Game & Wario is the next game in the WarioWare series, focusing once again on games which highlight different uses for the new controller.

If Wii Sports (Wii) demonstrated how an innovative controller could breathe new life into the sports genre, it was WarioWare: Smooth Moves (Wii) that demonstrated how whole new types of gameplay could be grown. A game seemingly packed with random ideas thrown together with what appears to be temporary graphics which were never replaced, WarioWare is always an entertaining game - if a little lacking in longevity.

It seems ideally suited to the Wii U's solitary new gamepad, however, in that WarioWare's multiplayer is usually a traditionally turn-based experience. One player makes a fool of themselves with the controller while the rest watch, learn and (usually) heckle.

Much of Game & Wario (working title) seems to be unannounced so far and many of the currently revealed game modes are single player only.

These sound interesting enough, although in an age of smart phones I question how fresh they will feel. A bow-and-arrow game uses the touch pad to draw the bow, skiing utilises the physical rotation of the pad to balance the skier and one game involves uses the screen as a telephoto lens to identify individuals in a building, like a cross between Guess Who? and the sniper arcade machine of Silent Scope.

The only multiplayer game so far seems wonderfully akin to Spy Party. A group of figures moves around the TV screen, while one player anonymously controls one of these to steal fruit. Once this is done, the other player must guess which character they were controlling. The challenge here is to mimic the movement of the computer-controlled figures.

Hopefully there'll be lots more games and modes announced soon. WarioWare: Smooth Moves was remarkable because of the breadth and variety of the games that could be built around the WiiMote. I look forward to seeing if the Wii U gamepad can offer the same variety.

Game & Wario is currently planned for release on the Nintendo Wii U around the launch of the console at the end of 2012.