WarioWare: Touched DS review
In WarioWare: Touched, Wario and his crew of game designers are making their mad debut on the Nintendo DS with hundreds of all-new, factory-fresh microgames!
WarioWare: Touched features all of the frantic microgame goodness of the previous games, but with a lot of new touches – you control the wacky on-screen action with the touch screen and a stylus. In the first two years after its release the game would go on to sell over 2 million copies worldwide.
System: DS
Genre: Action, Puzzle, Arcade
Release dates: December 2nd 2004 (JPN), February 14th 2005 (USA), February 24th 2005 (AUS), March 11th 2005 (EURO)
Players: 1
Developer: Intelligent Systems & Nintendo R&D1
Publisher: Nintendo
Origin: Japan
Rating: E for Everyone with Cartoon Violence and Crude Humor
The “story” of WarioWare: Touched goes as follows: Wario is walking along holding two items that resemble a Game Boy Advance and a Game Boy Advance SP when he accidentally drops both into an open sewer. An angel comes out and asks if he dropped the two Game Boy Advance like items or a different item resembling a Nintendo DS. Wario states flatly to give him all of them and pounces the angel in order to get them. They fall into the sewer and Wario emerges holding the DS-like item. He attempts to play a whack-a-mole type game on the lower screen, but fails and shakes the device in anger. This produces a “weird stick” from the device that resembles a stylus and attempts to play the whack-a-mole game again. Now that he has the “stylus”, he simply taps the mole with it and passes the game. After deciding that it’s a fun game, he declares, “With double the screens, I get double the money!”
WarioWare: Touched does not use the control pad at all, instead all in-game movement is controlled by pointing your stylus at the DS touch screen to perform the required action or by using the DS’s microphone. The player is put on a knife-edge with under five seconds to figure out and solve an onscreen puzzle, as they battle their way through a selection of these fast paced microgames. Failure to complete a task correctly, or within the time limit, results in the player losing 1 out of the 4 lives per session and the game moving onto the next challenge.
Fans of the series will be glad to know that each minigame successfully completed is unlocked as a stand-alone game, letting them challenge increasingly difficult versions of their favorite game in a high-score challenge. Successfully completing the various levels also unlocks zany items and minigames for you to play.
Once again WarioWare contains a huge collection of extremely strange minigames that are so fast their called microgames. There 180 all-new microgames this time around. Examples of microgames include chopping up flying fruit by wielding your stylus as a sword, unrolling toilet paper, striking matches, literally blowing toy yachts across the screens using the DS microphone, cratching Wario’s back, cutting a rope so a cage falls on a duck, and catching fish in a net. After successfully completing a number of microgames, smaller, mostly non-competitive “toys” are unlocked. These use the touch-screen to achieve tasks, such as playing with a yo-yo (in which you must hold the DS upside down), or building a snowman. While none of these tasks sound all that exciting written down, the way they are executed is often hilarious and the fast pace at which everything comes at you leaves you little time to give it much thought except to react fast and wonder what wacky microgame will come your way next.
Watch the WarioWare: Touched launch trailer.
Each character you encounter on the game map has their own style of gameplay:
Wario – Touch Training: Games involving simple taps of the Touch Screen.
Mona – Cute Cuts: Games involving short swipes on the Touch Screen.
Jimmy T. – Dance Club Rub: Games involving rubbing the Touch Screen with the stylus.
Jamie T. – Jamie’s Mix: A mix of all the microgames from Wario, Mona, and Jimmy, starting on the second difficulty level.
Kat and Ana – Ninja Scribble: Games that use the stylus to draw lines on the Touch Screen.
Ashley – Total Drag: Games in which the stylus can drag objects around the screen.
Dr. Crygor – Slightly Unscrewed: Games using a circular motion.
James T. – James’s Mix: A mix of microgames from Kat and Ana, Ashley, and Doctor Crygor, starting on the second difficulty level.
Mike – Mic Rocking: Games using the DS microphone.
9-Volt and 18-Volt – Retro Action: Games based on classic Nintendo games.
Wario-Man – Super Zero: A variety of different types of control, and all games feature Wario in some way.
So what are the main features of WarioWare: Touched?
* Tap, scratch and rub with your stylus on the touch screen to play absurdly fun microgames that’ll have you milking a cow, drawing a ‘stache on a face and hurling stars at evil ninjas. You can even play some microgames by blowing into the Nintendo DS’s built-in microphone!
* Play more than 180 all-new, exciting microgames that are perfect for quick pick-up-and-play breaks or marathon sessions.
* Clear microgames to unlock weird new characters and collect all kinds of eccentric souvenirs like a pet chameleon, a record player and a pingpong set!
Watch some WarioWare: Touched gameplay footage.
Now let’s see how much fun WarioWare: Touched is on a scale from 1 to 10?
FUN FACTOR – 9.0
The WarioWare series is known for being both fun and wacky and this time it’s got more interactive gaming added with the unique DS functions that will have you tap, rub, blow and slice your way through 180 new microgames. Indeed, WarioWare: Touched includes the innovative extra use of the DS stylus and microphone. You’ll end up using the stylus for even sillier gaming than before, like when you have guide a piece of tissue into a nostril, but it also contains control showpieces like playing an electronic harmonica by blowing into the microphone or carving out a statue from stone and popping balloons with the DS stylus. Most games are hilarious as you have mere seconds to try and figure out what to do next with each fun new game.
It’s definitely time to embrace that “touching is good” DS launch motto, although of course not in any inappropriate ways, this addictive handheld game was made for it and uses the touch screen in many cheeky ways to put a big grin on your face. The quirky game is packed with a ton of quick and fun games that are completely different from anything else in the Nintendo DS lineup (outside of maybe Feel The Magic which also loosely ties together minigames). WarioWare: Touched is a must-have for the DS owner who likes to laugh.
Graphics – 8.0
The 2D visual style is very pixilated retro, and it’s all over the place since each microgame gets a somewhat different style, but all in all it fits the game’s crazy themes. The many different microgames have a modest yet zany look that suits this DS microgames collection.
Audio – 7.5
The sound effects are minimalistic, but varied enough to be entertaining as it should be. The music is appropriately hectic, especially when the difficulty goes up and it speeds up, but it’s always cheerful and some tunes even include singers.
Ingenuity – 9.0
The game has 180 new microgames that all use the DS stylus (and microphone) capabilities in various different ways, which is great to keep the gameplay diverse and fun. The new controls are definitely an innovative twist to the already fast-paced gameplay experience, even if it’s somewhat natural considering the touch screen platform its on. Once you get used to the speed of the microgames (lightning-fast minigames) you’ll find all the controls are well explained and work well as long as your motions are snappy. Keep going/trying and you’ll improve your hand-eye coordination skills with leaps and bounds, as you get better highscores in the game.
Replay Value – 7.0
Expect to play through the single player mode in a few hours. Unlocking all 180 microgames and bonus items in the game requires practice & skill and will keep you entertained for a while after you first finished the game. And the topscore microgames add a lot to the replay value of such a short yet undeniably fun experience. It’s great for short bursts of play on the go. Although people around me on the train started giving me weird looks when I’d blow into my DS or started tapping the screen like crazy. On second thought, maybe it was my sometimes bummed out mumbling, sometimes cheerful shrieks when I was trying to keep quiet after failing or succeeding at difficult microgames, heh! Well, whatever the case, I was having fun with it for weeks.
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