WarioWare: Smooth Moves

 

    So if you recall some of the Wii commercials from when it first launched, they showed people getting up off the couch and doing a bunch of exaggerated motions in order to control the games. Obviously people know now that's not how it works, you can play most of the Wii library just fine sitting on the couch with simple wrist flicks, but that's how it was marketed, misleading as it probably was. In retrospect, it did make people look pretty silly while playing the console, and I guess some of the devs at Nintendo must've thought the same thing, considering that they made an entire game based around looking as much like an utter doofus as possible.
    In case you somehow don't know what led to this point, Wario started off as simply an evil version of Mario, making his debut in Super Mario Land 2 and later getting his own series in the form of the Wario Land games. His series would gradually splinter further and further away from Mario, getting wackier and more off-beat with every single entry, until it got so crazy that it transcended any standard notion of gameplay entirely with the WarioWare series. How they work is that you have a large collection of microgames, essentially extremely small bursts of gameplay that you have to figure out within only a couple seconds, and you have to complete as many as you can until you run out of lives. The microgames in question are presented with a very “programmers messing around” sense of humor, to which is extended by way of a range of unlockable minigames and weird doodads to play with, making use of the hardware in a creative way. WarioWare: Smooth Moves is the first major installment on a home console, barring the GameCube version that was just a conversion of Mega Microgame$ with multiplayer, and as such is fully based around inventive uses for the Wii Remote.
    The main difference between Smooth Moves and the games preceding it is that the controls in previous games, while used in creative ways, were intentionally limited as to keep things snappy. Mega Microgame$ only used the D-pad and A button, Twisted is much the same with an internal gyro sensor, and Touched mostly used just the DS touchscreen. Smooth Moves, by contrast, has you using the Wii Reomte in every possible way imaginable. The game has what it calls forms, basically different ways you have to hold the Wii Remote, all explained with a hilariously calm voiceover whenever a new one is introduced. The forms can be anything from simply holding the Wii Remote forward or sideways, to more unconventional like holding it at your hip or setting it on a table. It'll display the form you need to use before a microgame appears, and while it does slow down the pace of the game slightly, it's a necessary addition to make sure you understand what the game is asking of you.
    The forms in question end up combining with WarioWare's usual sense of humor in really clever ways, often leading the player in question to look almost as ridiculous as whatever's happening on screen. As one might imagine, it escalates in difficulty and outlandishness further with each stage, until it reaches the point where you do things like become part of the most awkward dancing troupe imaginable. Of course, you don't need to mimic the forms exactly, as quite a few of the motions aren't more complex than a single shake or twist, but given how unabashedly silly the game is, it's simply a more fun experience to embrace the wackiness of it all. Plus, given just the sheer number of microgames in the package, it's impressive how many of them work without issue. The only ones that gave me trouble were any with inward and outward movement, as for whatever reason, that resulted in the motion becoming shaky, but I'd somehow win the microgame anyway when that happened, so it wasn't that much of an issue.
    Of course, it wouldn't be a WarioWare game without the random unlockables, and at first, I was a little bit disappointed. They initially seemed a bit thin on the ground compared to previous games, barring the resident Pyoro game and an admittedly really fun 3D remake of a mode from Balloon Fight. That was until I discovered that the rest of the unlockables were hiding out in the multiplayer mode, and it thankfully did not disappoint. It offers four different modes to play the microgames with your friends in, and they all manage to be just as hectic, if not moreso than the single player mode. Weirdly, though, something I was really impressed with was the darts minigame; how it works is that you hold the Wii Remote, literally throw it like a dart, and let the wrist strap catch and pull back the Wii Remote as you throw it. It's a pretty ingenious use for an element of the controller most probably wouldn't even consider, although obviously it doesn't work if you don't have a wrist strap, unless you really want to break your Wii Remote on the floor.
    Smooth Moves is simply a really solid entry in the franchise, easily the best multiplayer WarioWare experience you can get. Funnily enough, for all my praise, it's not quite my favorite entry in the franchise; I think Twisted has the best pacing and microgames of any of them, and D.I.Y. is simply really fun to create stuff in. That being said, most of the WarioWare games are of a similar quality to each other, so it's like comparing really good apples to slightly better apples, and in that regard, Smooth Moves still ranks among the higher tier of them. It's perfect to pick up if you want a party game for the Wii, but feel that other party games don't have enough nose-picking simulations.