Retronauts - Retronauts Episode 192: WarioWare

Episode Date: January 8, 2019

Wario started out as literally the anti-Mario, and his platforming series did a great job of playing with the tropes of the genre. But in 2003, Wario would have a much bigger task: subverting the ongoing trend of bloated game design with sheer minimalism and absurdism. On this episode of Retronauts, join Bob Mackey, Jeremy Parish, Ray Barnholt, and Henry Gilbert as the crew examines the subversive brilliance of WarioWare series on its 15th birthday.

This week on Retronauts, finally, a podcast for people with short attention spans. for this episode of Retronauts. And today's topic is the WarioWare series. Before I continue, who is here with me today in this room in San Francisco? Jeremy, Jimmy Parrish. Jimmy Parrish. DJ. And who else?

Nine volts biggest fan, Henry Gilbert. I thought so. And who is our final guest? Oh, I'm Ray Barnhold. The 18 volts biggest fan. How about that? What about the mom of that crew? Everyone's got a...

No one likes that mom. She's scary. She's cool in the new game. But yes, today we're talking about the Warrior Ware series. It's officially 15 years old. We all thought Wario was dead with the awful gaming warrior, but he came back recently with the very, very good Warrior Wear goal that's sort of like Rhythm Heaven remix and that it has some new stuff, but it's basically just the collection and celebration of a series that it's basically Nintendo checking in like, hey, you still want this? You still want one of these? We might make more.

So let's talk about Warioware, fellas. So Warioware, I want to do this episode because I love Warioware. It is a treat, it's a gem. and I feel like it's one of those wholly unique concepts like Katamari Damasi where you have never played anything like it before and nothing like it will ever be made again. It's very unique and very original. And I really can't think of anything past those two games that have felt as fresh and new in terms of experiences. Maybe Shadow of the Colossus. I feel like the early 2000s were a very fertile ground for these kind of games.

Oh, yeah, that's for sure. Yes, for sure. Can we think of anything else? Maybe Minecraft? Spalunky? Spalunkey? I don't know. I mean, it was drawing from similar rogue-likey thingies. It was, but in a way that I'd certainly never seen before and that really hooked people. Sure, we can count Spalunky. That works, too.

Fizz. That game's boring. Let's move on. It's okay. It's okay for like the first third. But Warioware, I want to start off by asking everybody your experience with Warioware. Where did you find it? How did it enter your life? What is your current relationship status with Wariaware? Let's start with Jeremy. How about you, Jeremy? me. Did you review this game for OneUp? No, OneUp did not exist when this game came out. It came out a few months before OneUp actually became a thing. So I reviewed it on my personal blog around the time that OneUp launched. I had moved to San Francisco and decided one night to have a couple of white Russians for some reason. Did you see the Big Lobowski or something? No, actually. I mean, I had seen it, but I hadn't just watched it. I was just like, oh, Oh, well, why not? And sit down and write a review,

and I wrote a very, very sort of stream of conscious review that was very much like Warioware. And, yeah, so that might be what you're thinking of. That review never would have flown at a site like One Up. But I picked up the game when it first came out and was definitely into it because I was, you know, a big supporter of handheld gaming in general. And that seemed like a big, interesting, important game

and really just immediately loved it. and thought it was really fresh and exciting. And having been a big fan of Warioland 4, it was not the next Wario Land game, obviously, but it had the same sort of spirit and definitely the same sound design, which I really loved. So I was a big fan right away. And my current relationship status with WarioWare is I think WarioWare should be the 51st state. We've got Delaware and now Wario Ware. Excellent.

It's way more exciting than Delaware. Absolutely. Henry. Hey, you know, I was with it from as early as I could play it because 03 was probably the most hardcore of a Nintendo fan I was. I was just thinking of this recently about how like 01, 0203, I was on the IGN message boards and other message boards all the time going like, the Megaton is coming, guys, and it's going to be big news for Nintendo. What was the Megaton? I still am not very clear on that. Was that just something Nintendo promised or that was that?

Was that a code name for... I think it was a mistranslation of a rumor in Fimitsu that they had another. Basically, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles was the closest to a mega-time people got. You know what? That's being re-released. I think that game gets a hard, like, it has a bad reputation, but I think it's still pretty fun. And actually, that has something to do with how I first played Wari Aware, because, as a super hardcore Nintendo fan, I was getting those demo discs for the GameCube.

And if you had one of those stupid demo discs, and then also were dumb and I'm have to own a GBA connectivity cord. Oh, I'm right here. Why wouldn't you be? You could download Game Boy Advance demos off of the cart. Oh, you're right. Wow. Or off of the disk onto the system.

And that included one for Warioware. How did we fail to mention that in our GameCube episode? Because it's something that only three people didn't. Oh, okay. They were all in this room and we just forgot about it. Fair enough. And so I played those demos a ton. And in doing research ahead of this thing, I forgot that, like,

The demo versions have worse music, weirder, sound effects. Like, it's a little different, but I was playing that a ton. So then once the first game came out, finally, I played it a ton, and then actually played even more the GameCube port of it in the first year of its release. And as for right now, you know, I got burned by Game in Wario a little bit. I'm warming back up to it. I just played that demo of gold. It's pretty good.

And so I might play it, but it really shouldn't be $40. That is my feeling on Warrior Wear gold. Come on, it's 20% new content. Come on, 30 bucks. 30 bucks. 30, that seems more fair. Ray, how about you? What's your relationship with Wario Ware?

Well, there was a time back when Nintendo would put out press releases and tell you what they were making before they showed them to anybody. And I remember them, I guess they were previewing E3 or something. It was some press release that listed Warrior Wear mega micro games. And I remember people on, I guess, Gaffer is somebody like somewhere just trying to figure out what the hell that was. I guess it sounded really weird. And there was like a couple weeks of that, just guessing what it would be until it finally showed up. And it was like, oh, okay. Well, that's certainly different.

And then I believe I went to E3, 2003. That was a pretty good year for Nintendo stuff like Henry was sort of saying in the sense that if you were a fan of them, you had a good lineup of GBA stuff at least and I saw like Mario and Luigi and then Warrior Wear and Mario Advance 4 and stuff so I believe I might have played it there and was sold on it one way or another

but yeah that was funny because like when it first was announced like nobody really knew what to think for like a couple weeks until they finally saw it I mean I think we are all early warrior wear adopters in this room I was one of those two I think I just had heard of the concept and I trusted Nintendo at the time

and I loved the Mario games by the way. So episode two of this independent run of Retronauts, so five plus years ago, that is our Wario Land episode. Check that out if you want to hear about those games. But in the summer of 2003, this is actually tied to the Retronaut's extended universe. My friend's Nick and Chris Daniel,

Nick Daniel does all of my art for the Retronaut's covers, so check his art out and tell him you like it because it's all very good. But him and his twin brother, Chris, they were staying in a house in Indianapolis because his brother flipped houses or something like that. I forget the story behind it. They were not squatting in the house. I know that much is true.

But it was just like a big empty house, and we were just, like, basically just a bunch of, like, slacker 20-year-olds, just having fun in the summer. And one day we went out to, like, a game store, and I bought Wario Ware, and that was a real fun bonding experience. Just like, oh, my God, look at this game. We passed it around. I think we all finished it on my Game Boy Advance, but it was so much fun. And I have a lot of good memories of that experience. And I stuck with the series from beginning to end. Actually, I didn't play the Wii.

We'll get into that later. But I still am a big fan of it, even though Game of Wario let me down. I really like Warrior Wear Gold and I recommend it It probably will never go down in price because it's a Nintendo game

But maybe one of these days But if I think like with Rhythm Heaven Remix It is Nintendo saying Yeah you want one of these again But we kind of made one If you want another one buy this And we'll make a real one later

So who knows I think gold is also This is the last time Nintendo is going to be able to sell a game That has touch And accelerometer controls So I guess unless you

unless they do a mobile game, but then you won't have buttons. So this is kind of their last chance to just do like all the Warioware stuff at once. Yeah, they're going to sunset the 3DS at some point. Yeah, it was a real good like homecoming type of game. Yeah, and I'm surprised, this is more like future talk,

but we, this is the perfect game series for phones and everything else but this has been a phone game for Nintendo and I feel like they're really missing out. I think they don't have the faith that Wario can care It has enough Q rating to carry a mobile game. And there's no wifus to unlock. Well, I mean, if you unlocked micro games as gotcha, that could be really...

Instead of a JPEC of an anime. They just design hundreds and hundreds of microgames and you want to collect all of them. That right there is a gotcha game for you. It's true. Yeah, but Bob's right, too. Warrior Warrior only has, like, one wifu. Maybe two or three.

Mona. Grosser, but... Yeah. But, yeah, playing Warrior World made me remember, and I brought my 3DS with me on my last most recent trip. I was like, oh, actually the 3DS is a better portable system than the Switch. I like bringing it with me more. And I love the Switch, but it never leaves my house because it's just too cumbersome to take out.

Yeah, I can feel the same way. And I was like, oh, I can do all this stuff with my 3DS. All these games are waiting for me, and I bought all this stuff on it. So it's like, I don't want to say goodbye to the 3DS. And I'm calling out all you games journalists. Whenever I hear someone on a podcast, it's like, they're putting a game out for the 3DS. I have to open my 3DS again. How dare you, Nintendo?

I have to plug it in. I, like, it's still good. It's still good. It's the same mindset that had everyone complaining about casual games on DS and we. It's people who are in their insular bubble and don't think about the fact that, hey, people who are not them like to play video games, millions and millions and millions of teenagers and pre-teenagers played 3DS, 2Ds. Never heard of them. They don't have switches yet because they're $300. But they do have a 3DS.

Thank you. Yeah, I think it is kind of classist to be like, this should be on Switch and Only Switch. How dare you make games for an older system? Not even classes. Just like unaware of it. the fact that there are children. Many iss are involved, but yeah, money is a factor. I felt pangs of guilt opening my 3DS today for the first time in months.

I was like, I was reminded that I had bought Shinemagami Strange Journey and still hadn't touched again. When I opened my 3DS a couple of days ago to play Wariware Gold for this, I was still in the middle of a dialogue in Shin Megami to say Strange Journey. I had not played since about. May. I was playing that in Japan when we were there. But I love the Switch as a handheld, but I also don't want to take it on

trips as much because it's more cumbersome. Plus, I can't just, it's not a clamshell thing, so I have to bring a case with it, so I don't have to worry about it messing up the screen. It's just, yeah. It's not becoming the 3DS Rhetornauts, but I like the two screens. I don't want the

two screens to go away. I've been playing a lot of two screens. Well, they should make Warrior Wear for Switch, of course. Yes. Yes. Okay. I mean, kind of did, but we'll get to that later. It's switch. It's Mario Ware, but with, you know, stock photo actors. We'll get to that soon. But let's get into Wariaware.

So Wario, let's get into the basic origins of this series. And this is kind of commonly known now, but I think it wasn't as known earlier in, earlier in our history, that Wariaware began as a mode in an unreleased game in America. So Wariaware, it's basic concept. originated in the sound bomber mode in the suite, I guess it's called or software package, whatever you want to call. It's not really a game, but it's called Mario Artist, Polygon Studio. So I believe Mario Artist,

the 64D, Mario Paint sequel kind of thing. It had three different suites. Is that correct, right? Yep. Three different ones. It was like a music studio? Was it music and something else? Music and paint and Polygon. So Polygon is what it sounds like.

