Striking gold for a grand return!
WarioWare Gold is a a video game developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 3DS in 2018. The game is something of a soft reboot of the WarioWare series, which had last been seen five years prior with Game & Wario, and returns to the series roots while introducing some new stylistic changes. Unlike in all prior games, the characters are fully voiced, and not only in English and Japanese but also in multiple other languages.
With a whopping 316 microgames and a robust collection of character stages and special modes, Gold is the longest game in the series (and in particular the one with the most microgames). Notably, it is also the last wholly original title published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 3DS, with the remainder of first-party releases for the system until its discontinuation consisting of ports and remakes.
List!
- Aliens Love Human Food:This is the basic set up for Orbulon's stage, where he visits a local burger joint for a meal. While his orders include some odd choices like frozen fries and chili pepper milkshakes, he does enjoy regular hamburgers a lot (though he think they're made out of actual ham, as seen when he goes to abduct pigs so the joint can make more when they run out).
- Aliens Steal Cattle: Orbulon goes around abducting pigs in his stage (instead of cattle) in order to have them processed into burgers at the local fast food joint.
- All for Nothing: Played for laughs in the ending. Lulu finally recovers her village's toilet from Wario, which is a golden pot that Wario mistook for a shiny crown. When Lulu returns with the pot, she discovers that the village elder had replaced the pot with a more high tech pot that has a bidet, effectively making her quest to retrieve the old toilet a complete waste of time.
- Arrange Mode: The game has some unique modes based on this trope:
- In the "Wario Watch" mode, returning from Twisted, there are no lives to lose. Instead, you're on a time limit to complete as many microgames as possible. Completing a microgame increases the time limit. There's also a "Close Shave" mode that has less time for the time limit.
- "Wario Interrupts" gives you a random Interface Screw from Wario Deluxe every three microgames, but you can sic Lulu on him to interrupt him every ten microgames.
- "Sneaky Gamer" returns from Game & Wario, which sees 9-Volt playing his microgames past his bedtime. He has to hide in his bed to avoid being seen by his mom 5-Volt, but not so much that he actually falls asleep.
- In "Cruise Control", the player has to accompany Dribble and Spitz in completing 15 microgames in as little time as possible. Tilting the 3DS changes the speed of the microgames.
- "Split Screen" sees Kat and Ana alternating microgames on the top and bottom of the 3DS with no transitions between them.
- Art-Shifted Sequel: In stark contrast to the previous games, which more or less shared a similar artstyle to each other, Gold has a considerably more cartoonish artstyle that closely resembles a show on Cartoon Network or Nickelodeon. This would become the standard artstyle for the series going forward.
- Ascended Extra: Fronk initially served as a recurring background character who randomly appeared during certain minigames, but Gold would make him more of a character, establishing him as 9-Volt's pet, with a supporting role in his stage.
- Battle Rapping: 18-Volt's stage is centered around such a battle between him and a rival rapper named 13-Amp, with a kid's games that the latter took on the line.
- Big Bad: Wario himself is revealed as the thief who stole the golden pot from Luxeville and created the Wario Bowl tournament as a scam to trick the competitors into forking over their money to him.
- Bizarre Alien Psychology: It's shown that Orbulon believes hamburgers are made with actual hams, AKA pigs, so he abducts a bunch in hopes that the local fast food place will "burger" them for him.
- Breaking Old Trends: Gold is the first game to break the franchise's trend of having No Antagonist by featuring a Big Bad in the form of Wario Deluxe. It is also the first game to ditch the Voice Grunting from previous games in favor of full voice acting.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Even in comparison to previous games, Gold amps this further, as you are one of the contestants, meaning the fourth wall is constantly broken by other characters, mostly by Wario, and by Lulu during the final battle with Wario Deluxe, where she tells the player to go and win the Wario Bowl.
- Clingy Child: After you beat Young Cricket's stage, the following cutscene shows Lulu, a young girl, clinging to Cricket's shoulder due to having a Precocious Crush on him. Master Mantis points this out to Cricket, saying that he's "picked up a passenger", with Cricket immediately shocking Lulu by calling her a "little girl" afterwards.
- Dark Reprise: The second part of the final battle against Wario Deluxe uses a dark remix of the main menu theme.
- Death Glare: Ashley gives one to players that fail her microgames in her chapter.
