Wario: Master of Disguise

"If WarioWare had been a platformer, it might have looked something like this."

When my hopes of playing Wario: Shake It on the Wii were dashed by the ridiculous pricetag, I quickly looked for an alternate source of Wario fundome. I don't care much for gimmicky mini-games, and so far that's all Wario'd been up to lately. So when I found Wario: Master of Disguise on sale for $15 at the local Costo, I jumped at it. It promised to have everything I'd been craving: platforming, Wario's own little brand of humour, an interesting use of the DS's stylus and touch-screen.. and unbeknownst to me at the time, more minigames than I could ever imagine.

Having experienced the marvels that were the original Warioland games on the GameBoy, I have long since looked for a Wario game that comes as close. Unfortunately, all Wario seems to care about lately are quirky minigames if the WarioWare games are to be taken at face value. But here, here we had Wario back to the way he was supposed to be. Greedy and looking for treasure. I thought I couldn't go wrong. I'd never heard of the game before, and that really should have tipped me off, but I figured it was Wario, and was sold as a platformer, so it had to be just like the good old days, right? Something to shake off the Wario Wii game blues.

Storyline - 9/10

For a Wario game, the story is actually pretty interesting. Wario, ever the greedy, garlic-gobbling thief that he is, is out for more loot. He stumbles upon a rather strange TV show about a master thief and intrigued by what he sees, watches more and more. Well that settles it right? No one is gonna out-steal our anti-hero. So dispite his "brawns before brains" mentality that is Wario's way of thinking, he fashions himself a special helmet that will allow him to enter the TV show. Upon doing so, he steals the main character's wand, which has the power to transform Wario into a Master Thief, just like the Silver Zephyr. In a moment of witty-ness as only Wario can manage, he dubs himself the Purple Wind and begins a long career of fart jokes which are actually rather amusing.. although occasionally repetitive.

As the game progresses, Wario learns of a powerful relic called the Wishstone that supposedly grants any wish. Wario's wish for riches and treasures beyond the wildest dreams may yet be in reach! Obviously this drives him onwards to collect all the pieces, having to outsmart not only Cannoli (formerly the main character of the show) but another thief shortly afterwards named Carpaccio, who is just as determined to stop Wario from finding his much desired rewards. A few plot-twists will follow before the end of the game, including one that actually managed to catch me off-guard near the end. I really enjoyed the story of Wario: Master of Disguise. It may have been the most attractive part of the game, really.

Graphics - 7/10

At first glance, the game's graphics are quite lush and vibrant. Taking advantage of the 2-D visual style fits Wario so well, and the sprites for the most part are quite varied. The environments equally diverse and interesting to look at. The levels themselves though, are a bit mundane at times, and if not for the map, you might find yourself looking at one room and mistaking it for another. I still think the first two levels, although the shortest, also offered the most immersive level design as far as appearences go. Other levels, such as the Museum, or the Pyramid are a little more confusing. I remember getting lost in a few of the later levels more than once.

Going past the levels themselves, the sprites are interesting.. though they feel a bit lazy in execution. For instance, one of the things that I always noticed when I took damage was that, regardless of the current costume/disguise, Wario always turned back into the Purple Wind when damaged. He'd quickly return to the chosen form, but it was enough to distract me on several occasions. I found it odd, because there were other times when a similar sprite might show up for the various costumes that could just as easilly have been used for the "injury leap" that Wario makes when damaged. The individual enemy sprites are sometimes rather bland too. Several enemies are simple recolours, which is strange, because other times they are quite diverse. Also, the 3-D moments in the game are rather unappealing and come off as rushed or added later.

Music/Sound - 7/10

Nintendo is known for making games with good music, even when the rest of a game might be poor (or great) the music is almost always a constant plus. Wario: Master of Disguise has rather decent music, but not enough variation. There are ten levels, and each level may have its own music, but that one track will play through the WHOLE level, no matter how short.. or how long. The pause menu, for instance, is the same music as the Main Menu where you can look at your collection or choose a level. Some of the tracks are quite pleasent to listen to, others, like the Menu music, can become rather boring fast.

The sound effects in the game are fairly decent, I've heard better, but I suppose that they're adaquate. Certainly nothing to right home about. I don't recall too many instances where you get to hear Wario's trademark laugh, for example. In fact, I think the only time you hear Carpaccio make any sort of vocalization is during the last level of the game. I can't even remember Cannoli making any sort of sound at all. Overall, it just felt like there could have been more from the sound effects and music.

