WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgames!

WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$!, known in Europe as WarioWare, Inc.: Minigame Mania and in Japan as Made in Wario, is a GBA game by Nintendo and the first entry in the WarioWare series. The game is built around a collection of 213 minigames of very short duration, unlocked in phases loosely organised by theme.

History[edit]

According to designer Goro Abe, the game's genesis was a desire to create something atypical of Nintendo's usual style (to the point where he wasn't entirely sure the company would actually release it).^[4] The concept for the gameplay has roots in Mario Artist: Polygon Studio's Sound Bomber mode, which used very similar minigames incorporating player-made models. The staff worked on the game in secrecy at first, only approaching their manager after some time had passed - he gave his approval without much comment. The team decided to use Wario because they felt his idiocy fit the game like a glove.^[5]

Every programmer on the team proposed individual microgames by writing their ideas on sticky notes and putting them on a table before going through and removing ones that they didn't like. (They ended up getting contributions from others in the same department once word of the project started spreading internally.) The staff wanted to avoid games that were excessively obscene, "Japanese," or difficult to immediately comprehend.^[5]

While the game was a passion project, no one at Nintendo initially thought it would be much of a success. The developers were not sure how to properly market the game - Shigeru Miyamoto helped out on that front, approving of its Japanese slogan ("More! Shorter! Faster!") and insisting it be put on the cover.^[4]