Developer Zak Woolley has released Quick Fire -- a game that essentially just cuts and pasts the formula of the inimitable WarioWare, Inc. Mega Microgames!, that cult-favorite Game Boy Advance game that was released by Nintendo almost twenty years ago. The conceit of the game is simple: you are presented, essentially as soon as you boot the game up, with a random 4-to-8-second-long game, where the only clue is a brief command which is almost never more than one word long. From that, you must decipher the mechanism of control and quickly, for example, catch falling fruit, capture some ghosts or pop a bunch of balloons. It's a formula that proved addicting for the WarioWare series, and perfect for on-the-go, quick-fix gaming -- so perfect, in fact, that it begs the question: where is WarioWare for mobile? Why has Nintendo just left this money on the table? How in the world are the mobile app stores not just lousy with WarioWare knockoffs?

Quick Fire, says the developer, was started merely as a solo hobby project at the start of the global lockdowns resulting from the pandemic, but grew to a worldwide indie games project with multiple team members from around the globe. It's free-to-play, with ad-watches or micro transactions available to allow you to pick up right where you left off or purchase more minigames to add to the collection. In an e-mail, on whether future ports to other platforms are planned, Mr. Woolley indicated he is open to the idea, but is currently focusing on making the mobile versions a success. On whether he might release a version that's available for a single purchase on mobile app stores, he said there's currently no plan for this, but he has ensured that the game can be played without purchase and there's always a free alternative:

"I don't like the idea of 'pay to win' or 'pay to have fun' in supposedly 'free' games," said Mr. Woolley, "so I made sure Quick Fire would steer away from that and be fair with the micro-transactions it offers."

For a look at the game, head over to the Apple App Store or Google Play Store, or check out the trailer below:

https://www.anrdoezrs.net/links/3607085/type/dlg/sid/UUhgUeUpU12819/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhE0WyrHzQY