Wario Ware Inc.: Mega Party Game$! is a video game released for the Nintendo GameCube, released in late 2003 in Japan (and everywhere else during the following year). It is a multiplayer-oriented remake of WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$, retaining all the microgames that originally debuted there.
At the behest of Satoru Iwata, the team behind Mega Microgame$ was tasked with making a multiplayer-focused port for the GameCube. This version scraps most of the unlockable game modes, original stage graphics, and stories (though it does feature a reduced selection of new, very strange cutscenes) in exchange for an expanded suite of 4-player multiplayer modes. These include Outta My Way (one player plays the microgames while the others control characters in an attempt to obscure the screen), Milky Way Delirium (a take on the board game Othello where players must convert sections on a bord by clearing a certain number of microgames), Listen to the Doctor! (The titular doctor gives some instruction that must be performed outside the game while playing a microgame, and other players must "clap" to indicate the task has been performed successfully), and more.
As this version was developed under a fairly tight schedule of six months, the team enlisted the help of prolific Nintendo partner Intelligent Systems, a collaboration that would remain in place for all subsequent games in the series. And unlike the original game, it had the participation of Yoshio Sakamoto during its development, serving as the supervisor.
Since all microgames are reused from Mega Microgame$, all tropes associated with them are listed in that game's article. The following list focuses on tropes exclusive to this game:
- Arrange Mode: The game features 12 total multiplayer modes. 3 of these are multiplayer versions of minigames, 1 is a multiplayer survival mode, and the following 7 make use of the microgames in multiplayer modes that support up to 4 players:
- "Survival Fever" is a survival mode where the players take turns playing microgames, indicated by a spotlight shining on the players. The one who survives the most microgames wins.
- "Outta My Way" features the players alternating between playing 15 microgames each, and acting as Interface Screws for the single player.
- "Card e-Cards" has the players taking turns drawing microgame E-Reader cards. When a player draws a GBA card, all of the drawn microgames are played in a row. If you win, you get all of the microgame cards on the pile. If you lose at any of the microgames, both your cards, and the drawn cards are put on the pile. While a player is playing the microgames, other players can steal cards by timing A-presses. When every card is drawn, a multiplayer minigame is played to determine who gets the remaining cards in the deck and pile. The player with the most cards wins.
- "Balloon Bang" has a player playing the microgames, and the others inflating a balloon to make the single player lose. The players alternate when one wins a microgame.
- "Wobbly Bobbly" has the players balancing on turtle shells. After playing multiplayer minigames, the player who wins gets to play a microgame. Depending on if they win or lose the microgame, either everyone else gets a shell, or they do. The last one standing wins.
- "Milky Way Delirium" is a variation on Othello (the board game), where to claim an asteroid space, you need to play as many microgames as the number on the space. After every space is filled, the winning player has to play a microgame, but it's blocked by the spaces of the other players. If they lose, everyone else wins.
- "Listen to the Doctor" has the players taking turns listening to a doctor, who tasks them with doing a microgame while doing something else outside of it. After the microgame, the other players clap if they did their task correctly. The person who has the most claps wins.
- "All for One" is a cooperative mode where one player plays the microgames, but the lights are out and the others need to use flashlights to light up the screen.
- Background Music Override: The Survival Fever and One-Controller Survival modes have their background music playing at all times, replacing the respective music tracks of any microgames that appear during them.
- Blackout Basement: In All For One, one player is trying to play microgames on a Game Boy Advance, only for a power outage to occur that covers the room in darkness that covers the screen. The other players have to use flashlights to move a circle of light around the screen so the solo player can see what they're doing.
- Color-Coded Multiplayer: The main four players have four different colors, which represent which numbered player they are. Red for player 1, blue for player 2, yellow for player 3, and green for player 4. The characters will all have the color of their clothes change to reflect their player number. 1-Controller Survival takes things a step farther, with all 16 players having a different-colored character to represent them.
- Comeback Mechanic: In "Survival Fever", players with more lives left have to play the level 2 variations of microgames, while those with fewer lives get the easier level 1 forms.
- Company Cross References: The audience members in Survival Fever bear a resemblance to Mr. Game & Watch.
- Console Cameo: The Gamecube and Game Boy Advance, the two systems that Nintendo was pushing at the time of the game's release, both appear in various places throughout the game.
- Each of the single-player modes take place on the screen of a Game Boy Advance, as seen in the intro to each mode, where the handheld's screen takes over the TV screen. Each mode has a different-colored GBA as well.
- The options menu shows Dr. Crygor entering certain options by using a Gamecube controller as the player moves through them.
- In Balloon Bang, the character currently playing the microgame is shown holding a Gamecube controller, which is plugged into a Gamecube console.
- 9-Volt's mode, Card-e-Cards, is based on the e-Reader accessory for the Game Boy Advance, with the microgames all appearing on e-Reader cards.
