Wario hilare, entouré de mains jaunes, en illustration cartoon

WarioWare: Nintendo's Microgame Mania

1546 words | Reading time : 7 minute(s)

SeriesWarioWareMicrogames

Games that last three seconds, chained together until you drop. Launched in 2003 with Mega Microgame$! on Game Boy Advance and its 200 microgames, the WarioWare series embraces every console gimmick: a rotation-sensor cartridge for Twisted!, a touchscreen for Touched!. This guide walks you through Diamond City, Wario's studio and his crew of oddball employees.

What if a video game only asked for three seconds of your attention at a time? That's the crazy bet behind WarioWare, the wildest series in the world of Wario. Since 2003, Nintendo has been piling up hundreds of lightning-fast "microgames" that you chain together at an ever more frantic pace, all under the command of the greediest moustachioed antihero in the Mushroom Kingdom.

Welcome to Diamond City, the imaginary city where Wario set up his studio to make a fortune. Here's the concept, the twelve games, their gimmicks and the gang of eccentric friends who make up this cult saga.

Contents

The microgame, the art of three seconds

The WarioWare series rests on one simple but brilliant idea: the microgame (microgame). Each challenge lasts only three to five seconds and boils down to a single action: press, dodge, catch, blow, squeeze. A one-word instruction flashes on screen ("Jump!", "Cut!"), and it's up to you to work out in an instant what you're supposed to do.

Present from the very first game in 2003, Mona is the most recurring figure in the series after Wario himself: a microgame developer, she juggles odd jobs with unshakeable enthusiasm.

The microgames follow one another with no downtime, and the tempo speeds up steadily until it turns frantic. Missing a challenge costs a life: the run ends once your four lives are gone. This chaotic, hilarious formula mixes reflexes, absurd humour and deliberately kitsch graphics. The very first game already offered more than 200 of them, a record pushed further with every new entry.

Welcome to Diamond City: Wario opens his studio

The series kicks off with WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$!, released on Game Boy Advance on 21 March 2003 (Japan) and developed by Nintendo R&D1. The story, a pretext for the humour, stars Wario: seeing how well video games sell, the miser decides to found his own company, WarioWare, Inc., to get rich. Far too lazy to do everything himself, he recruits a cheerful gang of friends to build the microgames in his place.

All the action takes place in Diamond City, a zany metropolis packed with colourful characters. Unlike Wario Land, which offers classic platforming, WarioWare is a pure party game built for humour and for sharing. Success was immediate, launching a franchise that would methodically explore every new Nintendo console.

One console, one gimmick: the series' many makeovers

WarioWare's big idea is to turn microgames into a testing ground for the quirks of each machine. Each entry adopts a different hardware gimmick:

  • Twisted! (Game Boy Advance, 2004 in Japan) packs a rotation sensor into the cartridge: you tilt the console to play. Never released in Europe, it remains the series' great missing piece on the continent.
  • Touched! (Nintendo DS, December 2004 in Japan) makes the most of the stylus, the touchscreen and the microphone.
  • Smooth Moves (Wii, December 2006 in Japan) turns the controller into a "Form Baton" you hold in 19 different ways (like a remote, an umbrella, a set of handlebars...).
  • Snapped! (DSiWare, 2008 in Japan) uses the DSi camera to film you.
  • D.I.Y. (Nintendo DS, 2009) lets you build your own microgames from scratch.
  • Game & Wario (Wii U, 2013) banks on the GamePad screen, while Move It! (Switch, 2023) goes back to motion controls with the Joy-Con.

Wario's crew: the employees of WarioWare, Inc.

Wario may be the star, but the series owes a great deal to its cast of friends, each with their own style of microgames:

  • Mona, the most devoted young employee, forever juggling odd jobs;
  • Jimmy T, the disco dancer glued to his phone;
  • Dribble and Spitz, a taxi-driving duo (a bulldog and a cat);
  • Kat and Ana, twin ninja sisters;
  • 9-Volt, the Nintendo-obsessed schoolboy whose microgames recycle the company's retro classics;
  • Dr Crygor, the eccentric scientist, and his inventor granddaughter Penny;
  • Orbulon, an alien with a flying saucer, and Ashley, the young witch from the haunted mansion.

Ashley has actually become a genuine star: her theme song, introduced in Touched!, is so popular that it made its way into the Super Smash Bros.

The WarioWare cast gathered around Wario
Every employee brings their own world: the series rests on them as much as on the microgames.

Nintendo's craziest idea lab

Over the years, WarioWare has become a kind of creative sandbox for Nintendo, where the publisher tries out zany mechanics before sometimes developing them elsewhere. The compilation WarioWare Gold (Nintendo 3DS, 2018) hit a quantitative peak with 316 microgames, the biggest selection in the saga, bringing together buttons, touchscreen and microphone.

The series has also reinvented itself on the multiplayer side. Get It Together! (Switch, 2021) breaks the formula: you no longer play as a simple hand, but as the characters themselves, each with a unique ability that changes how you solve the very same challenge. Twenty playable characters and 222 microgames later, the saga proves that the three-second concept, twenty years after its debut, has lost none of its freshness or its streak of madness.

The key milestones of the WarioWare series

Timeline tracing the successive WarioWare games
Twenty years of games, each built around a different console gimmick.
Mega Microgame$! (2003, Game Boy Advance) The very first game, over 200 button-based microgames
Twisted! (2004 Japan, GBA) Rotation-sensor cartridge; never released in Europe
Touched! (2004 Japan, Nintendo DS) Stylus, touchscreen and microphone
Smooth Moves (2006 Japan, Wii) The "Form Baton" controller held in 19 ways
Gold (2018, Nintendo 3DS) Record compilation of 316 microgames
Get It Together! (2021, Switch) You play as the characters, each with their own ability
Move It! (2023, Switch) Joy-Con in hand, your whole body in motion

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FAQ

  • What exactly is WarioWare?
    It's a Nintendo game series built from "microgames": three- to five-second mini-challenges chained together at an ever faster pace. The first instalment came out in 2003.
  • How is it different from the Wario Land series?
    Wario Land brings together classic platform games where you play as Wario. WarioWare, by contrast, is a party game built around compilations of lightning-fast microgames and its own absurd humour.
  • Why was WarioWare: Twisted! never released in Europe?
    Its cartridge contained a rotation sensor. After several delays tied to European certification testing, Nintendo eventually cancelled the release on the continent. The game only came out in Japan and North America.
  • How many games are there in the series?
    A dozen games came out between 2003 and 2023, from the original Mega Microgame$! on Game Boy Advance to Move It! on Switch, with entries and spin-offs on every Nintendo console along the way.
  • Who is Ashley in WarioWare?
    Ashley is a young witch who first appeared in WarioWare: Touched! in 2004. Her theme song became such a cult favourite that it features in the Super Smash Bros. series.

The whole saga

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