Funny you should mention Wario Ware GC, the one thing it has going over Four Swords is profile stat tracking...a feature that would have been much appreciated in 4 swords.
As mentioned, the game does create a -very- unhealthy appetite for greed. Primarily the driving funfactor among multiplayer, rupees appear in the most unlikely and zaniest ways around every corner, and it is hard not to expect everyone playing to make a rush to collect. Often the game will force certain puzzles on your party requiring you to split members away, and it is in these moments where you can expect someone to come out a bit richer, while the others get nada or some loss of life. Fortunately it never becomes predictable either, in fact the core design of the progression is pretty ace all the way through.
The problem is that it quickly loses its luster....very fast. Of my GBA owning friends, half of them scoff when 4 swords is every brought up during our gaming sessions. They just flat out refuse to touch it anymore, not out of spite over previous sessions, but because it just feels all too pointless and redundant, an argument I cannot disagree with.
The greed serves nothing. No purpose at all. It merely acts as a distraction(and likely a SUPER irritation among some of your peers) between pushing blocks, talking to NPC's, shoveling, switch-hitting, and other Zelda familiars. Mileage completely varies dependent on the maturity level and fortitude of your GBA touting friends sitting in the same room. Frankly, there really needed to be a better hook or reason to stuff your wallet full of colored gems, as it stands it is a REALLY tiring gimmick that unfortunately is the main attraction for multiplayer.
The major other issue is that the game is stupidly easy inr egards to action. Like Wind waker, you'll find excess heart-containers and other non-sensical encruchments within the stages, but death is as meaningless as the gem collecting in this one. You die, you come right back to life on the spot taking away a fairy from your stash of like...60 on average at any given moment? Nintendo left the god-mode turned on...
Fortunately, the puzzles are exceptional, and though the most powerful foes are never threatening, the takedown maneuvers are well devised and require patterned coordination almost constantly. This is the REAL reason to play the game. Trigger-happy friends may be dissapointed that the puzzles take precedence over the fighting(some stages featuring a boatload of backtracking and collecting and nary a need to swing your sword), but the versus mode is actually a great deal of fun and certainly will get more playtime than you might expect. It's no smash bros. but it works.
Personnally, I'd wait till it reaches the $20-30 level. Though the quest is long and the stages massive, I don't dig it enough to warrant a $50 purchase or keep it for the long term. Once I can convince my friends to endure a few more stages to beat the thing, it's SOOOO gone from the collection. But hey, maybe your group will fare differently towards it. If anything, the first few hours will be a complete delight robbing and pillaging each other blind. Actually since it is just two of you playing as you mentioned Alex, I expect the backstabbing boobery to never reach the annoyance we suffered. Oh god that stealth level!!
(And... well... expect to do it to them, too 