- Co-Op Multiplayer:
- While the other main modes are all competitions, All For One requires the players to work together to help one chosen player clear as many microgames as possible by moving a light around the screen to help them see the screen, which is covered in darkness.
- The 4-Player Jump Rope and 1-Controller Jump Forever minigames both have all players working together to jump over the rope to add toward the same score. Once any player misses a jump, the game ends.
- Creative Closing Credits: The Staff Credits take place in the same elevator as all the other single-player modes, with each segment of the credits being a microgame based on the Word Up microgame from the Sci-Fi set. You control a ship and shoot at the question mark panels to reveal the first letter of the names of each staff member, with the game keeping track of how many you manage to get.
- Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: "Milky Way Delirium" has a giant robot appear without warning at the very end of the game (the instructions mention an "ultimate challenge" but not the robot itself). The leading player must win a microgame (with the other players' asteroids as interference) to destroy it.
- Golden Snitch: "Milky Way Delirium" tasks players with taking planets on a 5x5 reversi-style board by winning microgames... however, once the board is filled, the winner is decided by having the player with the most planets play one final microgame, with planets belonging to anyone else remaining on-screen to block their view. If they win this microgame, they win the whole game — if not, all the other players do.
- Interface Screw:
- In Outta My Way, each player is given a chance to play fifteen microgames in a row, and try to clear as many as they can. The catch is that the other players can move their characters around the screen, with the goal being to distract the microgame player and block their view to prevent them from clearing the games. Similarly, Survival Fever allows eliminated players to move their character around the screen to distract the remaining players, though not to the same degree.
- For the final microgame of Milky Way Delirium, all player tokens not owned by the player with the most will remain onscreen and block the view of the screen. The winning player has to complete one microgame with the tokens covering the screen in order to win the whole game, or else their ship will be destroyed, and all the other players win instead.
- All For One has the screen covered in darkness while one player tries to play microgames. The other players have to move lights around the screen to help the solo player see what they're doing.
- Jump Rope Blunders: Two of the multiplayer games are variations of Jump Forever. Similar to the minigame from the GBA version, each player has to press the A button to jump over the rope as it goes under their character's feet, or the rope will hit them and they will lose. There are three versions, 4-Player Jump Rope, where up to four players jump simultaneously until someone misses, 1-Controller Jump Forever, where up to 16 players pass around one controller to take turns jumping over the rope, and a minigame that randomly appears during Wobbly Bobbly, where the players take turns jumping over the rope, with players who miss being eliminated until only one player is left.
- Lucky Charms Title: Much like the first game, the "s" at the end of the game's title is replaced with a dollar sign.
- Mighty Glacier: In Outta My Way, the larger characters (Wario, Jimmy, Mona, Dribble, and Crygor) move slower than the smaller characters, but they cover more of the screen at a time.
- Mini-Game Credits: There's one where you shoot panels to reveal letters in the credits, and keeps track of how many you hit and how many appear in total at that point.
- No Plot? No Problem!: The story elements of Mega Microgame$ are excised without any replacement, but this version makes up for it by featuring a robust set of multiplayer modes supporting up to 4 players.
- One-Hit-Point Wonder: In One-Controller Survival, each player only gets one life, and failing any microgames results in immediate elimination from the competition.
- Racing Minigame: One of the multiplayer sub-games is the Paper Plane minigame from the GBA version reimagined as a 4-player racing game. Each player controls a plane, and has to steer around walls to reach the goal before anyone else. Crashing into walls does not eliminate the player, but does stop them in their tracks temporarily as their plane reassembles.
- Randomized Title Screen: The game has several startup screens
, with things ranging from a 3D model of Wario riding his Cool Bike, to a mob of hands running past a button, to a magnet pulling in a bunch of random objects, to synchronized nose picking. The only thing most of them have in common is weirdness. - Shapeshifting Seducer: Orbulon disguises himself as an attractive woman to hitch a ride from Dribble and Spitz. Surprisingly, the two of them don't really care when the disguise wears off.
- Speed Echoes: In "Outta My Way", the smaller characters (Spitz, Kat, Ana, 9-Volt, and Orbulon) leave afterimages of themselves wherever they go.
- Time Trial: One of the unlockable single-player modes challenges the player to clear 20, 40, or 60 microgames as fast as possible. The more microgames the player clears consecutively, the faster they get. The player has unlimited lives in this mode, but failing a microgame will not only cause the microgames to get slower, but it will also interrupt them with a prompt telling them about the slowdown, costing them even more time.
- Unintentionally Unwinnable: Unlike in Mega Microgame$, the microgame "Guy Scraper" can sometimes be unable to complete entirely if the game speed is too fast, due to the animation for the man diving off and bouncing on the trampoline taking too long.
