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Game & Wario (Video Game Review)

Game & Wario has ended up being something that you would expect out of WarioWare at this point--a huge disappointment. Game & Wario is entirely based around using the Wii U Gamepad and while a few of its games are fun, in the end, most are excruciatingly boring and forgettable. There are 16 games in all, and while some are interesting for a brief moment, most lack any kind of real depth that would have you returning to play it again.

Once you start up the game, you will find that most of the titles are single player, and only two can be played with another player during competitions. Each of the games have several stages to make your way through and some offer some intriguing new styles to play. One of the games has you draw measurements such as a 45 degree angle...yeah you heard that correct. I just can't imagine the point were someone thought that would be a fun thing to do in a game. Then there are titles like Taxi, were the players use laser bazookas to fight off aliens while they pick up new passengers, that could have been entertaining if a little more depth had been added to the actual gameplay.



Game & Wario's main problem is that it doesn't feel like a console experience at all. The mini-games actually use the gamepad screen most of the time with only the rare mention to your TV screen. In most instances, this would not impact the enjoyment of a game, but you just feel like they have wasted all the possibilities that the Wii U console has to offer. Especially when the game doesn’t offer many reasons to return to a game after one play through, and thus, Game & Wario needed to take advantage of all the console elements that they could.

This is Nintendo Wii U’s first year and the console is really lacking in compelling games this summer. Game & Wario at the MSRP of $39.99 could have offered a fun collection of mini-games at a reasonable price for the console, but it failed horribly. The graphics, gameplay and controls are just not up to par. Game & Wario has enough modes to keep you playing for awhile but would have been better suited as a free title for the Wii U. Game & Wario has the structure of Nintendo Land were you can play every game mode and once you beat that then you can move onto the next. Players have to go through each type of game before they have access to all of them, which means that you can get frustrated quickly, depending on how much you like some of those modes.



One of the best titles is the Gamer mode were you take on the role of 9-Volt. 9-Volt has just went to bed, and his mother 5-Volt is continuously checking in on him to make sure he is asleep. He is trying to play his Game Boy Micro and every time she appears, then you have to press the triggers quickly to pause your game and act like you are fast asleep. Basically, you can get game-over in two ways: if she catches you or if you pretend to be asleep too long and actually fall asleep. It was a very creative use of the Wii U gamepad and was one of the few shining moments of Game & Wario.

Shutter was also another intriguing game were you take on the role as a photographer named Mona. Players use the Wii U gamepad as a camera and aim it to capture the faces of your intended targets before time runs out. There are moments when you feel like you are playing “Where’s Waldo” as you try to find your targets who can sometimes hide very well. You have to look past opening and closing objects, moving vehicles and much more which adds a degree of difficulty to the game. All-in-all, it was a fun little mini-game were the gamepad felt like using a real camera.


While there were a couple of amusing titles, in the end, it couldn’t save the game as a whole with most of the titles being completely horrid. Other forgettable titles included Sketch, Design, Kung Fu and Ski which offered very few compelling gameplay elements to even keep playing after a few seconds. Sketch allows you to draw something and use local multiplayer to allow a friend to try to guess what it is. The multiplayer on Game & Wario are party-type games that can be played in short amounts of time were one player can play and then pass the gamepad to the next. The games are way more fun in multiplayer but even that gets old fast.

For those of you that are thinking about purchasing Game & Wario because you liked Nintendo Land should just forget it and move on. The overall package feels more like a collection of demos than a professional release. We can not recommend the purchase of Game & Wario and suggest that Nintendo fans hold out for something a little more worth the money like Super Mario 3D Land.

Game Features:
  • Single Player
  • Local and Offline Multiplayer
  • 16 Mini-Games


    • Game Information:
    Developer: Intelligent Systems
    Publisher:  Nintendo
    Rated: E for Everyone
    Platforms: Nintendo Wii U (reviewed)
    Release Date: June 23, 2013

    Score: 3.5 out of 10

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