WarioWare: Smooth Moves

I often wonder how the WarioWare series ever came to be, a collaboration of the most insane mini-games you could ever wish to play all bundled into one package. I can just imagine now, a room full of crazy Japanese game designers blurting out bizarre ideas such as poking over-sized nostrils with over-sized fingers or shaking the bugs off of an ape’s banana for pleasure. However WarioWare came to be there’s no doubting it’s a winning formula, there’s just something about the random insanity that gamers and non-gamers alike seem to warm to. There’s also no doubting in my mind the decision to bring this much-loved franchise to the Wii, the WiiMote feels like the perfect way to experience the chaos.

Smooth Moves offers you over 200 frantically fun-filled mini-games, each requiring some basic action in order to complete, that could be chopping a barrel in half with a quick swipe of your samurai sword, blowing tiny men off of a cliff using your controller as a fan or simply placing the WiiMote down; waiting for it to ring and then answering it like a telephone. These may sound simple enough on the surface but as the speed increases so does the difficulty and eventually you’ll find yourself either losing your lives or losing the plot.

You would be forgiven for thinking the game looks like absolute trash, so many visual styles meshed together without so much as a second thought. I consider this one of its positive aspects however and feel it’s what gives the game its unique look and feel. It also helps to keep things interesting because you never really know what to expect next. You could be playing as Mario one minute, running through a retro style 8-bit Nintendo classic and the next you’re rocking out in a fully-fledged 3D environment.

Another way the game keeps things interesting is with the introduction of “forms”, a form is a certain way of holding the controller and each mini-game is suitably tagged to one of the many on offer. So if you were to participate in a quick draw with a cowboy you would hold the remote to your hip like a gun in a holster. They’re not all this simple however, a few require some pretty strange techniques in order to complete, in fact some even require a few embarrassing ones too. Well, unless you consider holding the WiiMote on the top of your head like a Mohawk or up to your nose like an elephant’s trunk a comforting experience. You shouldn’t find any of this too difficult though if you’re already familiar with the series and will probably breeze through the main game in just a couple of hours. After that there are a few extras to unlock including four multiplayer modes, but barring that you will probably end up feeling a little under whelmed, you can play through all of the previous challenges again of course but there’s only so much value you can get from doing that.

The game also doesn’t possess a whole lot of story, but that wasn’t entirely surprising considering none of the previous WarioWare titles ever really did. Sure each of the characters provide their own insane animated clip before you’re thrown into the action, but to call that a story would definitely be pushing the boat out, and the fact that they can’t be skipped either is really rather annoying.

Truth told Smooth Moves couldn’t have come at a better time, even if it is lacking in some areas was still the perfect accompaniment to a console that was eager to show off its motion-sensor capabilities. Whether you’re looking for a quick fix or a great party game to add to your collection - this is the one for you. Just be sure to attach that strap because we don’t want any broken TV’s now do we.

Craig Bryan, NoobFeed