WARIO: MASTER OF DISGUISE (DS)

[Alienblue]

WARIO: Master Of Disguise / Nintendo DS / B-

Note: I've noticed that our perceptions of a game can change over time as we play it. I thought it would be interesting to review this game early (I got it YESTERDAY!) and then, after getting through a bit of it, see if my grade changes! Stay Tuned!

Ok, first off, the story is told in a nice opening cinema but all you need to know is this is another WARIO classic 2-D Platform game in which the goal is to be greedy and get away with as much treasure as you can. Wario scrambles around a luxery ship on level one, opening treasure chests with the help of a talking wand he stole from a "master theif". There are money bags as well. Most chests I've gotten too also contain a power-up outfit that gives Wario new powers; The theif disguise lets him jump high, the Astronaut allows him to shoot lasers and so forth. The story progresses throughour the game as characters appear and talk to you. To get an outfit "powered up" you must play one of several cool mini-games like connect-the-dots, color in, manuever falling shapes to the right receptacle (ball to glove, poop to toilet!) or even squash roaches in lines, like a mini-centipede!
The mini games are not tedious but fun.

This is standard platform fare with sounds and graphics on a par with the best SNES games. The suit thing was done way back in wonderboy, but is better intergrated here. Overall it's a good game. What drags it down are the sucky controls.

I've said before the DS Stylus is not a gimmick, and it is NOT in games like Meteos, Zookeeper and Polarium. But it really is overused. W:MOD did NOT need touch scren control but they gave it to us anyway.

What is worse, when I, as an Alien, formed this human body I -gasp-made a mistake! I didn't realize you humans must have THREE arms/hands! You'll need 'em here. You must Manuever Wario with the + pad, perform actions with the buttons AND somehow at the same time use the stylus to shoot lasers, open things, pull and push things, etc... this really drags an A game down to B-!

Super Princess Peach used the stylus SPARINGLY, to activate her four powers. A quick flick was all that was needed. Here you MUST keep the stylus in hand at all times. Even changing Wario's costumes requires you to draw a checkmark, circle, triangle etc.. which is not easy to do in the heat of battle. Not to Nintendo: NOT EVERY @#$%! GAME HAS TO MAKE USE OF THE TOUCH SCREEN, GUYS! New Super Mario Bros. played just fine with almost NO use at all!

Ok-that's my intitial feelings. Check back in a week or two!

[Alienblue]

Okay right now, after almost a week, the game has dwindled to C-! I cannot get past the first boss! HOW are you supposed to? The only hinty is to use your spacesuit. Fine. I shoot the top "ball" on his ship and-hefalls! 12 TIMES! I kid you not! I try shooting HIM jumping on him, shoting the ship, nothing works. PLUS it is extremely difficult to "fire" the laser with the stylus without hitting Wario and making him change suits! Arghhhh!

Oh and also, if you don't SAVE/QUIT your game, to get back to the last save point you must wait through a long , silly, "warios room" scene.

I love this game. Anyone wanna trade it for PAC-PIX?!

[Alienblue]

PLACE YOUR BETS! FINAL GRADE! FINAL GR...ok, you peeked!

I've had this game long enough and it has proven me correct in how one's feeings about a game can go up and down. W:MOD , to me, went from a high of B- to a low of D+!

Annnd the final grade is....C- !
W:MOD is just BARELY average. It's too bad really, this game had as much possibility as Wario's old Gameboy Color games but it was ruined by- *Poor control! Having to use fingers AND stylus AND draw exact figures=no fun! * Ridiculously long "intermission" scenes where Wario and his nemesis gab for HOURS on NOTHING! * Ultimately, just average play. In all honesty the MINIGAMES are more fun than the MAIN game! *sigh* WE NEED A NEW, GOOD DS PLATFORM GAME AND LOSE THE STYLUS PUH-LEEASE!