in 2010, the game's producer
Game & Wario was developed by
Nintendo Software Planning & Development (Nintendo SPD) and
Intelligent Systems.
Yoshio Sakamoto was the game's producer and oversaw the project as a consultant. The game's lead directors were Goro Abe from Nintendo SPD and Naoko Mori from Intelligent Systems. Abe conceived and planned the games and features, which Mori would interpret and implement. Development started with Nintendo SPD, followed by Intelligent Systems joining the project early on. Development began in January 2011 prior to the release of the
Wii U. The game was initially planned to come pre-installed on the console and not tie into any established Nintendo franchise. A prototype of "Pirates" was demonstrated as "Shield Pose" at
E3 2011, which saw the player using the
Wii U GamePad as a shield to block arrows displayed on the television screen. At this time it was still not a
WarioWare title, as the developers did not know how to make the series' distinct art style graphically appealing with
HD graphics. "Shield Pose" was remade to be "Pirates" with a pirate theme, and presented the minigame to Nintendo SPD art coordinator Hitoshi Kobayashi for advice on the game's looks and graphics. He suggested that they "focus on making the types of image they are good at": as distinct and unique as possible. On the subject of "Pirates", he took note that the character design was 2-dimensially thin, and recommended it be designed to look like paper. The teams struggled with writing a story as it was not their strong suit and set a deadline of December 2011 to complete it. They tried to write a coherent story through trial and error, but failed to connect all of the minigames together into one overarching plot. They then decided that the game would be a
WarioWare game, with the story being that each of the minigames were games developed by the
WarioWare characters. Many ideas and elements that made up the rejected plot were reused and referenced in the game's selection of interactive "Chick-N-Win" side collectibles. The goal was to make 100 collectibles, but they came up with 300 unique ideas, eventually trimming the list down to 240.
IGN expressed frustration with the reveal and the lack of attention it was given in comparison to the announcements of
New Super Mario Bros. U and
Nintendo Land.
Game & Wario was slated to release within the launch window of the Wii U; any day from its release to March 2013. In January 2013, Nintendo announced the delay of several games, among them
Game & Wario, and would instead release sometime in the first half of 2013. In an April 2013
Nintendo Direct, an overview of gameplay was shown, and an official release date was announced. In May, Nintendo launched a mock donation website called "Crowdfarter", designed to look as if it were made by Wario's development team. It featured a parodic donation campaign, where visitors could "donate" by promoting the game on Facebook and Twitter, and liking posts by Nintendo on the platforms. By doing so, "milestones" would be hit and content would be unlocked, including
Game & Wario wallpapers and ringtones, and an exclusive
Game & Wario trailer.
Game & Wario released March 28, 2013 in Japan, June 23 in North America, and the following June 28 in Europe.
Sales and post release In the games opening week in Japan,
Game & Wario sold 22,491 copies and ranked 10th in weekly sales overall, behind Nintendo's
Animal Crossing: New Leaf and ''
Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon. It sold 11,064 copies the following week and 4,719 the week after, continually underperforming against New Leaf
and Dark Moon
. The release of Game & Wario
and Dragon Quest X helped double Wii U sales in March 2013, temporarily surpassing PS3 sales. In Super Smash Bros. for Wii U'', a stage based on the Gamer minigame was included; the stage features 5-Volt as an enemy to the players, who will damage any players that are in her line of sight. ==Reception==