WarioWare: Touched! Review (DS)

While the DS ships with nifty additions like the touch screen and the microphone, we’ve been waiting for a game that really proves what they’re for. WarioWare: Touched! turns your Nintendo handheld into a viable hot potato of wacky mini-games using the stylus pen, throwing over 180 short-lived adventures into one of the most addictive experiences available. Until something better comes along, it’ll be a game that makes it into the system when showing off your DS to someone for the first time.

Pros

Cons

Unlike most games, which traditionally offer hours of new content and a unified game dynamic, WarioWare is designed to offer non-stop action for about two hours in 180 different ways. Arming you with the stylus pen and the touch screen of your DS, WarioWare sets you before a barrage of mini-games that last about five seconds each. Moving from one game to the next, you’ll perform actions that range from slashing fruit with the pen to blowing on the microphone to help floating dandelion seeds reach safe ground. Its activities are diverse and intense, and take advantage of the DS’s touch screen in a way that no other game on the market has does as well. By using the stylus pen to madly scribble, push, and pull, WarioWare: Touched! is addictive in the same way that games like Dance Dance Revolution are, keeping you playing despite a limited depth of gameplay. Though you’ll clear the story in a surprising short period of time, you’ll be finding new mini-games each time you pick it up again. You don’t really have enough time with each mini-game to wear them out individually, unless you choose to play one over and over again, so the lack of depth and length don’t greatly subtract from the gameplay. If you’re not interested in something that sucks hours of your time away in each sitting, WarioWare is one of the most active and engaging DS titles on the market.