Game & Wario

Game & Wario is the odd one out in Wario’s back catalogue. The WarioWare cast are all here, the jokes and the art are unmistakably theirs, and the title nods to Nintendo’s Game & Watch handhelds the way the series always has. But there are no five-second microgames, or rather, there is just one game that has them. Instead there are sixteen self-contained games, each a few minutes long and each built around one idea of what the Wii U GamePad could do.

That is no accident. The project began in January 2011 as software meant to come built into every Wii U, a showcase for the new controller. In Iwata Asks, Goro Abe and Intelligent Systems’ Naoko Mori describe holding back the series’ usual weirdness to appeal to everyone, until producer Yoshio Sakamoto played their prototype of Pirates and told them to shake things up. By the summer of 2011 the ideas had outgrown a pre-installed title, and once the team failed to write a story to link sixteen games, they made it a WarioWare spin-off in which each game is the work of a different member of the crew.

So you hold the GamePad up to the television to aim a bow in Arrow and look through it like a camera lens in Shutter; you tilt it to ski or to steer a kung-fu student through the air; you scribble on it in Design and Sketch; and in Gamer you play microgames on it while keeping a nervous eye on the TV, where 9-Volt’s mum may walk in at any moment. Three of the four multiplayer games pass a single GamePad around up to five people, with the TV as everybody else’s view.

It was a quiet release, months after the Wii U’s launch, and critics were split: it scores 61 on Metacritic, with Game Informer at 8/10 and IGN at 5.1. But its best ideas lasted. Gamer became a stage in two Super Smash Bros. games, Fruit returned in WarioWare Gold, and its capsule machine was reborn as the Cluckade in WarioWare: Get It Together!. For the series it spun off from, see WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$!

“Now we can cut loose and have some fun!”

Naoko Mori, director at Intelligent Systems, in Iwata Asks: Game & Wario (Nintendo, 2013)

Her reaction when Yoshio Sakamoto, having played the Pirates prototype, told the team to stop playing safe.

The questions people ask most about Game & Wario, answered briefly here and in depth further down.

Wario is at home in front of the television when Reporter John announces a new games console with a controller that has its own screen. Wario’s eyes turn to money, and that night he is hunched over his computer making games. Across Diamond City the same news reaches Jimmy T on his phone, Mona on an outdoor screen, Kat & Ana in the middle of a game of rock-paper-scissors, Dr. Crygor’s lab, 9-Volt and 18-Volt, Ashley and Red, Young Cricket and Master Mantis, and Dribble & Spitz in their cab; Orbulon and the Oinker crash straight into it.

Each single-player game opens with a short cartoon about its maker, and the story closes with the craze for Pirates. What follows retells those cartoons game by game.

Prologue: a controller with a screen

Wario is slumped in front of the TV at home when the news comes on. The moment he understands what the new console can do, his eyes turn into money and he dreams of millions. All over Diamond City his friends catch the same report and start having ideas of their own, and by nightfall Wario is at his computer, thinking hard.

Wario: Arrow

With his computer gathering dust, Wario settles down to a film and a bowl of strawberries, until a mouse makes off with the last one. He chases it straight through a wall, mugs a passing archer for his bow, and gets his strawberry back with his last arrow. The mouse takes revenge with a pepper pot while Wario naps; the sneeze sends mouse and pepper flying into the computer, and Wario wakes up with a game idea and declares himself a genius. In Arrow you hold the GamePad up to the TV and draw back on the touch screen to fire nose-tipped arrows at robot Warios trying to reach the strawberries, swatting any that get through on the GamePad itself.

Mona: Shutter (Camera in Europe)

At the Diamond City Times, Editor Joe has a scoop for his photographer: Mona scoots off with her camera and catches two gangs of thugs mid-deal, then winks for the front page. The GamePad becomes a telephoto lens: hold it up to the TV, find the people on your list hidden in the scene and snap them before you run out of shots. Joe judges every picture, and photographing a Fronk, a rare creature, earns a bonus.

Jimmy T: Ski

Jimmy T skis straight through a bear, catches the eye of Cathy and her fellow ski bunnies, strikes a run of poses and ends up leading a whole party, bear included, off a ski jump. In the game you hold the GamePad upright and tilt it to steer him downhill to the finish; the European manual lists a time attack and a Ski Bunny Slopes mode.

