The screen fades in. An elevator is moving up to the second floor. Three. Two. One. Go! 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. So you aim the controller and shoot the balloon. A voice yells, "all right!" and the elevator doors close. The elevator moves up to the third floor and the doors open again. Three. Two. One. Go!, The doors open with the words "Hula-Hoop!" A creature has a Hula-Hoop, but it isn't moving. What do you do, what do you do? Five seconds to decide.
So you place the controller on your hips and move as if you had a Hula-Hoop around yourself, and watch as the character on the screen moves with you. The voice yells, "Excellent!" and the elevator move up again. Onto the fourth floor. Three. Two. One. Go! The doors open with the word "Balance!" There's a hand on the screen, balancing a broom from the handle. What do you do, what do you do? Oh no, it's going to fall! Five seconds to decide. So you move your hand around trying to keep the broom in the air. Oh no, you lost it! The broom fell. Ah well, three more chances left.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg of the things you will come up against in the new “WarioWare Smooth Moves.”
If you don't already know the deal with WarioWare by now then you really need to get with it!
WeirdoWare
The game throws you into a series of 3-5 second minigames, each with its own theme, setting and gameplay, one right after another, bam, bam, bam! And I’m not talking about normal challenges here like shooting some spaceships or driving a racing car – I’m talking about screwy stuff like, high-fiving a dog, guzzling a drink without spilling it all over your face or shaking bugs off a banana.
WarioWare is probably best known for its weirdness factor and Smooth Moves continues the tradition of weird for the sake of being weird, it’s just plain kooky!
One day Wario and his friends, discover a strange book and a strange device called a
Form Baton. With this discovery, they find themselves challenged through a series of fun and wacky events that the gamer must help them out with.
The storyline is pretty flimsy, there is no plot and no character development to speak of, but the story is pretty irrelevant; it’s not a huge part of the game, and as you progress through the single player, it seems that every stage is unrelated, until you get back to Wario. Let the mini-games begin!
They keep things simple in “Smooth Moves” as in the previous WarioWare games, asking you to perform only a single move, a simple press of the button or a shake of the wrist. It's always new, in the mere seconds of gameplay you'll experience with each game, you've accomplished all there is, and then it's on to the next game!
Wait, You Want Me To Do What With My Wii Remote?
The minigames themselves, now include new updated versions of classic challenges such as the nose picking game (it never gets old and cracks me up every time), but they also add in a ton of new tasks that can only be done with the Wii remote.
Turn your Nintendo Wii remote into...well, into just about anything you could possibly think of! The game uses 21 different poses, for example you will saw a log in half with the Tug-Of-War stance. You’ll drive cars with the Chauffeur pose, holding the Wii remote like a steering wheel. What would you do if you were being attacked by a ninja in middle of the night? Well, you’d give him a good lashing with the Samurai pose, of course! Maybe you’ll have to balance a broom on your hand with the WaiterRemote Control pose, holding the remote…well like a remote. The Discard, is as simple as putting the remote down a solid surface (like a coffee table) and picking up a ringing telephone at just the right time. Run a cell phone along a cheese grater with theThumb Wrestler or wash a cow's butt using the Boxer stance. Sure, you can fool the controller a few times, but most of the time it is just easier and more fun to do what the game tells you to.
The game tells you which form to take before each minigame, and you must be quick. The Form Baton is used to beat the minigames, you must learn a bunch of secret moves in order 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 a narrator from a meditation tape comes on and explains how to use the form baton. Hilarious! There are tons of moves to discover here, and the new moves keep the gameplay interesting.
The minigames turn into a challenge of "Simon Says" as you complete tasks using the correct form. The Wiimote works perfectly 99% of the time, there is that 1% though where you perform a move perfectly (or so you think) and nothing happens. Most of the tasks in the game make use of the Wii's motion sensor, so while pushing a vacuum cleaner or controlling an elephant snout may seem easy enough it can be a hassle to have a mini-game fail because the Wiimote wasn't precisely pointing at the TV like it should have been.
