Wii Review: Wario Ware: Smooth Moves

By now it's become almost some sort of unwritten law that when you develop a game for a Nintendo system, it has to feature mini-games as well. Nintendo's newest Wii effort harks back to a mini-game series it created on the Game Boy Advance. While the Wario Ware name is nothing new, the innovations Nintendo continues to inject into the series still makes it one of the most appealing and freshest franchises on the market.

Of course with Wario Ware: Smooth Moves being on the Wii, the mass of mini-games thrown at players will utilize the Wii Remote in a crazy number of fashions. While one could say the choice of control is the only asset that sets Smooth Moves apart from its predecessors, the motion control really does add that extra layer of game play which prevents the game from being a mere "been there, done that" affair.

The premise of the game hasn't changed one iota since the original released almost four years ago: Players work their way through a number of levels, each designated by a character in the Wario Ware universe. The levels are filled with nothing but a string of mini-game in which players can only fail four mini-games. Each stage only takes a few seconds to complete but as the stage progresses the mini-games speed up and lead to a more-involving boss stage.

While in initial execution, the stages will only take a couple of minutes to work through, completing them will unlock more stages as well as a number of extra features, galleries, extended mini-games and multiplayer modes. After completion, players can also return to the stages and work through them endlessly in order to obtain personal high scores. So while gamers will rip the plastic off Wario Ware and start off with barebones options, through single-player dedication, eventually a bevy of options will be selectable.

Unfortunately, that marked a glaring weakness for me as Wario Ware: Smooth Moves does not come with multiplayer out of the box. Furthermore, the multiplayer modes won't even surface as selectable options until someone completes the single-player mode's storyline (which will round out at about two to three hours unless one is sidetracked by some of the unlockable options).

Being able to fly through the game in a couple of hours isn't the most appealing of features for those who aren't completists or willing to replay levels endlessly. However, Smooth Moves executes very well on the Wii – the game really shows off the capabilities of the remote, can be picked up and played by virtually anyone and has a multitude of options that can occupy players for either a few minutes or hours at a time. It, in essence, is one of the titles that exemplify the "everyone" philosophy the Wii was created behind.

Smooth Moves brings a variety of art styles to the table all of which are visually appealing and lend to the series' wacky off-the-wall charm. While the menus and cut scenes feature a vivid, crisp paper animation-type style, the mini-games are appropriately themed with some featuring mere lines and white backgrounds, some are more meticulous featuring full environments and characters and others are exact copies of Nintendo titles (my personal favorite theme). With so much going on in such a short time span, the game is always visually stimulating and stays true to random nature of the series.

The audio of Smooth Moves is just as random; yet, it is appropriate to each situation. The music drives the action along in the background, most of which is quite strange, and speeds up along with the progressing levels. As a bonus, the music and sound in each of the retro Nintendo stages is true to the original game, including titles such as Star Fox, Punch Out!!, Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, Animal Crossing and much more.

Players should be thankful all of the control schemes in Smooth Moves are explained in "inspirational" segments, which, much like the rest of the game, are quite humorous. The demanding mini-games are each proceeded with a picture of the control schematic that will be utilized in the next mini-game, giving them a few seconds to position the controller in the appropriate fashion. For the most part, the motion sensing controls are spot on, reacting appropriately whether the player is sweeping the controller back and forth, pretending they are unsheathing a sword or even putting the controller on top of their head and squatting.

The game comes with a few potential frustrations, though, stemming from the motion control and the random nature of the game. The games each appear with a very brief description of what to do and with such a short time to react, there tends to be a small handful of mini-games in each Wario Ware where a player just doesn't understand what to do. Also, there are occasions while pointing at the screen where the controller doesn't register on the screen and sometimes the motion controls up and down do not register.

All in all, though, Wario Ware: Smooth Moves is an impressive addition to the Nintendo Wii's quality lineup of casual games. While the single-player mode is hardly deep in any sense of the word, it is a game of potentially infinite replayability due to its random nature and the multiplayer, which spans more than five different game modes, is staple party game material. Just as Wario Ware: Touched served on the basis of showing off the unique system capabilities of the DS, Smooth Moves slides in to show players the multitude of ways the Wii Remote can be used.

Smooth Moves definitely serves as the Wii's greatest title so far for 2007 and fits nicely in Nintendo's releases of mini-game games for the Wii. Wario steps up and fills a gap in the Wii’s launch list, which finally picks up again in the middle of the month. With all there is to do in Smooth Moves, there's no doubt the title will keep players occupied until the next batch of releases for the Wii.

GemuBaka Final Review Score: 4 of 5