Kat & Ana: Patchwork

The twins roll out bolts of patterned fabric, draw their swords and cut it into shapes at ninja speed, then pose with their finished patchwork. The game is a touch-screen puzzle: lay the pieces of cloth to make the shape of an object, with hints and a clock for the harder puzzles.

Young Cricket & Master Mantis: Kung Fu

A sparring session between master and pupil ends with Mantis making a dumpling out of thin air and eating it himself, before hopping off over the obstacles for more training with a hungry Cricket behind him. Cricket bounces on his own; you tilt the GamePad to steer him in mid-air onto the next platform and press ZL or ZR to ground-pound, eating dumplings to keep his energy up as he climbs after Master Mantis.

9-Volt & 18-Volt: Gamer

9-Volt beats 18-Volt’s high score, 5-Volt confiscates the console and sends them to do their homework, and when she hands it back the boys find that she has beaten both their scores. Gamer is the one game here built on microgames: 9-Volt plays them on the GamePad while on the TV you watch the door for his mum. Press ZL or ZR to pause and hide the game when she is about to come in, but do not let 9-Volt nod off or fail too many games. It has 22 microgames, according to Iwata Asks; Super Mario Wiki notes that two of them, Gold Digger and Sole Man, are remade from the first WarioWare.

Dr. Crygor: Design

Crygor wakes up with stomach ache, gets stuck in his own toilet, flushes himself out with the automatic setting and slides through his lab’s pipes to arrive, rose in hand, in his laboratory. Design is a drawing test: look at the shape and length you are asked for, then draw it on the GamePad as accurately as you can to help build a robot, in a normal mode or a one-stroke mode, alone or with a second player.

Ashley & Red: Ashley

Ashley wants to visit the dark world in her spell book, but a gust of wind turns the page and her spell drops her and Red into a world made of desserts instead. Red, who has been a wand and an umbrella already, becomes a broom and they fly off. In the game Ashley rides Red through the sweet world, shooting at targets and collecting sweets with the GamePad.

Dribble & Spitz: Taxi

On Highway 56 a UFO beams up the hitch-hiker Dribble and Spitz were about to pick up. Spitz pops through the roof with a laser gun, the UFO giggles at him, and the cab gives chase. You drive with the GamePad and aim its bazooka at the UFOs, with the TV showing an overhead map, rescuing passengers and getting them to their destinations.

Captain Wario: Pirates

Bored, Wario takes the Wario Bike for a spin round Diamond City, spots a pirate costume and becomes Captain Wario. Pirates is the game that convinced Sakamoto: a rhythm game in which Captain Wario calls out directions and you move the GamePad the way he calls, in time to the music, to block his crew’s arrows, then dance along. It grew out of an E3 2011 prototype called Shield Pose.

The ending: Toy Express and Club Sugar

Pirates becomes a hit, and at Toy Express Reporter John covers the crowds. Captain Wario barges into the broadcast to take the credit, but the fans mistake him for the game’s villain and dance up a giant energy ball with their game pads that blasts him across the city and through the window of Club Sugar, where his staff are dancing. Jimmy T sums it up – crashing the party is typical Wario – and suggests they all go bowling. Bowling, hosted by the whole cast, is the twelfth single-player game.

All 16 games in Game & Wario

Each card gives the host, the European name where it differs, and the number of players. Single-player games first, then the four multiplayer games, then Miiverse Sketch.