It very rarely happens, but when it does, it’s utterly frustrating! Side Note: I couldn't help but wonder throughout the gameplay, if you must have the wrist strap on at all times, how are you supposed to quickly change to a new pose? Hmm... I'm quite sure many people will just forego the wrist strap completely (heck I did) so please watch out for your television sets!
Comic Genius
When we play video games, we leap, shoot, roll, slide and punch our way through obstacles to clear the objectives set before us, nasty bosses, jumps, dangerous drops or a time limit. The WarioWare series takes all of these acts blends them up and mixes them all together; there really is something in it for everyone. It has a knack of giving us that feeling of excitement you get when playing a game for the first time.
The games in WWSM are extremely simple, and like I said earlier, you're not going to be spending more than 3-5 seconds on each one. But this is definitely not a bad thing. The rapid-fire pace of the game is one of the many things that make it so enjoyable. It's nearly impossible to get tired of any one particular minigame because none of them stay on long enough to wear out their welcome.
The games themselves are as crazy as ever; with plenty of genuine laugh out loud moments; from putting dentures into a granny's mouth, disco dancing with a bunch of cats, to waving a fart cloud away.
Long time Nintendo fans will fall in love with 9-Volt's room, as it pays homage to some of the most popular classic videogames, for instance you’ll be helping Link from The Legend of Zelda with the master sword or catching fish las you would in Animal Crossing, even our ol' buddy Mario makes a cameo appearance!
You also have a collection of great single-player games to play once they've been unlocked such as table tennis and one that has you spinning a hunk of meat over a fire rotisserie style, the can-shooting mini-game alone will probably have you coming back for months.
WWSM is a perfect gaming experience for those with ADD. Your mind never has to stay focused on any one game; you will experience a total sensory overload. You will be thrown non-stop colorful images and simple commands at lightening speed.
The images are huge, brightly colored, and uniquely animated. The quirkiness of the series shines through; a number of different styles are used throughout the different levels. Some games are done in full 3D, others are hand drawn crude crayon art, and some are a mix of the two. But to be honest with you, WarioWare was never about the graphics anyway, in other words it won’t be winning any awards for realism or anything, however with so many different styles in the game, it is hard to not find something to like.
Fun for One
One sore point though is that you need to complete the single-player game before the multi-player options are unlocked. This could be disappointing to a bunch of friends or families that pick this up at the store and want to come home to play together. The franchise has always been known for its “party-style” fun so I really don’t understand the reasoning for such a decision by the developers, do you?
The game is a little bit on the short side, taking most gamers around three hours to rip through if played continually, but it’s packed with a ton of entertaining challenges. Smooth Moves is as much about the experience as it is about the game. You’ll want to keep playing just to see what will happen next. I, for one couldn’t wait to meet the new characters, and learn the new moves.
It’s a fast, furious, and fun minigame challenge. The guts of the game haven’t changed, as it’s still just as manic and intense as it always has been. It still manages to give all types of gamers a challenge, loyal fans a dose of nostalgia, as well as giving newbies a chance to see what Nintendo’s Wii is all about.I had an absolute blast playing WWSM, and you will too. There are some nice surprises in this version (which I've tried to avoid spoiling). Some particularly entertaining boss fights, and best of all, an excellent collection of micro-minigames that can be played for longer than just a few seconds.
So are you psyched for WarioWare yet?
Then close the curtains, get ready to let loose and make a total ass out of yourself! Let go of your inhibitions, because it's impossible to keep a straight face while holding the remote in front of your nose like an elephant's trunk, or while doing squats with the remote held on the top of your head like a Mohawk. If you're new to micro-gaming, then be bold, take that first step, and don't look back.
But hurry up, because it's my turn next!
Get WarioWare Smooth Moves Here
Graphics
B-
Sound
B-
Pickup & Play
A
Overall Fun
A+
Posted by oxyjen on Jan 29, 2007
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