Wario Ware Touched! Preview
Wario Ware Touched! Nintendo DS Preview
Once the Nintendo DS was announced, it was a given that Wario Ware Inc. DS would be released along side with the DS. Why you ask? Well, the first game of the series for the Game Boy Advance was highly acclaimed and wildly successful. People do not love the series for no good reason now. The Wario Ware series has a simple theme to it. The whole point of the game is to exercise your reflexes while playing a large variety of intense mini-games. The catch is that you normally only have a few seconds to complete each mini-game, which means that there is not much time to think. After a standard countdown for a mini-game to begin, you have to immediately begin jabbing at your controller or game boy, hoping you will be victorious. All of the fun gameplay and graphics combined with an abundance of mini-games makes Wario Ware Inc. fun for everyone.
Although only a small portion of the mini-games were playable at e3 2004, it was clear that the game would be a success. The sheer quality of the mini-games was astounding. Combining the original formula of the series with the unique features of the Nintendo DS is genius. Wario Ware will easily be one of the games that will help the DS sell [in boatloads]
Currently Wario Ware Inc. has utilized the features of Nintendo DS better than any other game. It achieves this feat in a few key ways. The first is with the two screens that the DS has. Wario is nearly always watching you on the top screen counting down the time and just waiting for you to screw up. He challenges you and makes all of the mini-games much more exciting and innovative. For example, at times he will begin a mini-game by throwing down boxes from the top screen to the bottom one where you will be playing. This is where the use of the touch screen comes into place. You will get to play the games with a stylus instead of the traditional D-pad or analog stick, which will greatly enhance the experience of the game.
The mini-games available have been very fun and innovative so far. One game has you moving your stylus over the screen to have a coin appear, or to have a ton of different fruits and items tumble toward you that you must stop with your stylus. Another game required you to steadily control a net to catch a horde of bees, while another had you scratch Wario’s back. Finally, a few others included you to have to control a special device to capture a kind of animal, or put loose coins into a purse, while one had you try and write unique Japanese letters.
Even with all of the positive features of the game, there are still a few weak points as well. First and foremost, the graphics of the game are still 2-D. Nintendo DS boasts capabilities of amazing graphics, but Wario Ware’s graphics could easily be done on Game Boy Advance. The game does aim for a sort of kiddy and sloppy display, but even so I am hoping with the features of the DS, the developers can improve on this. Nonetheless, the game is still very polished and smooth. Even without the DS quality graphics, it is very fun to see Wario always doing something on the top screen while the player is vigorously using the stylus. Then, there is the ever so interesting music that is played just as intensely as the game goes. Therefore, Wario Ware relies on innovation and creativity and so the only small problem at the moment of graphics can be over looked.
There is still quite a bit of time until the game will be released and so there are still many issues that have not been announced by Nintendo. First, there is no release date for the game, but as it is already in development, it will not be surprising if the game is released alongside with the Nintendo DS. Also, we are still unsure of whether older mini-games will be used in this new version or if any new mini-games will not use the touch screen. Needless to say, as long as the game stays true to the way it is now, I will be ready to buy it on day one.
| Ratings | ||
|---|---|---|
| Hype Meter | 9 | Metroid Prime seems to be the game that could really make the DS the hit it deserves to be. |
