Wario and his gang go out to create some games once more,with the main objective this time around being to show what the Wii U is truly capable of,but will it really raise Wario's and the console's career to the top,or did they just ended up in bankruptcy afterwards?
Game & Wario is a game featuring 16 smaller games in it,released for the Wii U on 2013,and it was originally planned to be released as a tech-demo installed within every Wii U console since it's release,but was then delayed to make a full-product game out of that sole project,so let's check if it was worth the expansion.
The main premisse of this game is that,one day,Wario was watching TV,scrolling across random channels to see if he comes across something interesting.He occasionally comes across a commercial which shows a new console which has a controller which has a wide screen on it that can interact with the console plugged into the TV(sounds familiar to you?).He suddenly has an idea of creating games for that console in particular,but he ain't going to do this all by himself,of course.He warns his friends about the new console,and so,they go out to create their own games for the new system.
Game & Wario has a total of 16 games,with most of them using some of the Wii U's unique features with the GamePad,and we'll have to look at each of them individually,for more understanding on how the game works and how it is overall,so let's start with the first of the bunch,made by the farty garlic-lover Wario.
Arrow(By Wario):Here,you shoot arrows by aiming them on the GamePad with motion controls at Mini-Mecha Warios,with the objective of protecting the strawberries in your GamePad screen.In certain moments,you'll have to raise your GamePad against the television to block incoming canon balls,to send them back for the canon launchers,and in the end,you'll have to face a giant tank,in which if it approaches the screen enough,it'll eat all of your strawberries at once.It's a good and a nice startup game for the bundle,but I never find myself coming back to this one often because I find more fun in the other games in the package,like the next one on the list.
Rating:OK
Shutter(By Mona):Mona has been assigned to work as a photographer working for Diamond City Times to take snapshots of certain people(and other type of beings,while we're at it),and you take her role in this game,by using the GamePad as a photo camera.You move the controller while facing at the TV to look for the wanted ones pointed on the TV,and there's five of them scattered through the scenery.You may want to make them appear close enough to the camera while facing it,for a prefect score.It's a really creative and fun concept,and the execution doesn't fail on doing so,being one of the highlights included in G&W.
Rating:Amazing
Ski(by Jimmy T):Remember that F-Zero minigame from Nintendo Land?Yeah,it's the same thing here.You hold the GamePad upwards and move Jimmy T by tilting the controller left and right.It's divided into two modes,with a Time Attack mode,in which you go through some few stages to beat the shown time score,and Endless Bunny Slope,where it's an endless runner in which you pick Ski Bunnies(they're not really bunnies/rabbits,by the way) as you can while you're still on the track.If anything,it's rather sloppy in execution,and not very original in it's concept.
Rating:Mediocre
Patchwork(by Kat and Ana):If you didn't knew,patchwork in real life is is a form of needlework that involves sewing together pieces of fabric into a larger design,and that's precisely what you do in this game's version of this activity.With small pieces given to you in order to create a complete picture,you'll have to do this by putting those small pieces in divided lines where they fit,and surprisingly,it's actually quite addicting.It gets harder in the later levels,for example,when you have to guess where a certain piece will go between two or three spots of the same shape.Not really the game that uses the most of the Wii U's unique potential,but still fun in it's way.
Rating:Good
Kung Fu(By Cricket):I guess "Hop" or maybe even "Hop n' Eat" would be a more appropriate title for this one,but let's see as to why.Your main objective here is to reach Master Mantis by endlessly jumping along the way.Sounds easy,but you also have to retain your energy by eating dumplings and collecting scrolls as side-collectables while you're on your way.You control Cricket on an upper view from him to aim precisely your jumps while moving the GamePad in a flat position with the motion controls,and land quickly on the ground by pressing the ZR and ZL buttons simultaneously.Kung Fu is divided in two modes,with one having five levels with the objective described earlier,and an endless "jumper" where you go as far as you can,while also containing your energy with dumplings.It's functionally decent,even if a bit confusing at times.
Rating:Good
Gamer(by 9-Volt and 18-Volt):This one is most definitely one of the major games in this whole collection,if not,the best.The premisse here is that you,as 9-Volt,are playing the new popular game you got,Ballon Fighter,at the time you were supposed to be sleeping at night without being caught playing by your mom(known as 5-Volt),since she somewhat has beaten his high score while he was doing homework with 18-Volt(his older brother,I suppose).This feels like the game that uses the Wii U's capabilities to it's maximum potential,since while the main scenery,in which you have to look out for 9-Volt's mom,is taking place in the television screen,the game you're actually playing is displayed on the GamePad,and it contains micro-games that feel like you're playing a WarioWare game.When she's on screen,you have to hide yourself by pretending you're sleeping,but at the same time,you have to be aware of how sleepy you'll get by doing this scenario,and if it reaches from 100% to 0%(energetic to sleepy),the game is over.There's also a mode in the same game in which you play as 18-Volt,and you can play through the Gamepad minigames(that are the same from 9-Volt's counterpart) without worrying about your mother constantly watching you,in three varieties,incluiding the normal game,the game in ultra speed,or hardcore,in which you have only one chance,and if you fail once,you lose.As said before,this is probaly the best game in the package,but most definetly the one that shows what the Wii U's potential beholds within it's hardware.
