Wii U’s Hidden Gem: Game and Wario’s ‘Fruit’

Set next to the likes of Project P-100 and Pikmin 3, I didn’t pay much attention to Nintendo’s Game and Wario at E3. The Wario series has never appealed much to me, as the thought of playing more and more mini-games isn’t something I’m eager to do. Add in the simplistic, bizarre visual style of Game and Wario, which is hardly pushing the limits of Wii U’s power, and it might be easy to understand my reservations. Yet when I sat down to finally play the game recently, I quickly found myself hooked – and just on one of the four games offered in the demo.

‘Fruit’ plays once again upon the idea of offering two experiences for two groups of players, one holding the GamePad, and the other simply observing actions on the television. The player with the GamePad selects a thief from a lineup, and then moves that thief through bustling city streets to steal a select number of fruit within a certain time limit. The other players, unaware of the thief’s identity, watch the television and attempt to determine who is actually taking the fruit, while the other player attempts to blend in with the crowd and avoid detection. The only real difference between the two displays is a simple marker above the thief’s head on the GamePad unit, allowing that player to navigate the top-down view of the city easier.

The goals couldn’t be simpler. Steal fruit. Find the thief. Yet it’s that tension – the risk that’s almost palpable – of going for the fruit and taking the risk that someone might figure out your identity, that makes the game so fun. Attempting to mimic the movements of the computer-controlled crowd is no easy feat. Characters switch directions, meander and generally don’t bother with the fruit. Simply heading right at your target is a recipe for disaster.

Making matters worse are the snapshots – occasional pauses in the action that momentarily re-frame the television screen near your character. The game is never so unfair as to center your character – you’re often on the peripheral or buried in a crowd – but anticipating these moments and ensuring you’re never too exposed is part of the fun.

‘Fruit’ is criminally simple in concept, yet packs in a level of entertainment that some of the other Game and Wario mini-games (see ‘Arrow’) lack. Even some of the Nintendo Land ‘attractions’ (Zelda’s Battle Quest comes to mind) don’t hold up.

Granted, this is only one element of Game and Wario, and one mini-game does not warrant purchasing an entire retail title. Yet as a proof of concept, ‘Fruit’ proves there’s more than meets the eye to this quirky game. Don’t dismiss it because it’s another mini-game collection, or because its art style is entirely too simplistic. With any luck, we’ll see more ideas like this when the game arrives in the Wii U’s launch window.

Rich is an Executive Editor of IGN.com, and the leader of the network's Nintendo team. He also covers all things Assassin's Creed, Resident Evil, WWE and much, much more. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN, if you dare.

Source : ign[dot]com