Big Head Review: Wario Ware Smooth Moves

Earlier today, my friend Jeremy asked me if I would review Wario Ware. Originally, I thought I wouldn't, since I usually just say a few words about the game, and add it to the “Games I Am Playing” pile. But, ironically, as I wrote this entry, I realized I had a lot to say. So, let's start something new! Hit the "Read More..." link for the full review.


As you know, I was excited about this one. I have played all the Wario Ware games, and the thought of new games featuring the motion capabilities of the Wii just plum tickled my fancy. OK, maybe not my fancy, but it tickled me. What I ended up getting was a really fun and hilariously presented game, that unfortunately didn't live up to a few expectations. Let me get my complaints out of the way first. I always thought this game would be the ultimate party game for the Wii (at least until Mario Party 8). This is probably why my standards are set so high. But because of a few idiosyncrasies, it's multi-player is a little lacking. First of all, you can't just open it up and immediately play a multi-player game. You are forced to play the entire game through in single-player mode before you can play multi-player. Even then, multi-player can only be done with one controller, that you pass around to other people. First of all, this breaks some fundamental game design conventions. Why should I be forced to “unlock” what should be an immediately available feature? Don't get me wrong, it's not a hard game. But playing through the entire game alone puts me at an unfair advantage when I play my friends. If I am playing with 3 other people, and have four controllers, why should I be forced to pass around 1 controller, while my other (expensive) Wii remotes are rendered useless? I can understand certain rare situations where more than 4 people want to play, the alternating multi-player mode should be an included feature, but not at the expense of a traditional 1-to-1, controller-to-player style.

OK, Now that I have that out of my system, I can talk about how Wario Ware does things great. The presentation of the game, the stories, and random monologues are hilarious! It made me laugh pretty hard. The microgames are innovative and well controlled. It is fun! As I always do, I especially enjoyed 9-Volt's games. 9-Volt's games are all throw backs to older Nintendo games. Some of the microgames I played featured gameplay straight out of games like Pikmin, Animal Crossing, Mario Brothers, Metroid Prime, Zelda: Wind Waker, Ocarina of Time, Punchout, Mario Sunshine, and way more. They eventually culminated into what I consider the greatest Boss Fight in any Wario Ware game, Star Fox, in the original SNES graphical style, fighting ROB the Robot. Sweet, delicious, retro goodness!

So, what is ultimately frustrating, are a few bad design decisions keeping the game from really taking off into the mainstream. I really thought this game would be a big hit for the new Wii owners, but ultimately, I think it's lack of traditional multi-player cripples what is otherwise an excellent game. Oh well, bring on Mario Party 8!

Big Head Verdict: 8.5/10