Wario is a lucky guy in the land of video games. Not many characters are constantly privileged to have unique and original games designed around them almost all of the time. In a string of sleeper hits on the Game Boy Color and even the GBA with Warioland 4, Wario has provided me with a lot of personal gaming satisfaction. Wario Ware is no exception, however I would not guarantee that people who liked Wario before will automatically love this cart.

Wario Ware is most likely a gaming experiment that broke lose from the developer's labs and somehow made it into stores. I am certainly glad it did since it is a damn fine portable game that possesses a lot of qualities a portable game should have. It is easy to pick up and play, perfect for short doses of gaming and is oddly addictive which is the biggest plus going for the game.

The basic story of the game starts off with Wario watching TV and seeing a ton of people lined up, waiting to buy a new video game. Since Wario loves money, he decides that making video games would make him a ton of dough... however, he doesn't have a lot of patience for this sort of thing and gets his friends to help out. The end result is a series of over 200 microgames that you have to play through in levels which are broken up into certain categories such as sports themed games, "strange" themed, classic Nintendo themed games as well as other categories. At the end of every level there is a boss stage which is basically a slightly longer game you play with varying gameplay throughout.

Initially, only the beginning level is unlocked and you need to play through each stage to unlock the next. In between the main character stages are remix levels which incorporate games from any of the previous character you have faced in the previous section. The characters you run into are always colorful, fun and generally entertaining. The disco dancing, afro wearing Jimmy hosts the second level as well as the remix levels, 9-Volt is a kid who challenges you to the Nintendo themed level and eventually you finish up with Wario at the end.

The meat of the game is the microgames. Over 200 tiny games that give you only a few seconds to complete the objectives. Most of them are pretty simple and self explanatory. When the instructions flash "JUMP", you are going to be pressing the A button to jump. If it says "Dodge," you are most likely going to be moving left and right avoiding something. Some of the game take a couple plays to get used to, since it isn't really easy to grasp everything with only a few seconds of play time, which is fine since you will find yourself playing through bunch of times. The games tend to be mostly twitch reflex games with one level being made up of speed puzzle type games that give you a couple extra seconds to play. It is an interesting concept, it was executed well, however I am not convinced it will work again if they plan to do a sequel. This might be a one time thing.

Wario Ware does a lot of things right. I think one of the biggest features of the game is the sound. There are a ton of little voice samples from the characters and the micro games that are a lot of fun, along with some really catchy songs, especially the one during the Drizzle level which even has Japanese vocals playing throughout. It just ends up being a really fun aural atmosphere overall.

The graphics range from intentionally terrible to surprisingly good. Since the idea behind a lot of the games is cheap and simple, many of the games feature stick figure graphics or simplistic designs. The game shows off some flashes on decent graphics in, for example, the microgame of F-Zero, which looks like it was ripped straight from the SNES cart. There are also some nice digitized shots in the game such as the "Shake!" game when you have to make a Collie happy by shaking his paw. The more graphically interesting parts of the game are the pre-level cut scene where you are introduced to the different characters in the game. They fit the mood of the rest of the game with colorful and playful designs which end up being entertaining. There is even a blatant GBA SP commercial in the beginning of the Nintendo themed "9-Volt" level which got a laugh out of me since it was so forced. It was a lot better then lame Powerade ads.

Wario Ware is definitely a Japanese tailored game. The atmosphere is very quirky and has a lot of familiar Japanese imagery if you have watched some anime and probably manga like the sleeping nose bubbles and some of the loud screams you get when you complete a game. If you don't like odd games... then Wario Ware will definitely piss you off. It's nothing but odd. However, I have found that a lot of people think the game is incredibly addictive if they give it a shot.

There are also an abundant number of unlockable games which actually have a little more meat to them than the bulk of the microgames on the cart. There are four two player games which use only the Left and Right triggers on the same GBA. (One player used the left while the other uses the right trigger.) It a neat little feature which is a little better suited for the standard GBA rather than the SP, but it works well enough given the simplicity of the games. There is a classic arcade game called "Sheriff" which I really never heard of before which is a fun little game. "Skateboard" is a simple extension of the skateboarding microgames found in Wario Ware just as "Jump Forever" is an enhanced version of the jump rope microgame.

The stronger extra titles in my opinion are the "Flyswatter", "Dr. Wario" and "Pyoro" games. "Flyswatter" was first seen as a mini game in Mario Paint for the SNES. It is pretty addictive in an old school sort of way. "Dr. Wario" is a conversion of "Dr. Mario" from the NES. Like any good puzzle game, it has a seemingly simple premise yet is hard to put down. It is an excellent reward for this cart and really adds to it's overall value.

The last two games most people will unlock are the "Pyoro" games which were created especially for Wario Ware. In the beginning cinema of Wario Ware, Wario sees people standing in line waiting to purchase Pyoro. If you get to see every microgame in Wario, you get to play the original Pyoro. In this game, you play a little bird creature who uses his tongue to snatch falling vegetables from the sky. In Pyoro 2 (which you can play after beating a preset score in each and every microgame in Wario Ware), you are not eating the falling vegetables but you are shooting them out of the sky. In both games you are trying not to let any vegetables get past you since they knock out valuable floor tiles which will hamper your mobility. Perform well and you can restore some of the floor tiles and keep playing to beat your high score. Both of these games have a classic Space Invaders vibe to them which is certainly not a bad thing.

Overall, Wario Ware is an extremely addictive and fun game. There is plenty to do, and even the credits in the game have a wonderful style to them. Your high scores are saved which is essential to a game like this where your overall goal is to beat your own high scores. The only thing I can say negative about the game is that some people will not care for the overall quirkiness of the title. However, I think if you give it a fair chance, this cart can be enjoyed by everyone. Wario Ware is a worthy purchase which should still get a lot of play time even after you have unlocked everything in the game. I am really happy that Nintendo is taking chances and releasing some of the more non mainstream titles over here and I hope the trend continues.