WarioWare: Get It Together! (Part 1)

Didn’t expect me to review a Switch game before the end of 2023, did you? Gotta slip one into my schedule. And I went for an easy one to talk about. Or… rather, so I thought. Anyway!

Show of hands, who knew
about this one? Thought so.

Past Smooth Moves for the Nintendo Wii and its focus on motion controls, the WarioWare franchise entered a bit of a slump. WarioWare D.I.Y., despite being a fantastic introduction to game design, did not do too well sales-wise and its pre-existing elements were lacking, especially when it came to microgames, the series’ bread and butter. Snapped!, for exclusive use of the DSi’s camera feature, well… you can imagine its limited use wasn’t going to help it. Game & Wario, for the Wii U, ditched the classic microgames for regular mini-games instead and, while creative, those felt too different from the formula.

WarioWare Gold for the Nintendo 3DS was ambitious; not only are all of the main characters voiced, but the 300+ microgames (more than any other entry in the franchise) featured classic controls and ones akin to those in Twisted! and Touched!, owing to the portable console’s touch screen AND built-in gyro sensor. The mix included both new microgames and remakes of classic ones. However, the game was released in 2018, in the dying breaths of the 3DS, which did not help its sales.

A classic from Mega Microgame$!, back
for Gold, 15 years later.

The challenge with WarioWare is to find a new gameplay gimmick to base the entire title on. When the console itself doesn’t provide one, that is. The Switch brought back motion controls… but for those, WarioWare: Move It! is coming out very soon. Before that, we got the very quirky idea of WarioWare: Get It Together, released on September 10th, 2021. You know all those characters we’ve been following since 2003 and who are glorified hosts for their games? We can finally play as them.

Them Darned Glitches

Screenshots for this review were taken from a
Let's Play by Zebra Gamer. Go check it out
if you'd like to see the full game.

We open in the crowded WarioWare offices as Wario puts the finishing touches on a new game, in a cool portable console. He tries to show the gang, but the game glitches. In his anger, Wario throws the game upwards, but the console sucks in all of the developers, turning them into Chibis. Now, they’re all trapped, scattered inside the game, and must find a way out. Wario observes his new form, and laments the presence of bugs all over his usual intro stage! Guess we’d better find the others, as well.

(Most of what comes next will be me reviewing all the playable characters, since they are a core element of gameplay and I’ve played enough to know their strengths and flaws. Also of note, when I say “Action button”, I mean A/B/X/Y, because all can be used to perform a character’s action.)

Every new character comes with a
tutorial to learn how they play.

Wario notices he is now flying with a jetpack on his back. Awesome! Most characters in this game either fly or walk and jump The flyers have excellent mobility in general. Wario, with his freedom of movement, is useful in most microgames. All characters also have one means of attack, which is necessary to complete several of the requests in the eight-beat challenges. Wario’s weakness may be there, as unlike others who can attack in all directions, he can only do a forward bash left or right – not upwards or downwards. Imperfect but very versatile. Makes sense he’d be a starter character.

One of the first games you'll encounter: Swing
the pendulum to hypnotize the baby to sleep.

Wario jumps into his stage in order to complete it and clear out the bugs. As usual, the Intro stage is the shortest and shows what the rest of the game will be like. And once again, we have stages with a little story that’s told to us before we play through. I always had the headcanon that those stories that accompany the developers’ stages were stuff Wario asked them to film, and that none of those happened for real. I may be right, as the mini-stories in Get It Together! are the most bare-bones the franchise has ever had. To the point where, when a stage is cleared and the new character destroys the bugs that were plaguing the stage, we never even see the resolution to that story! It really feels like something’s missing.

Of all characters here, Cricket is the one I'd most
see with a platform spinoff. (Wario already has
platformers of his own, so he doesn't count.)

Early into his stage, Wario finds Young Cricket and 18-Volt, who proceed to help him through the remainder of the microgames. From this point onwards, every stage will ask you to choose at least three characters to play with; and for each microgame you encounter, you'll be given one of them at random. You will also be forced to use a stage’s new character. That way, you use every character at least a little. However, what is likely to happen is that you’ll favor the characters that are either the most versatile or easiest to work with.

Young Cricket walks fast and has an excellent jump. He’s like a platformer protagonist! He can attack from up high with a stomp, or from below with his head. His speed and ease of use make him one of the best characters in the game, and he doesn’t have a gimmick that could impede him too much.

You better learn to aim.

18-Volt is the complete opposite, and the first of a handful of WarioWare devs with a gimmicky concept. He cannot move on his own, at all; with the joystick, you control his aim, and shoot with the action button the CD that’s in his hair. If a microgame requires the character to move, there will be something in there for him to move, like hooks he can shoot at to be teleported to them. He has the quickest projectile in the game, but it can be a pain in the ass to aim properly and/or get him moved where he must be. I don’t like using him.

Getting the crew back together

Upon completing the intro stage’s set of 10 microgames (most stages will have 15), Wario comes back out with his two allies and the bug, which he promptly destroys. Well, that’s one done. The next area opens: Mona’s section. The team finds her in the area, bemoaning the buggy state of her stage with games all based around everyday life. Time to go in and do some QA!

No worries Mona, we're dealing with 'em.
We'll need your help, though!

Of course she has the nose minigame.
She's had one in every title.

