WarioWare: Get It Together

With so many big Nintendo games coming out this fall, WarioWare: Get It Together wasn't one of the higher games on my list. I was expecting to get it, enjoy it, and just forget about it a few weeks after. I was seriously underestimating this game's ability to win me over, however, as having played it, I thought it was absolutely fantastic.

Similarly to many other games in the series, WarioWare: Get It Together tasks you with playing a rapid-fire series of five-ish-second-long microgames, forcing you to adapt to the different tasks and settings. Get It Together's main gimmick is that you play these microgames as characters from the WarioWare series, each with their own different abilities. I was originally worried that keeping the control scheme consistent between the microgames would make them feel less unpredictable and fun, but I was surprised to find that was not the case. As a matter of fact, this gimmick actually added more freedom to how you approach the different microgames. Each character will force you to tackle each game in a different way, and the game rarely has you stick with the same character for an entire session, forcing you to swap out with other characters to maintain that sense of unpredictability. It helps that most of the characters are pretty fun to play as, all of them having simple control schemes that are easy to grasp. However, this leads to my biggest issue with the game. As impressively large as the roster of characters is, the balancing is way off in Get It Together. Some characters (Ashley, Orbulon) are leagues better than the rest, and other characters (9-Volt, Kat/Ana) are so bad that there's no reason to play as them. Not to mention some characters (Master Mantis, Mike) are just flat-out better versions of other characters (Young Cricket and 9-Volt respectively). 

Get It Together's microgames have a few big differences from others in the franchise that I think make them mostly more fun to play. First of all, many of the objects in these microgames have physics and rigidbodies at play, meaning that you actually have to physically push them around and interact with them to win the microgame. This may not sound all that game-changing, but I think the emphasis on physics puzzles makes the microgames a lot more satisfying to figure out and solve. Get It Together can feel like a full-on physics playground at times, and it can be a lot of fun to play around in. But even better, many of these microgames now have multiple solutions, bolstered by the more freeform physics and multiple characters. For example, there's a microgame where you have to turn off a water nozzle. You could turn the handle as intended, or you could fly up to the nozzle and clog your head in it. Both solutions work, and the addition of these alternate solutions actually adds a lot of replay value and depth to these microgames. Now, microgames aren't just one and done affairs, I actively want to go back to minigames and try different strategies with different characters. The attention to detail in this game is absolutely insane, and it gives these microgames far more longevity. Not to mention swapping between characters make perfecting these microgames far more engaging and difficult.

WarioWare: Get It Together also has a lot of content. With 222 microgames, this game has the third most in the series, right before Twisted and the compilation game Gold. The Story Mode is the biggest in the series as well, with ten character stages, multiple remix stages, and a bunch of hidden stages at the end of the game. There are over 20 characters to play as, 10 cute sidegames in the Variety Pack, and a ton of missions that encourage you to see everything the game has to offer. I actually really like the missions since they give you a reason to get high scores in the Story Mode stages and microgames, as well as hint you towards those aforementioned alternate solutions. However, there are a few game modes that I think could have been better. The Toy Box from previous games is completely gone and replaced with a mode called The Crew. The Crew has you use the game's currency to buy gifts called Prezzies and give them to your characters, leveling them up and letting you unlock alternate costumes, colors, and art. While trying to figure out which Prezzie to give each character is a fun puzzle and the artwork looks fantastic, the fact that you can't actually interact with and play around with the Prezzies like in previous games was a bit disappointing. As a matter of fact, there really aren't any original minigames at all, which is a bit of a shame considering past titles. There's also an online leaderboards mode called Wario Cup, which offers weekly challenges to try and get the highest score on. While it's another neat addition not unlike the Ninji Speedruns from Mario Maker 2, the game doesn't have a way to play online with people. This wouldn't normally be a massive issue, but Get It Together has a massive multiplayer focus, with nearly the entirely game playable with two people. It can make for a really fun party game, which is why it sucks that there's no option for online play.

Presentation-wise, Get It Together is probably the strongest game in the entire series. The playable characters all get cute Chibi designs, and their 3D-esque models manage to mesh well with pretty much any direction the microgames take art-wise. The transition screens have a cool polygonal look, the menu is colorful and well-organized, and the whole game just looks so whimsical. The only time when the graphics don't look super impressive are the 3D microgames from 9-Volt's stage, which use pretty obvious prerendered sprites. However, given how quirky the art direction for WarioWare typically is, I wouldn't be surprised if that was intentional. I was also absolutely blown away by how catchy this game's music is. As a matter of fact, Get It Together now has my favorite WarioWare soundtrack out of them all. The obvious highlight is Penny's theme, the first vocal track in the series after twelve years, but I also really liked the Character Select, Main Menu themes, transition themes, Bonus Stage, Cast Roll, and Orbulon's shockingly beautiful boss theme. Takeru Kanazaki (who also made music for Paper Mario Color Splash and Fire Emblem Three Houses) did a fantastic job of capturing that quirky Nintendo-ish vibe that really brought me back to the days of the Wii.

I don't think Get It Together is the best WarioWare game, as it does suffer from balancing issues and some modes that aren't quite as fleshed out as they should be, but I was still very pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed it. The fantastic presentation, fun microgames, impressive amount of freedom and attention to detail, large roster, and enjoyable multiplayer make for an incredibly strong party game for both one or two players that I highly recommend checking out.

4/5 Stars

2024 Update: It's been three years sine I wrote this review and Get It Together is now my third favorite WarioWare game behind Inc and Gold. I've played a lot more WarioWare since and I think GiT kinda spoiled me with just how replayable it is. Between the missions, the crew grinding, the Wario Cup, and just how fun it is to get a flower in every microgame, I've sunk the most amount of hours into this game than any other entry in the series.

Revised Score: 4.5/5 Stars