Game and Wario originally conceived as pre-installed Wii U WarioWare game

Minigame compilation Game and Wario was originally planned as game that would come pre-installed on Nintendo's Wii U console, the development team revealed in the most recent Iwata Asks feature.

Director Goro Abe said the team had begun brainstorming before developer Intelligent Systems joined the project to assist with production.

"Well, at first, the idea was to make a game that would come preinstalled on the Wii U console," Abe said. "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.

"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," he added.

Intelligent Systems director Naoko Mori corroborated on Abe's statement, adding that development on what would become Game and Wario started in January 2011.

"The original plan was that the game would come pre-installed on the Wii U console, so it wasn't actually conceived of as being part of the WarioWare series," Mori said. "E3 [2011] was approaching, and we began working on something that we could present and which would be easy for people to pick up and play."

Mori added that the prototype for one of the final minigames, Pirates, was presented at E3 that year alongside the Wii U unveiling.

The team "didn't want to make [the game] overly quirky" so it would appeal to a broader audience, and their priority was to demonstrate the Wii U's unique features "in the clearest, most elegant way." In summer 2011 they decided to release the game as a full standalone because they had compiled too many ideas to fit in a pre-installed title.

The team tried to come up with a storyline to tie all the minigames together and make it part of the WarioWare series, but it proved difficult. Instead the team decided to keep it as it was: a bundle of minigames tailored to the Wii U's features.

"That's when we hit upon the idea that Wario and his pals had invented all of these games, and that was what tied them all together," Abe said.