‘WarioWare: Get It Together!’ Should Learn From Its Title

by Barry Irick · Published September 17, 2021 · Updated September 17, 2021

I love the WarioWare series. It’s frantic and fast-paced, yet never feels out of control. WarioWare traditionally involves completing a series of five to ten second microgames, which has carried on into its newest entry, WarioWare: Get It Together! In WarioWare games, you are given a prompt that describes your objective, such as “Dodge,” giving you a small timeframe in which you have to simultaneously figure out and complete what the game demands of you. Sometimes these microgames are difficult to figure out the first try, but tend to become easier the second time around. As you complete microgames, everything gradually speeds up until a ‘boss’ game is reached, each one usually taking about a minute to complete. On the first playthrough, this is where the stage ends, but on repeated playthroughs, the game ‘levels up’ and continues indefinitely, making all of the microgames more difficult. Generally, the main playthrough takes only a couple of hours in a WarioWare game, leading to a heavy reliance on side content and chasing high scores.

Unfortunately for WarioWare: Get It Together!, it fails in some of the areas that make a WarioWare game fun and balanced. While in past WarioWare games, the way you played would vary from game to game, the new gimmick in Get It Together is comprised of a variety of characters that you directly control, each with their own abilities. In theory, this provides a lot of replay value as every microgame is designed in such a way that every character can complete it — sometimes with slight changes made such as rings to help immobile characters move across the screen. In practice, however, the variety in abilities and microgames make it so there is now an inherent chance factor that can make some microgames painfully easy or, otherwise, nearly impossible. Characters that can fly freely, such as Orbulon and Ashley, more often than not have an advantage, while more specialized characters such as 5-Volt fall into the extreme ends of either a cakewalk or a disaster. You can play with either a few chosen characters or all of them (how many depends on the stage), with the character you play as swapping between games. Because the pairing of character and game is completely random, there is a good chance things will go wrong at some point. As a result, the main story has a rugged difficulty curve, with some stages becoming easier or harder just because of the characters involved.

As far as post-game content goes, there is a striking lack of it present in Get It Together. The main storyline does go a tad bit longer, including the series’ staple ‘all mixed up’ stages into the story itself. I did enjoy my time with Get It Together‘s endgame content, with Penny’s stage being a definite highlight in how it handles its musical aspect. That’s all there really is with this latest WarioWare game, though. The main menu has a ‘variety pack’ option that leads to a variety of minigames, but almost nothing that features the primary microgame-focused gameplay. The only other thing included is a ranked mode that rotates the ruleset each week. If these challenges were more unique, it would have actually been a decent addition, but as it stands doesn’t seem to serve much purpose. The rankings only apply to this one mode as well, as opposed to any of the other story-mode stages which is where the majority of players will spend their time going for high scores. I would be remiss if I didn’t at least mention the multiplayer, as that is a huge focus on Get It Together’s marketing. Over half of the minigames are only available with multiple players and the entirety of the main game is playable with two people, but there’s a severe limitation: no online play. For a game released in 2021 during a pandemic, marketed towards multiplayer, to only feature couch co-op is a huge misstep that may have otherwise saved this game. Because of this, I wasn’t able to experience Get It Together’s true potential.

Fun

Is the Game Fun to Play?

WarioWare games are always an enjoyable experience by default. In Get It Together, however, that fun is short lived and is more inconsistent due to the character variety. Moments of brilliance and frustration come in equal quantities.

Performance

Does the Game Perform Well?

Throughout my time with WarioWare: Get It Together, I experienced no lag and miniscule load times. Of course, WarioWare games aren’t known for their complexity, but it is nice to not have any performance issues whatsoever.

Art Design

Does the Game Have a Fitting Art Style and Soundtrack?

The choppy animation during the cutscenes fit the Wario aesthetic and there is one late-game song in particular I enjoyed. The microgames themselves are just alright, though, with liberties being taken in the art department to accommodate the different characters.

Story

Does the Game Have a Compelling Story or Unique Premise?

What story there is in Get It Together is decidedly worse than its predecessors, but WarioWare games aren’t played for their story. The character variety is certainly a unique premise, at least.

Lasting Power

Does the Game Have Replayability or Lasting Power?

If you have a friend, Get It Together will certainly be worth revisiting. Otherwise, the lack of post-game content and limited online features make it stall out rather quickly.

Verdict

NOT WORTH

I was fairly disappointed in WarioWare: Get It Together!. I expected a frenzied chase for high scores and ended up with just barely that. It’s held together by the uniqueness it presents and the fact that it’s a WarioWare game, yet torn apart by unbalanced gameplay and a focus on multiplayer that can only be experienced in person. I can only recommend this game if you already love the WarioWare series or happen to have a partner close by willing to play with you. Otherwise, older WarioWare titles are just as enjoyable, if not more so.

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