- Developer's Foresight: The microgame hosts have special responses for different circumstances: clearing 15 microgames in a row with no mistakes, clearing a microgame at the last second, failing a microgame three times in a row, failing a microgame by not doing anything, etc.
- Drive-Thru Antics: In Orbulon's segment, he goes to a burger joint for some food, often ordering one thing, eating it, then coming back for something else. When he tries to order a burger, the cashier tells them they're out of meat to make any more. Orbulon goes off to collect pigs, thinking that because they're called "Hamburgers" they're made from ham. After you beat his games, he returns to the burger place to try to get them to take the pigs, but the cashier promptly denies him, stating he couldn't even cook them if he wanted, as he isn't allowed to work the grill yet. Orbulon sheepishly apologizes and goes to return the pigs.
- Drunk on the Dark Side: The game involves another one of Wario's schemes to get money. This time, it's hosting the Wario Bowl tournament. The player is one of the many competitors. Towards the end, Wario reveals the Wario Bowl was a scam for a prize that will never come, and uses the pot to turn into Wario Deluxe, plunging the world into darkness while announcing that the power is explosive before confronting the player in a final showdown, during which he cheats and uses lightning to hide the control schemes for four microgames. Luckily, the player is still able to beat Wario Deluxe after Lulu comes in to assist.
- Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: Ashley has dull red eyes, to signal her quiet and gloomy personality.
- Everybody Hates Mathematics: 9-Volt hates math, but loves video games, so his "pet" Fronk explains that sometimes it's easier to tackle math when you break it down into something relatable (in this case, hit points/damage in an RPG). It's easier and more fun that way!
- Evil Is Hammy: When Wario becomes Wario Deluxe, he takes on a whole new level of hamminess. Charles Martinet still manages to steal the show.Wario Deluxe: HEHEHAHAHA! Oh, the money! The POWER! I feel it inside! Gurgling! Building! It's, uh...it's, uh...EXPLOSIVE! AHAHAHA! OHOHOHAHAHAHEEEEE!
- Face Fault: Inverted in the campaign's final section, more specifically in the Dancing Team and Potluck Gang stages. The characters who are present will fall on their backsides if you fail their microgames in those two stages.
- Fake-Out Fade-Out: The credits begin to roll like normal after Wario is defeated in the tournament by the player only for 9-Volt to interrupt the credits since he and the rest of the group are demanding payment from Wario for their help on the game. When they get their money off him, the credits begin for real.
- Fake Static: Wario does this in the opening of the game, after Mona asks him about how much she'll be paid to make games for him.
- Foreshadowing: Partway through the game, Wario smells some odor emerging from the pot. It was later revealed that it was a chamber pot that was placed where he first found it to dry before he stole it from the village.
- Furry Reminder: Losing a life has Spitz arch his back and hiss.
- Gag Dub: Plays with via a feature in which players can dub over the game's cutscenes, creating their own gag dubs.
- Game Within a Game: You can unlock viewable models of various 3DS systems, and even turn them on and play a selection of microgames by tapping the on-screen A button.
- Gentle Giant: 18-Volt doesn't hesitate for a moment to put his own passion for video games on the line in order to win back the games of a kid he doesn't even know in a rap battle against the girl who stole them, and he is shown both in the level conclusion cutscene and his character trailer to hold no ill will against said girl whatsoever afterwards.
- Golden Super Mode: Wario transform into Wario Deluxe for the final stage and the Wario Interrupts sub-mode, which gives him a golden tuxedo. Apparently he's not really any more powerful than usual (even his lightning abilities are something he's had before), but Wario Deluxe is a lot quicker to start cheating via Interface Screw using the aforementioned lightning.
- Good with Numbers: 9-Volt is good with numbers when it comes to video games, such as stats in a Role-Playing Game. When he complains about math class, his companion Fronk works this to his advantage by telling him to contextualize math like a video game.Fronk: Let's see here... Huh. 100 minus 56.
9-Volt: [groans]
Fronk: How 'bout this? A hero has 100 hit points and takes 56 damage from an enemy. What's his remaining HP?
9-Volt: 44... right?
Fronk: Exactly! Good work! Now let's try the next one. A wizard casts 12 spells and each deals 42 damage. What's the total damage?
9-Volt: 504!
Fronk: A-ha! See? You are good at math! - Grow Old with Me: In this game's version of the microgame "Rocky Reunion", there's a chance that a level might have the lovers very old instead.
