WarioWare Gold is a party video game developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 3DS. The ninth installment in the WarioWare series, it was released in PAL regions in July 2018, and in North America and Japan the following month. Similarly to past entries of the series, in WarioWare Gold, the player must complete consecutive "microgames" at increasing paces. Gold features both new microgames and microgames from past entries in the series for a total of over 300 microgames, the most featured in the series to date.
Gameplay
In WarioWare Gold, the player must complete "microgames", which are small minigames with short time limits. If the player succeeds in a microgame, the game moves onto the next. If the player fails, they lose one of four lives. If the player runs out of lives, the game ends and the player's high score is displayed, which is determined by how many microgames were passed. During gameplay, the game will naturally speed up every few microgames, with its difficulty increasing each time a boss microgame is completed. The microgames featured in Gold return from multiple games in the series, including ', ', ', ', , and Game & Wario, in addition to new ones for a total of over 300. These microgames involve pressing buttons, tilting the system, touching the touch screen, and blowing on the system's microphone. Gold also features full voice acting, the first WarioWare game to do so, with an additional unlockable feature allowing players to overdub their own voice over the game's cutscenes.
Plot
Having run out of money following a treasure hunt in the village of Luxeville, the greedy Wario decides to organize a gaming tournament in Diamond City, convincing his friends to design some new microgames for the event. For an entry fee of ten-thousand coins, he offers a ten-million coin prize to the tournament's winner, although he secretly plots to take all the prize money for himself. While the player competes in the tournament, a girl from Luxeville named Lulu calls Wario out and begins training to challenge him, seeking to retrieve a treasure Wario stole from her village. The rest of the game consists of self-contained stories for all of Wario's friends. Two girls are enamored by Jimmy T. and want to take his picture, Mona meets with Joe and tries to find a dress to wear for her party, Dribble and Spitz fight off UFOs with their space-faring taxi, 5-Volt follows along with a workout routine on TV, Ashley and Red fight a demon with a voracious appetite named Hum Gree, Dr. Crygor and Mike go looking for mushrooms in the forest when Crygor is suddenly chased by a crazed robot, 18-Volt participates in a rap battle against 13-Amp to win back a classmate's stolen games, Penny Crygor makes a cure for Dr. Crygor who became poisoned after drinking her voice-changing elixir, Kat and Ana compete in an eating contest to try and earn their ninja learner's permits, Fronk helps 9-Volt with his math homework by treating it like a role-playing game, Young Cricket and Master Mantis "train" at an amusement park by riding a merry-go-round and Orbulon abducts "hams" for a fast food restaurant so they can be used to make hamburgers. In the game's final level, Wario refuses to give the player the prize money, as he already declaired himself as the winner of the tournament. Putting Luxeville's treasure on his head, he then transforms into the sinister Wario Deluxe. With Lulu's help, the player manages to beat Wario Deluxe and win the tournament, knocking the pot off Wario's head and changing him back to normal in the process. Returning the pot to Lulu after she reveals that it's actually Luxeville's public toilet, Wario attempts to flee with the money he made from the tournament when he is intercepted by his friends. Taking the money Wario refused to pay them for their work and splitting it evenly, the player receives their entry fee back and the group even decides to share some of the money with Wario as well. Lulu returns to Luxeville with the pot afterwards, only to learn that the townspeople had bought a new high-tech toilet in her absence.
Release
The game was announced during the Nintendo Direct broadcast on March 8, 2018. The game released in Europe on July 27, 2018, in Australia on July 28, 2018, in Japan on August 2, 2018, and in North America on August 2, 2018. The Japanese digital version was released on September 11, 2018, and in North America in September 23, 2018, Shortly before release, a free demo of the game was released on the Nintendo 3DS eShop.
Reception
WarioWare Gold received "generally favorable reviews", according to review aggregatorMetacritic. Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu gave it 32 out of 40 score.
