Wario Ware: Smooth Moves
Itsa’ Wii, Wario! Eh-heh-heh!
Tags: Wario Ware: Smooth Moves Categories: Reviews, Wii Reviews
Posted by Jake McNeill on Feb 27th, 2007
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Wario Ware: Smooth Moves (title page) | |||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Party | No | ||
The minute Nintendo announced the Wii’s motion-sensing controls, it was obvious a Wario Ware game wouldn’t be far behind. The series seems to have become invaluable to Nintendo, as easy-to-make games to release early in a new system’s lifespan, as a proving ground for new methods of control, and as a solid game series that keeps people coming back time and again to see what Wario has in store next.
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If you’ve never played a Wario Ware game (for shame!), the concept is simple – each part of the game is comprised of numerous simple “microgames”, thrown at you randomly in quick succession. Within a span of a few seconds, you need to figure out what you’re suppose to do, do it, and then get ready for the next microgame. It’s a formula that makes for a lot of fast-paced fun and variety, since a microgame can be as simple as pressing a button at the right time or guiding a character from one place to the next, but the speed at which players must recognize what they need to do makes even these simple tasks challenging.
With the motion-sensing control scheme comes all sorts of new possibilities for control, and Wario Ware: Smooth Moves digs so deep into it you’ll be amazed at just how much the Wii remote is capable of. One microgame has you place the remote on the palm of your hand and then tap it with your other hand. Other microgames have you slapping it against your butt or placing it on your head and doing squats. There’s even a series of microgames where you must set the remote down and wait to pick it up until the appropriate time.
Before each of these microgames, you must hold the controller a specific way, and these “stances” are introduced by a hilariously relaxed voice making some silly comment about how holding the “form baton” (the Wii remote) like an umbrella channels the quiet dignity of a circus clown, or holding it like a remote control calls back to the time-honored sport of channel-surfing. On the downside, the necessary breaks to instruct the player how to hold the remote do break up the frenetic pace of the game a bit, although not so much that it hurts the gameplay.
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As for the games, they’re as wacky as ever – poke a finger into a 3D nose, insert dentures into the mouth of an old lady, sift sand out of a box to reveal its contents… you never know what’s coming up next. And, as per usual, 9-Volt is back with his classic Nintendo-themed level, with microgames that call back to classics like Super Mario Bros. and Star Fox, modern games like Pikmin, Metroid Prime and Nintendogs, and obscure games like the Game & Watch. It seems like there’s something around every corner to make you smile.
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The game also includes a decent multiplayer mode, as well as a few surprisingly good minigames, including a shooting gallery, a minigame where you need to balance falling blocks on a platform, and a 3D version of Balloon Fight’s Balloon Trip bonus levels. While all extremely simple, these games are all maddeningly addicting, and you could spend hours playing any one of them (well… maybe not Balloon Trip – your arms would get tired from the flapping).
Also as per usual, Wario Ware: Smooth Moves embraces the series’ graphical style of being extremely eclectic – some microgames have very nice graphics while others have graphics that are simply archaic, and it’s all tied together by a story told with simple, cartoony, Flash-esque images of Wario and his friends.
Are there any complaints? Well, as always, it all seems over too soon (even though a part of the fun is replaying the levels to uncover more microgames, it would still be nice if the game didn’t take a mere two or three hours to complete). Also, a few of the microgames are at odds with the motion-sensing controls, not recognizing the remote’s movements like they should. Still, by and large, this is still an excellent game and more than deserving of a spot in your collection.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
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+ Fun and inventive + Makes good use of the Wii remote, with many microgames using it in extremely original ways. + Minigames are fun in their own right |
8.8 |
| What Doesn't | |
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- Too short - Some microgames don’t recognize the Wii remote’s movements too well |
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| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| Wario Ware does it again, still innovating and coming up with all kinds of crazy new ways to play games while delivering a solid, fast-paced, fun-filled package that’s the perfect fit for the Wii | |
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Tags: Wario Ware: Smooth Moves
Posted by Jake McNeill on Feb 27th, 2007 and is filed under Reviews, Wii Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
