WarioWare: Get It Together! |OT| Life's a Glitch
- Thread starter JangleLuke
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- Nintendo OT
So funny how everyone hates 9-volt. He is exactly what he is supposed to be, emulating the timed button pressing microgames from the first game. Personally love the challenge even though that first Wario Cup was a killer. Could only bronze it.
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So I've been a huge fan of WarioWare since the first game. Each entry has been among my favorites for their respective systems.
For me, the story mode was just a little intro that got you to what I assumed most people really found to be the addictive element – the Towers.
You put it on maximum variety and battle for as many consecutive hits as you can. Eventually, you're ending up starting in hard mode and still banging out 200-300 in-a-row, almost entering a trance state as your muscle memory executes on the couple hundred possibilities before you at ludicrous speeds. You get a rush of focus, intensity, anxiety, humor, and excitement all at once. It's great.
Given this, I had assumed that this game would really hit it's zenith with all-characters, all-microgames Towers. Now that I've had some time with that combination, I'm beginning to think I was wrong.
There's several ways in which this game was designed that just don't seem to jive with that:
1) First is just the sheer number of possibilities. Even if you know a microgame's objective, and know the character in question's movement, the enormous amount of combinations the game asks you to process quickly feels a bit too wide. There are thousands of different combinations that can be thrown at you, each with different inputs and actions needed. Just memorizing all of these would be a challenge in and of itself, but factoring in the rapid deployment and chaotic juxtaposion of it all – it frequently leaves the player feeling unprepared to win. Once you get to high speeds, by the time the brain catches up to the information in front of you and what needs to be done, it's often already too late because there is a good deal of execution still needed frequently.
2) The inconsistent rules. As an example, some characters can activate an object/target by just touching it with their head. Others can slam into it with their head only to find out they need to shoot in order to achieve the same thing. Some objects you can move through, some you can't. Sometimes that depends on which character you are using. This combines with point 1 to make it even more difficult than necessary to understand each possible interaction and learn enough to get proficient. You really need to learn a lot of the different microgame/character combos before it even becomes possible to get far in this, and there are TONS.
3) The physics-based puzzles that are implemented fairly liberally. The inputs necessary to complete some of these are not only complex, but precise. Moving something in a circle or manipulating bouncing objects – there's nothing objectively wrong with these, but they make failure states much more common when you're trying to perform these quickly. It's not just whether you understood the objective and hit the object in question, it's hitting in just the right place to propel it in the proper direction, or something similar - even with characters whose movement may be fairly sloppy in itself. This complicates the task and makes it much more difficult to enter into that high-speed fugue state. Occasionally, the game can be downright finicky.
4) Finally, there is the fact that certain character and game combinations are incredibly poorly suited. I feel like this one is fairly obvious to everyone, so I won't belabor it. But it does seem like a lot people are bagging on certain characters instead of hitting on the reality that there are random combinations all over the place that are extremely rough.
Really, it's just the complexity of it all. For a character like 5-volt, you even need to learn her hitbox to understand what will be impacted by her "shock" when jumping in – often different per micrograme and sometimes extremely granular to avoid hitting the wrong thing. For a character like Orbulon you have to understand which objects you can suck up and which you can't – often different per microgame. The list just goes on and on which make it very difficult to get proficient enough to really enjoy that rapid-fire possibility. This all leads to the times that I fail in this game, I am frequently frustrated – very rarely do I have that feeling of just being overwhelmed by speed and processing, it's a combination of the above factors that often create something wholly different. It frequently just feels a bit more out of your own hands than any previous game in the series.
I feel like seeing the results in Wario Cup clarifies this quite a bit. The vast majority of people are not capable of climbing very many challenges in a row, and certainly not able to hit the peak insanity that I'm certain far more could have in the older games. Getting into the gold-tier puts you ahead of like 90% of players, when it still doesn't feel quite that accomplished by previous standards.
With that said, I'm still enjoying the game a lot. I do think they failed in their primary goal – which I assume was to make an approachable multiplayer game (the above factors make this the least approachable Warioware ever, IMO), but it's still a fun time.
Approaching this game more as a "hardcore" version of Warioware and dispelling what I thought I wanted from this game still leads to some great fun, and some really enjoyable surprises.
And I do respect them figuring out some other "gimmick" now that they've been forced again to not use a hardware factor for differentiation. One thing you can't say is that it is lazy or uncreative. It really is a fun time.