I have not had a chance to play these games. I've only watched video of them online. But in Polygon Studio, it sounds like it's a basic set of tools for you to create polygonal models. And one of the ways for them to make this into a sort of game or experience beyond the creation tool set was you create a polygon model and then it integrates that model into microgames. And they're very much like in Mario Ware. In fact, the interface of this Soundbomber mode is like the first set of stages of Wariware. And that is it is a cassette tape like interface that it zooms in on it.

And actually, I think all the games in Sound Bomber mode are represented in Warioware. all of the very basic black and white games you see there is some version of all of them in at least the first warrior wear and almost all of them are the first war in the first Mario set yeah yeah I'd never heard of this until the research for that

I feel like a fool for not knowing yet but it's like who had a 64DD and who had this this iteration of Mario artists it seems like the only thing people would have fun with with those Mario artist games like it's the closest thing to a game in that the rest is manipulating polygons like can I make this hat bigger on this

person what about this terrible texture I mean you have to find ways to make it fun I think Nintendo would do that better than anybody it's not like it's not like the gummy ship type of crap oh god yuck but yeah I feel like so we're gonna find out throughout the series that there is a ton of Mario Paint DNA in Wario Ware absolutely and like so Wariaware first came into being as in the spiritual sequel to Mario Paint that we never got And we're going to see a lot of people associated with Mario Paint are very much the people who made Mario Ware.

So let's talk about those people. Yeah, I think, you know, in addition to Mario Paint, you still have this kind of legacy of little weird mini-game-type excursions being built into games like this. All R&D-1 games. So you also had Game Boy Camera, which had like the little game mode, the shooter. And then you had Wario Land Advance or Wario Land 4. you had both like the weird music collection

that you could build and then there were little mini games you could play for bonus stuff like a baseball game and some of those come over straight in pretty much straight into Wariware if I'm not mistaken and Mario Payne had mini games in it too like the fly game in there and yeah we should mention so Mario Payne in case you don't know what that

is and it's you can be young enough to not know what Mario Payne is it's a 1993 quote unquote game but it's really just like a creation tool set and it chip with a mouse and you can create music you can create pictures you can create some animations. It was very cool for the time.

It's something that I love, not having a computer, just to play with. And a lot of the people from that are on Warioware, and that was a Nintendo R&D1 creation, correct? Was it? I think there was more EAD, wasn't it? I will check.

But Jeremy, well, I'm checking, can you explain, like, what is R&D1 and how did their philosophy differ from, like, EAD? So before 2003, there were distinct Nintendo development houses that were sort of in subtle competition with each other, but they each

had their own distinct design philosophies behind them. And some like R&D2, they didn't make games that often. They were more system developers and console developers. They weren't wearing the ears, right? Well, R&D1 was the earliest of Nintendo's internal divisions, and then they started breaking out subdivisions as

other people sort of came into prominence within the company and kind of spun off into their own groups. It was R&D1, Mario Payne. Okay. So, like, EAD was originally R&D4, and they created that after Donkey Kong was a hit, and they were like, hey, Mr. Miyamoto, you're pretty cool. Why don't you head up this new division and make good software for us?

R&1 was under the auspices of Gunpeyokoi, who was basically the original superstar Nintendo. He gave them their first hit product, a toy called Ultra Hand, and he was basically a guy working their assembly line and started tinkering and came out. He was just a natural tinkerer and had lots of ideas about making playful things out of sort of common objects. So R&D1, they didn't do all of Nintendo's hardware design, but they did create the Game and Watch series,

and then they were responsible for creating the Game Boy hardware, and that's subsequent lineage. And I feel like R&D1, this is more like my impression as opposed to anything that I've ever actually read or been told formally. But I feel like they were much more about just sort of throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks and just kind of

having this quirky personality, whereas EAD, R&D4, was really much more about taking a great inventive idea and just making it perfect. I feel like R&D1 games are not perfect. They have lots of flaws and they do

refine some of those flaws like Super Metroid is a great game, but the original Metroid's kind of weird and wobbly the first wave Game Boy games. Yeah, yeah exactly. But you know, they're full they were always full of fun original ideas and really were all about finding ways to take cheap hardware, cheap, you know, easily affordable, easily sourceable hardware and coming up with interesting things to do with them. So you've got stuff like the Game Boy camera from them and the

game boy printer and things like, you know, Wario Wear Twisted's gyrosensor, which is now basically standard equipment in mobile devices like iPhone and Switch. So there's a lot of innovation and just great inventive ideas happening with R&1. And I think they're into very much so like the toy-like physicality

of video games that can be brought about through accessories and through different modes of play. Well, that toy-like interest really comes through in just the wackiness of so many of their games. Like they I like to imagine them as a bunch of, you think of them as you can

imagine them as like boring engineers obsessed with hardware, but they have so much strangeness. Yeah. Every you want to ask, it's very much like, are you guys all in Catholic school? But no, you're right, Henry, and it's funny that these development houses have not existed since 2003,

yet I still think of them in these terms, and now it's even more of a mix because I believe with the Switch Nintendo combined their 3DS and Switch development studios. So now there's even less distinction over who is developing what it feels like. I don't like that.

Teams are just assembled out of a pool of people for different projects instead of like, you work in this section, you work in that section. I feel like it's a little more of a plateau. I'm not sure. But let's talk about the people behind these games, and you're going to recognize a lot of names,

and a lot of names are going to jump out to you. It's like, oh, I didn't know that person was behind all of these things. So the first person you'll see credited in every game, yet he has not worked on any of them, is Kouichi Kawamoto. And the reason why he is credited, because he was in charge of the sound bomber concept in Mario Artist's Polygon Studios.

So he personally didn't work on any WarioWare games, but I believe this was his idea, or at least he was in charge with implementing it. And so they give him credit in every game for the concept behind Wario Ware. So he only worked in terms of Wario Ware on that Polygon Studio, or sorry, Mario Artist's Polygon Studio mini game. But he's a big deal, this guy. Wario's Daddy. No, that's actually somebody else. Yeah, okay. Warrior Where's Daddy?

Yes. Warrior Where's Daddy. And so if you go back to episode two, you can learn all about the conceptual introduction of Wario as a character and who created him. But in terms of Wario where these are the people. So Calamoto, he was also the guy behind Brain Age. So made a lot of money for Nintendo and made the DS super relevant. And probably without Brain Age, who knows if the DS would be a thing that people cared about beyond just, you know, gamers. Or what phone games would be today without Brain Age.

And notably, so go back to our... Brainage is the buttoned up to Warrior Wear, of course. Yes, it is. It is the very formal, very institutional, educational warrior wear. And instead of a floating Mario head, it's a floating professor. And it's all pseudoscience, so don't worry about it. But so, Kamamoto also directed the photo channel, the news channel, and the forecast channel, all very exciting. If you go back to our way up.

Ten polls. Yes, yes. Who didn't check in with the photo channel every day to look at their vacation photos? Also, notably, director of Street Pass for 3DS. So he's the guy behind Street Pass, which is very cool. When I turned on my 3DS today and saw my street pass pause, I just was like sad. I was like, I miss caring so much about street pass. And I'm very sad.

There's not an equivalent thing on the switch. Yeah, I really... When I picked a me avatar for Boreo Wear Gold, I was like, oh. I know, again, I like, I know the switch needed to come out with basically no frills, but turning on my 3DS, I'm like, I miss all of the, all of the fun, neat little Nintendo-y things that maybe they thought were too kiddie to sell a system. with, but Koichi Kawamoto is now the general director of the Nintendo Switch. So, pretty big deal.

I mean, I don't know what that means exactly, but I assume it's a pretty big position at Nintendo if he's the director of a system. And so good for you, Kawamoto. You really rose to the ranks. Let's go on to another big cheese, no longer at Nintendo. So Hirofumi Matsuoka, he was an old-timer at Nintendo. So he was there from 1984 in 2003, and he left for Creatures Inc, where he still works. but he also, his earliest role at Nintendo was a designer on Metroid,

and he's credited as new Matsuoka, so I'm sure that's a pun that makes sense in Japanese. But he worked on a ton of R&D1 games because he was from R&D1, and I believe Wariaware is officially the last, quote-unquote, R&D1 game before they became SPD and before a bunch of crap happened. It's all very complicated. So Matsuoka worked on things like Super Mario Land and Tetris, Game Boy Awards, and Metroid 2,

And most importantly, Matsuoka directed Mario Paints. Again, there's like, Mario Paine is sort of the backbone, the secret DNA of Wario Ware. And I think, I believe he got started with the Wario character by directing first Virtual Boy Wario Land, which I still want to play. It's the one Mario game I haven't played. It's worth it. No, Ray, I should play it. You should? Okay, I didn't play.

It's a killer app for Virtual Boy. I didn't play Master of Disguise. The one I haven't played. I don't think I'm missing anything. And he also notably directed WarioLand 4. So the general flavor of Wario where, as Jeremy said, comes from WarioLand 4, which is a very different game from 2 and 3 and even 1. So I feel like that's being carried forward with his direction.

But unfortunately, he left Nintendo R&D1 after this game came out, and now he's with Creatures Inc. And he is now, the latest game he's been credited with is designed on the very boring Detective Pikachu, which I'm sleep walking my way through. That was the first creatures, Inc. developed, solely developed game in a long time. They normally don't take that kind of direct interest in it. It's odd, and it's... I mean, it's a weird game, but it's also odd that the first American Pokemon movie is being based on it.

I don't get it. That's the only one that could star humans to stand in the game. That's the whole point of it. The humans are the worst part of that game. They're so boring, especially the main character. So is the twist at the end of Pikachu's dad? I think so. I can see it coming from the opening scene, yeah.

I really can see it coming from the game. opening. So another big second-in-command to Matsuoka is Goro Abe and he would basically take over for Matsuoka as the king of all Warios and he basically directed every Warioware game after Matsuoka left

and he began as a programmer on Warioland 4 so a lot of things are in common with the Wario-Ware team like it's all like this group that was created for Wariolan 4 and they decided to have their own stamp on Wariot which became kind of the official stamp on Wario. So again, he began as

programmer on WarioLand 4, a much larger role on the first WarioWare in terms of design, and he has been like the head dude on all the Wario Ware games since the very first one. So if you look at his resume, it is all Wario Ware games. And occasionally there will be a Smash Brothers credit because they will run the Wario smash design by him first. He is the new like Wario liaison at Nintendo. Another person behind the games is Co. Takayuchi. and this person is in charge of the look of Wariaware since day one, and also Rhythm Heaven.

You can see a lot of similarities between those series, both in terms of art design and in terms of play. I feel like Rhythm Heaven is the next logical evolution of Warioware, and that game series has still never faltered in my eyes, I think. Yeah, I really like his Twitter account because not only does he do just a lot of sketches and kind of fun meme stuff, but sometimes he, like, goes and hangs out with American animators, and you see, like, photos of him with...