1. 
   ArrowWario · 1 playerHold the GamePad up as a bow and shoot down robot Warios, with a MechaWario boss to face.
2. 
   ShutterMona · 1 player · Camera in EuropeUse the GamePad as a camera lens to find and photograph targets.
3. 
   SkiJimmy T · 1 playerTilt the upright GamePad to steer downhill.
4. 
   PatchworkKat & Ana · 1 playerFit pieces of cloth together to make a picture.
5. 
   Kung FuYoung Cricket & Master Mantis · 1 playerTilt to steer a bouncing Cricket from platform to platform.
6. 
   Gamer9-Volt & 18-Volt · 1 playerMicrogames under the covers, with one eye on 5-Volt.
7. 
   DesignDr. Crygor · 1–2 playersDraw shapes and lines to exact measurements.
8. 
   AshleyAshley & Red · 1 playerA broomstick shooter through a world of sweets.
9. 
   TaxiDribble & Spitz · 1 playerDrive, shoot UFOs with a bazooka and deliver passengers.
10. 
    PiratesCaptain Wario · 1 playerBlock arrows in time to the music; its completion unlocks the epilogue.
11. 
    BowlingThe whole cast · 1–2 playersTurn the GamePad to aim; Challenge or Standard ten-frame games.
12. 
    BirdPyoro · 1 playerThe first WarioWare’s Pyoro, redone as a Game & Watch.
13. 
    SketchOrbulon · 2–5 players · Artwork in EuropeOne draws on the GamePad, the rest guess.
14. 
    FruitPenny · 2–5 playersOne player is a thief in the crowd; the others must spot them.
15. 
    IslandsThe Fronks · 2–5 playersFling Fronks onto an island and knock off your rivals’.
16. 
    DiscoMike · 2 playersA rhythm duel on a shared touch screen.
17. 
    Miiverse SketchOnline · Miiverse Artwork in EuropeDraw words suggested by Miiverse users. No longer available.

Everything is played on the Wii U GamePad; no other controller is needed. Each of the sixteen games is a complete little package with its own title screen, menus and difficulty levels, designed, as the team told Satoru Iwata, as if each could be sold on its own.

One controller, sixteen ideas

The games were built to show off what the GamePad could do, and each uses it differently. Some treat it as an object in your hands: a bow held up to the TV in Arrow, a camera lens in Shutter, a pair of skis tilted left and right in Ski, a bazooka in Taxi, a shield in Pirates. Others are about its screen: drawing in Design and Sketch, fitting fabric in Patchwork, tapping out rhythms in Disco. Gamer and Fruit play the two screens off against each other, so that what you see on the GamePad and what is happening on the TV tell different stories.

Before a game starts, a picture shows how to hold the controller: shake it, raise it, turn it, lay it flat, draw on it, touch it.

Five players, one GamePad

The four multiplayer games need nothing but the GamePad, which makes them easy to set up at a party. In Fruit, one player secretly controls a thief in a crowded town while the others watch the TV and then try to pick out who was stealing; in Sketch one draws and the rest guess; Islands has players taking turns to fling Fronks onto a target island and knock their rivals’ off; Disco is a two-player rhythm duel on the touch screen. Design and Bowling can also be played by two.

Miiverse Sketch

An online version of Sketch, Miiverse Sketch (Miiverse Artwork in Europe), replaced friends with the Wii U’s social network. You picked one of four words suggested by Miiverse users, drew it against the clock and posted the result; you could also suggest words and browse and rate other people’s drawings. Nintendo’s product page now notes that the Miiverse service has ended, so the mode no longer works. In Japan, Nintendo ran a weekly video series, the Miiverse Sketch Masterpiece Collection, showing off the best drawings.

Tokens and the Cluck-A-Pop

Playing well earns tokens: you get them for meeting conditions in the games, for finding hidden ones, and one free token a day just for visiting the game selection screen. Each token buys a go on the Cluck-A-Pop, called the Chick-N-Win in Europe, a chicken-shaped machine that lays capsules. The colour of the capsule tells you what kind of prize is inside, and there are 240 to collect. A Collection screen lets you play with your prizes, and a Mega Collection combines the haul of two or more save files.

According to Iwata Asks, the team brainstormed about 300 prizes and cut them to 240 so they would fit the menu, and more than 100 of them are interactive. Some are leftovers from the project’s days as built-in Wii U software.

Cluck-A-Pop capsules by colour

The eight capsule colours and what they hold, from Super Mario Wiki.

• YellowCall Codes.
• GreenBugband performances.
• OrangeBalloon Fighter microgames.
• PurpleMona Superscoops and Orbulon’s Prized Masterpieces.
• BlueHint cards (69 of them, according to Iwata Asks) and character cards.
• RedEverything else: toys, gadgets and oddities.
• GoldenTwo secret prizes: the Game & Wario Epilogue, for completing Pirates, and the Illustrated Schnozzipedia, for completing Bowling.
• WhiteA replica Cluck-A-Pop, awarded once every other prize is collected; the machine then becomes a token dispenser.

