WarioWare: Twisted! is a video game developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance in 2004. It is the second original installment in the WarioWare series (following up WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Party Game$! which was a multiplayer-oriented take on the first game), and the third overall.
The game carries over the fundamental gameplay ideas seen in its predecessors, but gives them a new twist (never better said) thanks to a gyroscope that was added to the cartridge, allowing it to employ tilt-based control schemes for action input in several microgames (some microgames still rely on buttons, per tradition). This gimmick came into fruition after the developers in charge (who were concerned that the game wouldn't otherwise have felt different enough from its predecessor) tested the capabilities of the gyroscope (whose functionality is based on piezoelectric sensors); the specific proposer of the idea was Kazuyoshi Osawa, who would gain fame on his own upon conceiving the Rhythm Heaven series. The game is also one of the only two in the GBA to have a rumble feature (the other is Drill Dozer).
The game's story revolves around Wario trying to get his GBA repaired after he tossed it out of frustration while playing a game. The person entrusted to repair it (Dr. Crygor) puts it into an invention of his called the Gravitator, which leads to the creation of buttonless handheld systems. What seems to be a step back in technology ends up being anything but, because these systems use tilting in order to play games. Two other characters, Mona and 9-Volt, give them a try and are impressed, which inspires Wario to start marketing the systems; he asks all his fellows to develop microgames that take advantage of the novel control scheme so a fortune can be amassed. Of course, as the characters do this, they also have to solve their own problems, which are dealed with in their corresponding story chapters.
Whereas Mega Party Game$! retained the same microgames seen in Mega Microgame$!, this game went to great lengths to expand the selection to 223, the second-largest in the series (it's only surpassed by WarioWare Gold, which has 300).
Interestingly, the game was released outside Japan after its follow-up, WarioWare: Touched!, thus being a 2005 release overseas. Even then, the game only saw release in Australia and the Americas; while Nintendo planned to release it in Europe as well, localization-based difficulties (which at first only caused successive delays to late 2005 and then over the course of 2006) prevented this, as did publicized health and safety concerns regarding the gyro sensors. Those constraints, combined with the GBA being already superseded worldwide by the Nintendo DS during those years (despite Nintendo's initial efforts to give them a commercial coexistence, which ended up being short-lived), led to the game being ultimately cancelled for Europe (its section in Nintendo of Europe's website was shut down in 2008, following up the discontinuation of the GBA itself).
List!
- 555: There's an unlockable telephone that you can dial. Once you get it, you may be awarded phone numbers every now and then to call — but all of them have only four digits.
- Background Music Override: In the Dribble & Spitz chapter, a special music plays throughout the it instead of each minigame having their own theme. You even get to select the song via the radio in the intro cutscene.
- Badass Biker: Mona, who owns a scooter and puts it to good use in her stage, just like in the first game.
- Bar Slide: A microgame has you passing a drink to the patron by physically tilting the bar itself. WarioWare: D.I.Y. brings this game back and allows you to draw in whatever you want for the object sliding across.
- Bird-Poop Gag: There's a microgame called "Power Line Pigeons" where you have to avoid getting pooped on by a flock of pigeons.
- Bonus Feature Failure: Unlocking every microgame and clearing each of them will unlock the final souvenir; what is it, you may ask? WarioWare: Twisted. Selecting it restarts the game with a modified intro. Doing all that work for a glorified restart button.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall:
- There's the microgame "High-Speed Chase", where, upon failure to outrun the object chasing Wario, Wario flies up to the screen, causing it to crack.
- Orbulon asks the player to take over during the intro of his stage when the Alien Bunny fails to rub hard enough.
- Bridge Bunnies: Orbulon. It plays the trope as to have literal Bridge bunnies (though they are space bunnies).
- Console Cameo: The game's prologue shows Wario breaking his GBA due to his anger over a difficult game.
- Counting Sheep: One microgame is called "Falling Asheep", which has you timing sheep's jumps over a fence in a boy's thought bubble. There’s also an extended version of this microgame called “Staying Asheep”, which involves the player having to get as many sheep to jump over the fence as possible.
- Crash-Into Hello: The object of one of the minigames is to help a girl have invoke this trope with a boy.
- Credits Medley: This game set the tradition in itself and subsequent games of featuring a medley of various music pieces from the game.
