WarioWare: Smooth Moves

"Rest assured, this is the best Wario Ware game yet!"

Wario Ware: Smooth Moves is the fifth game in the series, and one of the only great Wii games you can find now. Now I'm not insulting the Wii, but it sure has a lack of great games apart from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. However, when Nintendo released their Wario Ware for Wii, Wii gamers had a new reason to start playing the console again until more games like Super Paper Mario and Metroid are released. Wario Ware is also a great way to get used to the Wii Remote. Quite a few Wii games just downright mess up the control schemes, but Wario Ware offers so much variety with it that you'll get used to it and be a pro with it in no time.

If you've played past Wario Ware games, you already know the drill. You play minigames that are about five seconds long in an attempt to get to the boss battle. To beat the game you try to reach the boss battle, and beat it with every character. There are a lot of characters in this game, but it is still a very short game. To get to each boss battle, it usually requires you to complete 15 'microgames', which are the about five second long minigames. You get four lives each time so if you screw up four times you have to start that character's minigames all over again. Overall, there are over 200 microgames including the boss battles so you definitely won't see everything on your first play through.

To add a twist to these already twisted minigames, they come in all different forms. For example, before each minigame, a screen will come up that will tell you which way to hold the remote so you will get a basic idea right then. There are many different types of positions such as the basic remote in which you simply hold it as if you are holding a TV remote, to the chauffer in which you hold the remote as if you are driving a car. That was only two examples, there are a lot more formations.

Every Wario Ware game must gave a totally random storyline thrown in. In Smooth Moves, it starts as Wario is sitting at home, watching TV when all of a sudden, some creature appears and steals Wario's food. Now obviously, Wario is pissed off so he chases the little creature, which leads him to a strange looking ancient temple structure. Inside of the temple, Wario trips and right before his eyes is the 'Form Baton.' The Form Baton is what Wario uses to complete each minigames, and of course to become rich. However, these creatures aren't too happy about Wario stealing their Form Baton.

One complain I have about the storyline is that this time it just isn't as funny and all the random parts of the game are starting to grow thin. Wario Ware Inc. for Gamecube was so weird that you couldn't help but smile during the cutscenes. Smooth Moves has a few funny parts but it's storyline and cutscenes are probably the weakest parts of this otherwise great game. That being said, Smooth Moves without a doubt has the best selection of minigames out of all the games in the series. With a few exceptions, all of the minigames are really fun and well done.

In addition to the 200+ microgames, six other minigames are included which are much longer than the microgames. Some examples is a Breakout-style Table Tennis game, a fifty level block puzzler, a 3D edition of Balloon Fight, a can shooting game and more. Also, once you beat the game, you'll unlock a character where his microgames are done with the Nunchuck attachment. Other than that, all the other microgames are performed with the Wii remote.

The graphics in Wario Ware, well they can be good and just...well...Wario Ware style. All of the cutscenes are done in cartoon, and 2D and they all look great. I can't really go judging the microgame graphics because it really varies. Some of them look really great and are in 3D and everything while others look hand-drawn. This was intentional, of course. Also, in one characters microgames, they are also based on classic Nintendo video games and toys so you will be playing five second segments of games like Pikmin 2, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, Wind Waker, and Super Mario Sunshine which are all Gamecube games. There are more Nintendo, Super Nintendo, and Nintendo 64 minigames though so of course they will look dated. Heck, you'll even be looking at the original Gameboy graphics stretched out on a TV screen. So really, the graphics range, but it overall has a really nice look to it.

The music in this game also really sticks out. It's really creative, and different. Each character has their own music and some of it really stand out as distinct, and other, just really weird. There are a few voice samples, but we really need some full voice acting. Eventually games only having dialogue, but no voice acting will be something of the last generation of video gaming so Nintendo needs to just improve that. Other than that, the sound effects are great and the music is even better. And dare I say, the sounds coming out of the Wii remote speaker are surprisingly decent.

Once you've beaten the game, you'll unlock a multiplayer game. Well, there is a catch which is both good and not-so-good. The multiplayer is up to 12 players, but you only use one remote. But trust me, once you've tried some of these multiplayer games, you'll understand why it's still really fun. And, look on the bright side, now you don't have to run out and buy another Wii remote to play multiplayer in this game. There are seven multiplayer games ranging from Darts, to Bomb, to Survival. There are even two where one person holds the remote and the other holds the Nunchuck. I thought that was really cool because it is kind of like having two controllers, except linked to each other.

Now we get to the part everyone's worrying about...the replay value. Rest assured, Wario Ware: Smooth Moves has the highest level of replay value out of every game in the series. The core game will only take you about two hours to complete, but you'll still have a ton of pose cards and extra minigames to unlock. There are also four challenge modes which you can keep doing over and over again to get high scores and a movie theatre where you can watch cutscenes. That's still not all. There is an unlockable sound test room where you can listen to the game's great music, the six extra minigames and of course, the multiplayer mode. You could easily spend twenty hours playing this game instead of two.

Overall, Wario Ware: Smooth Moves is chockfull of unlockables and has a whole ton of fun minigames and microgames. What it lacks in the storyline and cutscenes departments, it makes up with it's original minigames and super fun gameplay. Rest assured, this is the best Wario Ware game yet!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/02/07