WarioWare: Get It Together review: This game should heed its own advice

• 

  Wario has returned to serve dozens of microgames, all in the name of amassing wealth. [credit: Nintendo ]

I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve looked at a formulaic Nintendo sequel and wished for something fresher. Remember, behind a pile of Mario and Zelda remakes, Nintendo has a considerable stash of irreverence and whimsy, as proven by franchises like Rhythm Heaven, Elite Beat Agents, and WarioWare.

That last series in the list is now up to its ninth entry: this week’s WarioWare: Get It Together. I can’t knock the 18-year-old franchise for sequelitis, and this latest title doesn’t rest on its Wario-styled yellow-and-purple laurels. In fact, it may very well be Nintendo’s most ambitious collection of “microgames” yet.

But ambition is nothing without execution. WW:GIT is hard to fault on a piece-by-piece basis, and when laid on a table like an unsolved jigsaw puzzle, its parts are up to the series’ standard of humor, creativity, and polish. Yet the collection has not been put together quite right, and the result is a rare case of Nintendo putting a game out before it feels finished.