Wario's been making some games

The latest Nintendo Direct showed off a trailer for the upcoming Game & Wario, which sees the WarioWare franchise continue onto Wii U.

Satoru Iwata sat down with the team behind the game during a recent Iwata Asks interview to explore more about how it was developed.

It turns out, the game was originally set to be pre-installed onto the Wii U system at launch and it wasn't even going to be a WarioWare title at all as director Goro Abe revealed:

At first, the idea was to make a game that would come preinstalled on the Wii U console. I became involved in the project when it was already underway, and I began by asking myself what kind of games the Wii U GamePad might make possible.

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When I had an idea of the overall direction for the project, I knew that I needed to try these ideas out to see whether or not they would be fun, so I asked Intelligent Systems to work on realizing the ideas I'd had.

It wasn't actually conceived of as being part of the WarioWare series. E3 was approaching, and we began working on something that we could present and which would be easy for people to pick up and play.

That game was known as Pirates and had players use the GamePad as a shield to block a flurry of arrows that fly at the TV screen. However, with it being a pre-installed game the developers didn't want to make it "overly quirky" so as not to alienate consumers.

Our basic premise was that this should be a game that everyone could enjoy. The WarioWare team have always had free reign to come up with all kinds of zany ideas, but we now found that we had to restrain ourselves...

In the Summer of 2011, the team felt they had too many ideas for a simple pre-installed game and so it became a fully-fledged retail release. Of course, this led to them needing a story to house all these mini-games in, but it was proving too time-consuming and suddenly the idea dawned on them that the WarioWare series could be used as a container for these zany mini-games:

We hit upon the idea that Wario and his pals had invented all of these games, and that was what tied them all together.

Because Game & Wario was to be pre-installed onto the Wii U all the mini-games are intended to be played using the GamePad, as those who bought a Wii U may not have the Wii Remotes or Nunchuks.

Game & Wario also comes with extas and bonuses for players to find and collect. Playing mini-games will earn you tokens, which can be put into a capsule dispenser for a little prize, similar to the trophies found in Super Smash Bros. Melee. There are 240 in total to collect so expect to play a lot of mini games if you want them all!

It will also support Miiverse, which will act as a mini-game in itself. In what is known as Miiverse Artwork you get given a selection of four subjects and then you must draw something within a one-minute time limit.

You have no choice but to draw whatever image you've got in your head. Your artwork will then be automatically submitted to the game's community. So, while you'll see all kinds of great images on Miiverse, that community alone could all get a bit chaotic! (laughs)

Game & Wario will be released in North America on 23rd June and in Europe on 28th June. As always, we'd recommend reading the full Iwata Asks interview, which can be found by clicking the link below.

Are you looking forward to Game & Wario? Let us know your thoughts on it in the comment section below.

[source iwataasks.nintendo.com]