- Dub Personality Change: The Mona's Pizza song does this with her rival Pizza Dinosaur. They're portrayed as arrogant in both versions, but in the English version, they smugly boast that, "Our crust is tough and our sauce is thin, but we're everywhere, so you've gotta give in." In the Japanese, they simply claim that their product is superior.
- Face Fault: Fail one of the microgames that Mona hosts, and this is how Sal Out reacts. In the middle of her performance.
- Fell Asleep Driving: During Orbulon's story chapter, the starring alien entrusts the helm of his spaceship (the Oinker) to his Alien Bunny crew while he takes a nap. Unfortunately for him, the bunnies end up falling asleep alongside him, and only wake up when the ship alerts them about the proximity of a black hole.
- Floating in a Bubble: During Crygor's story chapter, he activates the Gravitator to test it and begins to dance in celebration. But the machine then unleashes several bubbles which trap him and several objects found in his laboratory (and the effect of reduced gravity is kicking in as well). The player has to tilt the Game Boy Advance to make the bubbles pop.
- Game Within a Game: Besides the various games recreated by way of microgames, there's an odd case. The last minigame you can unlock in the game is WarioWare Twisted itself... which just resets the game with a Wario-themed variation on the GBA startup screen.
- Funny Afro: Jimmy T.'s family is shown to all have brightly coloured afros, just like Jimmy himself. He is also menaced by an insect named Scratchy the 'Fro Bug.
- Handcar Pursuit: Basic Training is the boss game for the Dribble & Spitz stage, and revolves around two characters pumping a handcar cross a railway while jumping over obstacles and fleeing from a huge boulder that is rolling at them.
- Her Code Name Was "Mary Sue": Wario Man's microgames star Wario as the main character in every single one of them. Or barring that, they'll star some random character with Wario's face on them. Or just things like a dog with Wario's moustache.
- Iconic Sequel Character: 18-Volt, best friend of WarioWare veteran 9-Volt, wasn't introduced until this game, which is the third in the series.
- Our Product Sucks: Pizza Dinosaur freely admits their pizzas are sub-par in their theme song.Our crust is tough and our sauce is thin,
But we're everywhere so you gotta give in! - Parody of Evolution: One of Kat & Ana's microgames, "Survival of the Quickest," begins with the ape on the far left and has you button-mash A to create more transitional images until you reach the human at the end. The medium-difficulty version features a dog turning into an anthropomorphic dog, and the hard-difficulty version begins with the monkey as usual, but it becomes a robot monkey instead of a human.
- Press X to Die: There's a microgame with an egg that breaks if you turn the GBA, or if the car or bus you're sitting in takes a turn.
- Rewarding Inactivity: The game features a microgame where you aren't supposed to create any input through the motion sensor. This is hard when it comes up in a normal game, but easy to do in the dedicated album mode (just set the console down for a few minutes).
- Ring Menu: In a variation, since the game cartridge features a tilt sensor, you have to tilt the Game Boy Advance itself to cycle through them.
- Scary Stinging Swarm: In Kat and Ana's level. Kat pokes a beehive that eventually falls, and bees start chasing them. Obviously you have to Press X to Not Die.
- Second Episode Introduction: 18-Volt and 5-Volt both make their first appearance in this game, which is the second one proper in the series (between it and the first game, WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Party Game$! was released, but it was a multiplayer-oriented take on the first game).
- Snot Bubble: One of the minigames involves timing a button press to pop a snot bubble. In the international versions, it is changed to popping a blown bubble from chewing gum.
- Tech-Demo Game: The game was developed to showcase the cartridge's built-in gyroscope.
- Trick Boss: There's an epic version of this for Kat & Ana's boss. You are a spaceship shooting fingers to pick (and destroy) noses (picking noses is a staple for the series). The boss appears to be a giant nose with a set of eyes above it. Destroy this nose and the pupils will fly out of the "eyes" and the "eyes" will move down, revealing that they were just nostrils for an even bigger nose.
- Unwinnable Joke Game: There are several bonus mini-games based on table hockey, one of which is entitled "Eternal Wario Hockey". Wario is your opponent, and he will never fail to deflect the puck from his side, no matter how well you play.
- Verbed Title: The subtitle Twisted! refers to its Game Boy Advance cartridge having a built-in gyroscope, allowing the game to showcase microgames that revolve around tilting the handheld system.
- Wins by Doing Absolutely Nothing: The microgame "Fragile!" requires you not to move at all in order to succeed.
