Every now and then, something comes along that is so great that there are no real words to describe it. Nintendo’s WarioWare DIY for the DS fits this category. It is so out-of-this-world fun that constructive gaming will never be the same again.
No, I don’t want a Nintendog.
I don’t want to ‘imagine’ that I’m a teacher, an artist, a babysitter, or a gourmet chef — I want to play a game that can keep up with my creative needs. WarioWare does just that.
Eat your heart out, Mario Paint.
WarioWare gives gamers the opportunity to create their own 10 second mini-games using a whole assortment of tools. With the Game MakerMatic, anyone can create the distraction of their dreams.
There are specific categories — or aspects of a whole game — that are used to develop your own special craziness. In Settings, you can name your game and decide if you want it to be regular length or a longer length and also change the name of your game if you feel the need. In Graphics, you draw your objects and backgrounds using a load of different devices that kind of resemble the ones used in the Paint accessory thing on a computer. There’s even an myriad of stamps that can be used for the gamer who has no artistic ability whatsoever. The Music section reminds me of Mario Paint the most because it has a lot of the same music notes as the old Super Nintendo game.
What is lacking is the awesome little Mario to jump on top of the notes as the screen scrolls. But that’s just sentimentality speaking.
The Music application in WarioWare offers so much more than Mario Paint ever could but there’s that goofy element missing. It’s almost too much pressure to pick what notes you want to use because there are just so damn many of them. Not that this is an actual flaw. I guess I just crack under stress.
Or miss Mario Paint.
The final section, and perhaps the toughest to deal with, is the Assembly application.
Before you can even use this you must go through a long tutorial. Even I got bored watching it. Does it help to learn how to make your objects move and react the way you want? Yes. Do you ever really learn everything you’re supposed to during the tutorial? No.
And that can become very, very, very frustrating at times.
I can make a game in about four minutes but there are still things I can’t get my objects to do, no matter how much I fool around with the system. And, honestly, that tutorial was so long and boring I rather not go back and try to relearn. I’ll just wing it — which isn’t a bad way to learn, either.
Wario is an interesting character in this game because, well, we never like Wario in anything — but in this he’s like Dagwood’s boss from Blondie. He kinda hates you, but he doesn’t really hate you. And he’s kind of jerk but he’s not as obnoxious as when you play Mario Kart 64 and he cuts in front of you and does that annoying evil laugh (I HATE THAT).
It’s like WarioWare is a little community where every job has to do with this big company. And this big company makes a lot of money whenever it ships out games.
So, there are some unfinished games he’s produced that you can go in and fix and remake to package and ship out to the (Wario) world and even onto the internet where you can download other people’s games. Wario pops up to say greedy things and can probably be related to any top executive at Merrill Lynch that, after our country bailed them out with our own money, he’d receive a million dollar bonus and a raise.
For additional awesomeness, you can download WarioWare DIY Showcase from the WiiWare store and play your creations on the Wii. The graphical quality, even though the microgames are imported from the small DS screen by WiFi to your much-larger TV screen, is excellent.
Summer break is coming up. That means you can finally have the time you need to make the thousands of mini games you’ve always wanted to create. Buy WarioWare and you’ll never be bored waiting at the doctor’s office, sitting stuck in the subway, visiting your grandmother or in the care again.
Side note: It might be rated ‘E for Everyone’ but anyone under 12 might have a difficult time learning how to use the Assembly function.
Final Grade: A
WarioWare DIY is rated E for Everyone and is available for all versions of the Nintendo DS