But I can't help but feel like the simplicity of the previous arrangements allowed for a type of play that really isn't represented here. We'll see if that changes as I play more.
For me, the story mode was just a little intro that got you to what I assumed most people really found to be the addictive element – the Towers.
You put it on maximum variety and battle for as many consecutive hits as you can. Eventually, you're ending up starting in hard mode and still banging out 200-300 in-a-row, almost entering a trance state as your muscle memory executes on the couple hundred possibilities before you at ludicrous speeds. You get a rush of focus, intensity, anxiety, humor, and excitement all at once. It's great.
Given this, I had assumed that this game would really hit it's zenith with all-characters, all-microgames Towers. Now that I've had some time with that combination, I'm beginning to think I was wrong.
There's several ways in which this game was designed that just don't seem to jive with that:
1) First is just the sheer number of possibilities. Even if you know a microgame's objective, and know the character in question's movement, the enormous amount of combinations the game asks you to process quickly feels a bit too wide. There are thousands of different combinations that can be thrown at you, each with different inputs and actions needed. Just memorizing all of these would be a challenge in and of itself, but factoring in the rapid deployment and chaotic juxtaposion of it all – it frequently leaves the player feeling unprepared to win. Once you get to high speeds, by the time the brain catches up to the information in front of you and what needs to be done, it's often already too late because there is a good deal of execution still needed frequently.
2) The inconsistent rules. As an example, some characters can activate an object/target by just touching it with their head. Others can slam into it with their head only to find out they need to shoot in order to achieve the same thing. Some objects you can move through, some you can't. Sometimes that depends on which character you are using. This combines with point 1 to make it even more difficult than necessary to understand each possible interaction and learn enough to get proficient. You really need to learn a lot of the different microgame/character combos before it even becomes possible to get far in this, and there are TONS.
3) The physics-based puzzles that are implemented fairly liberally. The inputs necessary to complete some of these are not only complex, but precise. Moving something in a circle or manipulating bouncing objects – there's nothing objectively wrong with these, but they make failure states much more common when you're trying to perform these quickly. It's not just whether you understood the objective and hit the object in question, it's hitting in just the right place to propel it in the proper direction, or something similar - even with characters whose movement may be fairly sloppy in itself. This complicates the task and makes it much more difficult to enter into that high-speed fugue state. Occasionally, the game can be downright finicky.
4) Finally, there is the fact that certain character and game combinations are incredibly poorly suited. I feel like this one is fairly obvious to everyone, so I won't belabor it. But it does seem like a lot people are bagging on certain characters instead of hitting on the reality that there are random combinations all over the place that are extremely rough.
Really, it's just the complexity of it all. For a character like 5-volt, you even need to learn her hitbox to understand what will be impacted by her "shock" when jumping in – often different per micrograme and sometimes extremely granular to avoid hitting the wrong thing. For a character like Orbulon you have to understand which objects you can suck up and which you can't – often different per microgame. The list just goes on and on which make it very difficult to get proficient enough to really enjoy that rapid-fire possibility. This all leads to the times that I fail in this game, I am frequently frustrated – very rarely do I have that feeling of just being overwhelmed by speed and processing, it's a combination of the above factors that often create something wholly different. It frequently just feels a bit more out of your own hands than any previous game in the series.
I feel like seeing the results in Wario Cup clarifies this quite a bit. The vast majority of people are not capable of climbing very many challenges in a row, and certainly not able to hit the peak insanity that I'm certain far more could have in the older games. Getting into the gold-tier puts you ahead of like 90% of players, when it still doesn't feel quite that accomplished by previous standards.
With that said, I'm still enjoying the game a lot. I do think they failed in their primary goal – which I assume was to make an approachable multiplayer game (the above factors make this the least approachable Warioware ever, IMO), but it's still a fun time.
Approaching this game more as a "hardcore" version of Warioware and dispelling what I thought I wanted from this game still leads to some great fun, and some really enjoyable surprises.
And I do respect them figuring out some other "gimmick" now that they've been forced again to not use a hardware factor for differentiation. One thing you can't say is that it is lazy or uncreative. It really is a fun time.
But I can't help but feel like the simplicity of the previous arrangements allowed for a type of play that really isn't represented here. We'll see if that changes as I play more.