Mona switches between two modes: In the first, she flies on her scooter and cannot stop moving whatsoever. Press the action button to swap to the second mode: She stops moving and throws a boomerang, her means of attack, which also won’t stop moving until it is either destroyed or returns to her. Hit A again, her boomerang returns and she moves again. You need to steer her carefully. In microgames where you must shoot repeatedly, and fast, her boomerang is sometimes not quick enough, especially if it has to return to Mona before it can be thrown again. Still, she’s one of the best characters, especially in early-game.

There’s not much about the plot from this point on until much later, so I'll discuss the characters we find, and their strengths/weaknesses.

Spin the windmill, make the... monsters appear?
I should stop questioning microgame logic.

Dribble & Spitz are two characters who play the same… sorta; both drive mini-taxis and wield bazookas. They fly around, having little to no movement limit, and also have really good firing speed. There is one catch: Dribble can only shoot towards the right, and Spitz towards the left, which can trip you up in some microgames. Also of note, in single-player, you will only ever play as Dribble, with Spitz becoming Player 2 if you go through these stages with a friend. Honestly, I think we as P1 should still be able to play as Spitz, it sucks that we can’t have MORE variety.

Dr. Crygor, true to form, is an oddball. He flies using a special buoy, but cannot walk. You have to hold down the action button to make him fly around, which doubles as a continuous attack. While it does make him good in many situations, his weakness is his slow speed.

As usual, 9-Volt's stage is packed with games
referencing Nintendo franchises and consoles.

9-Volt… oh boy… He is, hands-down, the WORST character in the game. He speeds across the screen on his skateboard, his movement is thus limited to the X-axis; and his mode of attack is to shoot his yo-yo upwards, meaning his attacks are limited to the Y-axis. Similarly to his friend 18-Volt, if he needs to get somewhere within the microgame, a complex system of hooks will be in the area. Problem is, he moves fast, so if you miss a shot, you’ll be left like a sitting duck for several beats. There are very few microgames where his skill set isn't a hindrance, and he’s a bad fit for the vast majority of them (including his own!). Even if you get good with him, you’ll dread seeing him pop up as the randomly-selected dev for the current step. He sucks. …In Get It Together!, not in general. The kid’s normally pretty cool.

Mike, found in the first Remix stage and with a major WarioWare role for the first time since Touched!, is also pretty simple. He flies and yells to shoot his attack. He can only attack upwards, making your attack options more limited. Not much new here, but he gets the job done.

The Second Area

Every time you have to stay in one place, the
ninja kindergartners don't do too great.

Kat & Ana open the second area. Just like Dribble & Spitz, in single-player only Kat is available, with Ana showing up in multiplayer. Disappointing. Their gimmick is double. A) They jump nonstop, so they’re unwieldy and hard to control, especially if you need to hit a precise goal. And B) Each one can only shoot their shuriken in one direction, Kat towards the right, Ana towards the left. There are worse gimmicks here, but I dislike how they play and they’re characters that make me groan when they pop up at random.

He has expertise in dancing, not soccer!

Jimmy T., like Dr. Crygor, cannot move normally. With the joystick, you control his finger. Then press the action button to send him forward in the direction he’s pointing in. This counts as an attack, and he can repeat the move as often as he wants. If you can steer him correctly, he can be very useful in many situations. But that’s a big If, as he will otherwise be unwieldy, especially in microgames where precision is needed.

Ashley is one of the best flyers in the game, having full control of the broom she rides as well as a decent rate of fire with her magic wand, her weapon, which she can fire off in all directions. Not much to say other than she’s a great option and will rarely disappoint. Sole weakness? The wand's spell is one of the weaker attacks overall.

This is one of the microgames I dislike the most, because you
must break multiple rocks on the plate without destroying the
candy or dropping it off the plate. Most characters feel
ill-suited for it.

True to form, Orbulon's games are themed around
culture. His boss game involves controlling
the London Tower Bridge's drawbridge.

Orbulon flies around in his piggy ship and his mode of attack is a tractor beam. He has excellent movement and can only attack downwards, but it's okay. That beam? Depending on the situation, it can either easily carry items around the screen, or straight-up abduct them. Useful when there’s a lot of hazards and obstacles. Orbulon makes some specific challenges trivial thanks to this ability, making him one of the best playable characters. He’s not good everywhere… but cases where he’s bad, mostly those that involve moving items without his beam, are few and far between.

That's when I realized that astral projection
really has a buttload of limits.

5-Volt, 9-Volt’s mom, is also unusual in terms of mechanics. She’s constantly asleep so her body doesn’t move normally. However, she… uh… astral projects and her ghost has full reign over the whole screen. You press the action button to call 5-Volt’s body over to the ghost, at the same time producing a shockwave. She can bypass any challenge that involves reaching an exit or moving past a blockade. The shockwave is also a powerful attack. However, returning to her body takes a moment, so she can’t teleport a lot in one microgame. Also, her immobile body can still be hurt, and she cannot teleport into solid objects. Oh, and in some situations, if you don’t use the shockwave right, it can have effects opposite to what you wanted to do. That skill can be great, but it's so troublesome that several situations require you to look for an alternate victory condition.

5-Volt is unlocked in the second Remix stage, and past that one, there’s only one stage left: Wario’s. But… I guess we’ll get through that one in Part 2. There’s a whole lot of stuff I want to talk about on top of the various characters, so I do need a second part.