WarioWare Gold: A fine example of Nintendo’s weird “end of life” history

Enlarge / It's-a-he, Wario. (credit: Nintendo)

Nintendo's WarioWare Gold launches this week, and if we're judging the game within a vacuum, it's pretty good. We've been micro-gaming with the WarioWare series for just a hair over 15 years (a squiggly, Wario mustache hair, for sure), and Gold lands as a "best-of" compilation-one that finally brings the franchise to the 3DS, no less.

But WWG is difficult to judge within a vacuum. The game's release date puts it in a rarified air among first-party Nintendo games: it arrives within a system's end-of-life window. In case you haven't noticed, the 3DS side of Nintendo has been tumbleweed city these days.

Corporate promises of continued support and new, limited-edition 3DS systems don't obscure the slim pickings that are currently announced for the beloved handheld's future: a Luigi's Mansion port and Yokai Watch sequel by year's end, then a Mario & Luigi RPG port in 2019. WWG is arguably the most interesting game left in that "farewell tour" selection.

Read 30 remaining paragraphs | Comments