Game & Wario has outlived the Wii U in other games. These are the appearances Super Mario Wiki records.

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and UltimateWii U and Nintendo SwitchA stage based on Gamer appears in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and returns in Ultimate.

WarioWare GoldNintendo 3DSGamer returns as the Sneaky Gamer mode, one of its microgames joins Mona’s set, and Fruit becomes Orbulon’s boss microgame, Sneaky Snatcher.

WarioWare: Get It Together!Switch, 2021Its Cluckade prize machines are modelled on the Cluck-A-Pop, Mona’s hat and camera from Shutter appear in her bedroom, and 5-Volt checks on a sleeping 9-Volt.

WarioWare: Move It!Switch, 2023The calico cat from Gamer pops up in Polario’s shop during 9-Volt’s stage.

Super Mario MakerWii UThe Ashley costume uses sounds from the Ashley game.

Rhythm Heaven MegamixNintendo 3DSArtwork of Penny and Dr. Crygor appears in Wario…Where?

Mario Kart WorldNintendo Switch 2Captain Wario, Wario’s alter ego from Pirates, is available as a costume.

CrowdfarterNintendo of America, May 2013A spoof crowdfunding site for the North American launch: fans “donated” tweets and Facebook likes to unlock a badge, a wallpaper, Wario ringtones and a trailer.

Every game has a maker. These are the hosts and the supporting players, as Super Mario Wiki lists them; “first game” is from Super Mario Wiki’s WarioWare series article.

Character	Who they are	In this game	Abilities & notes
WarioGames mogul	Mario’s greedy rival and president of WarioWare, Inc.	Sees the new console on TV and smells money; makes Arrow after a feud with a mouse.	Host of Arrow.
Captain WarioWario’s pirate alter ego	Wario in a pirate costume he finds on a bike ride.	Claims credit for the hit game Pirates and gets blasted across Diamond City for it.	Host of Pirates. Later a costume in Mario Kart World.
MonaPhotographer	Diamond City’s busiest girl, here working for the Diamond City Times. First game: Mega Microgame$!	Snaps a gang deal for Editor Joe.	Host of Shutter (Camera in Europe).
Editor JoeNewspaper editor	Mona’s boss at the Diamond City Times.	Hands out the assignments in Shutter and judges every photo.	Supporting character in Shutter.
Jimmy TDisco dancer	Diamond City’s king of the dance floor. First game: Mega Microgame$!	Charms the ski bunnies on the slopes; in the ending he suggests bowling.	Host of Ski.
Kat & AnaNinja twins	Diamond City’s nursery-age ninjas. First game: Mega Microgame$!	Cut cloth with their swords in record time.	Hosts of Patchwork.
Young CricketKung-fu student	Master Mantis’s eager pupil. First game: Smooth Moves.	Spars with his master and follows him on to more training.	Star of Kung Fu.
Master MantisKung-fu master	Cricket’s elderly teacher. First game: Smooth Moves.	Conjures a dumpling and eats it himself.	Co-host of Kung Fu.
9-VoltSchoolboy gamer	Diamond City’s keenest young gamer. First game: Mega Microgame$!	Plays games under the covers after bedtime.	Co-host of Gamer.
18-VoltRapper and gamer	9-Volt’s older friend. First game: Twisted!	Loses his high score to 9-Volt, and then to 9-Volt’s mum.	Co-host of Gamer.
5-Volt9-Volt’s mum	9-Volt’s mother, mentioned since Twisted! but seen in full for the first time here.	The hazard in Gamer: if she catches 9-Volt playing, it is game over.	Supporting character in Gamer.
Dr. CrygorScientist	Diamond City’s inventor. First game: Mega Microgame$!	Gets stuck in his own toilet before work.	Host of Design.
Ashley & RedWitch and sidekick	A young witch and her red companion, who can turn into a wand, an umbrella and a broom. First game: Touched!	Fall into the dessert world of Ashley’s spell book.	Hosts of Ashley.
Dribble & SpitzTaxi drivers	Diamond City’s cab-driving double act. First game: Mega Microgame$!	Chase a UFO that steals their fare.	Hosts of Taxi.
PyoroBean-catching bird	The bird from the game-within-a-game of the first WarioWare. First game: Mega Microgame$!	Catches beans again, this time in Game & Watch style.	Host of Bird.
OrbulonAlien	A UFO-flying alien, here with the Oinker. First game: Mega Microgame$!	Crashes into the news of the new console.	Host of Sketch (Artwork in Europe).
PennyInventor	Dr. Crygor’s granddaughter, who tells him and Mike off in the intro. First game: Smooth Moves.	Makes the thief-spotting party game.	Host of Fruit.
The FronksLittle creatures	Little creatures that also hide in Shutter as rare photo targets.	Get catapulted onto islands.	Hosts of Islands.
MikeKaraoke robot	Crygor’s singing robot. First game: Touched!	Makes the rhythm duel.	Host of Disco.
Reporter JohnTV reporter	The Diamond City newsreader of this game.	Announces the new console in the prologue and covers the Pirates craze in the ending.	Appears in the prologue and the ending.

