WarioWare: Smooth Moves

Yesterday was the birthday of a friend of mine, and a perfect excuse to steal my roommate's copy of Smooth Moves and finish the game for him to unlock multiplayer. Yes, like other games I have rained disdain upon, Wario Ware Wii requires that one finish a single player campaign before being granted entrance to the Realm of Party Game, but unlike the others this single player mode can be finished inside of an hour, maybe two at the most. And it's easy enough to enlist the help of others in this anyway, since there's enough time between the games to pass the wiimote.

I haven't delved into the Wario Ware franchise too much, but it's easy to see the advantage Smooth Moves has over its predecessors: variety of gameplay. The dimensions of movement (and, occasionally, button press) make this title's microgames a genuine surprise, and yet the presentation of controller position and on-screen action is just intuitive enough to lead you in the right direction. It's hard not to recognize a certain calibur of genius in the microgames' design, even if most of them last 5 seconds or less. And the timing is perfect for turn-taking, which both brings spectators into the fun and makes it super-accessible (no additional controllers required!).

Though I maintain that you'd have to be criminally psychotic to enjoy Smooth Moves by yourself beyond the time it takes to unlock multiplayer, the party game potential here is staggering. I haven't had this much fun in multiplayer since... well, I guess since Wii Sports, but other than that there's not much that can match it.

Cake!

Progress: Gave Up -- Tried all the multiplayer modes