Rating:Amazing
Design(by Dr.Crygor):The concept is that Dr.Crygor is assigning you as his personal robot designer,and with the Wii U Gamepad,you're able to do just that,depending on how well you handle it.There are two modes here in which you can start designing a robot,including Normal and One Stroke.The game either way is setup by having you drawing lines on the Gamepad's touch screen,in an order going from a simple line,a circle,a triangle,a specified degree,and then a squiggly line,usually asking a certain amount of diameters to work with.From what I experienced here,you have to need a lot of patience in order to get the perfect rating from the shape,it's size and how large it is,and even getting the minimum rating should take a little bit of effort.Normal has no time and you can redraw the shape again if you think it's not good enough.One Stroke gives you only five seconds and one chance to draw the shapes,and that's recommended for the more experienced players,with that type of execution in mind.It gets a little repetitive after some number of plays,but it works minimally fine.
Rating:OK
Ashley(By,well,Ashley):One night,the young witch was reading a book,and suddenly,she stubborns upon a scenery in it that she suddenly wants to be part of.When she does the spell in order to do so however,the book changes to a place that she isn't very pleased with,so Ashley,alongside her partner Red(not from Pokemon,by the way) are forced to travel through the land to escape out of it.The game,sadly enough,only has three levels,and you guide Ashley on her broomstick on them by tilting the Gamepad left or right,and collect little orbs on the way to obtain a "Best Buddy " rating.The television screen displays the level in which you'll be focusing on the most.and the Gamepad displays Ashley on a closer view of the TV scenery.You also have these blue orbs to use,in which she can unleash a powerful spell,but they will probaly have fundamental use on the mini-bosses you encounter in the end of each level.Occasionally,if Ashley gets hit too much by the stage hazards or sweet themed enemies(remember this is a candy world after all),you'll have to shake her head left and right on the Gamepad.If feels rather unpleasant doing this,and kind of unnecessary.The level design is also linear in all of the levels,being of my personal least favorites of the bundle,by how short and odd this feels.
Rating:Mediocre
Since this review is probaly going very long now,I'll divide it into two parts,since I prefer going into detail about what the games are all about for more specification,and if I was to continue this review any longer,I would mostly bore the ones who are reading this,so await next part with the rest of the package included!
Game & Wario is a game featuring 16 smaller games in it,released for the Wii U on 2013,and it was originally planned to be released as a tech-demo installed within every Wii U console since it's release,but was then delayed to make a full-product game out of that sole project,so let's check if it was worth the expansion.
The main premisse of this game is that,one day,Wario was watching TV,scrolling across random channels to see if he comes across something interesting.He occasionally comes across a commercial which shows a new console which has a controller which has a wide screen on it that can interact with the console plugged into the TV(sounds familiar to you?).He suddenly has an idea of creating games for that console in particular,but he ain't going to do this all by himself,of course.He warns his friends about the new console,and so,they go out to create their own games for the new system.
Game & Wario has a total of 16 games,with most of them using some of the Wii U's unique features with the GamePad,and we'll have to look at each of them individually,for more understanding on how the game works and how it is overall,so let's start with the first of the bunch,made by the farty garlic-lover Wario.
Arrow(By Wario):Here,you shoot arrows by aiming them on the GamePad with motion controls at Mini-Mecha Warios,with the objective of protecting the strawberries in your GamePad screen.In certain moments,you'll have to raise your GamePad against the television to block incoming canon balls,to send them back for the canon launchers,and in the end,you'll have to face a giant tank,in which if it approaches the screen enough,it'll eat all of your strawberries at once.It's a good and a nice startup game for the bundle,but I never find myself coming back to this one often because I find more fun in the other games in the package,like the next one on the list.
Rating:OK
Shutter(By Mona):Mona has been assigned to work as a photographer working for Diamond City Times to take snapshots of certain people(and other type of beings,while we're at it),and you take her role in this game,by using the GamePad as a photo camera.You move the controller while facing at the TV to look for the wanted ones pointed on the TV,and there's five of them scattered through the scenery.You may want to make them appear close enough to the camera while facing it,for a prefect score.It's a really creative and fun concept,and the execution doesn't fail on doing so,being one of the highlights included in G&W.
Rating:Amazing
Ski(by Jimmy T):Remember that F-Zero minigame from Nintendo Land?Yeah,it's the same thing here.You hold the GamePad upwards and move Jimmy T by tilting the controller left and right.It's divided into two modes,with a Time Attack mode,in which you go through some few stages to beat the shown time score,and Endless Bunny Slope,where it's an endless runner in which you pick Ski Bunnies(they're not really bunnies/rabbits,by the way) as you can while you're still on the track.If anything,it's rather sloppy in execution,and not very original in it's concept.
