Game & Wario - New minigames shown off in fresh screens

Wario number one!

After getting a brief hands-on all the way back at E3 2012, we hadn't seen much of Game & Wario. The Wii U title seemed like a perfect fit for a launch window release, but now it's set for a June 23 release date. And now that we played a few more of its intriguing minigames, we're more prepared to believe it's finally coming out.

Single player sequences that cast us as pirates and alien-fighting cab drivers reminded us of the possibilities of the GamePad's touchscreen, as did the simpler multiplayer distractions. Game & Wario is definitely a minigame collection in the spirit of WarioWare, only the games intend to be a little deeper this time around.

Already out in Japan, we'll hopefully get a more definitive US release date soon, but for now just enjoy the weird mayhem in the following screens, and dream of the day Wario and his odd friends can bring your Wii U to life once more.

The solo pirate game is at least partially based on one of the earliest public Wii U demos.

The pirate game ends with an impromtu dance session, but we aren't complaining.

As you'd expect, the challenge of playing games without being caught by our mom really spoke to our inner child.

This multiplayer game reminds us of Pictionary, but it's pretty fun all the same.

There will be some way to share drawings over Miiverse, but currently Nintendo isn't saying exactly how.

This mix of FPS and driving sim is like Crazy Taxi meets Halo.

Disco is an ingenious minigame that has two payers dance battle to a beat of their own design.