WarioWare: Get It Together review

WarioWare: Get It Together is a wink at the gaming industry, and a nod to previous Wario-verse games. I didn’t realize it at first, though, because I was too occupied yelling at the television: "What did I just do!? What happened!?"

Playing Get It Together without playing any of the previous WarioWare games felt much like flipping on the television and landing on an episode of Robot Chicken for the very first time. Sometimes, I was giggling at shaving the armpit hair off of a statue, or plugging myself into a giant nose. Other times, I recognized levels as they morphed into stages from an old Super Mario Bros. game.

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More than anything else, WarioWare: Get It Together inspires confusion. After playing this game for several hours, I'm still quite confused – but I’m also intrigued and, perhaps, a bit addicted. Read on for our full WarioWare: Get It Together review.

WarioWare: Get It Together review: Story

WarioWare: Get It Together’s story mode left me in various states of giddiness, confusion and rage. That’s mostly a good thing.

The story kicks off when Wario and his crew release a new video game. However, the game is full of bugs, which the staff must remove by diving in and playing various microgames.  Get It Together introduces every character with a cutscene that blends various kinds of animation with real-life still photography. Each cutscene is bold, colorful and unique, and showcases the dev team’s artistic abilities.

In each WarioWare level, you’ll take control of a different character and use their special (read: only) ability to make it to the next stage. Each level comprises a series of microgames (games that last about 15 seconds or less) and a boss stage. After that, you’ll earn a number of coins based on the level's score. (Remember: Wario cares only about money. And garlic.)

Just like in an arcade game, you’ll need to spend coins if you want to retry a level. Trust me. you'll need to do this. You will fail, and fail hilariously. 

Each stage ends with a "boss battle." Sometimes, this entails attacking an actual boss, such as a giant flying nose. Other times, you’ll have to complete a longer mini-game. The coordination required for these games was initially frustrating, but ultimately satisfying.

WarioWare: Get It Together review: Gameplay

Nintendo boasts that WarioWare: Get It Together includes more than 200 microgames, and that's where this title really shines. In Story Mode, you’ll select a team, which must include that chapter’s star character. Before each microgame, WarioWare chooses a character at random to participate.

By the time the game's announcer yells "Peel!" or "Observe!", you’ll have only a second or two to figure out what the game is, and how to complete it without failing. When you successfully complete a game, the next game speeds up. That means you have even less time to think and plan moves. 

(If you don't mind spoilers about the game’s cast, I highly recommend looking at Nintendo's WarioWare: Get It Together page to get a feel for the different characters' abilities and game modes.)

After playing for a while, I noticed patterns within these microgames. In one type of game, you need to move, remove, capture or protect an object. The variations on this theme range from silly (like the armpit-shaving) to downright psychedelic, and even spooky. There's one microgame that I can only describe as using a windmill to usher a Slenderman-lookalike into an area. 

Each character can fly, shoot, push objects, or combine these abilities. In two-player Story Mode, this can lead to some frustration, though. For example: Kat can throw shuriken only to the right. If the game required me to move something to the left, I was left dumbfounded, while my co-op partner desperately tried to complete the task on his own. As the games sped up, I found it difficult to follow along and manipulate characters. Get It Together can sometimes be an irritating game, even with lots of practice.

WarioWare: Get It Together review: Game modes and visuals

You must complete at least the first level of Get It Together’s main story before other modes pop up. These include Play-o-Pedia, Variety Pack and Wario Cup.

In Play-o-Pedia, a player can choose to replay any of the games unlocked in Story Mode. Variety Pack mode is where up to four players can compete in different mini- and microgames. 

The main focus of Get It Together appears to be the Mario Cup, however: a single-player mode that presents new challenges each week, and tallies your score to compete in online rankings. 

In the Crew section, you can level up characters with the Wario coins that you earn in other game modes. You can also purchase and give out “prezzies,” which range from food to hair. Leveling up unlocks art and additional cosmetics, such as different costumes and wardrobe colors. Higher-ranked crew members also have higher base scores when you use them in Wario Cup.

These unlocked game modes have useful features, such as showing which characters are best-suited to each microgame.

I found that I generally had a lot more fun playing WarioWare’s single-player, non-story game modes. Doing so allowed me to focus on obtaining coins and cosmetics, and mastering one character at a time. In the multiplayer modes, I found myself stressing about issues like how quickly my co-op partner and I could close a vampire’s casket. 

Some characters are useful for multiple games. I found myself gravitating to characters who can fly, like Ashley, or who can cause explosions, like 5-Volt. Nintendo seems to have designed Get It Together for completionists like me, who enjoy finishing every last mission and challenge. In fact, the game features a completionist section. Here, you unlock missions to master different modes, games and characters, and earn coins as a reward.

The microgames, characters and art are all brimming with intricate silliness. Even after playing the same mini-games over and over again, I discover new little details that I miss during all of my panicked moments.

WarioWare: Get It Together review: Verdict

At $50, WarioWare: Get It Together is a decent game for solo casual gamers who are looking for some mindless fun. It's delightfully absurd at times, making it the perfect game to escape from reality for a while. 

To give fair warning, the most interesting parts of WarioWare are outside of its Story Mode. This may bore players who desire deep storytelling or complex gameplay. Furthermore, the mini-games and microgames may prove difficult if you can’t grasp a game’s concept in mere seconds.

Overall, though, if you're bored or have a few friends over, WarioWare: Get It Together should be a weird, enjoyable distraction.