Like the creators of adventure time or something. Yes. It's kind of like, hey, it's my buddies who draw stuff in cartoons that I like, and they like my cartoons, and we're all friends. I love that. He makes memes. I think a lot of the time people request that he draw memes, and thankfully he's never drawing anything racist, but he doesn't really understand them sometimes.

It's like, well, you like this. So here's the meme you like, even though it's all in English, but it's very popular. So he's really sunk his teeth into memes, and I'll give him credit for drawing Duckman. He drew Duckman. I remember he did... I remember he did Tim Hydecker's free real estate. Yeah, yeah.

And he does a lot of animations now. They look like Rhythm Heaven cutscenes now. Like, he's totally up this game and they're really good. So, yeah, follow him on Twitter. His Twitter address is... Sorry, Twitter name is at Kosan Takeuchi. That's T-A-K-E-U-C-H-I. And a real hoot just post nothing by really cool arts and lots of fun memes.

So final guy and Jeremy should know a lot about him is Yoshio Sakamo. So he was a big R&D1 guy before R&D1 exploded. And mostly known for Metroid and Wario Games. So like Abe, he's on every Wario Game, but he's also on every Metroid game, too, as a producer. So he is a producer and designer on all the WarioWR games, even up to gold. And he's now a big cheese of SPD, which is sort of the remnants of R&D1. Yeah, I saw him at the Q Games party at Bitsummit this year and was too intimidated to go up

and talk to him. It was great. And he says, I remember I was reading, so there are two Iwada asks about this series. One is about do it yourself and one is about Wario Wear a Touch. Sakamoto, I don't know if he has a low opinion of himself, but he knew Mies would take off when he could make his own weird face as a Mee's. Like, I've got a very odd face, so I knew Mies would work when I could make my own face with them. And I think he looks fine. Come on, dude. Dang. That's sad. I think so. I'm not I'm going to

I'm I'm I'm on I'm I'm I'm I'm

I'm I'm and you're I'm So now we're on to the first game in the series, War are you aware, mega microgames and the games, the final S is a dollar sign, just so you know where we're headed with this title.

Oh, that true Nintendo of America touch. Yes. No title would be as labored as this. In Japan, it's called Made in Wario, the series, which has different connotations in English than it does in Japan. But I like both series. Do you think they were afraid that people, it would stoke weird feelings like this is made in Japan, not made in America or something? And that's why they didn't go with it. I'm thinking of some sort of like Cronenberg body horror image for Made in Wario.

That's my take on things. Yeah, it's like, oh, crap. I totally forgot that like interspace or something. Oh, what's the game, the cartoon with Eddie Murphy? Video drum? With Eddie Murphy and their, like, viruses? Oh, Osmosis Jones. Yes, that's it.

Yuck. Yeah, so that's the immediate thing that comes to mind. Yeah, an amazing fun exploration of Wario's colon. Yeah. What does garlic do to the human body? Journey to the center of Wario. Garlic is good for you. Oh, okay.

You sweat it all out. So garlic is, Wario is extremely healthy inside. I think so. Before people correct us, it was Chris Rock in Osmosis. Oh, sorry, sorry. Got it. Was it Eddie Murphy? Was it Eddie Murfian? I would never mind.

Yes, it was. So the context for this game, which I feel is very important, is that go back to the year 2003. Think of what games were back then. Games were very cinematic. They were very talky. This was the beginning of the era of very prolonged tutorials, lots of characters talking to you and telling you what to do before you actually did it.

And also, this was the era of exceedingly complicated game controllers. Like, go back to our GamePue episode. Like, just think of, if you've never played a video game, if someone handed you a GameCube controller, you would just, like, drop it and run away. And thinking of games in this era, like Metal Gear Solid 3, as much as I love it, It's just like, do you want to shoot an enemy in the first person? Well, you have to hold down nine buttons to do that. And it was like, dear God.

So this was a reaction against the trends of the time. I think Wario Ware does in general for game design, period, what Wario Land did for platformers. It's like, let's take the rules and let's kind of shift them up a little bit. So this game is all about minimalism, pure minimalism and very, very short experiences, which is the exact opposite way games were going in 2003, period. Like, games are all about becoming very long and very complicated. and Mario Ware was like, no, no, no, let's try games like old style, but even simpler than Nintendo games.

Yeah, so the thing is, even though you're absolutely right that it is about stripping things down and being minimalistic, Wari Aware is still extremely a game about the vocabulary of video games, the design and the concepts of video games, and it really tests how well you know that vocabulary. And, you know, especially in like the 9-volt games, but even beyond that, things like platforming and shooting and so on and so forth,

like these are all built into WarioWare. And if you have played games in the past, then immediately you can look at these games with like a one second prompt and almost immediately intuit what you need to do even though you just have one button. And it's constantly shifting like, here's, you know, a top-down view with a bunch of puppies or something and you have to like pick the right puppy.

Or here's a woman with a booger hanging from her nose. you have to slurp up the snot. Like, all of these things are just quickly intuitive because they're based around, you know, decades worth of video game vocabulary and design. And I think that's really brilliant because it takes video games and then synthesizes that entire concept,

like an entire medium, into something that's incredibly accessible and incredibly playable for everyone. It turns gaming into sort of a lizard brain response based on knowledge of internalize just by playing games. I don't know what a non-gamer would think of this if they actually picked it up.

I don't know. It's interesting, but on top of that, Wario is a video game about video games. It's a video game about creating a video game because that is Wario's like the sort of... The story around it is that... Getting rich. Right. Well, I mean, yes.

But ultimately, like, the mini games you're playing, the microgames you're playing, the conceit there is that you are creating the game that you are playing right now. And that's That's very interesting. It's like it's got a lot of different levels that make it deceptively deep for what seems like a very goofy, silly game about a gross, horrible little garlic man.

Yeah, that concept is great, too, because you have the very start of the game where he was like, people buy video games, I could sell those and make money. That's the start of every warrior game, by the way. And then when he buys, he buys the development tools, he immediately gets bored. And so what you're given, you're told in this text, like, what you're given are the short games Mario could make before he fell asleep. And so that's, that's, it's a great cover for the crazy concept you will be seen. Or else you're, you know, going through the stories of his non-union labor that gets tricked into creating the games for him. And they're not going to benefit from the success of P.O. or whatever.

It's, it's, you know, people he's abusing and misusing and deceiving to, you know, people he's abusing. create video games for him. So it's a very modern sort of cautionary tale. It's a really fun conceit, so Nintendo games are normally very polished. This is also a very polished game, but the many games you play in this are nothing like what a Nintendo game would be. They're all half finished and often

with very crude graphics or bizarre premises or just like things you wouldn't expect in a game that are just like, well, where do that come from? So yeah, I like the idea that either Wario is making these poorly or his unskilled labor and unpaid labor are making these poorly, perhaps as revenge for not getting

paid. The developers, I read in one of the Wada asks, it does feel like a very non-Nintendo game in terms of just how weird it is. Like, this is not a game Nintendo would normally make, and that was their mission statement. Like, let's make a game Nintendo would not make. And some of the developers

were like, well, they let us publish this. It is too weird. It's too gag-heavy. It is also very alienating if you're not if you're not sure what you're getting into. But I feel like that we mentioned gaming vocabulary. I feel like this follows the R&D1 toy maker philosophy

and it avoids most of the game design grammar in terms of controls and it makes the input as simple as possible. We talked about, you know, how complicated controls are getting in this game and other games to follow, it really boils it down to usually like a directional input and a button or sometimes just one of those. And with games like Touched, all you're doing is touching the screen and games like Twisted, all you're doing is moving the Game Boy. So they're like, what are the most basic means of input we can use to make a game happen

and they run with that. That is really what they go for in these games. Yeah, I mean, the idea here is almost, you know, like Ian Bogost's cow clicker. Except that was more of a work of satire, whereas they've taken the same sort of reductive approach like video games where you just press a button and turned it into something that is in itself

a fun and interesting and inventive video game. And that's really impressive. There's a lot of imagination that goes into this. You really get the impression with these, like the bizarre clip art, and just like oddball scanned images and bizarre pixel art and kooky sound effects that they really just told their designers just do whatever you want and, you know,

work with artists who create stuff that you wouldn't normally see in a video game and just make stuff, be inventive. And you really, rarely see that in video games. Maybe, I'm hoping Derek use UFO 50 will be something along the same lines. Well, yeah, and games so much. even unless it's in indie games games are so much made by committee so when you see

little pieces like this that all feel so specific to one person or so unique that it really does make it stand out and it's something that when you see the copycats of Wario wear that try to recreate it they're like well

you kind of miss the point of it something like work time fun is just oh boy yeah you like okay you you copied the mechanism and the high level concept, but you missed the part that makes Wario very interesting, which is that it's full of imagination

and personality, and you stripped all that out. Yeah. Don't forget Hot Shot Shorties. I didn't even know about that one. How many of these are there? Hot shot shorties? How many times did... It was Minenosa Kiti. Okay.

How many times did Sony strike out at trying to copy Hawaii? Jesus. God. But yeah, so we talked about like the very minimalistic controls that would go further in other games where you are unlocking basically toys to play with that will use the controls of that game,

especially with Twisted, and then that sort of idea of unlocking toys to play with, with no real game-like purpose would really take real full blossom in Rhythm Heaven, where those games are all about unlocking all the fun toys to play with and poke at that have no game purpose, but it's just like, I can interact with this thing

in the same way interact with the game, but it's just a thing to poke at, basically. But it is funny, like, there were a couple of Game Boy Advance games and DS games that Nintendo were making that were having the same sort of features, the sort of quote-unquote useless toys. Yeah, there was Mario Party advance. And I was thinking of Mario 64D-S.

Yeah, exactly, exactly. So, yeah, it's kind of a weird thing. They were nice undercurrent they were trying. It feels like it fits better in here. It doesn't feel as tax on. So I guess we didn't talk about the premise of Wario Ware in case you don't know. So what happens in Wario Ware is that you're

really thrown in the deep end. You're presented in your face with a series of small games that usually lasts like three or four seconds. In the moment, you have to figure out, like, what am I controlling? What is the point of this? How do I win? And all of this, all of your instruction is usually just one word, one verb. Sometimes there's more of a phrase in there if they can't make it work with one verb.

But based on that information, you have to figure out what to do and succeed at it before your time runs out. And then at the end of that, there is a boss level, bosses in big quotes, but they call them boss levels in the game where it is instead of a three, second game, it's more of a 30 second to a minute game where the controls are a little more complicated, the action is a little more complicated, but it's the same basic premise, like, who am I, what am I doing, and how do I do it? And the boss levels in

these games are very fun and inventive too. Yeah. They get pretty creative with those. The toy maker's sensibility you're talking about too is also, they even bring back their old toys that R&D1 made in a previous life, like the ultra machine. It's your own game in there.

I do like how, in so much of Mario Ware, it ignores important Nintendo history to showcase toys and pretty much unknown to me in 2003. Like, I didn't know Nintendo made this, like, a top-down racing game, like, the color, whatever. I don't know what it's called, but, like, early... Wasn't that head-on in? Something like that. Yeah, like, these things from Nintendo history that we didn't really talk about, like, R-O-B was a joke in 2003. But it's like, no, R&D-1 did this. Let's put it in a game.

