WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$!

WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$!, known as WarioWare, Inc.: Minigame Mania in European languages and known as Made in Wario in Japanese, is a minigame compilation for the Game Boy Advance and the first title in the WarioWare series of games. It was released on March 21, 2003, in Japan; later that year in Europe, the Americas, and Australia; and on July 4, 2005, in China. The game has the player play through themed gauntlets of microgames, which are very short minigames that only last for a few seconds each, and the player must complete through short written instructions and contextual clues. The game's plot centers around Wario, who founds a game company and creates a video game along with his friends, an entirely new cast of characters who reside in Diamond City. Some of the game's music and sound effects are taken from Wario Land 4.

Based on the "Sound Bomber" mode of Mario Artist: Polygon Studio, Mega Microgame$! was a passion project for its development team, who developed it in secret before showing it to their producers. The game was praised by critics for its innovative concept and addictive nature, and would become a commercial success despite low internal expectations, selling over one million units worldwide.

It was re-released as a free downloadable title for the 3DS Ambassador Program in December 2011, only available to people who purchased a 3DS before the August 12, 2011 price drop. The game was also released on Wii U's Virtual Console in the Americas, Europe, and Australia on April 10, 2014, and for Game Boy Advance - Nintendo Switch Online as one of the application's launch titles on February 8, 2023.

Story
One day, while lounging on the couch in his house in Diamond City, Wario sees a report from Ken the Reporter on TV about a video game called Pyoro that made tons of money. Wario thinks of all of the cash that he could get if he made a video game, and quickly sets out on his bike to obtain a computer. Wario's house then gets renovated into the headquarters of WarioWare, Inc., Wario's newly founded company. After trying to make a video game by himself, Wario grows lazy and calls up his closest friends to help; they agree.

At the end of the game, WarioWare, Inc.'s game becomes a commercial success. Wario ends up swindling his employees, though, refusing to pay them and taking all of the money for himself. In the WarioWare, Inc. headquarters, he runs away from his friends with the cash and escapes with a rocket attached to the building. However, Dr. Crygor, swimming in mid-air, accidentally bumps the rocket; causing it, Wario, Dr. Crygor, and the banknotes to all fall into the sea, with the rest of the employees watching from the harbor.

Gameplay
The game is based around the concept of playing very quick, simple microgames (over 200 in all) in rapid succession. Most games only last about four seconds on the lowest speed. There is a wide range of microgames that vary heavily in art style and gameplay. Some games feature just black and white stick figures, some games show photographs, and some games are based on classic video games. A microgame make use of any combination of the and  buttons, but not all microgames will use all of the buttons; one microgame might solely use the, while another might only use the  button. Shortly before a game starts, simple instructions such as "Dodge!", "Pick!", or "Catch!" are displayed. Each microgame features three difficulty levels, the degree of changes from the lowest to the highest level depending on the game.

The game's main progression takes place in the Games mode's stages, hosted by Wario and his friends. After beating a certain number of the microgames in a stage, the speed and occasionally difficulty will increase. The microgames appear in mostly random order. In addition, there is also an arcade-style mode known as Grid mode, where the player aims for a high score in a single microgame, which cycles through its difficulty levels before speeding up. This concept, albeit in a much simpler form with only eight microgames in total, was first used in Mario Artist: Polygon Studio in the Sound Bomber mode.

Microgame stages
The Games mode serves as the game's main campaign. There are nine stages hosted by the different characters from the game that come with their own set of microgames based around a certain theme each, in addition to two special stages that are composed of microgames from several previous sets. Each of the eleven stages must be beaten to progress through the story. All stages feature prologue and epilogue cutscenes that are centered on their respective character, and are viewed before and after the actual gameplay.

To beat a given set, the player must beat a specific number of the microgames specific to that set without getting a Game Over. The last game in a given set is the boss stage, a more complex game that lacks a time limit. Players are given four lives, losing one for every microgame lost. Losing all lives results in a Game Over. Between every microgame, a short intermission displaying the current score and number of lives shows up, its appearance based on the character's story. Seeing a microgame in the Games mode opens it up for free play in the Grid mode.