I somehow managed to complete the mission where you have to knock everything off the table in the piggy bank game, and I have no idea why
I was using Dribble and I'm pretty sure there were some blocks still on the stool, but it gave it to me anyway. I'll take it, I guess.
The character specific missions and whatnot are really fun. I am having a blast with this game.
I was using Dribble and I'm pretty sure there were some blocks still on the stool, but it gave it to me anyway. I'll take it, I guess.
The character specific missions and whatnot are really fun. I am having a blast with this game.
speed skater being the very first wario cup challenge couldnt be more intentional
they knew he sucks. and they liked it
I have finished the story mode, pretty fun for now. The minigames are much better than expected.
Meanwhile, i find the Spanish translation, horrible. The game contains many outdated expressions, most of them i would say have not been used by kids since the late 80s. I don't know why did they hire boomers to translate this game, or who though doing such translation was a good idea.
And don't tell me the game is translated like this to make it more kid-friendly. Kids these days do not talk like that. They know that, and with translations like this they are conscious that we are treating them like if they were idiots.
Meanwhile, i find the Spanish translation, horrible. The game contains many outdated expressions, most of them i would say have not been used by kids since the late 80s. I don't know why did they hire boomers to translate this game, or who though doing such translation was a good idea.
And don't tell me the game is translated like this to make it more kid-friendly. Kids these days do not talk like that. They know that, and with translations like this they are conscious that we are treating them like if they were idiots.
The wario cup stage transition is pretty lame, wish you could select from single player. I want penny's song
Oh no! Can you not see past challenges if you didn't partake in them? I guess I'll just have to wait until they cycle back around... I only unlocked wario cup yesterday.
Oh no! Can you not see past challenges if you didn't partake in them? I guess I'll just have to wait until they cycle back around... I only unlocked wario cup yesterday.
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What's giving you the impression this is selling well?
I sure hope you're correct. I have the opposite feeling, but I'm always pessimistic about the games I love most.
Absolutely fantastic entire post - thank you for writing that up.
In regards to the difficulty and the characters that just..don't...work - I adore that about this installment.
Too many of the previous WarioWare games became too easy to master too quickly. The simplicity worked when first playing through the games but, in retrospect, make them a little less interesting on subsequent replays. I don't think Get It Together will have this issue as much.
I still have not found a game (though I know several are out there) where I felt it an insurmountable challenge with certain characters.
Much more difficult, yes. Insurmountable without more practice, no. Not yet, at least.
Once it very slowly dawned on me just how incredibly deep this game actually is, that's when I began to view it as a challenge meant to be overcome with much practice - or perhaps strategies I haven't thought of yet.
I didn't read any reviews thoroughly, but I'm wondering how many reviewers commented on how complex the game can be, rather than comment on what they felt they could NOT do.
Playing this game after finishing story mode feels sooooooo much better. The story mode felt kind of like... edging
Then including them in the completion stats table as well lol
I'm surprised they didn't take the simpler approach of having a unique set of mini games per character, and then shuffling those after story mode. It would have allowed them to get a bit more creative in uniquely associating the games to the different play styles, and fix the issue of certain games being near impossible with others.
That said, it would have also ruined multiplayer and the zaniness and unpredictability of this that I personally love.
That said, it would have also ruined multiplayer and the zaniness and unpredictability of this that I personally love.
Definitely some fair criticism, I find it hard to engage with people who bounce off this sort of controversial change and label it a total failure, but you raise some intrinsic points. Ultimately you sometimes have to concede on something in game design to try something new, but at least we're blessed with piles of classic WarioWare.
Well for the multiplayer aspect, they can just select the easy characters like Orbulon and Ashley to play as for beginners. I think that's the main reason why they have characters such as Orbulon be so broken.
For sure. There definitely isn't anything here where there is an insurmountable challenge. It's certainly all possible. But there are definitely some combinations that are significantly more difficult, particular, or finicky than the series is known for, and they fire at you quite unexpectedly in any randomization. I mean, the game even seems to acknowledge this fact in the play-o-pedia (smile scale), so it seems either intentional or unavoidable. (I'm also not sure I fully agree with their ratings just yet, but that's besides the point). And without the time factor jammed in, I doubt it would be as noticeable.
