Wario Ware: Smooth Moves Review – Nintendo Wii

I have to admit that I was skeptical of Wario Ware: Smooth Moves. The demo looked stupid, the box looked stupid, and the art looked stupid too. In case you get my drift, the whole game looked completely rediculous and I wasn’t sure why I even wanted to check it out. Within moments of popping in the game – I found out.

Wario Ware’s opening scene portrays Wario having a snack on his couch. Out of nowhere a funky little creature hops onto his chair and steals his food. If one thing is for sure, Wario doesn’t let anyone mess with his munchies! Wario follows the critter into an abandoned shack where he discovers a magical stick. (No, one made of wood… sicko.)

This stick seems to do different things when held different ways, so Wario decides to share his newfound wisdom with the residents of his hometown: Diamond City. The residents of Diamond City are interested in sharing their knowledge of the “form baton” with you, and so the story begins.

Wario Ware is easy to figure out. After beating each level, several more levels become available. Each “level” is a resident or residents who have a problem and need you to use the form baton to help them solve it. By helping them out, they introduce you to new town people.

Your character is your Mii, and you seem to pop up everywhere and in the most random places. Once, I saw my cartoonified mug on the body of a male body builder… I think I’ll be disturbed for quite some time.

The stories progress like this: you are introduced to your neighbor and learn about how you will be helping them. From there, you are to complete a varying number of minigames (more on this later) without losing more than four times. You have four “lives” displayed (the form that these “lives” take also depends on the neighbor you’re helping), and each time you lose, one of those lives is taken away.

The rate of the minigames increases a few times, so you are left scrambling to complete the minigames in a shorter amount of time and have less breathing time inbetween. After a certain number of minigames, you go to the boss level. Boss fights are not necessarily difficult; they are just a longer test using one of the skills you’ve learned during that level.

Wario Ware uses the Wiimote exclusively. If your nunchuk is attached to the Wiimote when you begin the game, Wario Ware kindly asks you to remove it. Also, Wario Ware has its own disclaimer warning you to make sure that damn wrist strap is fastened tight. So, if you didn’t get it once when you turned on the system, make sure you get it now. I don’t want any more mentally challenged Neaderthals complaining that they ruined their 50″ plasma screen while playing Wario Ware. If you’re stupid enough to launch your Wiimote into the TV, you shouldn’t be allowed in public without a helmet.

Anyways, the “form baton” (as the Wiimote is called in this game) is used to win the minigames. You must learn a variety of secret moves to advance through the levels, and each one is taught to you in an interesting way.

When it is time to learn a new move, a dopey voice like the narrator from a meditation tape comes on and explains how to use the form. Before each minigame begins a picture of the form is displayed on the screen incase you forget what you’re supposed to do. Forms range from the elephant to the waiter, handlebars, remote, punch in the face, finger food, and sketch artist.

There are many many moves to discover in Wario Ware, and the new moves keep the game content interesting. The minigames turn into sessions of “simon says” as you complete tasks using the given form.

The amount of minigames that you must win per level increases with the difficulty of the storyline. As the player continues to learn new moves, the new and old are incorporated together to make longer and longer sequences. Some of the minigames mimic those you have done previously, but usually there is some small change in them. For example, you may cut a log several times, but the design in the middle is never the same. It is refreshing when familiar minigames come on, as the player already knows what they have to do to win it.

This leads me into my only gripe about the game. It is sometimes incredibly difficult to figure out what you must do in 5 seconds to complete the minigame. The game tells you which form you must use and gives you some vague instructions (shred the paper!), but other than that you are left to figure it out for yourself.

Sometimes you win the game by accident, and swinging the controller wildly is the only way to figure out how to make the controller move correctly. This became irritating to me after awhile, and often I’d lose the story just because I couldn’t figure out how to pick the giant nose on the screen.

Similar to Rayman Raving Rabbids, I wanted to keep playing Wario Ware just to see what would happen next. I wanted to meet the new characters, learn the new moves, and progress through the storyline. Some of the tasks that you are required to complete are just ludicrious. Not to spoil any surprises, but here is a short list of what Wario Ware has in store. I’ll let you use your imagination to figure out what these verbs might be paired with:

broil, pick, flip, return, drink, swat, scrub, drive, dump, pick up the trash, insert, trace, fly, fan

There are many others, but discovering them yourself is half the fun!

I really thought Wario Ware had dumb graphics. But, after playing the game a little, I noticed that the graphics complimented the gameplay considerably well. The graphics are a lot like anime/powerpuff girls. Thick lines, bright colors, and two-dimensional movements are what you can expect. Wario Ware does look good and offers some of the clearest graphics of any Wii game available right now. Sometimes simple isn’t such a let-down.

If you’ve ever played Elite Beat Agents for Nintendo DS, you’ll know exactly what type of music to expect. The music is specific to which level you are playing, and none of the music is exactly the same as any other track. The music is a mix of disco, drum beats, and pop rhythms. Sometimes there are random sound effects like cat meows or cheerleader shouts inserted into the middle of the track, but overall the music is creative and helps keep you upbeat and excited about the game.

Make sure your Wii sensor is in a good place in relation to your television. My couch is about 7 feet from my TV (yah, I have a small second bedroom), so this made some parts of Wario Ware very difficult. Pointing at the screen only to realize that your finger is way off can make gamplay really frusterating. Also, since the game involves so much hand and arm flailing, it is probably best to stand while playing.

Sadly, Wario Ware offers no multiplayer. It would have been really fun to get a group of people together and make ourselves all look rediculous together, but no such luck. It is too bad that Nintendo decided not to add this feature. Lack of a multiplayer makes me feel like the new release smell will wear off quickly, as I wouldn’t really want to re-play the single player missions very often.

Edit: I retract my previous statement! A fan let me know that there is a multiplayer available after you finish story mode. Yet another reason to want to finish the game! Thanks Marc Paed!

Wario Ware is an exciting, creative, and great-looking title for the Wii system. Even though there is no multiplayer available, individuals can still have a lot of fun. For a system lacking an excess of high profile titles at the moment, Wario Ware: Smooth Moves is a welcome new release for a promising system. Pick up Wario Ware, let go of your inhibitions, and remember what it was like to be 7 again. No really, just try it. You won’t regret it.

	Title	Warioware: Smooth Moves
	Genre	Minigame Bonanza?
	Release Date	January 15th, 2007
	Release Date	April 25, 2006
	Players	1
	Rating	E 10+ (Everyone over 10 years) Crude Humor, Mild Cartoon Violence