WarioWare: Touched!

" Touching is above average."

Taking every opportunity they can to show off our new touch-screens, Nintendo's created a game that relies on them almost completely, leaving the buttons only for pausing the game. Nintendo's latest foray into the mini-game market is something worth buying into, if not only for the use of your stylus. In the eye of Nintendo's adoring fan base, creating a more consistent Wario Ware was most definitely the right thing for them to do. Yet, at first I was somewhat hesitant. Steering away from using the DS's actual control-layout turned me off on the idea, but once I made my purchase, there was no turning back.

Our opening scene consists of Wario walking down the street and dropping his game boy advance into a sewer-hole. Soon after, and angel comes out and asks Wario if he dropped the two game boys into the hole, or if it was the DS he dropped. Wario acquires the DS. At first he can't quiet figure out how to play it, a common problem for producers who order their minions to create games for them. After some experimentation he finds the stylus and realizes, “With two screens I can make, double the money!” I'm beginning to think this was Nintendo's thought process in the board room, and this is how this wacky scene came about.

The first thing you'll notice about Wario Ware Touched is the intuitive menu-organization, in which characters taken from the story are spread about a small backdrop, and move around every few minutes. When selected, a description of the character's game will pop up on the top-screen, along with their picture, and your high scores. In this way, the top-screen has become a useful medium to display information that would otherwise clog the bottom screen, an effective example of why the DS is needed in today's portable market, but it may be a little early still to decide that. To proceed in the game, you'll need to move through a series of characters who all have a little story to tell, although none of them follow any import context, nor can they hold your interest for more than a few seconds.

What good is made of the top-screen since the game's exclusive to the touch-screen, then? Very little. During most mini-games it will display only a plain background with some kind of Wario signature on it. So a whole screen is used to show you the name of the mini-game you're currently playing. I wouldn't mind this so much if the gameplay wasn't plain as well. Thankfully though, Nintendo included a few games that use both screens. In example: The Punch Out game uses the bottom-screen as an NES controller, while the top-screen shows the action. 180 games are included, which is a fairly large number for a series that's only been around for a couple years now. Backsets and all, Wario Ware's still evolving in some ways.

But what does it matter that the screens aren't both used effectively, if the mini-games are bad? Thankfully, they are for the most part, all quality. They are still consistent, and probably exactly what you'd expect from a Wario Ware game. A big part of these games for most gamers is setting records on either Story Characters, or for specific mini-games, in order to earn all the ribbons. This is an easy task, and all-together, the game still only takes a couple weeks of dedication to fly right through the majority of the mini-games. Few of them require any kind of skill, mastery, or any sense of timing, so I have a feeling that Touched is meant to be accessible to all gamers. But in Nintendo's philosophy that games are for everyone, they forget to make their games difficult enough for those of us who still care that there are multiple mini-games mirroring NES classics.

The concept of Touched is to throw a gamer in the hot seat, hand them a stylus, and see how they fair under immense pressure. Game after game will be presented to you, a small break inserted in between each one to see how many times you can mess up before facing the game-over screen. It should take no time to hone your skills, and complete the story mode, but unlocking all the useless “toys” for the toy-room is going to tax you a few more hours than it's truly worth. Most of the games involve drawing, cutting, dragging, scratching, connecting things with lines, turning things, or a variety of other objectives. Before the game pops up a word or two will tell you the action you're about to face. For example: if “Slice!” comes up before the next mini-game, that should ready the player to cut down on anything that may cross the screen by wiping the stylus across. An interesting concept, taken further by the use of the touch-screen.

It's unfortunate that a good majority of the mini-games featured either are too much alike, or just aren't worth your time. A collection of 180 three second mini-games isn't exactly the kind of package that will last you for months on end. You'll spend a few weeks playing Touched on and off, and you'll finally forget about it when that time comes, and it will lay in your closet with your other forgettable PC games that came before the expansions. What makes the game entirely useless is the prediction that there will be a follow up on the DS. If another Wario Ware is created, it needs to introduce some new ideas. I don't care for simple things like turning my gameboy sideways to move, I don't want a plain menu, choked full of useless mini-games, and unlockables anymore! What I want is more in the form of Sega's feel the magic, or even Mario Party. Perhaps there should be a union between Wario Ware, and Mario Party, but if you purchase Touched, you'll be in dire need of something to better-utilize the touch-screen within a weeks time. It feels more like a tease than an official Nintendo game. I‘m sick and tired of playing around with Nintendo DS tech-demos, I want some real games!

6/10

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 07/18/05