The WarioWare series is focused on collecting ‘micro-games’ together, bite-sized games that typically last only 5-10 seconds. The concept has always been fruity, but incredibly fun, stemming from the classic original on the Game Boy Advance, with new entries on successive Nintendo consoles. With few exceptions, each new entry has focused on a new twist to the formula – Touched! on DS was based around the stylus, Smooth Moves! on Wii centred on motion control, and D.I.Y. allowed players to make their own micro-games. This time around, the twist in Get it Together! on Switch is a focus on characters and multiplayer, with mixed results.

The set-up is threadbare, yet strung along with simple animations throughout the main story. Upon completing his latest game, Wario and his friends are sucked into the software to battle the various bugs and glitches littered throughout. Turned into cute chibi-esque versions of themselves, the characters can team up to take on the micro-games with their own abilities.

Typically WarioWare games throw you into a random scenario with a simple instruction, and only seconds to perform it. For instance – showing you a massive nose, and asking you to ‘Plug it!’, or showing you a giant windmill and asking you to ‘Spin it!’ The twist this time, is that you play as Wario or one of his friends throughout every micro-game, with specific controls dictating how you can act. For instance, Wario has a jetpack and can move anywhere on-screen, while 18-Volt can’t move at all and can only throw projectiles around the screen. The intention is that every character is unique, yet all are able to complete every game Get it Together! throws at you, adding replayability with each character.

It’s an interesting concept, but one that doesn’t necessarily pan out. While some characters are fun to control in the various micro-games, others have gimmicks that never really make sense, or feel a little too obtuse. For instance, 9-Volt’s mum has the ability to project an astral version of herself around the screen, and then appear at the spot indicated, screaming out as an attack. It’s a bizarre concept that somewhat works in execution, but there are easier characters to just pick instead of her. Others who constantly have to be moving like 9-Volt on his skateboard often prove to be a little too unwieldly, and many characters also feel like double-ups with similar powers to others (only firing left/only firing right, etc).

When you tackle a micro-game round in the Story Mode of Get it Together!, the game will force you to pick a handful from the characters you’ve unlocked, which get randomly rotated as you move from micro-game to micro-game. This is actually a fun element that keeps you on your toes, as it does mix things up on successive replays. The Story Mode is also available for local two-player to tackle each micro-game at the same time, helping each other (or watching as one player does all the work). The multiplayer aspect is quite enjoyable even if it doesn’t fundamentally alter the micro-game experience, it’s still pretty neat being able to play through them all with a friend.

The over 200 micro-games themselves run the gamut from simple, to weird and gross. You can be knocking a piggy bank off a table in one game, then tweezing someone’s armpits the next. As per usual in the series, 9-Volt’s levels all feature cameos from Nintendo games of the past, with visits to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem among others. While the cameos are cute, I wouldn’t say it’s the strongest collection of micro-games in the series, with entries like the Gold and even the original Mega Microgames beating it out, but if it’s your first WarioWare experience then there’s plenty to be surprised and disturbed by. Boss battles, encountered at the end of every stage, are also a weird bunch of longer genuine challenges, including grape juicing and completing a level of Super Mario World.

When you’ve beaten the brief (1-2 hour) story mode of Get it Together!, you’ll unlock further multiplayer modes in Variety Pack. These support up to four players, and are more competitive than the co-op story, extending existing micro-games into longer forms or shuffling micro-games for players to survive through longer than others. There’s oddities here like a volleyball mode and even a very basic Smash Bros style fighter, but it all amounts to a pretty fun way to stretch out the 200 micro-games beyond the story. A ‘Wario Cup’ mode also offers rotating challenges downloaded from online, with listed rankings of top players.

WarioWare: Get it Together! is quite a short game if you’re just looking to beat it as quickly as possible, but if you’ve got friends or family to replay it with, in both story and variety modes, then there’s quite a bit to enjoy here. The central gimmick this time around, the multiple characters, doesn’t work quite as well as I’d hoped to give this game a truly unique identity, and by the nature of the extremely short micro-games, it’s possible to see and do everything in Get it Together! relatively quickly. However, the weirdness and randomness of WarioWare still shines through to make it great fun with friends, and the multiplayer aspect is one of its strongest points. WarioWare is about as offbeat as a Nintendo product can be, and even if this isn’t the best entry, it’s still one of the quirkiest games you can buy for the Switch.