Co-developed by Intelligent Systems and Nintendo R&D1, WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Party Games!, is a collection of party-based minigames that are supposed to test your reactions and skill. And the games have “Wario-based japes” flavour to them.
Continue reading WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Party Games!, GameCube
This game – called simply “X” – was a Japan-only release, in 1992, on the original black and white Game Boy, but its conception and development would later have a profound effect on Nintendo‘s confidence in producing 3D-based games.
X was created by British developer Argonaut Software (specifically, by Dylan Cuthbert, who was later infamously ‘poached’ by Nintendo from Argonaut), and was a demonstration of their ability to produce 3D-based games on home video game systems. This impressed Nintendo, who then tasked Argonaut with creating a new 3D game on their Super Nintendo console, which eventually became the classic Star Fox. And the rest is history… Sort of.
Kirby’s Dream Land 3 was developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo in 1997. It is the successor to Kirby’s Dream Land 2 on the Game Boy, and was the first and only Dream Land adventure on the Super NES.
Pokémon Gold and Silver Versions were developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo in 1999 in Japan and 2000 everywhere else. They are ‘second generation’ Pokémon games and were released simultaneously as twin titles, as has become the norm with Pokémon games.
These were the first proper, full-colour Pokémon games, with graphics that have been created to take advantage of the Game Boy Color‘s extended palette (Pokémon Yellow, which preceded this game, didn’t really do that; the graphics were simply colourised from the black and white originals). And you can tell from the very beginning that the visuals in Gold/Silver are a step-up from what we saw previously.
Pokémon Yellow (aka Pokémon Yellow Version: Special Pikachu Edition) is a remake of Pokémon Red/Blue/Green that was released for the Game Boy Colour in 1998.
Wario World for the GameCube was developed by Treasure and published by Nintendo in 2003. It was the first 3D Wario game and, unusually, was released in Europe and North America before it eventually came out in Japan (almost a year after its initial release in the West).
The fourth game in the Wario Land series (after Wario Land, Wario Land II, and Wario Land 3) is arguably the best one at this point, having been released for the Nintendo Game Boy Advance in 2001.
All three of the previous games were fun, varied, and beautifully-designed, but the enhanced graphics and power of the Game Boy Advance definitely gives this the edge over its predecessors.
Wario Land 3 is the sequel to Wario Land II and was developed and published for the Game Boy Color by Nintendo in 2000. It once again features Mario‘s rival, Wario, doing what he does best: shoulder-barging things and cheekily going about his destructive platform business.
The follow-up to Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 on the Game Boy is this 1998 release for the Game Boy and Game Boy Color.
Wario Land II was initially released for the black and white Game Boy, but was re-released for the Game Boy Color six months after its initial release and it is the Game Boy Color version that I’m focusing on here (because it looks much better in colour than in monochrome).
Pokémon Ruby Version – released the same time as Pokémon Sapphire Version – was developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo in 2002 in Japan and 2003 everywhere else. It is known as a ‘third generation’ Pokémon game.
The King of Grabs 