16. The Maze That Pays

16 The Maze That Pays
Image: Nintendo Life / Nintendo

Command: Collect!

Source: WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$! (GBA)

The first example of the original WarioWare's dedication to gaming history, this early surprise sees Wario thrown into a simplistic Pac-Man-esque maze to collect coins. It's a very clear homage to a non-Nintendo franchise, which is vanishingly rare on their own systems. The scene even "wraps" around itself, a necessary shortcut on the higher difficulties.

15. Wrap Sheet

15 Wrap Sheet
Image: Nintendo Life / Nintendo

Command: Squish!

Source: WarioWare Touched! (DS)

You've got a Nintendo DS. You've got a stylus. You've loaded WarioWare Touched. There's bubblewrap on the screen. And you know exactly what to do. It's almost impossible to actually fail – who could resist popping those bubbles — but this marriage of sheer banality with real-life compulsion remains exceptionally funny.

14. Hit the Gust

14 Hit The Gust
Image: Nintendo Life / Nintendo

Command: Drive!

Source: WarioWare Touched! (DS)

A sterling use of both DS screens, this one shows your little wind-propelled car on the touch screen and a side view of the proceedings above. You must blow into the DS microphone to propel the car forward, keeping an eye on the top screen as best you can. Marvellously clever, and only possible on DS.

13. Ultra Hand

13 Ultra Hand
Image: Nintendo Life / Nintendo

Command: Get (colour)!

Source: WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$! (GBA)

This one is a reference to 1966 obscure Nintendo toy, showcasing the deep dives this series goes to in celebrating not only Nintendo's history in video games but daring to dig down even further into their heritage.

Other Microgames celebrate the bizarre likes of the Chiritorie remote control vacuum and the Beam Gun Custom Gunman. Know your roots!

12. Ice Cream Lean

12 Ice Cream Lean
Image: Nintendo Life / Nintendo

Command: Keep it up!

Source: WarioWare: Get It Together! (Switch)

Dropping your ice cream is among the most heartbreaking things that can happen, so it's here that you get to avenge your own fallen soft-serve by preventing this kid — who is licking a mile a minute, incidentally — from overzealously slobbering his own tasty treat to the ground. It's tight and terrifying, because you have way more leeway than it initially seems.

11. Flower to Tower

11 Flower To Tower
Image: Nintendo Life / Nintendo

Command: Rotate!

Source: WarioWare Touched! (DS)

In this visually attractive game, you've got to turn a crank to raise a pulley that lifts a prince into the range of his tower-bound princess. Unfortunately, he's also being set about by archers. Clever, creative use of the Nintendo DS's then-novel dual screens to hammer home the height of the tower makes this a stand-out Microgame.

10. Super Mario Bros.

10 Super Mario Bros
Image: Nintendo Life / Nintendo

Command: To the castle!

Source: WarioWare Twisted! (GBA)

You've never played Super Mario Bros. like this before. A rotary take on Nintendo's stalwart classic, you'll need to spin your GBA to adjust Mario's movement speed — and, brilliantly, this also affects the tempo of the music. It's a panicked, perfect take on the iconic game, and it fits Twisted like a glove.

9. Heads Up

09 Heads Up
Image: Nintendo Life / Nintendo

Command: Catch!

Source: WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$! (GBA)

You are a man with an enormous catcher's mitt. A baseball is flung towards you from another chap in the distance. You must tap left or right to line up your mitt with the ball and catch it. Simple? At first, but as the difficulty rises, the glove shrinks. Also, hilariously, when you miss, the ball appears to have smashed through the glass of your GBA screen.

8. WarioWare Twisted!

08 WarioWare Twisted
Image: Mario Wiki / Nintendo

Command: Gobble!/Shave!/Flip!

Source: WarioWare Smooth Moves (Wii)

The series gets dangerously meta here, with your Wii Remote taking the place of an on-screen GBA with a WarioWare Twisted cartridge inserted in it. Layers upon layers of absolutely self-indulgent madness, only a series with supreme confidence can get away with something as cheeky as this one.