Game & Wario is a new mini-game collection on the Wii U which is a spinoff of Nintendo's popular WarioWare series. One of the included mini-games is Gamer, an aptly titled game about what it's like to be a young gamer.
Gamer is actually multiple games in one. The first is the overall meta-game. You are a kid (9-Volt from the WarioWare series) who is supposed to be asleep. But instead of sleeping you are playing video games on your "Ninevolt" portable gaming console.
Every time your mother comes into your room—be that by normal means like the door or more supernatural ones like your TV a la The Ring—you must fake being asleep. If you get caught, it's game over. However, on the other hand, if you pretend to be asleep for too long, you will fall asleep for real and lose that way.
While that meta-game takes place on your TV screen, the second game is played via the Wii U controller screen where you play the game 9-Volt is playing. And what is this game? WarioWare, of course! You don't have to be perfect, but if you lose four of the micro-games, you get a game over.
So as you play classic micro-games like Gold Digger on your controller screen, you have to be wary of what's happening on the TV screen as well. It gives a game that already thrives on being fast-paced a whole extra layer of tension.
But more than that, it really does capture what it's like to be playing games in the middle of the night when you're not supposed to be. And that feeling is something I'm sure many gamers, young and old alike, are intimately familiar with.
To see Gamer in action, check out the video above.
Gamer was released on March 28, 2013, as part of Game & Wario on the Wii U in Japan. The Western release date is listed as "launch window" on Nintendo's official website.
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