Gameplay - 5/10

I've been dreading this part of the review. When I first started playing the game, I loved it. It was fun, light-hearted, colourful, and played pretty darn well. You focused mainly on exploring and puzzles. The enemies themselves weren't much of a threat except in a few major instances like in Sweatmore Peak. You had an occasional minigame when you opened a chest, but at first they weren't all that difficult, and were actually quite fun. They broke up the gameplay quite nicely, in fact. However, as the levels wore on and the levels themselves got longer, it started to become more repetitive, and even the switching between fighting/exploring/puzzles didn't make much different. Heck, in some ways, it made it more boring.

The minigames, for instance, would become so frustrating that you'd start to dread opening treasure chests. But there would be so many in the longer levels, and even a key item like.. well a key (hah) would require a strole down minigame lane, and with time counting up (or down in some cases) a particularilly hard (passed the point of "challenging") series of minigames could eat up minutes of your time, especially if you failed repeatedly. And oh, does the game like to make you feel badly for failing. I know there was more than one occasion where I considered chucking the DS at the wall or stabbing the stylus through the screen. It isn't even because they're all that hard for the most part, not on their own. But when you add in lower time, increased difficulty to be accurate in minigames that require you to be as accurate... coupled with the game's sometimes stubborn knack for not recognizing what you've done.. well, it makes for a less than steller experience. This leads me into the next catagory...

Controls - 4/10

The controls for this game could have been so much better! And I'll be honest, a good part of what makes the gameplay score for this game so low is the controls themselves ruining the gameplay. By the latter half of the game, you've got eight different forms to choose from, each requiring a different doodle over Wario's sprite. Some of these, such as Sparky Wario, are extremely difficult to make show up when you need it, but very easilly show up when you're in the middle of a boss fight and either get hit or loss an opportunity to attack because of the delay. Another is trying to change forms and suddenly attacking by mistake, or trying to hastilly draw something as Arty Wario and it either making you change or not being recognized.

On the surface the controls are actually fairly nice, especially the ones that don't involve the stylus. Even the early stylus controls aren't too bad, although they quickly become a pain as the game goes on. Sometimes the stylus comes off as too sensitive, sometimes not sensitive enough, but occasionally it gets it right. Pattern recognition is another problem. As I said drawing one squiggle or doodle is often recognized as another or not at all. Arty Wario and Genius Wario often got confused when I had to enter the forms on the fly in a fight or a timed sequence. There is a specific mini-game where you have to trace increasingly complicated pictures, and as the difficulty rises, so does the ammount of lasers that get in your way, to the point where you hardly have any time to draw a complicated picture of Cannoli's face.. let alone make it look anything like it should. Hell, the biggest kicker for me was when you had to draw Wario's SHOE, the most simple design to trace, and when I got it spot on, it still failed me.

Replayability - 4/10

The minigames are supposed to offer hours of replay value, or so I'm assuming or they wouldn't have constantly shoved them in your face in the game and in the record book. However, minigames are not enough to keep me interested. I couldn't stand most of the minigames in any of the other DS Mario/Wario titles, and the fact that this too can't resist throwing them out everywhere shows that Nintendo appearently thinks they're the stuff that makes a game great. The mission/episodes themselves would be plenty replayable if it wasn't for the blasted mini-games which take up so much of the gametime. It's to the point where you wonder why they bother keeping track of how long you can make it through a level. As it is, once you've found all the treasures (which you should probably hold off on doing until you have all the disguises and their mastery gems) there is nothing really making you come back. And the "time trials/secret episodes" aren't much of a pull, as you have to exploit what is probably a glitch just to make it through the later ones.

Final Thoughts

Wario: Master of Disguise could have been a brilliantly executed platformer with a mix of puzzles and stylus/touchscreen controls. Instead, it was lackluster. Almost brutal difficulty not by design but by quirky controls are not always responsive (and certainly not difficult in the normal sense). The final boss was a piece of cake compared to Stuffy the Dolphin in episode 8, which was quite possibly the hardest boss in the game due to a combination of dodgy costume controls and the sheer number of projectiles on the screen at a given time. First (and only) boss that I ever lost to.

I wanted so much out of this game, perhaps that is why it let me down. I should have known that there'd be gimmicky controls and minigames. I don't know why I got my heart set on a sweet platformer like the good old days. I was very disappointed with the game. I thought it was good, but it wasn't the best, and I've played far better. All in all, the game just doesn't measure up to other Wario games, or even other DS games. Heck thinking back, the controls in Megaman ZX might have worked well for this game. But of course, there were no touchscreen/stylus controls that... and we all know that was the only reason for making this game.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 12/11/08

Game Release: Wario: Master of Disguise (US, 03/05/07)