WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Party Game$!

Following the almost universally acclaimed short-attention-span action of the Game Boy Advance’s WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$! comes this party-game adaptation for GameCube. Many of the mini-games featured in the handheld original have been converted for four-player competition on the console. Gamers strive to be the quickest teeth-brushers, the most precise nose pickers, the best free-throwers, the most accurate apple shooters, the most skillful paper-airplane pilots, and the victors in countless other quick contests that take no more than a few seconds to complete.

As in the GBA original, a wide variety of activities combine with a simple, unifying theme, for an experience designed to appeal instantly to anyone who played video games in the days before 3D graphics and complicated storylines. Half the fun is in not knowing which five-second challenge will pop up next, or what the player will be required to do in it. Even when players aren’t in control of the active character, some of the mini-games allow them to participate in a more passive fashion, adding to the group-oriented strategy.