Stage 1: Impressions |
Stage 2: Analysis |
Stage 3: Evaluation |
Screen fades in. An elevator is moving up to the second floor. You see an image of a pointer called "The Remote Control" with a person holding the Wii Remote like a laser pointer. Three. Two. One. The elevator doors open with the words "Shoot!" A balloon appears as the door opens. What do you do, what do you do? Five seconds to decide.
You aim the controller and shoot the balloon. A raspy voice yells, "all right!" and the elevator doors close. The elevator moves up to the third floor and the doors open again. This time you see an image of a character placing the controller on its hips called "The Big Cheese". Three. Two. One. The doors open with the words "Hula-Hoop!" A white creature has a Hula-Hoop, but it isn't moving. What do you do, what do you do? Five seconds to decide.
You place the controller on your hips and move as if you had a Hula-Hoop yourself, and watch the character on the screen move with you. The raspy voice yells, "e-e-e-EXCELLENT!" and the elevator move up again, now to the fourth floor. The image for this round is called "The Waiter" and indicates holding the controller like a plate. Three. Two. One. The door opens with the word "Balance!" There's a hand on the screen, balancing a broom from the handle. Oh no, it's going to fall! Five seconds!
You move your hand around trying to keep the broom in the air. Oh no, you lost it! The broom fell. Three more chances left.
For those of you who have never played a WarioWare game, imagine playing five-second Bop-It! or Simon Says games with on-screen commands. The series tests your reflexes and fast-action skills with extremely simple tasks found in both ordinary and extraordinary lives.
These examples were four out of more than 200 games found in WarioWare: Smooth Moves. At any given moment, you could be cutting a barrel, shredding papers, pumping weights, running on a track, shaking bugs off of a banana, shooting targets, dancing, punching out a boxer, or flying a spaceship.
If you've never put your grandma's dentures into her mouth,
you'll finally realize how fun it can be!
The entire game is a series of microgames, a collection of rapid mini-games that require nothing but quick reflexes to the simple instructions at the start of each microgame. There is no plot line, no character development, no flashy graphics, no symphony orchestra, and no special items.
Though it sounds like there isn't much challenge in a game like this, timing and reflexes are everything. You have less than five seconds to complete each task, and the game continues to speed up as each stage passes. As the speed increases, the level of difficulty will also increase.
Single player seems to be the primary focus of the game. Even if you have four Wii Remotes, you can only use one of them. No matter what the game, your other Wii Remotes will flash for a moment and turn themselves off. Not even an option to turn them on for multiplayer, sorry.
If you have the wrist strap on, how are you supposed
to quickly give the controller to another person? Hmmm...
The experience is fun. There's a lot of different possibilities with the legendary "Form Batton", err, Wii Remote. Some games are easy, perhaps too easy, and avid fans of the series may have no trouble at all. You will be able to use the Balance Stone, err, Nunchuk, but not until after you beat the game.
Unfortunately, WarioWare takes approximately two hours to beat. Less than an hour can unlock nearly all of the multiplayer games, play the credit minigame and the single-player unlockables. Worth a purchase, or worth a rent? That's to be decided over the week.
To be fair, I've beaten the game and still have not played 1/4 of the stages. They are set at random and may not appear until the second or third play through a stage. There is certainly replay in Smooth Moves, but to what extent?
Also, how does multiplayer fair with friends? Find out in our coverage with Stage 2!
Stage 1: Impressions |
Stage 2: Analysis |
Stage 3: Evaluation |
