"Definitely my favorite Wii game so far."

So I get a Wii for Christmas in 2006, along with Wii Sports. It kept me entertained for a while, but then I decided to get an actual Wii game, so I bought Red Steel, closely followed by Twilight Princess. Well, Red Steel disappointed me and Twilight Princess wasn't bad at all. Having played WarioWare: Smooth Moves before, I then decided to buy it next, and I couldn't stop playing it. It was just so much fun. Since then I've also bought Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz and Spider-Man 3, and WarioWare still finds its way to be my favorite Wii game I've played so far.

WarioWare: Smooth Moves is a first-party Nintendo game, and is the fifth entry in the WarioWare series. The game not only appeals to fans of the series, but also to gamers such as myself who have never played a WarioWare game.

WarioWare is a very simple and straightforward game. It's so easy, a caveman can do it(sorry, I had to say it). Just like the other WarioWare games, Smooth Moves is a simple collection of "microgames", which are just little tasks to do that usually only last a few seconds. These microgames are played in quick succession, and so once one microgame is beaten, the next one begins a couple seconds later. If you fail a microgame, then you lose a life. Once all four lives are lost over the course of a set of microgames, you have to restart the set of microgames over again. The microgames range from all sorts of crazy things, such as picking someone's nose, shaving someone's face, or even something as simple as swatting a fly. There are many of these microgames in the game, and for the most part they are all fun and will have you laughing your butt off for hours on end. It's also really neat to see all the unique ways that the game utilizes the Wii remote. So, just how do you use the Wii remote in this game?

In the game, you have to hold the Wii remote(which is called the Form Baton in the game) in many different ways, and the game calls the different ways you hold the remote "forms". There's many different forms in the game, including the Handlebar, where you hold the remote like handlebars on a bike, and the Mohawk, where you hold the remote on top of your head as if you have a mohawk. The tasks for each microgame utilize the different forms in the game. The Nunchuk controller(referred to as the Balance Stone in the game) isn't used for the majority of the game, as it's only used in one set of microgames, some of the minigames(which will be explained later), and two of the multiplayer modes.

Here's how a set of microgames generally goes. First, you'll see an opening scene, then you do a certain amount of microgames(usually ranging from around 10-20 microgames per set). After you've done that amount of microgames, you play a "boss stage", which is a microgame longer that other ones. These boss stages also range from a lot of different things, including a really funny one in the last set of microgames during the main game, as you're not always defeating an enemy. If you beat the boss stage, you watch an ending scene. After you complete a set of microgames once, you can replay the set to either unlock more microgames, or if you've unlocked all of them from that set, then you can replay it just for high score purposes, because once you beat a set of microgames once, you continue to play after you beat the boss stage.

Now, not only is there microgames, there are also minigames, which are much longer than the microgames. These minigames are unlocked by doing certain tasks, the first one unlocked by completing the third or fourth set of microgames. These minigames keep going on until you fail. To give you an example, the first minigame you unlock is called Tower Tennis. What you have to do is bounce a tennis ball up a tower with a tennis racket(controlled by you). You keep going until you miss the tennis ball and it falls below your racket to the bottom of the tower. There's only about six or seven of these minigames, but they are pretty fun.

Alright, there's one last thing I need to cover in the gameplay aspect, and that is Multiplayer. Now, upon first turning on the game, you may say to yourself "Where's multiplayer at?!". Well, this is because multiplayer is not available from the start of the game. In fact, you need to beat Single Player in order to unlock Multiplayer. Anyway, in multiplayer, up to 12 people can play at one time. Each player uses their Mii, and this is to show who's going next and because the Miis appear in certain microgames. A disappointment to some and a pleasure to others, multiplayer only uses one Wii remote. Once one player does a microgame, he passes it on to the next person, then they do a microgame and pass it on to the next person, and so on and so on. I haven't had 12 people play at once, but I can imagine that it gets a little crazy passing the Wii remote around. There's seven modes of multiplayer total, and four of them are played like I just said(passing around the remote). The other three are different, and in my opinion not as fun as the other four, but they're not too bad. Overall, multiplayer is fun.

