[GameSpot] - WarioWare: Get It Together Turns Plucking Armpit Hair Into A Party Game Experience

[343iBot]

Where could WarioWare go after Gold? The 2018 3DS game acted as a sort of grand culmination for the series, combining the best microgames from across its many installments with a handful of new challenges and a plethora of extras. Rather than retread that same ground, the series' upcoming Switch installment, WarioWare: Get It Together, introduces a few interesting twists to the classic formula, making it more of a party experience.

We recently got a chance to see more of WarioWare: Get It Together via a virtual preview event. Like previous entries, the title is comprised of more than 200 microgames--bite-sized challenges that are thrown at you in rapid-fire succession. These games run the gamut from silly to outright bizarre. One moment, you'll be shaking apples from a tree; the next, you'll be plucking hairs from a Greek god's underarms. This oddball humor has become one of the series' hallmarks, and even from our brief preview, it's clear that it's on full display in Get It Together. But while the microgames are all classic WarioWare fare, they offer a different experience here, thanks to the new focus on actually playing as the title characters.

Unlike past games, you directly control Wario and company during microgames, using their abilities to clear the objective. Each character has a unique playstyle; Ashley the witch, for instance, can fly around on her broom and conjure spells from her wand, while Mona throws a boomerang that you guide around the screen using the control stick. You select three characters at the start of a round, with the game randomly cycling between them as you clear microgames. This adds a new dynamic to the games, as their challenge will depend on which character you're currently controlling. Ashley can make quick work of the aforementioned apple tree microgame by firing spells directly at the apples, for example, while someone like 9-Volt--who can only skate along the ground and flick his yo-yo vertically--will need to shake the tree's branches from beneath to dislodge the fruits.

Multiplayer adds yet another wrinkle. Although previous entries in the series have featured some multiplayer games and activities, Get It Together places a much heavier emphasis on them. Nearly every microgame here supports multiple players locally, and it looks like a riot. While the ability to play with another person should theoretically make the microgames easier to clear, that seems far from the case in practice. You'll inadvertently get in each other's way while trying to clear the microgames, turning already-frenetic tasks into pure chaos.

In addition to the story mode microgames, Get It Together features a party mode called Variety Pack, which boasts a handful of more traditional-style cooperative and competitive minigames for multiple players on the same system. One of the games that Nintendo highlighted, Daily Grind, plays out like a sidescroller. Here you must work your way through stages en route to the office, picking up contracts and defeating coworkers. Further complicating that goal, the stage layouts become progressively more challenging as you progress, and they feature power-ups that transform you into other characters, constantly shaking things up.

Another Variety Pack game, Puck 'er Up, is an air hockey-style competition. The objective here is to knock the puck into the goal. The player who manages to score will then get to play a microgame, with a star as their reward if they can successfully clear it. The other player, however, has a chance to interfere, be it by shaking the screen or trying to obscure the view with a leaf. If the person playing the microgame fails, the star will be awarded to the other player. It's a clever way of turning microgames into a head-to-head contest, and it looks like one of the highlights of the package.

Beyond that, Get It Together features a handful of other modes, including one called Wario Cup. While we didn't get to witness it during our preview session, we did learn some details. Nintendo described it as an "online weekly rotating challenge" where you'll try to clear a specific objective. While you can use any character, the more ill-suited they are to that objective, the better your score will be if you manage to clear it. Wario Cup also features a ranked mode that lets you upload your score and see how it stacks up against players from around the world. That, however, requires a Nintendo Switch Online subscription.

WarioWare: Get It Together launches for Nintendo Switch on September 10. The game retails for $50 USD and is available to preorder now from the eShop and various retailers. Nintendo has also released a free WarioWare demo on the eShop that lets you sample a handful of microgames as well as several playable characters.

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