite most microgames appearing in prior titles in the series, many of them were reworked from scratch. Since Gold consists of over 300 microgames with the series totaling over 1,100, Abe surveyed opinions from the staff of Intelligent Systems on which microgames the series should include. After he determined the results, he ranked the microgames based on the top picks from the staff, as well as which ones had easy-to-understand rules and games that have not aged well. One of the new gameplay additions was the split-screen challenge mode; this involved the use of the dual screens of the Nintendo 3DS where after one microgame was completed, it would immediately switch over to the other screen. This was a concept the team had wanted to implement since the Nintendo DS, but the idea proved too taxing on the hardware at the time.[10][13]
In the future, if there's new technology on new hardware that we can use in a new WarioWare title, then we'll probably prep more unlockables with unique and interactive mechanics.
Goro Abe, Creative Director, in a 2018 interview with Kotaku[10]
Full voice acting was included for the first time in the series, as the development team felt that it would lead to a deeper connection between the player and the game. They also believe the change made the characters feel more alive, although Abe said future games would not necessarily have full voice acting.[14] Wario for instance was voiced by longtime actor Charles Martinet in English-speaking countries.[8] While the game was released after the launch of the Nintendo Switch, Abe ruled out porting WarioWare Gold to the platform, stating it would "come with a number of issues" and that it would be difficult to reproduce "the same sense of fun".[14]
Speaking about the unlockable souvenirs, Abe explained that while Twisted! and Touched! featured a large number of collectibles centered around the gyro and touchscreen as both technologies were still fairly novel at the time, the team felt such unlockables were unnecessary for Gold due to how commonplace both forms of inputs had become. He also explained that with the given time constraints, they preferred to focus on extras that did not require as much programming effort, like the Records. In a 2018 interview with Game Informer, Abe explained that the future of the WarioWare series would be placed on the reception of Gold.[10][14]
WarioWare Gold was showcased during a
Reception
WarioWare Gold received "generally favorable reviews" according to review aggregator Metacritic, receiving a 78/100 based on 45 critic reviews.[19]
Despite being a collection of microgames across the series, critics such as
Some saw the addition of microgames being organized into categories to be a helpful addition, which helped with not having to constantly switch between control schemes such as tapping and button pressing.[8][12] Nintendo Life found the concept to be helpful when playing in areas where they were constricted in space or the use of the microphone.[12]
Reviewers praised the challenge mode and the unique twists they made on the microgames after completing the main storyline.[8][9][22] O'Connor found the concepts to be "tense and exciting",[20] and Bowling saw the experience as "fast, fun and chaotic in the best way".[12] Tristan Ogilvie of IGN, however, sometimes considered hindrances to be rather annoying instead of challenging or unique.[7]
Collectibles received mixed reception;
Sales
WarioWare Gold was released on August 3, 2018, leaving only two days for it to top the
Notes
References
- ^ Intelligent Systems (July 27, 2018). WarioWare Gold (Nintendo 3DS). Nintendo.
Producers: Kensuke Tanabe, Toshio Sengoku, Naoki Nakano
- ^ Intelligent Systems (July 27, 2018). WarioWare Gold (Nintendo 3DS). Nintendo.
Planning & Writing: Nami Komuro Planning: Ryosuke Kakutani
- ^ Intelligent Systems (July 27, 2018). WarioWare Gold (Nintendo 3DS). Nintendo.
Director & Program Director: Youichi Tada
- ^ Intelligent Systems (July 27, 2018). WarioWare Gold (Nintendo 3DS). Nintendo.
Art Director: Eiko Hirao Character Design: Ko Takeuchi
- ^ Intelligent Systems (July 27, 2018). WarioWare Gold (Nintendo 3DS). Nintendo.
Planning & Writing: Nami Komuro
- ^ Intelligent Systems (July 27, 2018). WarioWare Gold (Nintendo 3DS). Nintendo.
Sound Director: Yasuhisa Baba Music: Daichi Aoki
- ^ a b c d e Ogilvie, Tristan (2018-08-06). "WarioWare Gold Review". IGN. Archived from the original on 2021-05-12. Retrieved 2021-05-16.
- ^ a b c d e Kohler, Chris (2018-08-02). "WarioWare Gold: The Kotaku Review". Kotaku. Archived from the original on 2021-02-24. Retrieved 2021-05-17.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Donlan, Christian (2018-08-06). "WarioWare Gold review – a glitter-trumpet of sheer joy". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on 2021-05-17. Retrieved 2021-05-16.
- ^ a b c d Totilio, Stephen (2018-10-18). "The Unusual Effort That Went Into Creating WarioWare Gold". Kotaku. Archived from the original on 2021-05-06. Retrieved 2021-05-16.
- Siliconera. Archivedfrom the original on 2021-05-17. Retrieved 2021-05-16.
- ^ Nintendo Life. Archivedfrom the original on 2021-05-17. Retrieved 2021-05-16.
- Nintendo Life. Archivedfrom the original on 2021-05-17. Retrieved 2021-05-16.
- ^ a b c Kyle Hilliard (December 2018), "Tracking the trajectory of Nintendo's weirdest games", Game Informer. pp. 152–153. Retrieved May 5, 2021.
- Nintendo Life. Archivedfrom the original on 2021-05-17. Retrieved 2021-05-16.
- ^ Nintendo Life. Archivedfrom the original on 2021-05-17. Retrieved 2021-05-16.
- ^ a b Grubb, Jeff (2018-08-22). "Nintendo 3DS owners have Switched, leaving WarioWare behind". VentureBeat. Archived from the original on 2021-05-17. Retrieved 2021-05-16.
- ^ "メイドインワリオ ゴージャス" [Made in Wario Gorgeous]. Famitsu (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 2021-05-17. Retrieved 2021-05-24.
- ^ a b "WarioWare Gold reviews". Metacritic. Archived from the original on August 9, 2018. Retrieved August 3, 2018.
- ^ a b c O'Connor, James (2018-07-31). "WarioWare Gold Review – Worth Its Weight". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 2020-10-10. Retrieved 2021-05-17.
- ^ a b c Hilliard, Kyle (2018-07-27). "WarioWare Gold". Game Informer. Archived from the original on 2021-05-17. Retrieved 2021-05-17.
- ^ a b c d "メイドインワリオ ゴージャスのレビュー・評価・感想" [Made in Wario: Gorgeous Reviews, Evaluations, and Impressions]. Famitsu (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 2021-01-29. Retrieved 2021-05-18.
- ^ "WarioWare Gold review". Retrieved August 17, 2018.
- ArsTechnica. Archivedfrom the original on 2020-11-09. Retrieved 2021-05-17.
- ^ Romano, Sal (2018-08-08). "Media Create Sales: 7/30/18 – 8/5/18". Gematsu. Archived from the original on 2021-05-18. Retrieved 2021-05-18.
- ^ Romano, Sal (2018-09-09). "Media Create Sales: 9/10/18 – 9/16/18". Gematsu. Archived from the original on 2021-05-18. Retrieved 2021-05-18.
- Nintendo Life. Archivedfrom the original on 2021-03-01. Retrieved 2021-05-17.
Attribution
- This article incorporates text from a free content work. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported (CC-BY-SA) (license statement/permission). Text taken from WarioWare Gold, Glowsquid, . Development Section.