Mario Tennis on the Gameboy color is my favorite sports game. I very rarely play any sports games, and back in middle school I was hesitant to try this one out. What got me to overcome that reluctance has little to do with the Mario theming and everything to do with its gameplay. Mario Tennis wasn’t just a typical sports game, it was also a full-fledged RPG. Only instead of battling monsters, you played tennis.
Back in 1999 I was knee deep in the original Pokémon boom. Game boy games, cartoons, and card games, I had it all. Thinking back it was all fun, but one game amongst the rest always stands out in my mind. A game we had to rent a nintendo 64 to play, Pokémon Snap. I only got to spend a single weekend with this game, it stuck with me as the highlight of my Pokémon experience. How did this photography simulator accomplish that?
WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgames! (WW from here on), developed by Nintendo R&D1, was released in 2003 and instantly became one of my all-time favorite games. It’s a weird game. Weird mechanics, weird visuals, weird sound. When it came out I loved it for being different. On one tiny cart, you got more variety than some consoles entire catalogues. WW was in constant rotation on my GBA, lived in the bottom slot of my first DS, and now has taken up permanent residence in my GBA Micro. I tend to revisit this game every few years, but this time I wanted to take a closer look at it. To gain some insight to its development I’m going to start by looking at some relevant games from R&D1.
Continue reading “WarioWare: Mega MicroReview$ (Part 1: History and Introduction)”
Cantrip 