I definitely have found it helpful sometimes to go take a specific character into that mode just to figure out the best way to tackle a specific challenge, and maybe with time that continues until it all comes together. But there's also the reality that trying to master each game with each character is over 3,600 possibilities, which is pretty crazy to be familiar with for high-speed play. Obviously some combinations are exceedingly easy and all, so the real number of "learning" is much smaller, but I'd be lying if I didn't admit to wondering if it might have been better to scope this slightly smaller and tighter in the long run, though. We'll see.
I have no idea about reviews. I stopped reading them years ago. These days I pick up the games I'm interested in essentially blindly. I have found that my taste and appreciation is too far off from most reviewers to find them useful, and having gamed for so long now I can usually tell what games I'm interested in from a reveal trailer or a developer name. Since there's usually only half a dozen games I want per year anyways, it's pretty easy to just buy them and find out.
Oh for sure. It's not a failure by any measure - it would be ridiculous to suggest so. Even though I have my criticisms, I still quite enjoy it overall and absolutely commend Intelligent Systems for their creativity and willingness to give it a shot. I have no doubt it is 100% better than if they tried to "play it safe."
The hyperbolic internet binary of "angelic or trash" isn't something I subscribe to.
I have absolutely no qualms playing legacy systems, revisiting classics that I loved before, etc, so I agree with that part too. Generally speaking, I love the Nintendo philosophy that there's no point in making the same game again and again, and the few series that they have which have been susceptible to that are at the bottom of my interest list as a result.
One of Warioware's core strengths at this point is that every game has brought something unique to the table, and I love it for that. Even when it turns out slightly flawed.
I've only played for a few hours but I totally feel you. I wish the characters with specific abilities was its own separate mode and there was just a general / generic microgame collection.
I have fond memories of the original on GBA and multiplayer on the GCN, easy to get people into. Having to explain character moves is a drag.
"Cricket jumps
Kat always jumps
Master Cricket jumps so high he snaps to the ceiling"
look I get people who liked the simplicity of the series before but let's not act like warioware character selection became like picking civs in grand strategy games either. The concepts for the character are still pretty quick to grasp- might not be quick to master, but that's not a bad thing
If anything the characters are not more complicated than TWIST TOUCH MASH before every minigame in gold and nobody complained about it
Yeah, I haven't played it with completely casual players yet but tbh I think it just takes like, 5 minutes to just go into the crew screen and play through the demo of some of the weirder characters for people. It's awkward but not insurmountable, I wouldn't trade something fresh and new for same old same old.
It's fine for someone that plays lots of games, but I tried to get some casual Mario Party/Fall Guys gamers to give it a try and they just didn't like the immediate complexity of figuring out a bunch of random move sets.
Just beat the story, is there a mode to where I can endlessly play all the games combined or do I have to choose by category?
So after goofing around with this week's wario cup, my best scores (around 8k so far) have been using more consistent characters. Once things get fast it's a big risk to have a 9volt in your crew, even if his point multiplier is great.
I think I was down to Wario for the last 10~ blistering fast games for the push over to gold trophy territory. If that had been someone trickier like Penny I'd have been done for.
I think I was down to Wario for the last 10~ blistering fast games for the push over to gold trophy territory. If that had been someone trickier like Penny I'd have been done for.
That's how WarioWare is lol
Don't feel bad you'll realize the trick for each game eventually. Took me forever to figure out the baby rocking game.
That's why they're called microgames, you have to focus on knowing which character you're playing as and hearing/seeing the goal prompt before the microgame appears. They can also give you more time to complete them depending on the complexity.
I think adding Fronk would be cool. He could work like Captain Viridian in VVVVV, he can move left and right, and his action sends him straight up to the ceiling, and using it again brings him straight back down. He'd also have a kind of small hitbox
Thinking of the microgames, that sort of movement shouldn't make any game impossible and it'd be a slightly different movement system
Not really sure how he'd be unlocked... maybe have a little cutscene after 9-Volt's stage where he appears or something.
Fronk is the only main character of WarioWare Gold to not be playable
Thinking of the microgames, that sort of movement shouldn't make any game impossible and it'd be a slightly different movement system
Not really sure how he'd be unlocked... maybe have a little cutscene after 9-Volt's stage where he appears or something.
Fronk is the only main character of WarioWare Gold to not be playable
I'd also like to see more of the Thang family, with slight variations on Jimmy T's mechanics. Papa T's dashes are charged, his tall hair compressing to indicate for the player how much the dash has been charged and thus how far he'll go. Mama T doesn't dash but moves in the direction you point in whenever the button is held while doing a little shimmy. No idea what James and Jamie could do though
That goddamn Big Brain Academy game at level 2 and 2 always fucks me up.