Well, that's it for gameplay. Now it's time to move on to the other aspects of the game. Let's start out with story, as their isn't really much of a story present in WarioWare. There's no plot to the game, really. However, there still is story in the game in a way. Remember how I said you do sets of microgames in the game? Well, remember how I also said how you see scenes in the beginning and end of the sets? That's as close of a story as you'll get in WarioWare. You see, each set of microgames is led by a character, and there's a scene in the beginning to introduce them and show a sort of problem, and then when you beat the set, you see how they solve the problem, I guess. Something like that. The story aspect of Smooth Moves isn't really important anyway, as the main reason to play the game is for the gameplay. Still, the little bit of story that they actually have is stupid. Well, not as much if you're a kid, but to a teenager such as myself or to an adult, the scenes are weird and kind of embarrassing to watch. Oh yeah, and about the characters I mentioned. Even though I haven't played any of the other WarioWare games, I'm pretty sure that most of the characters appeared in the other WarioWare games. Such characters include Mona, Kat & Ana, and yup, even 9-Volt, returning with his godly Nintendo-themed microgames.

Not only does Smooth Moves have amazing gameplay, but also the graphics are done very very nice. The graphics aren't the same throughout the whole game either. We actually see different styles of graphics in Smooth Moves, which is very interesting. Some microgames' graphics are drawings, some are cartoony, and some are actually 3D graphics, and all of these styles of graphics are done excellent. WarioWare: Smooth Moves not only showed what the Wii can do with its controller, but also showed its graphical capabilities, as the 3D graphics in the game looked next-gen for sure.

The sounds in this game are also done very nice. The sound effects themselves are strange in a good way and often pretty hilarious. In fact, some of them may make you raise the "WTF" flag. There isn't really much voice acting in the game, but the voices that they actually had in the game were done great. As for the music, some of it was bad, but the majority of it was good. By bad, I don't mean anywhere near "turn down the volume on your TV" bad, I just mean that some of the music is a bit annoying. They also put a very sweet Sound Test option in the game. In most games that give you the option of a Sound Test, you merely listen to the music and sound effects from the game. However, Smooth Moves not only lets you do that, it also lets you do something else...sorry, I can't say. It's a nice little feature that they put in the game, though.

Well, I've heard a lot of complaints about how short Smooth Moves is. However, you can make it last long. Those people must've rushed through the game and not unlocked everything, because I've played this for hours and enjoyed every minute of it. I'd say WarioWare: Smooth Moves will last you AT LEAST a good 10 hours, if you don't rush it. So, all I can say is: depending on the person, the replay value is great. I've had a lot of fun playing the game, but apparently some people didn't.

Asking the question "Should I buy it or should I rent it?" really depends on how much you like the game. I personally love it and thought it was well worth the money I paid for it. Still, you can definitely complete this game easily in a rental period, and so if you want to, just rent it.

The good and the bad about the game:

Gameplay: 10
+Excellent use of the Wii remote and one incredibly fun game.
-Umm...hmm...get back to me later and I might have found something negative to say.

Story: 5
+May be appealing to some.
-Bland and boring in my opinion. The little story that it does have is stupid.

Graphics: 10
+Excellent use of drawings, cartoony, and 3D graphics.
-Nothing!

Sound: 9
+Mostly everything sounds great.
-Some of the music is slightly annoying.

Replay Value: 9
+So fun that you'll be playing for a while.
-Can be a short game if rushed.

Overall: 8.7/10

So, that's it. I hope you found my review helpful and if you're debating at all on whether or not to get WarioWare: Smooth Moves, I full-heartedly recommend it. It's a great party game, and even if you don't have anyone over to play it with, it's still an amazing game to play through on Single-Player. All I can say is...it's my favorite Wii game as of today(May 13th, 2007), so get it now!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 05/14/07