WarioWare Touched! – Reliving the Madness on Wii U

During the Nintendo Direct on April 1, Nintendo announced that the Wii U virtual console would soon see games from the Nintendo 64 and Nintendo DS systems. Super Mario 64 and Yoshi’s Island DS were launched immediately after the presentation. This past Thursday (April 9), two new Nintendo DS games were added to the eShop: Yoshi Touch & Go and WarioWare: Touched!

WarioWare has always been an odd series. In 2003, WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$! was released, and its addictive micro-games made it a success. A few years later, the franchise came to Nintendo DS with WarioWare: Touched! I have fond memories of this game. It was one of the first games I got for my Nintendo DS, and I remember passing my DS between me and my friends, seeing who could get the highest score on each playlist.

If you’ve never played WarioWare before, it might be strange at first. Each stage is preceded by a lengthy, un-skippable cutscene. After suffering through these generally awful scenes, you’re presented with a series of extremely short micro-games, the object of which is usually absolutely ridiculous. One game has you use a rope to make a floating nose sneeze, and another has you popping bubble wrap. No matter what the goal is, the games are always short and sweet – and this makes even the worst of the micro-games bearable. The story can be completed in about an hour, but this is where the game actually gets fun. After each stage has been completed, you are able to play special stages that are never-ending mixes of the games played during the story. The pace gets faster with every few games completed, and you have four lives. The best fun that WarioWare: Touched! has to offer is seeing which of your friends can get the highest score.

All of the madness is delightfully intact on the Wii U, and the gamepad allows Wii U players to have the same experience as players on Nintendo DS. It’s also small enough to pass quickly between friends, and this allows for players to co-op stages and compete for the highest score or the quickest reactions.

If you’re like me and you have fond memories of the DS original, this is a no-brainer: $9.99 to relive the madness of WarioWare: Touched! is a great deal if you don’t have the cartridge anymore. If you’ve never played it before, it’s definitely worth a download. If you like mini-games and ridiculously strange video games, WarioWare will give you hours of joy. It’s also a lot cheaper than the newer and far inferior Wii U entry, Game & Wario.

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