Has Wario still got it?
The infamous schemer, Wario is back! Play his brand-new microgame collection, where you’ll have seconds to complete 300 different microgames. Better think fast to succeed! You’ll use the touchscreen, tilt the system, push buttons, and rock the mic as you laugh through fully voiced stories featuring new and classic characters
It’s been a good few years since a WarioWare title, not counting the Game and Wario entry for the Wii U. I’ve played each entry in the series and have been looking forward to seeing a new game, finally we have in the form of WarioWare Gold for 3DS.
WarioWare Gold is a mixture of old and new micro-games, adding in standard, touch-screen, tilt and microphone controls for their own category of micro-games, though the final chapter and other modes mix these all together, so you don’t know what type of micro-game it will be next. WarioWare Gold brings the typical micro-games including retro-inspired ones from Mario, Zelda and Metroid to name a few, while also adding a twist to the controls.
The game has voice-acting cutscenes before and after completing stages, a series first. These are a bit of a mixed bag, but can be skipped if they grate on you. There’s a huge number of micro-games and there’s a good balance between them, you can even spend in-game coins to carry on your story playthrough if you run out of lives, also a series first.
There’s no 3D to speak of, something I kind of expected at this point, but it still would have been nice to see some 3D-inspired micro-games. It’s still great fun to chase high scores afterwards, especially with the harder endurance based modes, though it does run thin after a while. It would have been great to see some sort of online leaderboards to really put your skills to the test. Maybe Nintendo are saving that for a Switch version? I like the sound of WarioWare Platinum…
The Verdict
WarioWare Gold gives fans exactly what they’ve been waiting for, a collection of old and new micro-games that’ll keep us more than satisfied until the next game.
Score: 8.5