And a lot of the things that are in this game are very much of the R&D1 history, not so much like, let's pay trip to Mario 3 or Mario World or like the Nintendo Greats. Like they really are about their own personal history and the games that some of the people on the team worked on. I think, too, the game really owns its Japaneseness, too, which some other Nintendo games try for a more universal feel. But like, when they put the ultra machine in there, the pitching toy that kids had in the 60s, Like, you, your dad probably, in 2003, your dad, if you're Japanese, maybe owned that and could tell you about it. But that is a meaningless thing to anyone outside of Japan. And things like, you can actually play the Nintendo's arcade game Cowboy. That's represented in Mario where is a micro game?

Sheriff. Sheriff, that's right, Sheriff. And it's like, who knew about Sheriff in 2003? I mean, maybe a few people, but no one was like, oh, that was one Nintendo's first arcade games. I think for most people at that time, it's like, no, Nintendo started with it. Donkey Kong, and that was their first arcade game, but they had the secret history that only Smarty Pants knew about it. I definitely didn't at the time. I can't believe there is no reference to their Lego rip-off or their package

noodles in this game. The Lego rip-off are referenced in Mario Land 2. There's an entire level, and it's a... That's already one again. Yeah. Are the N&B blocks? Is that what they're on? Yeah, that's actually in... There's an entire level made out of those blocks in Mario Land 2. That's right. Yeah. So, and I had no idea that was a reference to rip-off Legos until much later in life. I feel like that is R&D one being the cheeky bad boys.

Like, oh, Nintendo doesn't like us to remember these things, but we do. And I like that in this first game. When you are playing a Mario game, Wario is in it and it's worse. It's like he made a worse version of Mario's games to defame him, which is sort of the purpose of Wario. He is like an inverse of Mario, obviously, but he's also breaking all the Mario rules that Mario is too much of a goodie two shoes to break. Like, Wario is his dark half. But, so this game, so there's a lot of lore to Wario wear that I didn't really think about

until playing all these games back to back. So this game introduces Diamond City, which is the extended Warrior universe. Who knows if Mario exists in this world? I've never seen him there, but this game introduces like eight new characters. And as the games would go on, there would always be like, oh, what if he had a brother, or what if they had a grandpa, or what if they had a sister or a friend? Like, now there are like 20 Wario Ware characters that only exist in Wario-Ware games up until Game in Wario. And they're all very fun.

All developed in, you know, designed by Kotakuuchi. And I love the characters in this game. I don't like how they really refined Mario to make them just a much more rounder, bouncier character. But that is just the product of this art style, which is fine. I like the grosser sort of off-model, Renan Stimpy Wario from the first two Mario games. But that was never built to last. That was more like, once Warrior became institution, let's round him up.

Yeah, that was like 1979 Garfield. Yes. And Fat Pikachu. I feel so bad for Waluigi that he's never invited to this stuff, though. I mean, I guess he's a Camelot guy first, so maybe there exists. Well, listen, here's my theory, is that this Diamond City only exists in Wario's head. Okay. So, of course, Wallyi's not going to show up.

It's all Warriors's like inception? Yeah. It's a garlic dream he's having. So, I won't. Sounds like the worst kind of dream of magical. I had a lot of heartburn involved. But I won't name every Wario-Ware character after this, but the initial lineup is Wario, Jimmy, which is a guy with an Afro, because Afroes are very funny.

I don't make a joke. It's just Mario's suffering to Marta Cardiol and Farquharian. It's a death dream. So Wario, Jimmy, 9 volt is like all of us basically in the game. And I should point out, like, this felt to me this era of Nintendo was Nintendo for the first time really celebrating themselves, just like, we're Nintendo, we're awesome, look at this history, Here are old NES games you can play on Game Boy Advance, and NineVold is a tribute to the NES era where you play weird versions of NES games

and classic Nintendo games. Maybe it was because they finally had enough young guys on the staff who had enough power to be like, no, I remember this, and I don't remember it from working on it. I remember it from playing it, so I want to celebrate that. Yeah, and from here on there would be things like Animal Crossing and then virtual console. So I feel like this era is where all the Nintendo self-love started, And then they realized they could market that and sell it to people who are hungry for nostalgia, hence retronauts. So 9 volts.

Cat and Anna, which are two little ninja girls, dribble and spits, which are a cat and dog taxi driver. Orbulon, which is a weird alien with a kind of a bowling pinhead. Mona, who is a, in the first game, she's a gelato delivery driver. But then she becomes a pizza chef or pizza delivery person. And then she becomes a pop idol, I think. So there's a lot going on there. And Krygor, which is a mad scientist. and there's a lot of toilets in his sections and stages and storyline.

So Crygore is an old man with a mustache and one eye. Today was the first time I realized Cat and Anna are Catana. Yes. Oh, Jesus Christ. What? Oh, my. They never looked that closely. I never thought about it.

That's okay. I blew a lot of people's minds with my Russian attack video. Wait a minute. Russian. What? I blow minds when I say, you know, Dragon's Lair? What if it was Dragon Slayer? Think about it.

Yep. So I want to mention again, What a wonderful language. These games would be cleaned up over time and become a little more of an institution, a little more, quote, professional. But these games started off very naughty. In fact, playing this again, I'm like, oh, that's a bidet and I'm spraying an asshole. And that's the point of this game. Wow.

Wow. Yeah. What's that? The flower. And then you hear somebody giggling when you spray. You're like, Nintendo, you naughty boys. So, yes. I wonder how many iterations that one specifically went through.

Like, could have been a starfish. Could have been a chocolate bar. Yes. But it's sort of a starfish. It's sort of a starfish-style, like, thing you're spinning around. But, yes, you spray a butthole in this game. That's what I'm saying. That's not an Nintendo thing to do.

There's toilet humor. Part of that, you know, you kind of almost have to go to Japan to see the toilet bidet to figure out what the shape of that thing. Yes. And, I mean, like, honestly, we should have them in America. It's a disgrace. But, in fact, like, Crygore's entire level is every time a minigame loads the toilet flushes, you, like, go into the toilet.

Yeah. It's all... Literally go into the toilet. Yeah, it's great, and I love it, and the games would become much more sanitized after this. Future games would have disclaimers about the character's behavior, which is crazy to me. But I have to say that this is where... I shouldn't behave like Wario.

Do not throw things to people like Wario. Do not stay up past your bedtime like 9-volties bed. But there are a lot of mini-games to unlock. They very much feel like what would be like the first iPhone game. So there is Peoro, a bird and beans. It's a very simple mini game where you're eating seeds out of the sky with this cute bird. And that thing would appear over and over in future games. There's a paper airplane game, which feels very much like.

like a very early iPhone game like flight control where you're just steering a paper airplane down than a pit. And also a lot of, I don't know if these would be in future games, but a lot of, again, the toy-like sensibility, it's a lot of two-player games where you're both sharing a Game Boy, so each on one side of the Game Boy. I play that with my brother a bit. That was a good time. And I'd say it works a lot better with the Game Boy advanced classic than it does with the SP.

There's not a lot of real estate to go around. Yeah. Or a micro, but who had one of those. I really want one. that uh well you mentioned your you mentioned in your notes here too that there was a even a mario clash reference in this which yeah that was another of those moments where i was like the nintendo's being so naughty they never talk about the virtual boy now there's a virtual boy in like everything they mentioned it all the time at that point there they're like this we never made this this never happened like in street pass i walk around wearing a virtual boy on my head we never blinded those children um so i want i want jeremy to talk about this so the sound system is is very similar to WarioWare 4s. And it's also in the next game. And I feel like it might be tied to the Game Boy Advance hardware or programming

because future games would not have this. So like in Mario Land 4, some stages have entire songs with lyrics. And if you perform well, the song will speed up, and it will speed up the lyrics and the music. And if you perform worse, the song will become all distorted and garbled. And that exists in Mario Land 4, and it exists in this game and Warrior Wear Twiz. It's very cool to hear that on a Game Boy Advance, especially at the time.

Like, there is an entire song in this game. There are two songs in this game, actually. Yeah, you didn't really leave me much to say beyond that, but I do think it was something not specific to the Game Boy advanced hardware, but the fact that the Game Boy offered them the power to stream music and cartridges that had enough space to store that data. Yeah, I feel like this was just them tinkering with the capabilities of the system. And you really saw them doing that a lot with,

Again, it goes back to Game Boy Camera. Like, there's all kinds of weird sound design in Game Boy Camera and kind of, like, primitive ability to create music almost with it. And then in Wario Land 4, sound becomes a really big element because, yeah, you have, like, you know, the one stage that has the song that speeds up and distort. It slows down when you get stung by bees. But there's just a lot of sampling and really strange sound effects.

You collect the CDs throughout the stages, and you think, oh this is going to be a music player I'm going to be able to listen to all the songs that I like in this game in this music player but then you get the CDs and they're just like these little fragments of weird sound like brer and strange

music video style like yeah it's like two second clips of sound and video and it's not what you expect but it's really just them like I think they must have been you know like really tired from working long hours or just you know just like they had

extra space on the cartridge or something and said, well, let's just throw in some weird stuff. It's a fun subversive thing in that game because it's an unlockable, but it's not like enjoyable. It's just weird. You're like, what is this? But the point of the game is to get all of those CDs. I mean, the point beyond finishing it is to collect all the CDs in every

stage, but you don't get anything that's enjoyable. You just get these weird oddities with like bizarre graphics and like atonal sound effects and things like that. Yeah, but there is this really sort of distinctive sound to these Wario games on Game Boy Advance that I think results from, you know, just the combination of the people creating them and also the extremely

low sample rate and the way they, like, distort and stretch and speed up the playback. These games sound like no other games except maybe Rhythm Heaven, and that's much more refined. Some tracks and Earthbound even. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you're right. I don't think Suzuki or Tanaka worked on any of these games. I don't think so. But definitely, like, the sort of, like, super low sample rate, yeah, experimental sound.

Definitely, yeah, earthbound, there is a lot of that. I want to say that maybe, so like I said before, the three Wario games use the sound system on the Game Boy Advance. They don't in future games. Maybe they're, like, pre-recorded things that are being streamed in that can't be altered on the fly. Well, you know, I think it's just a case of the limitations of the platform creating something distinctive. Just like, you know, the character presentation of Metal Gear Solid with the, like, the unanimated, low-detail faces and the headbobs, you don't have that in any of the later games

because all the later games were on hardware that had the capability of rendering actual faces. So they were better. But there is this really distinct atmosphere and style you get in the original Metal Gear Solid that is tied to the limitations of the PlayStation. And I really feel like, in this case, the sound design of the Game Boy Advance Wario games

is tied to the hardware, not so much in the sense of like, this is specifically what the system could do, but it's just kind of like, this is the most that they could do within the boundaries of the system. But then you get to the DS, and it's much more capable in terms of audio playback.

So they were no longer limited, and it didn't make sense to constrain themselves to what they could do on Game Boy events. That's not really the philosophy behind these games behind their entire game design approach is not like, well, we could do it this way in a previous system, we should keep doing that. Like they didn't keep using Game Boy sound

or Game Boy graphics once they got to Game Boy Advance. So they were always interested in kind of like pushing the limits. So you do have this sort of unique result of them pushing up against the boundaries and seeing what they could do within the limitations of the Game Boy Advance. And then you get on to DS and suddenly the sky's the limit. So you don't have something,

quite as distinct. Yeah, I totally agree with you. And this game doesn't sound like any other game outside of the other two Wario games developed by this team. And Rhythm Heaven to a certain degree. Yeah, and the first Rhythm Heaven, I would say. But, yeah, it's still, I mean, now it's very low fidelity because, you know, the Game Boy Vance did not have a sound chip to speak of really.

They're probably playing back at, like, 8 kilohertz or something. It's always that, like, ridiculously saw it, yes, in the background. But it is a soundscape that you've never really heard before, and it's still worth experiencing now. And one final thing before our break, this game saw a port in, I believe, the same year, perhaps the next year. WarioWare mega party games, I believe it was called. It was the GameCube port. This game was so popular, they acted fast.

So the director of this game's Wario where he left Nintendo for Creatures Inc. And so Goro Abe, he was the guy who directed his first WarioWare game was putting together the GameCube, quote unquote, port in like six months. So that was his trial by fire a moment. Yeah, it's almost the same distance of time between the two games.

Yeah, that makes sense. And it is basically like WarioWare, all the mini games are represented, but they add multiplayer features to the framework around that. So it was sort of a preview of the Wii game where it was at a multiplayer focus. And I think despite it being made out of like the parts of another game, it really worked well. My friends and I played this a lot despite playing Wario Ware for Game Boy Advance a lot. Okay.

No, me and my friends played mega party games all the time. Like it was our party game of choice for about three, four months. It's like just the, they adapted so many of the single player and very, very shallow games into great multiplayer one. One of my favorites was the avoid being stomped by the foot one where you're the little yellow dude who has to run around. I think his name is Cronk. But now you're four guys and you're all shoving each other and trying to get the other people stopped while you're avoiding it. And the one that sticks in me the most is the, yeah, I look this up. It was Mona's Listen to the Doctor mode where, so they had multiple modes that integrated the minigames into other macro games.

And so this one was that a doctor would give you a weird, you'd be like, okay, there's four of you. Here's a one person's going to play, and while they play, they have to do something silly. And the other players have to press the A button to clap, and the harder they clap, the more they think they did a good job with the assignment from the doctor. And the person who got the most claps at the end of the series of games is the winner. And I always remember my friend Ian was playing, and the doctor's order was like, tell a funny story. And he said, my friend John had a dream about a movie about skeletons. And that was just all he said. We're like, all right, yeah, it wins.

We all clapped very hard for that. It's one of those, like, just, that was an inside joke with us for the longest time. And those are the type of moments that Nintendo wanted to create. I think I was too lazy for the improv games of Warioware. So that's why we didn't have online play. Because your friend John had a dream about skeletons. Exactly. It was, oh, man, I wouldn't trade that for all the online hate speech in the world.

What if a child heard that story, Henry? But do you have anything to say right? I thought you heard you murmuring it. No, I'm just very surprised to hear any of this, because this was such a non-entity to me. Then again, I was perpetually friendless. But I think it came out at a budget price, too, like $30 or $40 maybe. Yeah. It just seemed really weird.

really skipable to me. I mean, especially since it also, like, it came out, like, around the same time as the Game Boy player. So, like, if I was going to tell somebody, you know, yep, if you have a GameCube, just buy the Gameboy game. But, yeah, no, I'm glad Henry's here to be the expert. Yeah, because I'm in the same boat. I was already biased toward portable games at that point.

So I was like, well, I could play the exact same game on a handheld or a console. Why would I want to play it on a console? I could play it on a handheld. Also, the 9-volt stage. just had the e-card reader in it too just to get even more like dancing to Nintendo hardware. That's buff. Well, the e-readers, someone has to love

that. I don't want to meet that person. We'll be back soon with talk about more Wario-Ware games. This here is known at least makers of the world at pizza. Fresh sauce and cheese of broad straight to your front

door. This here is no net pizza. If you're all Bigti Pisa Oh no Part Pikes and be French and she's got a If you like my show If you're not going to want to miss

No excuse with John Taffer on podcast one Shut it down and listen to John, the award-winning hospitality legend as he brings his straight talk and unapologetic approach to daily topics and current events. Get motivated to start the new year with interviews from pawn stars Rick Harrison, Jordan Harbinger, and Joe Coy. Check out no excuses with John Taffer each week on Podcast 1 or wherever you get your favorite podcast. With Domino's week-long carry-out deal, you can carry out large three-topping pizzas and now, medium three-topping handmade pan pizzas for $7.99 each. It's Pan-Tastic news. Cut, cut. Puns?

You mean pans? Calling all Panatics for two layers of cheese on crispy golden crust. So grab your panty packs, because Domino's large three-topping pizzas and medium three-topping handmade pan pizzas are $7.99 each. It's pandemonium. Fantastico. Carry out only.

You must ask for this limited time offer. Prices participation and charges may vary. Hello, ah, oh, Wadi Morgan, Gna, yeah,

yeah, yeah, and yeah, yeah, we're back to talk about the sequel to Warioware, Warioware Twisted,

that was released in October of 04, Japan, and I feel like this is the We Love Katamari to the originals Katamari Damashi in that it is the superior game and it is sort of the peak of the series in my opinion. It's

never got better than this. And I feel like this by design is the most toy like of the series and that the cartridge has an accelerometer built in and a rumble pack built in and it basically turns your Game Boy Vance into a toy in which use that toy to interact with all of the microgames

except for one set of them which only uses the A button for a dumb reason. I don't like those very much. But all the other ones are based on this accelerometer technology and I'll tell you what, in 2018 I played through all of this game again and it still works very, very well including some sets of stages in which you have to

turn the Game Boy Advance all the way around Dr. Crygore stages are all about changing gravity and I was surprised that unlike the Wii and the Wii and other things like that it never lost calibration for me and never like got out of whack I guess because they weren't super ambitious

but boy, this game is so cool. Have you You guys played this game, Warrior We're Twisted. Absolutely. Opinions. Help me out here. It's podcast. I think it's great and I think it was pretty much overlooked because it came out at the same time as touched or right around the same time as touched and around the DS launch.

It was actually 18 months before touched. In the U.S.? I'm sorry. I was thinking of smooth moves. Yes, touch came out very shortly after. In fact, touch was, ooh, touched was actually before this game. Yeah, that's what I was thinking. You're right about that.

Yeah, so touch was February of 05, and this was May of 05. Yeah, so touch came out first, and it's not as good. And people were like, well, there's a DSWario wear. Why would I want a GBA warrior wear? And so most people missed out on the really, really good warrior wear because a crumbier version for a newer system came out first. Not the touch is bad. It's not as good as twisted.

Funny, how history repeats. I'm sure because people are like, oh, the 3D should die. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, no, the GBA twist, it was great. I rekindled by playing the demo for gold with the twisted games that were, and it was like, oh, yeah, man, I love all this, like the one of eating food and digesting it into poop by moving the thing. I am surprised that they brought those back, though, just because now I feel like Nintendo is a more cautious company that would,

someone in a meeting would say if we release this game that made people keep moving around their systems what if they drop it and break it and then sue us? You've got a good point, Henry. Actually, so gold, the new game Gold has mash stages where you use the control pad and a button, touch stages where you touch the

screen with the stylus and the twist stages of which you move the 3DS like you would move the GBA. I will say in this game, unlike gold, the movements you make are a lot more extreme. In gold, they really tone it down to where you're just making gentle moves.

And this one, you're turning your Game Boy advance all around. One set of stages is about fast movements. And in fact, the boss in that stage is you pumping a hand cart. So you're basically just moving your Game Boy advance back and forth like this, really fast. So I think they had that idea for gold. Like, oh, no, like, we don't want kids to drop this. Like, we have to be more careful. It was before people were throwing Wii remotes at their TV.

That is very true. That changed the way Nintendo, that changed the amount of freedom Nintendo thought they could give people. And I will tell you, I played all of WarioW Smooth Moos without the arm band or whatever, and I did not break anything. I think you're going to jail now. Uh-oh. You've admitted this on your podcast. You can't get a job Nintendo with that kind of behavior. That double-may-care attitude.

I do always enjoy going to Nintendo press events where, you know, back in the wee days where they would pause and very, very meticulously put the wrist strap on your arm. They wouldn't let you start unless you put that thing on it sometimes. It's like people you know socially. and are like cool with, and then that one moment of corporate programming kicks in, and they're like, nope. Sir, you're too dumb to not throw this. Please drop it down. Well, after a few of those with the Nintendo folks, and they still do that with the joycons, too.

I just kind of like, yeah, yeah, I know, safety. Oh, my God. Tell me, I'll put it on. I forgot the joycons have those because I never attached enough. No one would ever do that. I totally forgot about that. But more about this game, like I said, as my personal favorite, I feel like this has the most, spirit of Rhythm Heaven.

In fact, Rhythm Heaven was developed right after this game by a lot of the same folks. Much more of the toy-like idea behind it. And this game, in particular, you unlock a lot of toys and just things where you're just playing with the functionality of the accelerometer to make things happen on a screen. It's very toy-like.

It's very much about interactions, not so much about having a purpose or a point, which is very fun. So, like in the first game, all the many games are grouped around characters, and though this time so in the first game, the characters were more there for a theme, Like, all of these games are about nature.

All of these games are about science. All these games are about robots or whatever. In this game, it's more appropriate because each set of characters are about, well, this is about subtle movements. This is about big movements. This is about turning your Game Boy all the way around. So it's basically grouped around how you're moving the Game Boy and in what ways you're moving the Game Boy. And for most of these games, you only move the Game Boy, but one set of stages, you also use the A button with twisting, and in one set of stages, you only use the A button. So they find a lot, like, they find the most things you can do with this setup, with all of these games included.

And I don't believe this was the first Game Boy Advance game to use the accelerometer. If I'm not mistaken, Yoshi's Universal Gravitation did first. Maybe, yeah. But it was poop, and this game, I think, justified that device. It works way better. I'm trying to remember the chronology there, but I think that's right. It works way better because it's just these small experience is not a prolonged level. And it is the only other Game Boy Advance game.

drill dozer with a rumble pack in it. And mine was dead in the cart that I bought, but it does add a lot to the game because when you move the accelerometer, you feel like a little slight rumble, and when it lands on menu options, you feel like a little shake. It really adds a lot to, again, the very toy-like

sensibility of this game. Oh, yeah, and even before that, there was Kirby's tilt and tumble on the GBC. Oh, right, yep. Yeah. That was the first very bad experience, but I will say there's a lot of self-control and there's a lot of thoughtfulness baked into what you're seeing on the screen because I was playing on my GBSP.

If you go back to that, it's just like, dear Lord, how did I ever play games on this? It's so small, it's so dim. And I noticed that in the minigames in which you're moving the Game Boy fast and making fast movements, things are very easy to see. Like in that mini-game boss stage where you're pumping a hand card and escaping from a train, everything is like stark black and white because you have to move the Game Boy back and forth very fast and also jump over things while you're pumping the hand card. But the games are designed for you to be able to see that.

on a dim screen that's shaking back and forth. So what you didn't see in Kirby's tilt and tumble is happening in this game. And there's a lot of returning characters. And again, it's like, well, what if they had a friend? What if they had a relative? And this is the first time where the story sequences in the first game, they were pantomime. In this game, there is dialogue and more of a story. Some of my favorite ones are dribble and spits are driving their taxi cabin in the opening cutscene.

You can choose what song they're listening to on the radio. And one of the radio buttons is a play-by-play of a baseball game featuring Nintendo characters. So you can hear all of that. And in fact, in every one of the opening cut scenes, there's a little moment in which you can move the Game Boy Advance as you will later move it in the stages. So it's sort of a little training exercise. And my other favorite thing is Mona, Mona from the first game is now a pizza delivery person. And in her stage, it's a song about her pizza company versus Pizza Dinosaur competing pizza company.

And they each have their own verses as to why their pizza companies are better than each other. And this is all in a Game Boy Advance game. It's great. It's so cool. and it's my favorite of the series. Any other thoughts on this? I mean, the localization team really went to bat for this game.

They knocked it out of the park. Yeah, I'm keeping the baseball metaphors, folks. Yeah, in general, the localization team is a, they don't have, you know, a ton of dialogue to deal with, but they do a great job. Dribble and Spitz are too... I like nine-volts games the best, because obviously it's retro bullshit.

But Dribble and Spits... That was interesting and unique back then. But dribble and spits are my favorite combo because they really are like a Laurel and Hardy kind of pair of guys who just take odd jobs throughout the entire series. And 9-volt, it's funny that his stages are the least interesting narratively. In fact, in the first set of 9-Vold stages, the climaxes he finds out the Game Boy SP just got released. And he's very excited about it. So it's basically an ad for the SP is based into the first warrior-ware game. It's like, you better get this.

And, you know, it was a good system for the time, but damn, is it dim today? It could be dimmer. It could be dimmer. That's true. It could be the first Game Boy advance with no backlight. You better learn my name, goodbye. Ash, please. She holds the darkest bells and she bruises me in a potion.

You might be the ingredient I think. Don't let yourself be fooled by her innocent to need. You should be your Fred of a Great. Ash, please. She has been a great. with all than she never owns their head

Who has time For girly things like that I have mute I cast a hex on you Grandma's wig So the next game Or rather the previous game Is Wario Wear Touch

Again that was released In February of 2005 And I played through all of these games again For this podcast And if you play them before And you know what you're doing They are all very slight In fact they're built to be replayed

After you beat all the story stages Then you have to go back in and master or everything, but this kind of feels like the slightest game and the fastest game. Who has experience with Touched in this room? I played it a tiny bit. I may have reviewed it. I don't remember. We'll never know.

You can't prove anything. I've played it, Bob. Ray, your thoughts on Touched. Well, I think one of the things I'm going to read ahead in your notes, by the way, is that a different team, slightly different team worked on it from Twisted. It was more of the main people worked on Twisted. Yeah, and I think half of the... the twisted team. These are developed in tandem with each other, and I think half of the

twisted team worked on us on touch, but not the entire team. So there were a lot of differences staff-wise. Yeah, so I don't think it's a terrible installment, but it was definitely obviously a bit weaker. And I think that is because maybe people's time was split between that and twisted on the development team, and maybe there wasn't as much quality control. There was also, this is also the time when Nintendo was still kind of publicly unsure about the DS. Yep, yep. So I think Maybe that may have been reflected in the staffing as well. So they made a game that was just like, well, we have a new system coming out. We can put a warrior wear game on it and that will exploit a whole bunch of touch screen stuff.

So let's just go ahead and make that. But it was several months until Nintendox came. So like touched was in that bad, well, the lesser time where it seemed like the PSP would actually overtake the DS. Yeah. Well, it was also a Japanese launch game. That is true. Yeah, that's right. And this game does introduce some new characters.

I like Ashley. She's the spooky chick in this game. Yeah, everybody loves Ashley. She's great. She's great. I like her in a non-gross way, by the way. Ashley for Smash, bra. Really?

Is that a thing? Oh, people want her for you. Yeah, she's high on the list of smash people. I thought it was just Wawa Luigi. Damn. Another thing I think that this game sort of falters is that the touch interface is too immediate, so the games are all very easy. Just like, well, I know what I have to touch it.

I'll just touch them. With the control scheme, it's like... Yeah, true. Manipulating things within the game via controls, but when you're touching something, you're just touching it on the screen. It's like there's no barrier between you and the game objects in the game. So I feel like it is

way too easy. However, you did ask earlier, like, what or someone did, what a non-gamer would think of Warriorware. And I think maybe they would take to the DS version a bit more. That's why the DS was so popular with non-gamer types, because that barrier was

eliminated. It's like, I will just touch the menu options. I will just move my character with a pen. It was for that audience, I think, and which is why I I'm a fan of the more toy-like, more fun in physicality-based warrior-aware twisted than this game. Well, and this definitely set the tone for several games to come that's like, well, if we have a new Nintendo system that will definitely have some gimmick to it, we need a warrior-ware game to tell people the first ways they will interact with that gimmick.

And this was just the first of them. I was going to say something like that later that, yeah, I don't think that really helped the series. No, but Though, I mean, Twisted was also hurt by this game's very existence Because it was an October game in Japan And they sat on it for seven months Just so it wouldn't be in the way of the DS You know, it just

It had to get got put on the barber It would have been one or the other, I guess I mean, yeah I mean, could have gone both ways, right? The DS one could have been really great Yeah, well, I just mean like from a release schedule I have a feeling they could have They could have launched Twisting

in America in December if they wanted to, but that wasn't, there wasn't a priority. Yeah, their marketing positioning is always kind of weird a lot of times, so that's just what they decided on. It would have been a better TAS launch in America with this game, but it's still, it's still one of the lesser games, but again, it's not a bad game, and it's most of the same people, and I should mention that intelligent systems is the co-developer on all of these games. Like, they are not just, I saw them on Mario where Gold, I'm like, oh, did they farm this out to intelligent systems?

but no, they've always been involved. They're on every title screen. So I just totally forgot about that. And, of course, they've been helping Nintendo with everything forever. Right. Maybe that's with Ashley coming in there. That's one of their wifus putting in there. Yes, it's like getting the Advance Wars wifus into Warriorware.

So up next, Warriorware, smooth move. So upon developing the Wii, Jeremy's got a real gangster lean happening here. Upon developing the Wii, looking at the remote, they're like, this is made for Warioware. We must design a warriorware game around this. And it is the inevitable Wii-Wi-Ware game, just as you've gotten bored with Wii. Sorry, with Wii. This game arrives in January for the Wii. Yeah. It's almost the same kind of situations that you had.

Basically, like, the DS first came out and you waited a while to get Warriorware, which would have been, you know, anticipated game. Same thing here with the Wii. Yeah, and it's very much based around a party-style experience in which you're passing around a Wii moat, just like Wii Sports, where you would all take turns and, like, look stupid and have fun and drink and stuff. I mean, this game was based around just being with people, even though you can play it, a single player.

That's how I played it. Yeah, and it wants you to look stupid as opposed to Wii Sports, which is more active. Yes, yes. This game almost seemed redundant to me when it came out just because, I mean, look, I always welcome any Warrior Wear game, but there was also, God, and I can't remember the name of it, but the thing that wasn't Wii Sports, it came with another Wii Remote.

We play? We play. Yeah. It was also these kinds of games that just didn't. and have the Wario personality to it. Yeah, this one's goofy. Yeah. This was fartier, but...

It's not like you're playing carnival games or whatever. So, yeah, just like past Warrior War games, except you're using a different means of input. And the extra gimmick is that all of these microgames are arranged into different categories based on how you're intended to hold the Wii mode. There are 19 different ways to hold it. And as you play through the single player mode, you're introduced to all of them with like a little title card.

But after that, when the countdown happens before the next mini-game, It will show you a diagram of how you're supposed to hold it. Of course, you don't need to do it in the ways they're asking you to because a lot of them are like, put it on off of your nose or off of your head. But it's really like, well, I know, I know how a wemo works. After two days of Wii sports, you know the limitations of a Wii mode. So it's like, I don't need to look stupid. But they're trying to get the player to be more playful with the video. Follow orders is what they want.

Yes. I barely play this. I only played a friend's copy because I didn't own a Wii. until the end of 07 and by that point I was going to buy other games I wasn't going to get the Wariware game but I played this at a friend's place

the only one that really stuck with me was the hold the Wii remote above your head and then jump up like Mario to hit the block. The main problem with this one I found while replaying it is that once you understand the limitations of the Wii mode it's not magic you know there's a certain range in which it can be recognized

and there's a certain range in which if it falls out of you have to like get back in that range and that is always in the back of your mind while playing these games. So they can't be fun to a certain degree because you're like, oh, I got to stay in this certain space. I can't be as freewheeling as I want to because I got to be in a specific space for this wemo to be read by the sensor or vice versa. And that's the main problem here. And some of these games, because of the wemo technology, I find that with a few of these games, I'm like, I don't know what you want me to do to get

this to work. So I'm just going to fail this every time it comes up. And I hope it doesn't come up when I'm out of live. So that is the main issue with this. And I feel like they could have developed a sequel to this with the Wii Motion Plus and had it be like a much better experience with much better games, much better interactions but by that time they were really working on Rhythm Heaven and

using the Wii controller for not its intended purpose. You only hit the A button or the B button. There is no... I want to do with that game. I'm so Rhythm Heaven Fever rules. It's so good yeah. And it just imagining it if like it's not pressing A what if you have wiggled it like the

Maracas or like no, no I really love Rhythm Heaven Fever because it was just like, well, we don't care about what the Wii does, which is why I love new 3DS games. It's like, this doesn't have 3D in it. You never use that. In fact, it never existed. Yeah, who cares? Like, I like when they're just like, these gimmicks of systems were built around, they don't matter anymore. And that's why I feel like Rhythm Heaven was more successful as a series than Warrior were eventually over time.

Did any of us play this at the time? Because I almost called you Wario. Jeremy's shaking his head. I just remember playing We sports No, no, the room does, though But I just remember I remember playing WeSports at this time And really nothing else

I never played this game with people And I never played this game until I played it for this episode Did we have any experience? Only a tiny bit It was fun for a couple hours or so But eventually it was like Let's put WeSports back in Or We play or watch me play

Mario Galaxy It was eventually what I would say Yeah, I was kind of the main Nintendo guy at one up at this point, and I refused to touch this game because it completely got away from what I liked about Wario Ware. Being alone. Yeah, exactly. Screw you.

I don't want other people around. I find, like, if I had this game and, you know, some beer and perhaps a bit of the wacky tobacco was friends in college, it would have been fun. But I was playing it alone in my depressing apartment with nobody but my bird who was just worried about me, making all these weird motions. So, yes, I didn't play it

in the ideal environment, so I didn't have that much fun with it. But it's not. terrible, but again, I feel like with the Wii Motion Plus, they could have made this a better game. The Wii Motion Plus was like an apology like, well, here's what we really wanted the Wii Mote to do. Here's three games that'll use it. Goodbye.

We're lying this whole time. This is the real thing. And you need to play Zelda. So, the next game, this is why Ray Barthold is here because he's played all five minutes of this game. It is WariaWare snapped, and that sound effect is correct, Ray. It is a DSIWare title. Who remembers DSIWare? Yeah, wow.

That was Nintendo's dry run for, what if we sold games digitally. Yeah. And go a little something. What if we had region locking? Yeah. Yes, exactly.

I love the DSI. It's such a perfectly, like, feeling system, but the region locking sucks. I just love to how solid it feels in my hands. But, Ray, can you explain Warrior Wear snapped in any way? Well, let me start by saying that with DSIware, the entire point I think Nintendo tried to communicate was that they were supposed to be very small bite-sized games that would not cost too much money. and that would supplement your DS cart collection at the time.

So with Warrior Wear snapped, you have basically the completely honed warrior wear just being made for a certain system gimmick experience, which is that you just use the camera as rudimentary head tracking because this was not the same camera that the 3DS has, but you just used basically it asked you to play a few different mini games to use your head and move it around to control the game. games and stuff. It's kind of like an I-Toy game of its time. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely.

And then, yeah, you'd at the end, you'd have some fun, but then at the end it would also show you all the motions you were making because it was recording you the whole time. And so it made like a funny little cute video of you wagging your head around. Okay, so that feels kind of like the Game Boy camera. And was the

DSI the first Game Boy DS to have a camera? Yeah. Okay, I thought so. Like, Nintendo, after the first year, they forget their systems have a camera and they lose all functionality with games. Yeah. I think on my DSI, I have pictures of a girlfriend from, like, 10 years ago, so I'm afraid to open those pictures.

They're legit pictures, people. There's clothes on. Don't worry about it. But, yeah, I just, I didn't know it's awesome. I took five pictures with it. I was like, well, I guess I could do that. Well, goodbye. Well, that's also, like, the augmented reality on the 3DS.

Like, you use it the day you buy it, and then I've never touched it again. There's Pikachu's floating in my living room, and that's basically it. The only DSI wear game I really played or recall playing was Dragon Quest Wars, which was. What if intelligent systems work with Tosay to make a very simple baby Advance Wars starring Slimes? Was it any good? It's pretty good. I missed out on playing that, but...

Well, side recommendation. Q games made pretty much all the best DSIware games, if you want to look at this. X-Scape and stuff. Yeah, X-cape. Traject style. But, yeah, Warrior Wear Stapped was definitely just a gimmicky little thing for a couple bucks. And, well, I guess it succeeded at its goal at that. Yeah, and I assume you...

can't buy this anymore you can't can you log into the ds i think you can it's just the we shop okay disiware is it'd be like i think you can only get on the e shop on three ds yeah yeah yeah okay weird okay interesting at least at least So our next game is, and we'll get through these next ones pretty quick. Warrior DIY released here in March of 2010. This is sort of Mario Maker Origins. Was it that long ago? It was, yeah.

Yes, we're all our journey. Yeah, I was in the press when this came out, too. This is really making me feel a little. No, Jeremy's turning into dust. So Abe, Gora Abe, we mentioned him earlier. He's sort of the headmaster of all these games. He thought of the idea when working on the GameCube port of the original Wariware. And this was intended for what would be the DS, but was then known by the code name Iris.

So he wrote this idea down while making the GameCube port of the original Wariware. And I guess this was going to be the first game, but it was too complicated to really get out in time for the D.S.'s launch in Japan. So they saved this idea. Yes. time to come out. So we talked about the Mario Paint DNA, and WariaWare Do It Yourself is really drawing from that Mario Paint tool set. It's like an expansion of that tool set in terms of

graphic creation, animation creation, music creation, and now it is game creation. Well, it really gets back to the original concept of Wariware in the first place that was kind of lost in the sequels. Yes. Which is that, hey, they're making a video game, and now that responsibility is placed on you

rather than on Mona. We can all be warrior slaves now. And so, Obviously, this game, you make your own mini-games. You play them. You can upload them. Excuse me. Microgames. Thank you. Mini-games are much longer. But you make them either using existing assets in the game,

existing music in the game, or you can make your own. And you can draw your own stuff. You can make them as gross as you want to. And the point of this is you get to make the game this time. And I think this is like one of Nintendo's few, like strictly, like it's an edutainment. It's like this is how game creation works. And I sat down to play this. And you need, so Wario Ware is all about fast-paced, like super,

super you know of the moment super like lizard brain fun this is sitting down and learning how to make a video game and it takes a very certain kind of person for this because of that I feel like Mario Maker is more successful because you don't need to make the logic of a Mario game with Mario Maker the logic exists you just drop

parts into the reality with this game you have to sit through so many text heavy tutorials of like a character explaining something to Wario explaining how games work explaining how logic works explaining how you assign logic to items in the world. Like, there is so much learning. And in that respect, it's very cool, but it also

is not of the real spirit of Wario Ware's immediacy. It is, it is a very different kind of experience. It does, it does include some games that you can play. Yes, there's 90 mini games as opposed to the 200 that are in other games. A lot of content, you know. But my experience with this was that it is very time consuming. And the end result of spending a lot of time fussing around creating a game is three seconds of video game. Yes. It really makes your heart go out to game developers. It takes a long time to make a game in this, despite how long, how short you play the

games. Yeah, it's pretty realistic. This came out right when I had family in town visiting, and my young nephew at the time loves video games, so I was like, hey, this just came out, I want to make a little video game for you? What kind of get a video game do you want? And he told me. And so I spent several hours making this little video game, micro game for him. And it took him, you know, four or five seconds to play it. And he was like, that's it. So that was, yeah, that was a, kind of a stab to the heart. I was like, oh, I have a question because it's kind of a blind

spot this game. But doesn't it have like a quote unquote campaign to it? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it does. The 90 levels, yeah. But it is much shorter. But the main point of it is, like, you make your own things. There's a service that you can upload to that is now not there anymore because, of course, it isn't. And you can share your loves with friends, enter them in contests, things like that. And if you go on to YouTube, you can see great compilations of these games, which I think is the best part of this product, is just seeing what people made. Watching what other people did, not making yourself. That's how I feel about all those making it. I like Mario Maker a lot, but again, with that game, me versus down.

So it's like, why bother make a level? No one can play it. No one can comment on it. The point of the game is just not even there anymore. And that's what I want to play Mario Maker again, but there's no reason to do it. You have to become a Twitch streamer and devote your life to doing that. My personal connection to DIY was my first GDC that I went to was the Game Developers Conference at 2010. And Nintendo was advertising this game heavily there as, you know, it totally makes sense.

It's a perfect fit for it. And so that's the only time I played it at a demo there. And I still have, in plastic, my promotional team. T-shirt of DIY wear, which is a white t-shirt and then a marker you can draw on yourself to make your own Mario T-shirt because it's a DIY shirt as well. I didn't get that. Oh, well, so, you know, I'm trying to eBay this. Yeah, well, direct you too.

Not just any white T-shirt, folks. It's one from Nintendo. It is special. But yeah, this game, I feel like it'll against for a certain kind of person, it is not the immediate kind of experience Mario Ware is. but it's very cool that it basically teaches you how to make a game and how like game design works before those tools were more readily available to people

with things like Twine where you can play with that today and do sort of Wario-Warel style things with it that are available in this game. But those tools were not as immediate back then and this is a cool way I can understand like if you were young, I want to hear like, did this get you into game design? I'm sure this inspired a lot of budding game designers.

That's right. After all, it's been eight years, Jeremy. Eight years, Jeremy. Are you talking to that pile of dust in the corner? Eight and a half, really. The pile of dust with glasses on it. And also, the people who worked on this game, a lot of them were new people for Nintendo, people in the early 20s, and they grew up with Mario Paint. And Mario Paint is what got them into game design and working on games.

So, like, Nintendo was basically recruiting future staff members through Mario Paint. And I know, like, a lot of people who make games now grew up with Mario Paint as well. So you mentioned Mario Maker DNA, but I think one of the things that really improved on sort of this edutainment stuff is Nintendo Labo, which has a whole sort of... I forgot about Labo. Logic programming section to it, on top of the actual game that is in the center of it, and then the cardboard building outside of that. But yeah, I mean, after you get through those two parts, it's like, yeah, now you can

learn to program your own stuff. I completely forgot about Labo. That's awesome, right? And was that ever successful here, or did it just disappear after people, like, just tinkered with it? No, it's still making it. It's just came out with a third thing. It's only been around for like six months.

At the time of this recording, I have seen ads for it at multiple. Interesting. Like 30 minutes, you know, the 30 minutes before a movie where they have ads, they had ads for that, and I think they're really ramping up for the holiday season, you know. That's great. I mean, it's not for me, and I just like the idea that's like it's teaching these engineering skills to kids through, like, a game interface. I guess Labo is a logical next step from DIY. I'm not sure if the same people are involved or if any of the same people are involved, but it's the same sort of philosophy as to teach these complex things through a more interesting and more accessible interface.

like cardboard or a Wario game. Last game on this list, it sucks. I reviewed it. Jeremy reviewed it. No, I think we're on agreement. And it's bad. It's called Game and Wario, aka WiiU Tech Demo Central.

I reviewed this game, and I remembered nothing about it. I reviewed this game for joystick. And they made me send it back to them. What? Yeah. You know what? They're dead now.

That did it. $30 didn't save them, huh? No, it didn't tape my opinion. We need that valuable Nintendo first party release That was one of the ones like When they were getting to the end of Club Nintendo They're like

Look, look, you get a free Wii you game Yeah, that's how I got it This year and they're like, well what is the free Wii you game? It's game and Wario Okay, I'll take it sure It felt more like the Wario

Answer to Nintendo Land than anything else Like Nintendo Land was also not very good And this is similarly a bunch of Minigames, not micro games minigames built around, features of the Wii controller that no one would use ever again. I think they showed it off the same time

it showed off the Wii U, yeah. So it was like made in tandem with Nintendo land. Well, the first Wii U demos like at E3 had multiple mini games that would both go into Nintendo land and into this. They weren't marked as either of them. Oh, God, yeah.

Well, that is a different. I know, I know. That was a fun one to go to. Just like we're not done with the Wii. We're making a real game's for it. Look, see. and they were done with the Wii. So some of those tech demos ended up in Star Fox Zero, right?

The guard did, but that was like the 20, that was like two years into Wii U. We're sorry. But the game in Mario, I don't know, I like this dribble and spit level. But again, all of those games, like with the Wii game in a certain way, they all showed off the weaknesses of the game pad where it's like, in the dribble and spitz level you have to drive around, but also you're looking through the windshield of their car with the Wii U gamepad. It's like, oh, if I turn it up too far, it, like, loses control of where the thing it is.

Shilling vision of things to come. Yeah. And the last game in Game in Wario is a rhythm game where you have to sort of dance with the Wii U game pad. It just doesn't work. It doesn't work at all. I was like, you ship this game and I can't even play it. Like, it just, it doesn't function well with the Wii U game pad. And I like the Wii U a lot.

I think it's my dreamcast. Yeah. But this game is not a good example of a Wii game. No, I think my Twitter joke was a rebrand of Wario where I named after the retro thing the fewest people could recognize. Exactly. I love Game and Watch, and I liked them. Because you were a huge Nintendo fan.

Yeah, I am. Nintendo does not need to be selling the Wii U to huge Nintendo fans. Well, that's the only people they sold it to me. Yeah, unfortunately. In a way, I like what a bad decision it was to name the game after a thing no one remembers. It's like Game and Watch. Remember 30 years ago the thing that your dad had?

Do they... Remember your dad had a Wii U? Do they think that had more nostalgic power of stronger... Why didn't they call it Wariaware? Why did they call it Game in WarioW? Like, Wario Ware is a brand. Well, I think in the end, it saves it from being, you know, tainting the rest of the series too much. It's like how Unlimited Saga doesn't have an intercapped saga.

Different game. It's not part of the Saga series. It's saga. I mean, thankfully, WarioWare has come back with gold. Hopefully it'll be back in another form. But I think the final Wario-Ware-ish iteration of this experience was One-2 Switch, a Switch launch game. And when Henry and I were working together, when this game launched, and immediately we both said this is Wario-Ware without the Warrior characters. And it was fun.

I had a good time. I liked that milking game and the Quick-Draw game. Milking especially, that's... Making lewd motions while staring at your friends, making drug-eye contact. That's the most, like, naughty spirit of Wario type game. I was just sad that that should have been a better party game, but I think that was just... We tried to do a switch...

One-two-Switch playing party at our office. But I think it's just because that office sucked. Nobody liked anybody there, so we could not play the game. Or they just hated video games there because when it's like, come on, guys, let's play. And just me and Bob played and a couple other people played. And then everybody else is like, I just...

I don't know these games. I'm sorry. This is a Game of Thrones. This is a video game. Yes, we all work for Thurston Howell of the Third at fandom. And yes, one two switch. I feel like, again, I think it was too expensive. I'm sure it was fine, but it wasn't for me.

There was that refrain of people like, this should be packing. I didn't think that. I wouldn't go that far. But I also don't like a game where you don't look at the screen. It just feels like, well, that's just, that's sacrilege. Look at the screen. Come on. All these people are dressed up for you.

You're giving you a system that has multiple. modes for looking at the screen. Now, don't look at it. Yes, exactly. We paid these people. You're going to look at it. I love all those actors. Honestly, I feel a lot of charm to the Getty image style actors they get for that stuff. They found the white people living in Japan

and they put cowboy hats on them and shoved them into a room and film the milking fake cows. And boy, oh boy, that was once you switch. So my final question, as we wrap up here, what do you believe is the future of Wario? Number one for me, and I said this five fucking years ago, I want a new

Wario Land Game, number one. Remake one of the old ones. They're still really, really good, especially two and three and four. I feel like there is room for a new Wario Land game, and I feel like Wario Wear Goldpriv, there's room for a new Mario Ware game, and Wario's a good character. Nintendo, do not be

ashamed of Wario. He is your secret sauce, I think. Mario's too clean cut. I don't care what hat you put on him. He's still a little Mickey Mouse guy, but Wario can still be bad, everybody. Anybody else, jump in. What do you feel like is the future for Wario, and what do you want it to be? I think Waluigi is going to kill Wario in his sleep and take his place.

No. Sorry. It's going to happen. I like what Wario wear gold gives us for the future, though. I mean, rhythm-haven mega-mix came out, and that does not necessarily make there be more rhythm-haven games. So I think it really depends on the sales of gold. It could just be his final hurrah. And I played that demo and I was just thinking of the thing Bob said to me off mic about that game and just like, Wario won't shut up.

Like it's just, he's never talked to them. This has the most voice acting of any Nintendo game, basically. And it's all pretty good. I love Charles Martin A, but his ability to maintain that voice while saying instructions about, hey, twist it, you know, do it. I actually have to agree with Ray. Like, it is, it is a bit off-putting how much spoken dialogue there is. But if you go back to the older games, there is that much dialogue. It's just not spoken.

And I think the localization is really good. Like, the voice acting is very, very funny. And I was, like, laughing out loud on the plane at the voice acting. But it is, if you're not used to it, Wario does not talk that much. He usually doesn't tell you how to play the video games either. So it's a much different philosophy behind those. I hope it opens the door for more Wariware games. But I think the, I fear that the core team of that maybe has just been cast to the wind at Nintendo.

And they're all working on other stuff now. Or maybe they're working on the next paradigm shifting Wario-style experience. Maybe. I mean, I feel like One-Two Switch is different enough from Wario-Ware that there's very easily room for a Wario-Ware game on Switch. And I think the Switch hardware has enough, it has so much versatility, so many, like, different modes of play that you could have a really interesting new take on Wario-Ware, which we haven't really had, like, since touched, really.

It's pretty much You mean, Wario Ware Gold is just a reiteration of WariaWare Warioware, Twisted, and WarioWare touched. I mean, I guess smooth moves was a different take, but I don't know. Like, good take. Yeah, it's too close with Silas.

I mean, yeah, like, you have a touch screen, you have the Joycons, you have the haptic. And those joikas can do a lot of things that no one is really using. They can detach, they can use them as pointers. They have analog controls. They have multiple triggers. I mean, there's.

Rumble? Yeah, there's so much you can do with Switch and WariaWare that it would be a mistake for them not to create a Switch WarioWare game. And again, you know, because One-Two Switch is very much a party game meant for multiple people, I feel like that leaves the door open for a true Wario-Ware game, which would have, you know, both a single and multiplayer component. Ray, how about you? Did you give your piece on this? No, I did not, Bob. Please. You know, I was astounded that this was a series at all, you know?

It felt like such a one-off at the beginning, you know. They were surprised, too, in the interviews. So, like, we didn't realize we'd get to make another one of these. Yeah. So, yeah. I made quite a few more. So, I mean, that's cool. And I think it's really like the, what's the word?

I guess it's sort of like the zenith of what we've been touching on, which is, like, the silly Nintendo. Because, you know, you have Zelda and Metroid on one end and Mario in the middle. But then you have the silly stuff, like, warrior wear and Mario Paint and the Game Boy Camera and Rhythm Heaven and all that stuff that was just like representing this, this, this, uh, different side of the company that was just not afraid to, like, fill things with gags, basically. And I think that really enriches the output of the company in general. So I think it's good. I think there should be more warrior wear, for sure. And, you know, to also touch on what someone else said, like, I thought Game in Wario was kind of like the bleak ending of it.

Yeah, me too. They did make another one for 3DS, even though it is kind of a mega mix. And all the characters came back, too. It wasn't the end of all of our favorite characters and their moms and grandpaws and sisters. Blessing a lot. If you love Wari Aware in the Rhythm Having Games and you still haven't played Rusty Sluggers.

Oh, yeah. Rusty's Real Deal Baseball. Yeah, I was going to say that too, actually, yeah. It is so much in the same vein as those games. Like, it feels made by a lot of the same people. The pitching machine is in it. Yeah, the Ultram Machine is the start. It's where the game begins.

You don't play baseball in the game. It is rhythm-based mini games starring a very sad, divorced father. It's so great. It is great. Thank you for bringing that up. It's a great game. It's worth buying all of those mini games to unlock.

And haggle with that guy. I think at the end of the day, it's like a $15 game if you want to unlock every mini game. But yes, Rusty Sluggers, real deal baseball. But thanks for listening, folks. This has been our WarioWare episode. Again, Warrior Wear gold is out. Buy it. It's really good.

And support Wario Ware and Mario in general because Nintendo needs to learn that Wario is special. And he needs to enter our hearts once again in a new Mario game. be at Wari Land or Warioware. As for us, we've been Retronauts, and thanks for listening. Please subscribe to us. If you haven't, rate us on iTunes. If you want to support the show and we suggest that you do, it's how Jeremy and I live. It's how we fund all the cool things that we do.

And if you want to help fund our show, go to patreon.com slash Retronauts. And for the low, low, low price of $3 a month, you'll get all of our episodes a week ahead of time and ad free and with no ads. Zero ads, folks. It's the ultimate way to listen to Retronauts. And it's the recommended way, doctors recommend it too. So please give three bucks a month, two retronauts. at patreon.com slash retronauts for the ideal Retronauts listening experience.

Everybody, I will do my plugs at last. Jeremy, let's do you first. Yeah, this is Jeremy Parrish. You can find me on the internet at Retronauts.com and on Twitter as GameSpite, and you can learn all about my gelato delivery service there. I'm H. N-E-R-A-G on Twitter. Follow me there for all my video game thoughts and political musings, but also to hear about the podcasts I make every week with Bob,

we do at patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons. We do Talking Simpsons a chronological exploration of every episode of Simpsons from the beginning, every week. We dive deep into episodes

including one of my recent favorites that we... It was years in the making. We did the Pucci episode with real-life animation experts who make their own shows, Rebecca Sugar, creator of Stephen Universe,

and Ian Jones, Quarty, creator of OkCo Let's Be Heroes. They add tons of stuff to that. And we even talk a little bit about Mario Kart 64, if you want some retro content on there. Plus, we do What a Cartoon, the weekly podcast, about a different cartoon each week. Jeremy's been on there. We've talked about G.I. Joe and the Max with him.

It's parish approved. So, Patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons, or at the very least, check out Talking Simpsons. What a cartoon wherever you listen to podcasts. How about you, Ray? Don't you love one when Henry turns on his carnival Barker moment? Yes, because I've had to say that same plug five times this weekend. I'm glad someone else did it. I'm on Twitter, RDBAAA.

I also have, I make games as my company by Pettled Dog. I made a game called BlastRush on iOS and Android. Please search for that and download it. I also have another goofier podcast called No More Whoppers. You can search for that. The URL doesn't matter. What else? No, it's about it.

Yeah, cool. Check those things out. Thanks. Again, check out my other podcast that Henry is on as well. our podcast rather. I don't want to claim total ownership of this. What a jerk I am. It's been a long weekend. But I'm on Twitter as Bob Servo. And thanks for listening, everybody. We'll see you next time for a brand new podcast. Thanks for listening. With Domino's week-long carry-out deal, you can carry out large three-topping pizzas, and now, medium-three-topping handmade pan pizzas for $7.99 each.

It's PAN-tastic news. Cut, cut. Puns? You mean pans? Calling all panatics for two layers of cheese on crispy golden crust. So grab your panty packs, because Domino's large, large, three-topping pizzas, and medium-three-topping handmade pan pizza.

are $7.99 each. It's pandemonium. Fantastico. Carry out only. You must ask for this limited time offer. Pricist participation in charges may vary. The Mueller report. I'm Edonohue with an AP News Minute. President Trump was asked at the White House if special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation report should be released next week when he will be out of town. I guess from what I understand that will be totally up to the Attorney General. Maine, Susan Collins says she would vote for a congressional resolution disapproving of President Trump's emergency declaration to build a border wall, becoming the first Republican senator to publicly back it. In New York, the wounded supervisor of a police detective killed by friendly fire was among

the mourners attending his funeral. Detective Brian Simonson was killed as officers started shooting at a robbery suspect last week. Commissioner James O'Neill was among the speakers today at Simonson's funeral. It's a tremendous way to bear knowing that your choices will directly affect the lives of others. The cops like Bryant don't shy away from it. It's the very foundation of who they are and what they do. The robbery suspect in a man, police, they acted as his lookout, have been charged with murder. I'm Ed Donahue.