Rating:Mediocre
Patchwork(by Kat and Ana):If you didn't knew,patchwork in real life is is a form of needlework that involves sewing together pieces of fabric into a larger design,and that's precisely what you do in this game's version of this activity.With small pieces given to you in order to create a complete picture,you'll have to do this by putting those small pieces in divided lines where they fit,and surprisingly,it's actually quite addicting.It gets harder in the later levels,for example,when you have to guess where a certain piece will go between two or three spots of the same shape.Not really the game that uses the most of the Wii U's unique potential,but still fun in it's way.
Rating:Good
Kung Fu(By Cricket):I guess "Hop" or maybe even "Hop n' Eat" would be a more appropriate title for this one,but let's see as to why.Your main objective here is to reach Master Mantis by endlessly jumping along the way.Sounds easy,but you also have to retain your energy by eating dumplings and collecting scrolls as side-collectables while you're on your way.You control Cricket on an upper view from him to aim precisely your jumps while moving the GamePad in a flat position with the motion controls,and land quickly on the ground by pressing the ZR and ZL buttons simultaneously.Kung Fu is divided in two modes,with one having five levels with the objective described earlier,and an endless "jumper" where you go as far as you can,while also containing your energy with dumplings.It's functionally decent,even if a bit confusing at times.
Rating:Good
Gamer(by 9-Volt and 18-Volt):This one is most definitely one of the major games in this whole collection,if not,the best.The premisse here is that you,as 9-Volt,are playing the new popular game you got,Ballon Fighter,at the time you were supposed to be sleeping at night without being caught playing by your mom(known as 5-Volt),since she somewhat has beaten his high score while he was doing homework with 18-Volt(his older brother,I suppose).This feels like the game that uses the Wii U's capabilities to it's maximum potential,since while the main scenery,in which you have to look out for 9-Volt's mom,is taking place in the television screen,the game you're actually playing is displayed on the GamePad,and it contains micro-games that feel like you're playing a WarioWare game.When she's on screen,you have to hide yourself by pretending you're sleeping,but at the same time,you have to be aware of how sleepy you'll get by doing this scenario,and if it reaches from 100% to 0%(energetic to sleepy),the game is over.There's also a mode in the same game in which you play as 18-Volt,and you can play through the Gamepad minigames(that are the same from 9-Volt's counterpart) without worrying about your mother constantly watching you,in three varieties,incluiding the normal game,the game in ultra speed,or hardcore,in which you have only one chance,and if you fail once,you lose.As said before,this is probaly the best game in the package,but most definetly the one that shows what the Wii U's potential beholds within it's hardware.
Rating:Amazing
Design(by Dr.Crygor):The concept is that Dr.Crygor is assigning you as his personal robot designer,and with the Wii U Gamepad,you're able to do just that,depending on how well you handle it.There are two modes here in which you can start designing a robot,including Normal and One Stroke.The game either way is setup by having you drawing lines on the Gamepad's touch screen,in an order going from a simple line,a circle,a triangle,a specified degree,and then a squiggly line,usually asking a certain amount of diameters to work with.From what I experienced here,you have to need a lot of patience in order to get the perfect rating from the shape,it's size and how large it is,and even getting the minimum rating should take a little bit of effort.Normal has no time and you can redraw the shape again if you think it's not good enough.One Stroke gives you only five seconds and one chance to draw the shapes,and that's recommended for the more experienced players,with that type of execution in mind.It gets a little repetitive after some number of plays,but it works minimally fine.
Rating:OK
Ashley(By,well,Ashley):One night,the young witch was reading a book,and suddenly,she stubborns upon a scenery in it that she suddenly wants to be part of.When she does the spell in order to do so however,the book changes to a place that she isn't very pleased with,so Ashley,alongside her partner Red(not from Pokemon,by the way) are forced to travel through the land to escape out of it.The game,sadly enough,only has three levels,and you guide Ashley on her broomstick on them by tilting the Gamepad left or right,and collect little orbs on the way to obtain a "Best Buddy " rating.The television screen displays the level in which you'll be focusing on the most.and the Gamepad displays Ashley on a closer view of the TV scenery.You also have these blue orbs to use,in which she can unleash a powerful spell,but they will probaly have fundamental use on the mini-bosses you encounter in the end of each level.Occasionally,if Ashley gets hit too much by the stage hazards or sweet themed enemies(remember this is a candy world after all),you'll have to shake her head left and right on the Gamepad.If feels rather unpleasant doing this,and kind of unnecessary.The level design is also linear in all of the levels,being of my personal least favorites of the bundle,by how short and odd this feels.
Rating:Mediocre
Since this review is probaly going very long now,I'll divide it into two parts,since I prefer going into detail about what the games are all about for more specification,and if I was to continue this review any longer,I would mostly bore the ones who are reading this,so await next part with the rest of the package included!
