How does WarioWare stay current after thousands of microgames?

Goro Abe has been living and breathing Wario for twenty years, overseeing the development of thousands of microgames in the WarioWare series. At the origin of WarioWare: Move it! for the Nintendo Switch, Abe helped spark more than a thousand ideas to ultimately create 223 weird and wacky new microgames.

And while the platforms may change and the way people interact with WarioWare games may change from title to title, Abe says the key factors that make a good microgame haven't changed since then. WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Board Game$! debuted in 2003 on the Game Boy Advance. “The controls and rules of microgames should be intuitive so that every player can immediately understand how they work,” says Abe. However, he still expects people won't pass it on their first try. Those microgames, Abe adds, must also be “meaningful for the widest possible range of ages and audiences.”

Polygon recently interviewed Abe via email to discuss his work WarioWare: Move it!, and his work as co-director, gameplay designer, and programmer for the WarioWare series. He discusses what still fascinates him about making microgames for two decades – spoiler: 'butt wiggle games' is one of them – and the long-term effects of WarioWare microgame development on the human brain.

You can read our full, translated interview below.

Polygon: What were the team's main goals when creating a new WarioWare game for Nintendo Switch?

Goro Abe: The original concept was to combine elements of a board game WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Board Game$! and a more movement-based game such as WarioWare: smooth movements into a motion-controlled WarioWare party game for the Nintendo Switch system.

When we developed the game, we wanted to make the poses look crazy while playing so that people watching can have fun too. The chicken shape (Ba-KAW) and the micro game that you beat just by waving and wiggling your arms (“Seawedy”) are good examples of this. While there are some co-op microgames that allow two players to play simultaneously during Story Mode, we mostly opted for turn-based games because we thought it was more fun to have an audience.

Moreover, the board games are designed to… process of gaining or losing pleasure, not just of winning or losing itself. An example is 'Galactic Conquest', where the player who wins the battle game gets to roll the dice, but then all kinds of accidents happen based on which space they land on. There are many scenes where the player who lost the battle game has the last laugh, as the winner ends up on a square that forces him to start over or share his points. We tried to make it so that people who are not experienced gamers can still enjoy this title until the end.

Ultimately, I think we achieved our original goal of creating a motion-based WarioWare party game for the Nintendo Switch.

How did the development of WarioWare: Move it! different from previous WarioWare games?

To begin with, the development framework was different. Intelligent Systems and Nintendo came up with the original idea, but when we got to the point of actually making the microgames, we partnered with other development companies. Initially there were differences in company cultures and some differences in quality, but we came closer to perfection through conscientious communication and balancing adjustments. I think the mix of different backgrounds and cultures of the staff ultimately resulted in more variety in the microgames compared to previous games in the series.

And since this is a motion-based game, there are many microgames that allow the player to move freely from their own perspective, which required us to work on a lot of 3D graphics. Additionally, the programming for handling Joy-Con input was complex and required extensive customization. Based on all of this, I believe that the effort it took to create one microgame was more intense than any other title in the history of the series.

What do you think makes a great WarioWare microgame? Has your opinion on what makes a great microgame changed over the past twenty years?

There are many factors, but I think the following are the most notable:

• The controls and rules of microgames should be intuitive so that any player can immediately understand how they work. For example, the balance we were aiming for was that players could beat a game on the second or third try, even if they didn't succeed initially.
• The theme for each game should be unique and recognizable. We have carefully chosen themes that are meaningful for the widest possible range of ages and target groups.

None of these ideas have changed since we started twenty years ago, but what we pay attention to changes depending on the feature of that game. I mentioned before that it was important for us to make sure the poses looked weird during gameplay. This is the focal point of WarioWare: Move it!

Image: Intelligent Systems/Nintendo

And because it's a motion-based game, we also focused on how the game responds to players. Our goal was to create a simulated experience so that players feel like they have entered the game world. We did this by making the in-game characters' movements directly match the player's movements, and adding vibrations and sounds in a way that felt natural.

After creating thousands of WarioWare microgames, how does the team ensure it doesn't repeat itself?

First we brainstorm numerous ideas. WarioWare: Move it! has 223 microgames, including the boss games, but we've collected over 1,000 storyboard ideas from our contributors. That said, it's fine if some games have similar themes. This is a motion-based game, which means that even if the subject matter is the same as the first WarioWare game, the gameplay is brand new.

Another big factor is that I personally select which games make the cut. I have many of the previous WarioWare microgames memorized so I can focus on prioritizing choosing new ideas. Even if there are similarities to a previous game, we change things up so it's a different game.

Then again, you must have played so many WarioWare microgames. Which recent ones have delighted or surprised you?

We got really excited when we realized we could use the Sumo Form to make games that involve moving your butt, like 'Buttograph' and 'Balloon Buster'.

Image: Intelligent Systems/Nintendo

Microgames that use the IR (infrared) sensor, such as “Safe Snacker” and “Put a Lid on It”, also felt new and refreshing. I initially thought it would be difficult to integrate the IR sensor into this game as you have to use both hands to hold the Joy-Con controllers, but then we managed to use the left Joy-Con on the side to let it hang. wristband. I think this particular way of solving these types of problems is unique to the WarioWare series.

Another microgame that I wasn't sold on at the idea stage was 'Chow Down', but once it was completed I was thrilled to see that it actually matched the player's mouth movements.

WarioWare games happen so quickly and at such a rapid pace. Does this ever affect how you think about games? (Or life?)

I've spent so long focusing on ways to make a game more intuitive that I've become keenly aware of how easy a game is to understand. Even when I play other games, I subconsciously start thinking about what about the game was easy to understand, what was hard to understand, and what could be done to make it easier to understand.

And lately I've started discovering the intuitiveness of things, not only in games, but also in different things we encounter every day, like user interfaces and visual effects.

How specifically do you go about creating 9-Volt games and adapting Nintendo's gaming history into microgame form?

First, we made a list of past Nintendo games and brainstormed as many ideas as possible that we could turn into a motion-based microgame. We then went through the list and selected evenly so that no single title or system was favored.

However, for more recent titles it is very labor intensive just to reproduce them, even for a short microgame. When selecting the titles and their specifications, we took the reproduction method into account.

Image: Intelligent Systems/Nintendo

Once we had a pretty good idea of ​​what we needed to create, we contacted the various developers of each game, who provided us with materials and guidance. The creation of microgames in this phase is made possible by contributions from many different people.

What was the inspiration behind Wario's island vacation?

For WarioWare: Move it!, we had to teach players about Joy-Con poses (forms) before playing the microgames. In WarioWare: smooth movements, we did this via forms found in ancient ruins. We wanted to adapt a similar introduction for this game, in which some kind of legend has been passed down.

But if we had set the story in Diamond City, where Wario lives, it would have been the same as WarioWare: smooth movements. We brainstormed ideas for a different and more suitable environment and eventually ended up in a tropical resort. It made sense that a tropical island had its own unique culture and legends, and that we could show a different side of Wario and company outside of their regular setting. Since they are all going to a tropical island, we thought the idea of ​​a company trip would be easy to understand, so that's how this story came about.