Wario Ware: Smooth Moves Quick Impressions

I am not big on doing reviews, but I was asked by many people to write up what I thought of the new Wario Ware mini-game collection. I have had the game since the launch of the Wii in Japan, and since it is coming out soon in other territories, now might be a good time for me to share my feelings on it. So is this really the next big Wii title and a reason to plop down some more of your hard earned money?

Yes and no (but mostly yes). WarioWare is a great party game. One of the best. I have played this with several groups of people, and even the shyest ones can’t resist hulahooping with the Wii remote and laughing at the nose-picking games. But like all WarioWare games, you can beat the single player mode in 2 hours and unlock everything in a day. This is the first game I take out when I have people over, but the last game (other than WiiPlay) that I play alone.

That said, the games are great. Smooth Moves will have you putting the remote on the end of your nose, slashing the Wiimote like a sweet katana, balancing it on your palm, and a dozen more non-standard positions. Before each mini-game starts, it will tell you how you should be holding the controller, and this helps a lot for understanding what the possible objective of the game will be. There were very few games that I didn’t understand after a few tries.

Retro Nintendo fans will be very happy with the “9-volt” section of the game. Many classic franchises like Zelda and Mario have been mini-gamed. My favorite is the game that looks identical to the beginning part of the first Starfox game, except that your opponent is a giant ROB armed with a Nintendo Light Gun. I don’t want to spoil the surprise game cameos, but let me tell you that you will be happy.

Now here is something interesting. I am curious to know what sort of changes the localization will have. I assume like the other games they will keep most of the original Japanese weirdness but this game is more Japanese than any of the other ones. The intro segments to each control method are told as overly dramatic Japanese poems, there are festival games being played, all the retro stuff uses Famicoms. There is just a decidedly Japanese feel. I can’t wait to see what Nintendo does with the localization. I hope they change as little as possible, but find a way to make it understandable to the western market. I don’t think it will be an easy task, and perhaps (though probably not) that is one of the reasons it took so long to leave Japan.

So do I recommend the game? Very much so, but with the condition that you have a group of people to play it with. I am not sure if I can picture a sadder sight than someone alone in a room dancing around with a controller on their nose pretending to be an elephant. Alright, actually that is pretty funny, but still sad. If you liked the other Wario Ware games and were OK with their lack of depth, you will find that this is more of the same and probably the best WW game to date.

photos: King Ben Loves Games