WarioWare Gold

As is tradition for a WarioWare game, the player is tasked with completing "microgames"—various minigames with very short time limits—in rapid succession. When one is complete, a point is given, and the game moves on to the next. If a microgame is completed incorrectly, or the time runs out, the player loses one of four lives. If they run out of lives, the game ends and the high score is displayed, which is determined by how many microgames were passed. When a section of microgames is completed, the player will complete a boss microgame. After which, the minigames can be replayed and will begin to speed up the time allotted. in addition to some new ones for a total of over 300 microgames. The microgames vary in how they are completed. They involve pressing buttons, tilting the system, touching the touch screen, and blowing on the system's microphone. Alongside the story mode, there are missions for the player to complete that awards them with coins that can be used to purchase rewards such as additional minigames. The challenge mode is one of the multiple modes unlocked after completing the story mode. In the challenge mode, the microgames are reintroduced alongside various distractions and complications to the original format. For example, sometimes the screen will be covered in ink or other objects to obscure vision. Additionally, the local multiplayer mode allows players to compete in an endurance competition of who can complete the most minigames in succession. == Plot ==

Having to run out of money following a treasure hunt in the village of Luxeville, Wario decides to organize a tournament in Diamond City, convincing his friends to design some new Mash League, Twist League, Touch League, & Ultra League (that also include blowing games & short pop-up games) games based on the Sports, That's Life, Fantasy, & Nintendo Classics themes, for the event, promising them payment. For an entry fee of ten thousand coins, he offers a ten million coin prize to the tournament's winner, although he secretly plots to take all the prize money for himself. While the player competes in the tournament, a girl from Luxeville named Lulu, who has tracked Wario down, calls him out and begins training to challenge him, seeking to retrieve the town's prized treasure (a sizeable golden pot) that Wario had stolen from her village. The rest of the game consists of self-contained vignettes for all of Wario's friends; these range from Jimmy T trying to impress two girls at Sapphire Street, Mona going to Joe's Clothes trying to find a dress to wear for her party, Dribble and Spitz fighting off UFOs with their space-faring taxi, 5-Volt doing a workout to become fit, Ashley and Red fighting a demon known as Dark Lord Hum Gree, Dr. Crygor and Mike coming across one of Crygor's old inventions, Doris-1, in the spooky Agate Forest, 18-Volt engaging in a rap battle with newcomer 13-Amp to win back a stolen game console at Emerald Street, Penny trying to cure Dr. Crygor after her elixir to help make her a mega pop star gives Dr. Crygor a stomachache, Kat and Ana mistaking Mrs. Munchly, a gourmet master, as their ninja trainer while trying to get ninja learners permits at Diamond City Castle, Fronk helping 9-Volt realize that math's fun, Young Cricket and Master Mantis training at an amusement park, Orbulon trying to acquire pigs in order to complete his order at a fast food restaurant called Gigantaburger, the hosts of the Sports and That's Life themes, along with Mike and Fronk, partying at Club Joe, and the hosts of the Fantasy and Nintendo Classics themes, also with Mike and Fronk, having a potluck at Peridot Campgrounds. In the game's final level, Wario refuses to give the player the prize money, as he has already declared himself the tournament winner. Putting the pot of Luxeville on top of his head, the pot grants him superpowers. It turns him into the extra-evil, extra-powerful, and extra-unstoppable supervillain version of him called "Wario Deluxe". With Lulu's help, the player beats Wario Deluxe and wins the tournament. She then knocks the pot off Wario's head with a water gun and changes him back to normal. Returning the pot to Lulu after she reveals that it is Luxeville's public toilet, Wario attempts to flee with the money he made from the tournament when his friends intercept him. Taking the small amount of cash (Wario spent most of the money on his hot air balloons) that Wario refused to pay them for their work and splitting it evenly, the player receives their entry fee back. The group even decides to share some of the money with Wario in an act of generosity, though Wario still claims that all the money is his and breaks down crying over his loss. Meanwhile, Lulu returns to Luxeville with the pot, only to learn that the townspeople had bought a new high-tech toilet in her absence, making her whole journey a waste of time. == Development ==

, shown above, offered opportunities for brand new gameplay styles in WarioWare Gold. WarioWare Gold was developed for the Nintendo 3DS by Intelligent Systems, the developers behind most previous WarioWare titles, and published by Nintendo. Full voice acting was included for the first time in the series, as the development team felt that it would lead to a deeper connection between the player and the game. They also believe the change made the characters feel more alive, although Abe said future games would not necessarily have full voice acting. While the game was released after the launch of the Nintendo Switch, Abe ruled out porting WarioWare Gold to the platform, stating it would "come with a number of issues" and that it would be difficult to reproduce "the same sense of fun". Speaking about the unlockable souvenirs, Abe explained that while Twisted! and Touched! featured a large number of collectibles centered around the gyro and touchscreen as both technologies were still fairly novel at the time, the team felt such unlockables were unnecessary for Gold due to how commonplace both forms of inputs had become. He also explained that with the given time constraints, they preferred to focus on extras that did not require as much programming effort, like the Records. In a 2018 interview with Game Informer, Abe explained that the future of the WarioWare series would be placed on the reception of Gold. The game was released the same year in Europe on July 27, Shortly before release on June 5, a free demo of the game was available on the Nintendo 3DS eShop. == Reception ==

WarioWare Gold received "generally favorable reviews" according to review aggregator Metacritic, receiving a 78/100 based on 45 critic reviews. and Bowling saw the experience as "fast, fun and chaotic in the best way". Donlan called the collection aspect a fun system to participate in after completing the story mode. Sales WarioWare Gold was released on August 3, 2018, leaving only two days for it to top the NPD sales charts. The game didn't make the top 20 list and only reached third on their Nintendo 3DS charts, behind Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon. According to Jeff Grubb of VentureBeat, reaching the top spot in two days would have been possible for a new game; he attributed the lack of sales due to the release of Nintendo's new home console, the Nintendo Switch. In Japan, Gold sold 30,000 copies at launch and had reached 93,000 physical copies sold by its last week on the Media Create sales charts. In sales charts in the UK later on in January 2020, the game began to slowly drop down and stayed in the 827th position. The game later peaked at fifth place, about two years after release. ==Notes==