With Game & Wario originally having been revealed alongside the Wii U as a "launch window" title some 12 months ago, it seems a bit strange that some eight months later, it's only just about to make its way into stores. Sadly, software delays seem to have become somewhat synonymous with the Wii U, with Pikmin 3, which was originally a "launch window" title set to finally come out this summer, Rayman Legends, a "launch window" title that ended up getting delayed in order to be released on other consoles too, while poor old Scribblenauts Unlimited may never make it to Europe now. With that in mind, we should probably be glad that Nintendo's bad boy garlic-lover is finally making it to the console, in a crazy little game that's the perfect antidote to the saccharine sweetness of Nintendo Land.
Catch the arrows the pirates shoot at you with the GamePad.
Originally designed as a pre-installed game for the console, coming with every unit sold to help show off what the Wii U GamePad could do, much like Wii Sports did for the Wii (which makes the delay even stranger), Game & Wario has had several changes of direction since it was first created. To begin with, the game didn't even feature Wario - but as time went on, and the mini-games began to take shape, it turned out they had far too many ideas for a simple bundled game, and eventually it transitioned into a full retail product - which brought with it a whole new set of problems. The game needed some sort of structure, something to hold all the mini-games together, but with so many quirky games, tying them together became a bit of a challenge - until it dawned on them that Wario and his pals from the equally crazy microgame series WarioWare could have invented them all, and so Game & Wario was born.
While we've pretty much covered all of the sixteen mini-games in Game & Wario before, Nintendo have lifted the lid on a few new features. For those of you that like collecting things, each mini-game you play will reward you with a number of tokens, which you can then spend in a capsule machine to try and win one of 240 different prizes - which sounds a lot like Super Smash Bros. trophies to us. As with every Wii U game, the title will also have Miiverse support, but as you'd probably expect from a WarioWare game, here, there's a difference, as posting to Nintendo's take on Twitter works like a mini-game of it's own, with the game giving you a choice of four different subjects to draw, and a minute in which to do it.
However, it's worth bearing in mind that if you're coming to Game & Wario expecting some madcap WarioWare style micro-game multiplayer action, you'll likely leave disappointed. Few of the games here support 4-5 players, and most are fairly substantial mini-games with plenty of depth, rather than the insane quick-fire five-second games where you annoy cats, pick noses and mash buttons to eat bananas, which have instead all been relegated to a single player "Gamer" mini-game.
Although it's not quite the same as the WarioWares we used to know, Game & Wario will be hitting the shops on the 28th June, coming complete with generally lower than your average Wii U game RRP, with places like ShopTo offering it for around about £30 compared to the usual £40+. For more pirates on motorbikes, cats with bazookas and dancing dolphins, why not check out the trailer below:
