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WarioWare: Get it Together was recently released on Switch, so in honor of that, I wanted to write a blog about it!  At first I thought about talking about all the games in the WarioWare series, but I did that last time a new WarioWare game came out, so you can just read that blog here if you want.  Not much would’ve changed anyway if I did it again.  But WarioWare: Get it Together has a focus on characters, so I figured I’d go over all the crazy characters in the series and how they play in this game!  So let’s get started!

So in most WarioWare games, you must play micro games that only last seconds long in rapid succession.  The challenge lies in quickly figuring out what to do and then doing it.  In this one, you control the WarioWare characters themselves like they are in a 2-D platformer as you tackle the games.  Each character has different skills, so you must figure out how to do the mini-games with that character.  Two can play at the same time as well, a first in the series.  So now let’s take a look at the playable characters.  Oh, and there may be some spoilers here and there, just a warning.  Although the Story Mode where you unlock all the characters only takes about a few hours to beat, so I’m not worrying about it too much.

Wario

He's the main character in these games, and all the other characters work for him making micro games.  That’s really the only thing they have in common with each other!  In this game, Wario makes a handheld console that has a bunch of bugs inside of it, and they take over and suck all the characters into the game and you have to play the micro games to get rid of the bugs.  In most WarioWare games, Wario gets two stages based after him.  The intro stages and the final boss stages.  The final stages usually feature Wario in them in some way, too.  In this game, Wario gets a jetpack so he can fly around, and he can do his trademark shoulder bash in any direction.  A good easy character to start with.

Young Cricket

He’s a martial arts master in training and has spiky hair.  Kind of generic, really.  He also really likes meat dumplings.  I think he first appeared in the Wii WarioWare Smooth Moves game.  Some characters have their own stages in this game, while others you just unlock along the way.  Young Cricket is the latter, and you get him right after Wario.  He controls like a basic platforming hero, where you press the A button to jump and you can jump higher if you hold it down.

Master Mantis

He’s Young Cricket’s sensei, an old Miyagi type guy.  You unlock him much later, and he controls just like Young Cricket except he can walk on the ceilings, too!

9-Volt

He’s my favorite character in the series, mainly because his games feature classic Nintendo properties.  In fact, I usually learn something about Nintendo when playing a new WarioWare game.  Like for instance, in this game I learned that Nintendo used to make board games in Japan, too!  Anyway, 9-Volt is a grade school kid who is obsessed with Nintendo history.  In fact, his character kind of makes fun of Nintendo fanboys, but that’s OK, I can take a joke, too!  9-Volt has other interests as well, like DJing, skateboarding, and yo-yos.  He also has a pet Fronk, who is a blocky character featured in a lot of the mini-games in WarioWare.  I’m kind of surprised Fronk isn’t playable here.  Anyway, in this game 9-Volt rides his skateboard back and forth, and the only way to stop him is to press a button to have him fling his yo-yo upwards.  Unfortunately, this makes him one of the hardest characters to control.

18-Volt

He’s 9-Volt’s best friend and they like to play games together.  18-Volt looks way to old to be an elementary school student, but they joke about that in the games.  He also likes to rap with his new friend 13-Amp, but she’s not playable in this game and only makes a small cameo.  In this game, 18-Volt doesn’t move at all, but he can fire CDs in any direction.  Any character who has limited movement like this, they’ll add rings to the stages and if you aim your attacks at one, you’ll latch onto it like a grappling hook and that’s how you move around.

5-Volt

She’s 9-Volt’s mom.  She’s mostly featured in the Gamer stages found in Game & Wario and Smash Bros.  In that, you must play WarioWare but quickly shut it down when she peeks into your room to see if you’re asleep and not playing games sneakily.  I think we’ve all done that before.  Anyway, if you get caught, she gets kind of scary so I think that’s the premise to how she plays in this game.  It’s kind of weird, though.  Anyway, here she falls asleep and can’t move, but you control a ghost of her as she has an out of body experience.  When you press the button, she’ll wake up, warp to the spot where her ghost was, and get angry and attack anything nearby.  Then she’ll fall asleep again and you start the whole process over.  So she’s pretty tricky to control.  One interesting this is that her voice actress is the same lady who does the voice for Shantae!  Neat!

Mona

She’s one of my favorite characters, too.  She’s always on the go, so busy driving back and forth on her scooter to her various jobs and responsibilities.  In the games they say she’s a high school student, but I think a college student or young adult would be more befitting of her character. In the games she’s worked at an ice cream store, pizza parlor, rock star, cheerleading, and more.  She also has three pets: a pig, an elephant, and a monkey.  In this new game it’s also revealed that she lives in a mansion!  Wow!  Her games usually involve day to day activities like brushing your teeth or putting eyedrops in your eyes.  In this game she uses her scooter, which can fly now for some reason.  But she can’t stop moving until you press the attack button for her to throw a boomerang.  When you do that, she’ll stand still and you can control the boomerang around the screen.

Dribble

He’s a bulldog who drives a taxi around the city with his partner Spitz, a little yellow cat.  They’re games are mostly sci-fi or fantasy themed, as they tend to take their taxi out in space somehow.  Some of the characters who have partners are designed with two players in mind, and Dribble is an example of that.  He flies around in a little taxi, and shoots projectiles with a bazooka.  But he can only fire to the right.  Dribble and Spitz are my brother Jeff’s favorite WarioWare characters, by the way.

Spitz

As mentioned before, he’s Dribble’s little cat friend.  Like Dribble, he flies around in a little taxi, too, and also has a bazooka.  But he can only fire to the left.

Dr. Crygor

He’s kind of a mad scientist with cybernetic implants all over him.  Since WarioWare games have some toilet humor here and there, Dr. Crygor usually has some kind of digestive trouble and has to rush to the restroom while doing the pee-pee dance.  Most of his games are high tech themed, or involve puzzles.  Dr. Crygor’s also a little…weird.  I mean, in this game, he wears a wetsuit, flippers, and an inner tube floatie around his waist.  You press the button to make him ‘swim’ around the screen, and he can attack things with his head this way.

Mike

Invented by Dr. Crygor, Mike is a robotic karaoke machine.  He likes to sing, but doesn’t do so very well.  He was first introduced in WarioWare Touched on the DS, because they needed someone to represent the games where you blow into the microphone.  In this game, Mike can fly and shoot music notes upwards.

Penny

She’s Dr. Crygor’s young granddaughter.  She shares his perchance for science and inventing things, but like many other kids, she also wishes to be a famous pop idol singer.  She also plays a big role in WarioWare D.I.Y. where she shows you the ropes on how to make microgames!  Penny’s not one of my favorite characters, but I think she has an inspiring design that would make for a great character for a kids’ cartoon show.  In this game, she even gets her own theme song that would be a great fit for a cartoon starring her.  “With her hair tied up in braids, And glasses perched on her face, She is a small girl, Taking on a big world. With the inventions she makes.  And though her plans may go awry.  She’ll just get back up and try!”  She’s one of the last characters you unlock in this game, and she’s kind of weird to control.  She uses a water propelled jet pack she invented, but in order to make her fly, you must aim the water in the opposite direction.  Since she fires water all over, you can also use the water drops to beat the microgames, too!

Kat

Along with her twin sister Ana, Kat is a kindergartener and also a ninja in training.  Their mini-games feature animals, plants, and just nature in general.  In fact, one of the twins especially likes plants, and the other likes animals.  But I can’t remember which one likes which!  Like Dribble and Spitz, Kat & Ana are partner characters probably designed for two players.  Kat continuously jumps, and can fire ninja stars only to the right.

Ana

Kat’s younger twin is also a kindergartener ninja, and in this game she also continuously jumps but fires ninja stars to the left.

Jimmy T.

This afro-wearing, disco-dancing dude usually has mini games that are sports themed.  Other games also reveal his extensive family and his doppelganger Jimmy P. In this game, he has a fitness dancing show, kind of like that Zumba stuff, but with disco.  Other minor characters join him, like Mona’s dog boss from her jobs, Joe (he’s not playable, though).  In this game, you aim Jimmy’s disco pointer finger around, and then press the button to send him flying in that direction.  Then you repeat the process.

Ashley

Basically Wednesday Addams.  She’s a witch girl in training and is very deadpan and unenthusiastic.  She first appeared in WarioWare Touched on the DS and even had her own theme song with vocals.  Lines like “Who’s the creepy girl living in the haunted mansion?” and “Who can rule the world and still finish all her homework?”  Her games usually revolve around food.  In this new game, characters who can fly around are usually “O.P.” and Ashley is probably one of the most.  Not only can she fly around on her broom, she can cast projectile spells from her wand in any direction!

Red

This little red devil demon is Ashley’s sidekick and best friend.  While Ashley is stoic and fearless, Red is excitable, nervous, and easily frightened.  He can also shapeshift into things to help out Ashley, like a flying broom or magic wand.  In this game he flies around, and drops bombs that explode when they hit something.

Orbulon

He’s an alien who wears sunglasses and has a head shaped like a bowling pin.  He plans to take over the Earth someday, but he really just enjoys taking in the sights and flying around on his piggy UFO.  Sometimes his games involve puzzles, but sometimes they feature cultures and customs from around the world.  The latter is the case in this new game.  In it, Orbulon flies around on his piggy spaceship, and when you press the button, he’ll suck up anything into his spaceship from a downward direction tractor beam.  You can even ‘abduct’ stuff you wouldn’t expect to be able to do!

Lulu

A relatively new character, she first appeared in the last game before this new one: WarioWare Gold.  In it, Wario steals a golden pot from a village, and Lulu chases after him to get it back.  She’s spunky and has a bit of a crush on Young Cricket, but otherwise she’s just a generic little girl.  She can fly, but it’s more like how you do it in Joust or Balloon Fight.  Press a button to spin her bow on her head and she’ll fly for a bit.  Press down and she’ll slam down as an attack.

Pyoro

Now this was a surprise!  In WarioWare games, there is a fictional game series called Pyoro, and every release makes Wario want to make his own games for money.  So he gets other people to do it!  And the last thing you unlock is a full Pyoro game.  They’re usually simple screen affairs.  You control a little red duck on the bottom of the screen and press a button to extend his tongue in a 45 degree angle to catch falling seeds before they hit the ground.  There are a few variations depending on the game, but that’s usually the gist of it.  In this new game, Pyoro is actually the final boss!  After you defeat him, you get to play as him and he controls just how he does in the games.  Except here his tongue can bounce around the screen borders, too.

And those are all the characters!  However, there is one really obscure WarioWare game maker that is missing from this playable list.  And that character would be…

Me!

Yeah!  Me!  As you might know, back when WarioWare D.I.Y. came out, Nintendo held contests every month and would feature winners on their server for everyone to download.  And one of my games won!  You can read more about it here.  Sorry to brag about it so much, but it is one of my proudest gaming achievements.  Anyway, since I’m officially a WarioWare game maker, I should be part of the team in the new game, too, don’t you think?  And if I were, what do you think I would be like in the game, and how would I play?  Let me know in the comments section!

And that’s pretty much all I have to say about WarioWare: Get it Together!  I have to say that while I like the game a lot, it’s not one of the better games in the series.  It’s not the worst either, just middle of the road.  It’s pretty light on content, with a short story mode, a weekly online challenge, and some multiplayer games that remind me of ones found in WarioWare: Mega Party Games on GameCube, but that’s about it.  So yeah, still good, but there’s been better games in the series out there.

You know what I’d like to see?  A WarioWare cartoon!  It probably wouldn’t make much sense, and would just be little segments featuring a few of the characters, but I think it would still be cool.  The kid characters could have school time adventures, Ashley and Red could have a Halloween episode, etc.  What do you think?  Later!  --Cary