WarioWare: Touched! (DS) Review

I dont know whats in the water over at Nintendo HQ, but something is definitely happening there, and depending which way you look at it, its either great or just to god damn strange. Touched! is the 3rd title in the WarioWare series, with the first appearing on the GBA and the second title released on the GCN not to long ago. After purchasing this game, its left me feeling a little bit empty. I heard about all the mini-games, all the fun that could be had, and what I heard was correct- it was fun, it was great fun. I guess youre probably wondering why Im speaking in the past tense. Thats because well it WAS fun, but the fun wears off after a while.

Now I dont want to sound grim- dont get me wrong, this is an absolute classic- any game that can provide you with enjoyment by un-rolling a whole roll of toilet paper has to be doing something right.. And what Im guessing is that this game wasnt designed for replay-ability. It was designed for quick stints of play time, wrapped up in the strange package that is WarioWare. I must say- coming into this game Id never played a WarioWare game before, so I didnt really know what to expect. What I was met by, however, was a cute interface with the miniature versions of the many characters in the game walking across the bottom screen, laughing and generally joking around. Luckily, theres an Arrange button so that you can get your characters spaced out in rows or easy access to each character. You only start out the game with a few characters but as you get high-scores on each you unlock quite a cast, ranging from new and old characters from previous games.

In terms of unlockables, well, theyre not really the selling point of the game. Included in the unlockable package are fully working oven timers, calculators and even a yo-yo. These certain unlockable side mini-games wont keep you playing for long at all but theyll be fun at least on the first play.

Now, onto the main game. Each character has a certain style of mini-game. Warios games have pretty much just dragging and cutting stuff, while Mikes mini-games use the mic only. You dont actually use any of the face buttons so it may take a bit of getting used to for some. After a while, youll be touching, rubbing, blowing, pulling, connecting, grabbing and controlling objects through many strange scenes the game throws at you. You might think that after performing the same tasks over and over again that the game does get rather repetitive after a while. Well, theres only so much you can do with a mic and a touch screen, but youd be pleased to hear that the sheer insanity of it all keeps it fresh all throughout the game. You could probably plough through the best of what WarioWare has to offer in a few sittings in say 5-6 hours, but that isnt what makes WarioWare so great. In fact, its the complete opposite. This isnt a game that offers long play times, its a game that instead chooses to cut up that experience, and dish it out to you at random in big bowls of WarioWare. You may find yourself bored with this title before you expected, but by then youll have had so much fun, youll hardly notice it.

Visuals
The visuals in WarioWare arent that flash, but they do what Im sure they set out to do- show off the game in its unique style. Sure, theyre not the selling point of the game, but, they do the job quite nicely.

Sound
The music in this game is quite good. A whole range of catchy tunes that differ depending on whose mini-games youre playing. Some youll remember, and others you wont want to remember, but they do a good job of showing off the surround sound capabilities of the DS.

Gameplay
The Gameplay is very good, if not superb. The sheer brilliance of it all will have you chiseling a toilet out of stone one second, to picking noses the next. It really is a load of fun.