After beating a stage, a player can replay it indefinitely to obtain a high score. The player scores a point after every microgame, even if they lost the game when at least one life is left afterward. In this challenge, the game continues after every boss stage on a higher difficulty level. After beating the boss stage on the third level and every next time, the speed increases additionally instead. By winning a boss stage, the player also gains an extra life if they has less than four lives. In addition, after a boss microgame, a short break scene featuring the stage's host is shown, which the player can influence by pressing the button. The stages do not need to be played again to reach the epilogue cutscene, but some extra content is only unlockable by getting a minimum high score on certain stages, and playing every microgame at least one time is required to unlock two of the bonus minigames.

Extra content
By playing the stages, extra challenges can be unlocked. These include special minigames for one or two players and mixes of the microgames from all sets. They are chosen from the same screen as the microgame stages in Games mode.

The single-player challenges feature special minigames, several of them being extended versions of the microgames. There are also dual-player games, which use the and  buttons to allow for two players to play four simple minigames using only one handheld. A single bonus minigame can only be unlocked by playing the microgames in the Grid rather than the stages.

In addition, there are the four tower stages that are the last unlocked stages, and challenge the player to beat as many of the microgames as possible until all lives are lost. Microgames from all previous stages are put into the mix, with various additional rules applied for each. For example, one tower challenges players to not lose a single life of the hardest difficulty versions of the microgames.

Grid mode
In this mode, players can play any microgame they have previously encountered in the Games mode. When a microgame is selected in the Grid mode, a single challenge will be repeated endlessly in an arcade-style format until they lose the microgame four times. Like in the stages, the player scores a point after every playthrough. The game cycles through each of the three difficulties the microgame has, with the first one being easy, the next being of normal difficulty, and the third being hard. After that, the speed of the game increases, and the difficulty cycle begins anew. Each microgame has a designated score to beat, ranging between 10 and 30 points for regular games, and 5 for boss games. Upon meeting this score, the microgame is marked with a red flower.

Options
In the Options menu, the player can view the epilogue cutscenes after clearing the Games mode sets, or tweak settings related to their save file, from changing the player name and gender to erasing the save file's contents. The player's name and gender do not affect the gameplay, but some scenes in the character stories and text lines depend on the player's name or gender. In addition, on the name change screen, the player can change the background music by pressing the button; the songs available are the themes of the Sci-Fi, Reality, and Nature stages.

Main characters
Aside from Wario himself, WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$! introduces a completely new cast of characters in the form of Wario's friends and the other citizens of Diamond City, a location which also debuted in this game. Each of the main characters host a set of microgames, and come with an individual story dedicated to them in the form of a prologue and epilogue. At the end of every story after the Introduction, the respective character meets with the other ones at the Gelateria. The characters were designed by Ko Takeuchi.

Microgames
There are nine different sets of microgames, each one created by one or two WarioWare developers and focused on a certain theme. Note: The menus of WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$! mention the Intro Games stage as an "Introduction" stage and not as Wario's (first) stage. Also, the menu mentions only Dribble as the developer of Sci-Fi games and only Kat as the developer of nature games.

Microgame set compilations
Besides the single sets, there are also six extra microgame stages involving the microgames from more than one character. Two of them are Remixes of Jimmy T. that act much like the regular stages and need to be beaten to unlock three or one new character stage(s), respectively. The other ones are hosted at four different towers located in Diamond City, all featuring pig sculptures. The intermission between the microgames in the tower stages looks like a reverse-colored child's drawing of the inside of an elevator with an animated pig head on the doors.

Bonus minigames
Besides the microgames, also "full" minigames without a strict time limit can be unlocked. These mostly include expanded versions of the microgames, as well as altered ports of past Nintendo games to include Wario and his friends. Some of these games also include other WarioWare developers than Wario.

Single player
In these games, the player aims for a high score which will be saved.

Dual-player
In all of these games, one player has to press the button while the other one has to press the  button. Unlike single-player games, there are no high scores, and the game ends after one player has earned the necessary points and won, with each game played in a best-three-out-of-five system.

Locations
Diamond City, the main place of the WarioWare series, features several locations in this game that are mostly connected to one character or character pair each.

Objects
The following list includes the objects mostly seen in the character-related cutscenes.

Development
WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$! was developed by Nintendo R&D1, and first announced in early 2003. It was directed by Hirofumi Matsuoka and produced by Takehiro Izushi. Other key developers include Goro Abe, Ko Takeuchi, and Kazuyoshi Osawa.

