Game & Wario Review

Not every game in this collection is mundane. Kat and Ana's "Patchwork" is a simplistic but fun puzzle game that involves dragging different-shaped paper pieces onto a board in order to make them fit into one unified shape (such as a flower, octopus, Mario head, etc). The puzzles grow increasingly difficult, but can be completed without a time limit (the game instead scores you based on how quickly you finish them), and come in a very large assortment that will inspire repeated visits.

But there is one game that is heads and shoulders above everything else in this divisive dozen; "Gamer" stars the hardcore gaming tyke 9-Volt as he obsessively stays up past his bed time in order to keep playing his handheld. Unfortunately, his mother is ever persistent in making sure her son gets his rest and will periodically check on him. To avoid a gentle scolding, players must hold down both triggers on the gamepad, which will have Nine-Volt hit the covers and pretend to sleep until his mother leaves the room. For every moment that she isn't watching, however, his stamina bar will drain, eventually forcing him to tucker out for real. The key is to hit the triggers at the exact moment she appears. How or when she will do so is another matter.

Did we say "gentle scolding"? It is, in actuality, a complete and utter freak-out. Taking inspiration from famous J-Horror flicks like The Ring, Nine-Volt's mother will come up with new ways to check up on her son, many of them supernatural and all of them terrifying. Trying to play through the Warioware-style mini-games on the Wii U gamepad while simultaneously looking up at the TV to anticipate the monstrous mother's jump-scares makes for a legitimately tense experience, not to mention a fun one. This single mini-game is not only the best one in this collection by far, it is also one of the most unique experiences found anywhere in the Wii U's library.

It truly is unfortunate that not every game in Game & Wario could match the imagination and fun of Gamer. Dr Crygore's "Design" becomes a sobering reminder of this fact, as it consists of players needing to draw certain diagrams and shapes following a specific measurement (a 2 inch straight line, for example, or a 75 degree angle). It is difficult to imagine that anyone who can draw such precise measurements without a measuring tape would be wasting their time with this game to begin with, and for everyone else it is an utterly dull experience. "Taxi", a first-person passenger-collecting driving game is a much better effort, but once again reaches average levels instead of exceeding them. The same can also be said of Wario's other game "Pirates" a not-very rhythmic mini-game that requires players to turn their gamepad in one of three directions. Once again, it's nothing special, merely an inoffensive game that may or may not warrant repeat visits.

Ironically, one of the more entertaining experiences is "Bird", a remake of Warioware's Pyoro mini-game which follows the format of classic Game & Watch games. Had there been more games of this type, this would have been a much more recommended package in addition to justifying the Game & Watch titling to begin with.

There is one more silver lining to this package, and that is "Miiverse Sketch". A separate feature from the rest of the game, Miiverse Sketch is a mode that submits random words for players to create doodles for, and tallies up a slideshow of drawings from other players that have drawn for that word. Once a word has been selected, you have only 60 seconds to artistically express the topic as best you can...or just doodle a bunch of squiggly lines like an underage crayon drawer. Good thing the game asks you every time if you want to keep your age withheld.

In addition to viewing what other players have drawn using the same words, you are also given the opportunity to suggest your own words, as well as view the list of trending words at the time. Whether it be hastily-scribbled attempts or meme-spouting console wars (bask in the number of replies of "Xbox" over the topic of "Worst Game Ever") or legitimately talented drawings, Miiverse Sketch contains hundreds of amusing doodles every day, and is worth revisiting over and over again. It just feels odd that Nintendo would include this with a game instead of allowing people to add it as a separate downloadable app (although that technically could be accomplished by going digital with Game & Wario, unless you don't want to give up the extra hard drive space for one single mode attached to a game).

In the end, Game & Wario is like another Nintendoland tech demo of potentially cool things developers could do with the Wii U. Unfortunately, the handful of games present aren't nearly as consistent as those found in Nintendoland, and only a few can be called standout hits amongst the rest of the forgettable package. Whether those couple of games as well as the entertaining Miiverse Sketch is worth the price of admission alone is hard to determine, but at least the divisive material still results in a better-than-average collection of games. As often as the phrase is used, the term "style over substance" certainly applies here. Hopefully the Wii U can turn around its dwindling popularity in order to inspire more games that can accomplish both.