Key staff

From Wikipedia’s infobox and Iwata Asks.

Game & Wario is unusually well documented, thanks to a three-part Iwata Asks with Goro Abe, Naoko Mori and Yoshio Sakamoto.

Meant to be built into every Wii U

Work began in January 2011, when Mori was briefed on the Wii U. Abe explained that the original plan was for the software to come pre-installed on the console, which meant it was never conceived as a WarioWare game; the aim was to demonstrate the GamePad as clearly as possible to the widest possible audience, so the team toned down their usual eccentricity. Their target was to have something to show at E3 in June 2011, where the Wii U was unveiled, and one early prototype, Shield Pose, had players hold the GamePad like a shield against arrows fired from the TV.

Sakamoto was not convinced by the safe approach. After playing the Pirates prototype that grew out of Shield Pose, he told the team to shake things up – which Mori took as permission to cut loose.

From demo disc to Wario game

Around the summer of 2011 the team decided that Pirates and the other ideas were too big for a pre-installed title and turned the project into a retail game. They then struggled to find a story that would link sixteen unrelated games, and set themselves a December deadline that came and went. About a year into development the answer arrived: make it WarioWare, and let each game be the work of a different member of the crew. The team wanted it to be clear that a particular character had created each game, which is why every one has its own title screen and menus.

Hitoshi Kobayashi’s advice to concentrate on visuals the team did well led to the paper-thin, moving look of Captain Wario. The title is wordplay on Nintendo’s Game & Watch handhelds.

The Nintendo All-Stars

Near the end, directors and producers from across Nintendo’s Software Planning & Development department pitched in, a group the interview nicknames the Nintendo All-Stars. Iwata noted that it was the first time all of SPD’s teams had supported one game. The Cluck-A-Pop got similar treatment: around 300 prize ideas were whittled to 240.

Announcement, delay and release

Nintendo showed the game at E3 2012 among the Wii U’s upcoming titles with so little fanfare that Game Informer called it a stealth reveal. It was meant for the console’s launch window, but in January 2013 Nintendo pushed it back to the first half of the year, and an April 2013 Nintendo Direct gave the release dates. Japan got it on 28 March 2013, the West in late June. In North America Nintendo promoted it with Crowdfarter, a spoof crowdfunding site; in Europe it ran a Miiverse drawing contest from 28 June to 12 July 2013, with Nintendo eShop credit for the ten best entries.

What Game & Wario brought to Wario’s world.

There are no codes, but the token economy rewards a little know-how.

A free token every day

Visit the game selection screen once a day for a free token. Others come from meeting conditions in the games and from tokens hidden inside them.

The two golden capsules

Complete Pirates for the Game & Wario Epilogue, and complete Bowling for the Illustrated Schnozzipedia. Both come in golden capsules.

Finishing the collection

Collect all 240 prizes and the Cluck-A-Pop lays a white capsule holding a replica of itself, after which the machine pays out tokens instead.

Gamer survival

Hit ZL or ZR to pause the moment 5-Volt is about to come in. Being caught, losing all your lives or letting 9-Volt fall asleep all end the game.

Shutter bonus

Photographing a Fronk, the rare creature hidden in some scenes, scores bonus points.

Two of Nintendo’s own trailers from the Western launch.