Also only lowkey disappointments about this game:
1. Lack of silly toys to mess with. I'm talking things like the Brine Buddies or Grandma Simulator on Touched. They were pretty pointless, but fun additions. Not many of the side games have single player options too.
2. No "Boss Only" mode.
3. No option to pick custom squad size.
Also only lowkey disappointments about this game:
1. Lack of silly toys to mess with. I'm talking things like the Brine Buddies or Grandma Simulator on Touched. They were pretty pointless, but fun additions. Not many of the side games have single player options too.
2. No "Boss Only" mode.
3. No option to pick custom squad size.
These are my two main gripes with the game so far. Only tried Multiplayer with a good friend that also plays video games a lot, but I have fond memories of the Gamecube multiplayer that was easily approachable by people with little video game experience. There was even a sort of handicap giving more experienced players higher level challenges. Haven't had the chance to play in a bigger group, but the sheer amount of characters adds to the confusion not by design, but by lack of having played the storymode that gives time to familiarize yourself with the characters more, making it even more uneven.
The lack of silly toys is the biggest flaw of the game to me. They were by far my favorite part of any entry I played, especially in the WiiU game. Makes me wish for a WarioWare game that uses all of the Switchs and especially the Joy-Cons features, just for the silly toys that could be played with. Hope they'll do a sequel that does exactly that (just like Twisted). The item collection and customization is not as satisfactory to me so far.
How do I access this menu? Got the game last tuesday and only unlocked Wario Cup a day later (when the first challenge was already over). The one and only challenge I can see and play is the survival one. Does the menu only pop up after the next challenge unlocks? I have the hunch, that the challenges will loop after one year, so one challenge per week for a whole year.So the new Wario Cup is live. Called Survival Training, you pick a team of 5, and if anyone dies they are out until all 5 are dead. This is where character difficulty multipliers come into effect, so picking harder characters can lead to higher scores assuming you can handle the games.
Also the new menu, Previous Challenges, is open.
There are 52 slots here, and you can replay old challenges just for fun, which is how you can always do any Missions related to them.
I think that you should play 1 challenge (and end the challenge deadline) before unlock this menu.
I am loving this entry a lot. One of my favourite things about the whole character angle is how much a microgame can change depending on who you're using, forcing you to find a different solution. So naturally going with the whole roster is my preferred way of playing.
Also this week's Wario Cup kicked my ass a lot more than last week's, which I can't say I was expecting. Took me quite a bit longer to get a bronze cup anyway.
Also this week's Wario Cup kicked my ass a lot more than last week's, which I can't say I was expecting. Took me quite a bit longer to get a bronze cup anyway.
Theres not, me and my gf got the 6-volt for that boss twice (which makes it trivial). Got all the yoshi coins AND coing from the first level and second level, and nothing. Maybe its singleplayer only challenge, maybe they want you to use the character, maybe you need to get the coins for the 3 levels, but it doesnt seem to give you anything right now. We tried to read about it but we didbt find anything though
There is if you collect them all with Jimmy T in all levels in playopedia.
That's because unfortunately this game is exceptionally lacking in this regard. There's the standard character stages, mix stages and the classic 3 towers (all microgames, super speed and 1-life at highest difficulty). Then for extra modes, there's 3 minigames focused on the character-based gameplay (a volleyball minigame, a sidescrolling platformer minigame, a combat survival minigame kinda like Smash Bros) a single microgame turned into an endless challenge (keep juggling a sportsball and don't let it touch the ground), plus a variety of multiplayer-only games I haven't touched yet.
Then there's Wario Cup, which is a challenge mode where you can compete for score and prizes in week-long events. The challenges consist of traditional microgame playing, but with various conditions. Like the first one was playing 34 specific microgames in a set order, all as 9-volt and set to the fastest game speed.
Past that, there's also a side activity of spending in-game currency to buy gifts for the characters, which allows you to unlock cosmetic customizations for each of them, as well as a list of achievements which can earn you the aforementioned currency. The classic gameplay loop of "play warioware -> unlock little interactive doodads -> play warioware" mostly turned into "play warioware -> unlock character customization -> play warioware"
