WarioWare is weird. It also might be one of my favorite Nintendo games ever.

It’s Nintendo embracing its most joyful, off-beat and simply weird nature—a love letter to itself and the medium it shaped.

I don’t remember much about the game prior to its release. I was aware Nintendo was doing a new game with Wario as its protagonist for the GBA, and that it was a collection of mini-games. I do remember very well is how I got it: one of my aunt–the same aunt that played a pivotal role in my incursion into gaming-wanted me to pick a gift for myself. This was on 2003, meaning San Juan de Dios was the only place I would be able to pick-up a game at a decent price. The game was widely available, but I quickly figured out they were (remarkably good) counterfeit copies. After asking around for an original, I started to dissect the game as you did on your way home: starting from the manual.

The manual is just as playful as the game itself: it doesn’t take itself seriously. It has a freaking sticker sheet! It’s written in character for Wario, setting the stage for a game that has embraces its quirks.

WarioWare, Inc. is a game that speaks many game design languages, yet it’s simple and easy to understand. A fast paced collection of fun micro games. A sampler of bite-sized genius. Games being destilled to their core, laid bare. Push A to jump a hotdog. Pres A to catch a stick being dropped. Find the cat. Move the realistic Japanese person and bounce watermelons. Press A repeteadly to reel in the snot from the princess. Play 4 seconds of F-Zero. 200+ microgames that can stand on its own.

Why is there an Enka song? Why it works so well as the backdrop of this frenzy? Why is ‘Drifting Away’ so freaking good? “Your golden-colored coupe, looks like it has butter spread all over it”? What is this dreamy nonsense…

It’s also, in both ways, an implicit and explicit love letter to all things Nintendo. Yes, there’s a whole category of games taken from mechanics from classic Nintendo games… and then it goes to the deep end, celebrating such deep cuts as Color TV-Racing 112.

I love how authentic WarioWare, Inc. is. Unique, yet laser-focused on its goal: a collection of simple games that can be played on the go, on short sessions.

Hirofumi Matsuoka is credited as Director, and by looking at the games he has been part of, I can draw a line joining some of favorite games from that time: Mario Paint, Warioland 4 and WarioWare, Inc. while I have never played the Mario Artist games (I yet have to dip my feet on the 64DD library), but I can see glimpses of the quirkiness that makes WarioWare so special.

Maybe we all need to pull-off a WarioWare in our lives: be unapologetically authentic and fun, just for the sake of it.