- Head Pet: Jimmy T. somehow has a cat jump into his afro without him noticing, until the women it attracted reveal they were taking pictures of it and not him as he'd assumed.
- Henohenomoheji: In Split Screen, failing a microgame will cause Kat or Ana (depending on what screen the failed microgame was on) to be replaced by a poorly drawn replica sporting a frowning henohenomoheji face.
- Her Code Name Was "Mary Sue": Scanning amiibos produces drawings of characters made by Wario. Most of them are cartoonishly awful, but Wario amiibos produce images that are significantly better-looking and depict Wario as either a ruggedly handsome hunk
◊ or a Bishie Sparkle-coated pretty boy◊. - Incoming Ham: Wario once he becomes Wario Deluxe.Wario Deluxe: Oh! The money! The power! I can feel it—inside! Gurgling!...Building! It's...it's, uh...EXPLOSIVE!
- Informed Loner: Ashley's theme in the WarioWare series includes the phrase "I don't have as many friends as you". But his game clearly shows her to have at least 9 friends — according to polls, this is above average for most age groups.
- Interface Screw: One of the challenge modes is called "Wario Interrupts", where every third microgame, Wario messes with the interface in some way to try and screw the player over. The player can, however, clear most of the obstructions away, such as by blowing into the mic to get rid of Wario's cloud of fartillery. And if the player does well enough, they can instantly clear the current obstruction by sending Lulu after him.
- Laser-Guided Karma: After Wario has stolen Luxeville's golden pot, which is really the village toilet, made all of his friends do all the work for his video game tournament and attempted to run off with all of the money as Wario Deluxe, Karma comes back to bite him... hard.
- First, the Hero of Luxeville, Lulu, defeats Wario Deluxe with the help of the player and steals back the toilet.
- Then, all of Wario's employees arrive and he attempts to run away with the money, only for Young Cricket to catch him and dangle him off the ground by the overalls.
- Lastly, upon finding that he already spent most of the money, all of the employees divide what little money remains between themselves.
- Made Of Gold: Wario's "helmet" turns out to really be a golden toilet.
- Meadow Run: A microgame has you help a young man and woman reunite with each other as they run across a meadow. If you screw up, they'll trip and fall.
- Megamix Game: The game does this for its series on a grand scale. Not only are its three major control schemes taken from the original, Twisted, and Touched, but a large number of the microgames are remakes of microgames from those titles, DIY, and Smooth Moves. Even certain challenge modes, such as the Gamer mode from Game & Wario (now known as Sneaky Gamer) and the WarioWatch from Twisted, made it in!
- Mistaken for Toilet: An inverted example where the game's plot happens due to Wario mistaking Luxeville Village's toilet for a shiny crown.
- Moonwalk Dance: In the microgame 'Stalled Out', there's a chance someone will exit their stall doing this.
- No Antagonist: A notable aversion for the WarioWare series, because the main character Wario becomes the true Big Bad of the game. He's the one who stole the golden pot from Luxeville in the first place, prompting Lulu to chase him back to Diamond City as well as kickstart the entire plot involving the Wario Bowl, which was in fact a scam that he had set up to cheat the player out of their money as they went through the games, only to deny them their prize once they finally get to confront him. All this plus Wario getting Drunk on the Dark Side prompts the player to fight him for it.
- No Poker Face: In the updated version of the microgame "Joker Face", some rounds have them attempt to hide their tell with sunglasses while other rounds have them sweating.
- Off the Rails: The game includes a feature to dub some most but not all of the cutscenes in the game. You can choose to follow the script... or go completely off-script.
- Pooled Funds: Wario at one point takes a bath in a tub filled with gold coins.
- Potty Emergency: Happens as the plot's punchline — the vase Wario stole at the beginning of the game was that town's only toilet, and Lulu claimed everyone has been holding it in since. Her quest turns out to be completely unnecessary because they got a modern toilet in her absence.
- Precocious Crush: Lulu, a young girl, becomes infatuated with the teenage Young Cricket, clinging onto his arm at the end of his level and Cricket just sees her as a lost child.
- "Psycho" Strings: As in Game & Wario, these play on the Sneaky Gamer title screen. During the game itself, this is also briefly heard as a Scare Chord when 5-Volt rushes towards the window.