The WarioWare concept with very short minigames coming one after another was first used in Mario Artist: Polygon Studio, a game released for the Nintendo 64DD in 2000 only in Japan. The game's Sound Bomber mode includes eight microgames, and six of the microgames in WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$! are based on those.

Made in Wario was originally made in secrecy by several developers on the development team Nintendo R&D1, without telling their manager at the time. The people came up with the idea of using Wario for the game, since they could not think of anyone else who would be best for the game, and because according to them, Wario is "always doing stupid things" and is "really idiotic"; thusly, they used him alongside other newly created characters.

Proud by their work, the makers presented their idea to their manager at a certain point. He was reportedly unsurprised, and just gave his okay, so the team continued development.

For the creation of the microgames, each person on the team would come up with their own ideas, which were then written down on notes and attached to the director's table. After this, the developers went through the ideas to decide which ones could be included in the final product. Since the game became well-known around the department, even employees who were not formally on the project started to submit their microgame ideas. Because each of the programmers created their own graphics during the development of the games, the art style also wound up being very different with each microgame.

Shigeru Miyamoto put a lot of thought into how best to market the game. He wanted to show how its unusual playing style made it distinct from other games, in the way it could be simply picked up and enjoyed. Miyamoto gave the staff the approval to use the slogan "More! Shorter! Faster!" (最多 最短 最速 Saita Saitan Saisoku), which prominently appeared on the Japanese box art, even surpassing the actual game logo in terms of size. The slogan was not used for the later Western packages, which depicted Wario and his friends rather than just a portion of Wario's face as seen on the Japanese counterpart.

Made in Wario, or WarioWare as the franchise is called in international languages, was first announced by Nintendo in early January 2003 and originally released in March 2003 in Japan. Nintendo did not have hugely high commercial hopes for the game. However, the game's sales figures were growing and growing and it gained a very good reputation.

Since WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$! was commercially successful, Satoru Iwata, president of Nintendo, requested a remake of the original WarioWare, Inc. for the Nintendo GameCube that had to be finished "as soon as possible." The development resulted in the first sequel, WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Party Game$!, which focuses on multiplayer and was released in Japan only half a year later after the first game. It is also the first WarioWare game that was formally co-developed by Intelligent Systems. More WarioWare sequels have followed since, which mostly make use of a new piece of Nintendo's hardware, resulting in WarioWare becoming one of Nintendo's headliner titles whenever they bring out new hardware.

Pre-release and unused content


Within the game's files are a few unused microgames. One of them is based on the Family Computer game , likely meant to be used in the Nintendo Classic microgame set. The player must keep the racing car on the road without bumping into other cars until the timer runs out. Its command is "continues running", which lacks the exclamation point present in the used microgames' commands. It shares its music with Munch a Bunch.

Critical reception
Critical reception of WarioWare, Inc. was positive. ' overall score for the game is 89%. WarioWare, Inc. also won numerous awards.

The Japanese  magazine rated the game a score of 35 out of 40. 's Shane Bettenhausen rated the game 9.5/10 and enjoyed how fast-paced and frantic the game was. He also stated that playing the games was all it took to convince his friends of the game's value. Bettenhausen enjoyed the weirdness of the game, too. Jeff Gerstmannf of stated that the combination of minigames and pacing of puzzle games such as  came together wonderfully. He rated the game a score of 9.1/10. 's Craig Harris loved WarioWare and awarded it a score of 9/10. He stated that it did not matter that the main quest only took one or two hours. The additional replay value made up for it. He also cited the game's "pick up and play" qualities as reasons for his high score.

Awards
The game was awarded the Editor's Choice Award at both GameSpot and IGN. At the Edinburgh International Games Festival in 2004, WarioWare took the Award, and was named the most innovative game of the year. WarioWare, Inc. also gained one of the three Innovation awards at the 4th annual Game Developers Choice Awards in 2004. In 2008,  named the game one of the top ten weirdest of all time.

Staff
WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$! was entirely developed by Nintendo R&D1. The game was directed by Hirofumi Matsuoka, who previously directed Wario Land 4 and Mario Artist: Polygon Studio, the latter of which contained the "Sound Bomber" mode that served as a direct inspiration for WarioWare. WarioWare was Matsuoka's last work at Nintendo, as he would depart the company to join Creatures, Inc. shortly after the completion of the game.