Warioware Smooth Moves (Wii)
We have had this game for almost as long as we have had our Nintendo Wii, so nearly three years I think. This was not part of a Wii bundle at the time, it was purchased separately. And it is a really unique game in my opinion.
- About the game
This game is described as “Take interactive gaming to a whole new level! Use the Wii remote to bring the part to its feet as you jump, punch, dance and more through over 200 frantic mini games’. The game features one main character called Wario but the other characters are “Mona”, “Master Mantis”, “Young cricket” and more. The game is played using only the wii remote and it is rated by pegi for ages 7 and over (as it contains cartoon violence). This game is available in five languages including: English, German, French, Italian, Spanish. The game is only a one player game, which is one of my biggest criticisms of the game. This game was released in 2007, it is categorized as a ‘party’ game and it is only available on the Wii platform. The main features of the game are as follows:
- Single player (no online game play either)
- Wii remote/nunchuk is the only controller needed
- For ages 7 and over (pegi)
- Contains over 200 mini games
- Only available on the Wii platform
- Setting up the game and game menus
Firstly you have to attach the wrist strap on the wii remote to your wrist, as it is suggested in the instruction booklet, I do not do this though as in this game you are not really swinging the wii remote around and also in some of the mini games you have to put the wii remote on the floor. Once you have the wii remote and wii set up you will first see the main menu of the game. The only option to pick from on the main menu is the ‘single’ player option, once opened you will then be able to pick your Mii if you are playing this game for the first time (a Mii is a small character icon that will represent you in the saved data table). I think there are about 20 Mii character heads to pick from and once you have picked your icon you will then be taken to the main game page.
The main game play page is an image of a birds eye view of a city, with streets with large icons placed around the small virtual city. Some of the icons include: a train station: this icon takes you back to the main menu, Factory: where you can edit your player details such as your Mii character icon and Warios house: which the the first icon you have to click on and it tells you the story of the characters in the game. Once you have watched all of the story of the game there will be another large icon which you click on - these icons have there own little story, their own characters, a unique theme and also their own series of unique mini games in them (of which there are about 16 - 25 in each).
- Playing the game
Once everything is set up and you have gone though the whole process stated in the previous paragraph you can then start to play the games. There will be icons on the city map which indicate the different stories in which you have a series of mini games - you can only progress to the next icon when you have fully completed the one before it.
The mini game series include the Young cricket and master, the Mona stage, the Jimmy P stage and the Kat and Ana stage - the ashley stage is my favourite as the game story is that of a witch and this series of mini games is really good - the Jimmy P stage is good too.
Ok, so you have clicked on the icon for the first mini game series - for this review I will just focus on one: the Jimmy P stage as it is a fairly easy stage and it is one of the first icons you can play if you have just started playing this game. Every mini game series once clicked opens with a cartoon story. This cartoon story before each mini game in my opinion is really tedious and boring to watch and you have to watch the short story every time you play that mini game series! I have tried to skip past the little story but I haven’t found a way, which is a bit annoying, especially as the stories are really stupid in my opinion. Also with the little stories, there is no one talking, so you have to read the captions and it is accompanied by some annoying cheesy elevator music too. Once you have watched the little story at the beginning of the game you can then start to play the mini games. You can not choose what mini games you want to play and they are in roughly the same order every time you play that particular game. The Jimmy P series of mini games are all really good, some of the types of mini games for this Jimmy P game are as follows: fishing, shooting, answering the phone...billiards, a mario type game and many more. For each game there are about 16 mini games in it, although this does differ depending on what mini game series you are playing. Before you play the mini game there will be an image of the way you have to hold the Wii remote to play that particular mini game. The main selling factor in my opinion for this game is that it gets you to hold the Wii remote is odd ways, instead of the normal way remote control way.
Each mini game will ask you to hold the Wii remote in a particular way and you will only have a couple of seconds to hold the Wii remote in the position it tells you to. The some of the different Wii remote ‘positions’ are as follows: The remote control (how you would normally hold the Wii remote), Umbrella, Chauffeur, Elephant, Boxer, Waiter, The Tug of war, The Mohawk, The mortar and pestle, The finger food, ‘Discard’, The janitor and more! With the Wii position of ‘The boxer’ you may be asked to shed paper or pasta. The ‘Remote control’ position may ask you to shoot at a moving target or to play billiards. The ‘Finger food’ position may ask you to use a key to unlock a door. The ‘Thumb wreslter’ position may ask you to shake a bottle of champagne and spray it. There are many different mini games in which you have to complete strange tasks using the wii remote, this element of the game in my opinion is really unique - I don’t think a lot of other games you ask you to shake the virtual banana to get the flies to come off it or to grate a mobile phone or to clean cattle!
