GENRE
	Party
	DEVELOPER
	Nintendo
	PUBLISHER
	Nintendo
	NUMBER OF PLAYERS
	1-4
	WI-FI ENHANCED
	No
	DS COMPATIBLE
	No
	BUY NOW AT

Few Nintendo series better reflect the mania of real world consumerism than WarioWare. Instant gratification, minimal input and sensory overload flood each title in the series, leaving us with a giddy, goofy sugar high that should come with a major crash for as much fun we have.

That's why WarioWare: Smooth Moves is an excellent ambassador to Wii's arrival. It handily won over E3 2006 attendees in a mere minute and a half gaming spurt, so the full dose of game should convert even more unsuspecting people into Wii fanatics-- if said people can be talked into flailing like mad in front of you. Certainly, they'll thank you for it afterwards.

visuals

The highlight of Smooth Moves' visuals are the one-dimensional, brightly colored comic-styled graphics that animate the game's intro and story sequences. The designs and movement are far from complex, yet their character and oddball personality make up for their simplicty and establish Wario and company as true "heroes of the people" when compared to the irrepressible goody-two-shoes Mario. There's merit and honor in saving Princess Peach over and over again, but Wario and his friends would probably be a lot more fun to kick back with.

The micro-games, as with every WarioWare, feature graphics ranging from poor to mediocre-- but always intentionally or stylishly so. Every once in a while something like a Metroid Prime 2 micro-game will pop up with attractive polygonal graphics, eliciting a brief "ooo!", but that's not the point of any WarioWare. Tying back to the "of the people" ideology, Smooth Moves features scattershot visuals that range from simplistic '80s Atari-esque pixel work to art student pencil sketches. For games that are usually on screen for no more than five seconds, the low-quality presentation is oftentimes more charming than stunning and perfectly adequate. More thrilling than any of that, though, is when gamers' self-created Miis and names pop up in numerous mini-games. Finally, another title is using Wii's Miis to delightful effect.

audio

Audio, as with the lifespan of the micro-games, is noticed one second and forgotten the next. The gooey pop songs that accompany Penny Crygor or Dribble and Spitz's stages are catchy and fun. Then, everything from disco to Asian-influenced tunes pop up throughout other stages. Most memorable is the small slice of voice acting. The intro and all the game's cutscenes use on-screen text for dialogue, but the descriptions of each way the remote is meant to be held for micro-games are delivered in hilarious Saturday Night Live-inspired "Deep Thoughts" monotone. The vocal delivery is perfectly suited for the goofy and whimsical explanations of, for instance, what the handlebar pose is meant for: "Like riding a bicycle, this pose requires grace, steadiness, and tight shorts." If only these comic nuggets were available for replay like the single player mode's cut-scenes.

Nearly as important as the use of Miis in-game, the Smooth Moves development team also went out of its way to make sure the remote's speaker makes a sound in nearly every micro-game. Given that so many other Wii titles don't use it, the tinny little noise-box really earns its existence here. The sound effects are never crucial to gameplay, but they add a noticeable and worthwhile layer of depth to the overall presentation.

gameplay

Anyone who's played a previous WarioWare knows the drill here: barrel through micro-game after micro-game. In single player mode the micro-games are lumped into groups of about 10 - 20 within character-themed stages that must be beaten sequentially. Each stage ends with creative "boss battle" micro-games that unfortunately don't appear in multiplayer modes due to their length.

What distinguishes Smooth Moves from its predecessors is its imaginative array of ways to hold the remote, which flash on-screen before each micro-game, accompanied by a simple black-on-white visual illustration. Balanced flat on the palm. At the hip as a sword. Straight up as a broomstick. Sideways like a dumbbell. Even face down on a table, not at all in hand. Just being asked to hold the remote in such imaginative ways is exciting-- and there are plenty of other "forms" to discover as the game progresses. Yet then the actual game pops up on-screen with a four (or less) second time limit and a simple command: Vacuum! Balance! Defend! Drink! Lift! Weirdo! Usually a subtle movement (or strenuous, frantic flailings) of the remote accomplishes whatever's requested, whether it's putting a finger in a nose, snatching the hand of a woman falling off a skyscraper, or washing food off a plate. Some of the micro-games are a bit obscure, or sometimes the remote just fails to accomplish what's demanded before a micro-game's time limit runs out (definitely make sure the remote stays within the sensor bar's range), but this is easily remedied by visiting the "Temple of Form" from the single player world map, wherein any previously played micro-game-- whether won or lost-- can be played ad infinitum at any speed desired.

Nearly all of the micro-games are immediately intuitive, however, and simple enough for the whole family to play and conquer once they get the hang of the poses. Because of this, Smooth Moves requires nearly everything in the game to be unlocked, from the micro-games themselves to multiplayer. This constraint is a bit disappointing since Smooth Moves is so primed for multiplay, just as its GameCube predecessor was. Yet the full single player mode must be played through before true multiplayer can even be accessed from the mode selection screen. Fortunately, this precursory task takes only about two hours of dedicated time and unlocks about 2/3rds of everything. Nintendo also shows appreciation to single players by dangling even more unlockable stages and micro-games beyond the game's "main quest," and given the one-person-at-a-time gameplay (in either single- or multi-play), it's not like enterprising and creative gamers can't take turns in the single player mode for ad hoc multiplayer.

multiplayer

There doesn't seem to be as many "zany" or laugh-out-loud micro-games in Smooth Moves as compared to previous titles in the series, but multiplayer makes up for this with some truly amusing methods by which friends can play, and all modes utilize Wii's Mii Channel to full effect. Each participant can select his or her previously created Mii (or a generic stock one), and this makes engaging in multiplayer as personally engrossing as Wii Sports. In the most basic mode of all, "Survival," each player takes turns playing micro-games until he or she fails, at which point s/he's eliminated for the rest of the game mode. The last player standing wins the mode. Simple enough, right? This mode is fluffed up, however, by representing each of the participants' Miis as angels flying through the sky, complete with white, Greco-styled togas and sandles. Upon failure, they plummet off the screen while the other gamers continue to dive and loop with smiling faces.

In "Lifeline," the players' Miis are sprinting down a jungle path. A seagull swoops onto the screen holding a placard displaying an illustrated pose for an upcoming micro-game. Players alternately take turns in ever-quickening micro-games with varying poses, and the number of micro-games won determines, of all things, how many ropes a Mii will be suspended by over an alligator-filled pond. Yes, after playing five micro-games each, all participants' Miis are strung up over a pond with an alligator in it, and they then get to take turns cutting ropes to see who will be the last surviving player which, admittedly, is purely chance given that players can't tell which rope is tied to whom.

These are just two of the four multiplayer games/modes, all of which accommodate up to 12 players thanks to the one-at-a-time gameplay. Once single player is exhausted, multiplayer is where Smooth Moves's value kicks in. Without friends or family to play with, the title may not get a lot of time in your Wii, unless you desire to be a pro at Can Shooting or Tower Tennis.

overall

As with Wii Sports, WarioWare: Smooth Moves makes Wii approachable and fun for nearly anyone willing to unabashedly pose and thrash in front of others. In fact, watching other people play the game is a healthy chunk of the fun. When's the last time you saw your dad try to hula hoop? Solo players may not get as much out of the title after going through the main single player mode, but at least there's a variety of additional things to achieve, and the rapid fire marathon play modes, where micro-game after micro-game is thrown up in random succession, are a kick to play through after a long, dull day. The experience may quickly evaporate from your mind after an hour, but Smooth Moves is so easy to jump into and so swiftly satisfying, it's just the thing for our gimme-gimme society.

8.0/10