• The name is a play on Game & Watch, Nintendo’s 1980s handhelds, and Bird recreates Pyoro in that style on the GamePad.
• Several games have different names in Europe: Shutter is Camera, Sketch is Artwork, Miiverse Sketch is Miiverse Artwork, and the Cluck-A-Pop is the Chick-N-Win.
• In the Japanese version each game’s logo has a Japanese subtitle underneath, dropped elsewhere. In Shutter’s tutorial the Japanese version marks the wrong way to hold the GamePad with NG; other versions use a cross.
• Decision Boy, who appears in the game, lost most of his lines in English: only “Yes!” and “No!” survive, and other languages reuse those English clips.
• Gamer has 22 microgames, according to Iwata Asks, and two of them, Gold Digger and Sole Man, are remakes of microgames from the first WarioWare.
• In the Shutter cutscene Mona works for the Diamond City Times; her hat and camera from it later turn up in her bedroom in Get It Together!

• 

  The prologue’s television briefly shows Sal Out and the Chorus Kids, a nod to Rhythm Heaven.
• The prize machine is a chicken that lays capsules, and its last prize is a replica of itself.
• Some Cluck-A-Pop capsules date back to the game’s life as pre-installed software, according to Super Mario Wiki’s account of Iwata Asks.
• Nintendo of America’s Crowdfarter promotion measured its “donations” in bajillions, kajillions and katrillions of coins.
• Nintendo’s Japanese YouTube channel ran 20 episodes of the Miiverse Sketch Masterpiece Collection between June and November 2013, each narrated by a WarioWare character.

• 

  Captain Wario’s cut-out, paper-thin look came from advice to concentrate on what the team did well visually.
• Fruit was reworked as Orbulon’s boss microgame, Sneaky Snatcher, in WarioWare Gold.
• Purchases for Wii U on the Nintendo eShop ended on 27 March 2023, so the download version can no longer be bought.

Japan, Europe and Australia share a cover built around a figure of Wario, according to Super Mario Wiki; North America has its own design.

Gameplay shots of the games not pictured above, and a few clear screens.

Official artwork and promotional images, from Super Mario Wiki’s gallery.

Game & Wario was never re-released, and with the Wii U eShop closed it survives on disc and in the games that borrowed from it.

Re-releases

• Announced June 2012Shown at E3 2012 among upcoming Wii U games.
• Delayed January 2013Moved from the Wii U launch window to the first half of 2013.
• Japan 28 March 2013First release.
• North America 23 June 2013Launched with the Crowdfarter promotion.
• Europe and Australia 28 and 29 June 2013With a Miiverse drawing contest in Europe.
• Brazil 26 November 2013Last regional release.
• Wii U eShop 27 March 2023Purchases end; the download version is no longer sold.

What it left behind

Its ideas kept resurfacing. WarioWare Gold brought back Gamer as Sneaky Gamer and turned Fruit into a boss microgame; Get It Together! rebuilt the Cluck-A-Pop as the Cluckade; Move It! hid Gamer’s cat in a shop; and Captain Wario sailed all the way into Mario Kart World. For the series proper, start with WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$!; for Wario’s platformers, see Wario Land 4 and Wario World, or browse the games hub.

Sales

We found no worldwide figure from Nintendo. In Japan, Media Create’s chart had it at number ten with 22,491 copies in its first week (25–31 March 2013), followed by 11,064 and 4,719 copies in the next two weeks, according to Gematsu’s reports as cited by Wikipedia. GamesRadar reported that the game and Dragon Quest X between them helped the Wii U’s sales to double that month.

• 22,491Japan, week one (Media Create)
• 61Metacritic
• 16games
• 240Cluck-A-Pop prizes

Reviews

Scores as listed by Wikipedia and Super Mario Wiki.

Critics liked many of the parts more than the whole. Destructoid’s Jonathan Holmes found the games polished and good value at a budget price, while noting that the set was uneven and lacked the frantic energy of WarioWare proper. Eurogamer’s Christian Donlan felt it fell short of its potential and at times seemed defeated by the Wii U itself. IGN’s Keza MacDonald was hardest on it, finding only a few of the games worth returning to and lamenting that the Wii U still lacked its own Wii Sports. GameXplain scored the multiplayer a point higher than the single-player.

Game & Wario has yet to receive a community review on Super Luigi Bros.

If you’ve played Game & Wario and would like to submit a review, please get in touch.

Every fact on this page was checked against the 10 sources listed here.