- Random Encounters: Like in Mega Microgame$, this is how the microgames are envisioned during 9-Volt's chapter. You don't actually get to move around the Retraux RPG world, but each random minigame is introduced with the message "A game appears!"
- Replay Mode: All story cutscenes can be replayed in a gallery accessible from the menu recording the extras you've unlocked.
- Same Content, Different Rating: The game was rated E10+ despite no significant differences in content between any of the series’ previous E-rated installments - including the exact same descriptors as Twisted and Touched (Cartoon Violence, Crude Humor) and an ESRB rating summary that cites some of the exact same microgames as previous entries. For context, WarioWare: Smooth Moves was rated E10+, but that had some slightly edgier microgames that bumped up the rating.
- Self-Fanservice: Wario can literally employ this trope in-universe through the Wario amiibo Sketch feature, where he will paint very self-flattering drawings of himself if you happen to scan a Wario amiibo. The results are probably not too far off from the fanart, depicting him as both a hunk and a Bishōnen.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: The plot involves a little girl named Lulu attempting to get to the stadium where Wario is so she can take back the treasure (a chamber pot) that he stole from her village. In the epilogue, she discovers that her village bought a modern toilet for them to use while she was gone.
- Smart People Speak the Queen's English: Fronk teaches 9-Volt arithmetic in a way that's eloquent and easy to understand for him. For only that game, Todd Haberkorn gives Fronk a dignified accent somewhere between Received Pronunciation and Ivy League.
- Smug Smiler: Wario Deluxe always sports a smug look compared to his normal form which is a Slasher Smile instead.
- Smug Super: Wario Deluxe acts this way when he has the golden pot on his head. His only powers are disabling the control prompts that pop up before each microgame and screwing with the player with various dirty tricks to mess up the screen. He'll sound rather bored if you clear a game ("Eh, good enough.") and he'll taunt you if you lose a game with quips like "Aw, too bad!" and "Couldn't, huh?").
- Soft Reboot: Not only does Gold reuse several microgames from the past and introduce a new artstyle that would become the norm for the series onwards, its plot is very much a souped up version of the original Mega Microgame$, with Wario deciding to make games after being inspired by some TV news, phoning his friends to help him out and then trying to cheat them of their pay at the end (and failing).
- Suddenly Voiced: Unlike its predecessors, the game features full voice acting, with dubs in English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, and Japanese. You can even voice the characters yourself by using the game's Studio feature.
- Super Window Jump: Besides 5-Volt smashing the window with her fist to look at 9-Volt in Sneaky Gamer, one of the things that 5-Volt has that never appeared in Game & Wario was, after a Scare Chord, doing this to enter 9-Volt's room. It's so quick, it can catch the player off guard if they are not prepared for this.
- Tech-Demo Game: Being a Megamix Game, Gold goes on to show how the 3DS can emulate many of the previous games' (and systems') gimmicks, even categorizing them according to what aspect of the system is being exploited.
- Terrible Artist: amiibo support has Wario drawing you a picture of the character whose amiibo you scanned, and predictably the pictures are what you'd expect a young child to draw said character for the first time. The only exception, of course, is if you scan the Wario amiibo.
- Tiger Versus Dragon: This is featured as part of 18-Volt and 13-Amp's battle rap. Depending on whether you win or lose a microgame, 18-Volt's tiger will either get bigger or curl up in fear against 13-Amp's dragon.
- Unsportsmanlike Gloating:
- If you fail his games, Wario Deluxe give this response. Not so much for the others reacting to your failures, with them giving you a What the Hell, Hero? response.Wario Deluxe: Ha! Rookie!
Wario Deluxe: Aw, giving up!? (If you fail three microgames in a row.)
Wario Deluxe: Aw, too bad! (If your failure leaves you with one life left provided you cleared the previous microgame or the one before it.)
Wario Deluxe: Done so soon? (Game-over line.) - If you fail his Microgames, 18-Volt also ends up on the receiving end (saying, "Whatcha doing?") as 13-Amp performs her triumphant pose.
- If you fail his games, Wario Deluxe give this response. Not so much for the others reacting to your failures, with them giving you a What the Hell, Hero? response.
- Villain Protagonist: Wario, technically. He's the title character like always, but also the game's villain since he doesn't want the player to win the Wario Bowl.
- Younger Than They Look: Lampshaded. After 18-Volt's rap battle with 13-Amp, the latter is shocked when he casually reveals his true age.
