Blair Loveday
WarioWare is one of the weirdest titles in Nintendo’s catalog.
The series consists of collections of mini-games, which are always silly, but they are just consistently fun. WarioWare: Move It! is no exception, and with enforced use of your Joy-Cons, this game will force you to have fun, whether you want to or not.
Wario wins a competition that gets him to a vacation island. Here he is given two stones that are shaped like Joy-Cons. He throws them away and finds himself having to run from some locals on the island. There is more story in the story mode, but there really isn’t much more to it than that. The story is just as daft as the game, and that is what works so well.
For anyone that hasn’t played a Warioware game before, they basically consist of heaps of mini-games.
Little mini games that generally take seconds, and playing them back to back makes for a heap of fun. Grabbing the initial series of ones in the story mode, you have to put out a fire by scooping water from a waterfall, or need to clink a glass with someone walking towards you. Fail in a few seconds, and the people chasing him get closer. It’s so dumb, and in its dumbness, it’s kinda brilliant.
WarioWare: Move It! uses the Joy-Cons for every minigame.
Each one tells you the starting position to have your hands. This varies from choo choo with your arms bent at your side, to love struck with your hands at your cheeks, to Crocodile with your hands out like a crocodile jaw. Everything about the game from the explanation, to starting poses, to the games themselves are so silly.
And this is where the way to play comes in.
On your own, I don;t think you are going to get a whole lot of value from this. Whether playing the story or party mode, the game works at it’s best with multiple people. On your own, sure you’ll have some fun before it wears off. With friends, or even better with kids, this game is pure insanity. The silly games are made that much more fun when watching someone else doing the same insanity next to you. The chaos as you quickly try to figure out how to play a mini-game, and then trying to do it in time makes for a lot of laughs.
There are 223 mini-games in total, while it takes seconds to complete a game, this amount of variety means you will have so many different silly actions and silly premises to complete. If the volume of games had been a touch lower, this would have gotten stale far too quickly, but again, 223 mini-games, there is so much insanity to be had.
I don’t want to touch on all the mini-games because encountering them the first time is them at their peak, go in blind, you won’t regret it.
Just like WarioWare games before it, the style and aesthetic isn’t too much to look at, and the whole thing is so daft, but my god this is fun. With kids, friends, or just your partner and some drinks, WarioWare is pure, party, fun chaos. This won’t be your next game of the year, but it is a great way to spend some weekends or evenings. Though given we are going into a hot summer down under, you may need some deodorant for longer sessions.
Released: November 2023
Rating: G
Platforms reviewed: Nintendo Switch
Genre: Mini-games
Developer: Intelligent Systems
Publisher: Nintendo