“WarioWare: Smooth Moves”
Nintendo Wii
Nintendo
Gaming has taken a turn for the seriously bizarre.
Forget the old days of blasting buddies in “Halo,” stealing cars in “Grand Theft Auto,” and saving the world in “Final Fantasy.”
In “WarioWare: Smooth Moves” for the Nintendo Wii, it’s all about picking someone’s nose for them.
Not to mention clipping a fingernail, shuffling a stack of papers, picking fruit with an elephant’s trunk, swinging one’s hips in a hula hoop, sauteing vegetables in a skillet, grinding up parsley for pasta …
Yes, you perform all of these actions (and hundreds more) in “Smooth Moves,” a game which takes full advantage of the Wii’s innovative control scheme. The game is essentially a series of these lightning-quick tasks, usually only a few seconds in duration. Levels ““ if they can be called that ““ are usually a collection of a dozen of these tasks or more, with gradually increasing speeds.
Using the Wii remote to the fullest degree, the game requires you to perform these actions (which also involve jumping rope, shaving a mustache and playing Whack-A-Mole) in the most intuitive way you can think of. You move the remote (or “form baton,” as the game calls it) in the way you would to complete these actions.
You learn different “forms” throughout the game ““ some as basic as simply holding the remote, others as wacky as placing the remote jutting out from your forehead. In some instances, such as when using the elephant’s trunk, you actually have to hold the remote to your nose and move it like a trunk. In another, you need to answer a ringing phone, which involves placing the remote facedown on the ground and picking it up at the right time.
Even more exciting are the random mini-games, in which players get to play quick snippets of classic Nintendo games, including “The Legend of Zelda,” “Metroid,” “Animal Crossing” and “Super Mario Bros.” These, interspersed with the aforementioned mini-games, provide a constantly changing, deranged gaming experience for players.
Of course, this is without mentioning the game’s completely outlandish 12-player (!) multiplayer mode.
In this mode, players perform an action and then the game randomly selects another player to perform the next one. Players will then hand off the remote to a fellow player before their turn starts. Of course, there’s a window of a few seconds to hand a remote off, and there’s no point in using the Wii remote strap when the game is being played at this intense speed. In other words, “Smooth Moves” could cause your remote to make a not-so-smooth move into your expensive television or, perhaps, a bystander’s face.
Smooth move, Wii-mote.
E-mail Humphrey at mhumphrey@media.ucla.edu.