Each mini game lasts for between 5 to 10 seconds (a couple of the mini game last for about 15 seconds) and there are about 16 or more mini games in one series. Most of them are really quite easy but sometimes the Wii remote movements will not be picked up by the sensor and can make you lose a mini game. When you lose a mini game one of your four or five lives will be taken away. With most of the games when you get to a certain point (usually the second to last game) you will enter the ‘Boss stage” which is the most difficult stage in the games. For example, with the Jimmy P mini game series the ‘boss stage’ mini game is one where you have to defend yourself against a samurai character but I find this mini game difficult and if you lose this last game you have to start from the beginning of the mini game series. After a couple of times of not winning the ‘boss stage’ mini game and going through about 15 mini games and then loosing it can get really boring and tedious. I would say that 80% of the mini games are easy but some of them are quite difficult such as the Boss stage mini games. Some of the mini game are made a bit more difficult as sometimes the Wii sensor is not very accurate and does not track your movements, this is not the case with all of the mini games though. When you have finished the one of the mini game series there will be another annoying story clip and music at the end. Then another icon will appear on the city map/view which indicates another story and series of mini games to play. If you can not complete one mini game series you will not be able to progress onto another series of mini games - this is why I do not play this game for months at a time as I get stuck on certain stages and after playing the same series of mini games a couple of times it can get very tedious and boring in my opinion - then it gets left in the cupboard for another month or so!
Overall, I think this game is really quite unique as the mini games are quite odd and I have no seen or played a game like this before. The mini games are really good and very unique and quite entertaining too. But some of the mini games, such as the boss stage mini games, can be a bit difficult. There are a couple of very annoying things about this game though and they are as follows: the little stories at the beginning of the mini game series can not be skipped and they are really boring in my opinion. The fact that this game is only a single player game makes this game a bit boring as it is not very entertaining watching people play this - I think this game would be so much better if it was a multiplayer game.
- Music/audio and graphics
The graphics for this game are quite good, some of the mini games have cartoon like graphics and other mini games are very detailed - such as the fishing games. The clarity of the graphics is good and the images are very bright and colourful. The audio quality is good but the music that is played for each mini series is very cheesy and it is not pleasant to listen to after about 15-20 minutes.
- Would I recommend this game?
I think this game does have some really good points to it, such as the graphics quality, the sheer number of mini games, the uniqueness of the mini games and the very interactive nature of the game but in my opinion the flaws out weigh the positives and I don’t think I would recommend this game. I do still like this game but I think there is a lot of room for improvement of this game. I think this game, if the flaws are corrected, would be fantastic with the Xbox 360 kinect!
- Price and availability
I bought this game about three years ago I think from asda. This game can be bought from amazon.co.uk for around £14, play.com: £13.99, Very: £19, Game: £11, HMV: £12, John lewis: £19.95, Tesco entertainment: £11 and Game station: £11. You may also be able to find this game on eBay.co.uk.
Conclusions
Positives
- Most of the mini games are fairly easy to play
- A very unique game in my opinion as the mini game are fairly strange but fun and entertaining too
- Instruction booklet and the game menu layout is good and fairly simple
- Fairly cheap now as it has been available to buy for about three years
- Unique game play - and a more interactive and entertaining way of using the Wii remote
Negatives
- Only a one/single player game! So I don’t know why it is described as a party game!
- Can be boring and tedious if you can not complete one of the mini game series - as you can not skip or progress to the next series of mini games until you have completed the series before
- The little stories/clips at the beginning and end of each mini game series is annoying and boring in my opinion - and you can not skip it and go straight to the game
- Some of the mini games are a bit difficult - the boss stage mini game with the samurai is fairly difficult and if you loose all of your 4 or 5 lives then you have to start from the beginning of that mini game series
Thank you for reading my review
Wario's moves are nothing if not smooth! 
