A short game is a good game eh?

What the hell is going on?! That's what you'll be saying to yourself when you play WarioWare: Smooth Moves for the first time. The best way to describe this crazy game is fast, reflex driven and utterly nutty. This is Nintendo at their craziest and once you play it for the first time, you almost won't ever be able to put it down.

WarioWare has no real story as such, more like a fantasy world where there are hundreds of ideas for games floating around. Thing is, their game ideas only last about 3 - 5 seconds each. Hardly enough time to engage a player I hear you say, maybe, unless they tool their ideas together so that players have to play each game idea in succession, hell, they can even beat a line of mini games and then do them again faster, just to prove themselves. Sounds like a money making idea to me.

This is the basic premise behind WarioWare: Smooth Moves, and it’s a game that hardly needs a story to back it up. The core idea is that you choose a character, and play through their mini games. Beat the games and play them faster until you can progress to another character and try their games out. Mini games range from picking noses, shaving mustaches, opening doors or even games featuring Super Mario Bros and Wario Land. The range of games is amazing and they're all simple to play, they just require you to grip the Wii Remote in a particular fashion, and use your reflexes to figure out what to do in the game. Thanks to the inclusion of onscreen prompts that demonstrate how to hold the Wiimote before each game, it's wonderfully easy to get the hang of, even for people who aren't familiar with the concept.

Since this is a Wii game we're talking about, it's not that surprising to note that most, if not all of the micro games seem to involve an embarrassing amount of exaggerated gesticulation. Arm Waving, shaking, squats, jumping, hula hoping etc... The potential for hilarious accidents involving other players is huge. Especially with unco players like myself.

WarioWare: Smooth Moves is by no means a compelling game. There are no adventure elements and nothing - story wise - that makes the game worthwhile. But its quirkiness and unique gameplay is enough to keep you glued to your Wii Remote like nothing else, especially if it's still sitting in the corner after you finished Zelda. In a strange move, there is a multiplayer option, but can only get unlocked once the single player is finished. Don't know why it couldn't be included at the start of the game, although it's not a hard mission to finish the game, so you should have it unlocked in no time.

Reply value with WarioWare is essentially through the roof and as the game has no compelling story, you can pick it up and play it any time, for as long, or little as you want. Of course if you're suited towards more action packed adventure games, the reply value may look a bit thin after playing through the game once,

The greatest draw for WarioWare Smooth Moves is it's innovative gameplay and wacky sense of humor. The mini games are more often than not hilarious and offer a side-splitting venture into the kooky mind of Nintendo. There's no technical brilliance here (The graphics at times look quite shabby), this is pure fun gameplay in its simplest and best form. You'd be hard pressed finding anything as unique as this game on the market and it works a charm. Although some people may be put off by the price, after all this is essentially a collection of mini games, so does that warrant the price of a full game like, say, Super Mario Galaxy? I'd say no, wait for a price drop and you're looking at a good value game.

WarioWare is a great product that should appeal to a wide number of people that bought the Wii for different games. So if you're looking for something different, and are willing to cough up the money, pick up a copy of WarioWare Smooth Moves. You'll be helping keep Wario in business.

Seeyaz