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The Lowdown
Pros: A variety of mini games to choose from played with the stylus and
microphone.
Cons: Focuses entirely on the DS new features and lacks making any other
microgames.
 Purchase
at Play-Asia
 Purchase
at Lik-Sang
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The Wario Ware series is one of Nintendo's new franchises for the Game Boy
Advance. Quirky humor made Wario and his friends interesting, but it was
the microgames that made the title shine. Each microgame last a couple
of seconds. By the time you've completed or failed one game you'll be
playing a new different game. As you get better the pace of the
microgames increases, which makes for some intense play. Sawaru Made in
Wario is the first Wario Ware title for the DS. It's once of the
Japanese DS launch titles and is a must for followers of the microgame
craze.The first Wario Ware title introduced the concept of microgames.
While the second, Mawaru Made in Wario, focused on using the tilt sensor
built into the cartridge. It was more gimmicky than the first game, but
still fun. Sawaru Made in Wario focuses on the new features in the DS'
hardware, mainly the touch screen. The huge majority of the games are
touch screen only, with a few minority using the game's microphone
feature. None of the games use a classical control scheme, which makes
this title a little more repetitive than the first. When you break down
the touch screen mini games you can categorize them in four groups.
Poking something, drawing something, spinning something or moving the
stylus back and forth. Elementary as it sounds the title is fun.
It's those crazy micro games that everyone remembers about the Wario
Ware games. Sawaru Made in Wario sticks with this trend and introduces
some new games and remakes of old ones. One of the classic old games
redone is the one where you pick a nose. Instead of pressing a button at
the right time you'll move the finger with the stylus up the nose to
make it sneeze. Classic NES cameos have also been modified. Instead of
controlling Mario with the D-pad to hit question mark blocks, you'll
poke the blocks with the stylus. Rolling a roll of toilet paper until
it's all gone is one of the new games. To do this you'll move the stylus
up and down rapidly until you're just left with a cardboard tube.
Another game has you spinning the stylus in a circle to create a vortex
to suck up an entire universe. Blowing bubbles until a cup of water
overflows is another game. To play this you'll blow into the DS's
microphone to make bubbles appear in the water until water flows out
from the top of the cup. One of the other NES throwback games comes from
Duck Hunt. In the Wario Ware version you poke grey discs to shoot them.
Who would imagine chopping vegetables in half in midair would be fun?
Or it would be a challenge to hit the numbers 1, 2 and 3 in order? Some
of the games have these really simple ideas, but end up being really
entertaining. Since you're only doing a game for literally a few
seconds, it's not long enough for you to really dislike any of the
microgames. If you're new to the series you may have to "learn" how the
games work. Most of them are intuitive, meaning that you can figure them
out just by looking. While others might take a second or two to
understand and there is bound to be one that you just don't have a clue
how to do. As frustrating as it may be, the game relies on players going
through a degree of trial and error.
To keep the learning curve down Nintendo has arranged different
styles of microgames for each character. Ninjas Kat and Ana have games
where players draw paths on screen. Where Dr. Crysor's microgrames are
designed to have players rotate the stylus on the touch screen. The new
robot, appropriately named Mike, has games using the microphone. Once
you complete a characters game set by beating a boss stage you can go
back and select that character again for a new challenge. This time
you'll endlessly play microgames until you lose your four lives. In this
mode games will get harder and the speed will get faster as you continue
to play. Completing characters will unlock more characters, which means
more games. You'll even be able to select from three teddy bears that
have a mix of microgames from different characters.
Wario Ware games haven't been known for pushing the limits of
hardware graphics. So you wouldn't expect Sawaru Made in Wario to have
complex graphics. The game's graphics have been greatly improved
compared to the GBA titles. This time around you have a coloring book 3D
world displayed when you're moving from location to location. Sawaru
Made in Wario has many of the same quirky characters from the previous
games like Jimmy the disco guy who loves his cell phone and that
Nintendo fan boy 9-volt. All of the characters have clever movies, which
are well animated. In general the tone of the game is brighter and more
colorful than its predecessors.
Sawaru Made in Wario is a blast to play and pretty addictive with all
of the different micro games to play. If it does suffer from one thing
it's that it is gimmicky with only having stylus based games. On the
other hand a mix of stylus only games may not have worked due to the
rapid pace the game can get to. This game shows off how the DS can reinvent franchises even with simple ideas like left hand support.
Wario Ware Touched! is one of the better DS titles out there in Japan
and if you have a DS pick it up.
There are some simple Japanese menus to navigate through and a kanji
drawing game. All of the actual games are easy to learn no matter what
languages you can speak.
US Bound?
Nintendo plans to release this title on February 14, 2005 in America.
Overall
Wario Ware Touched! has enough micro games to satisfy any gamer who
owns a DS, even though it's not a major change from the series.
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