WarioWare: Smooth Moves [Wii]

The Wario Ware franchise has always set a benchmark for fast-paced, quirky gameplay that brilliantly utilizes the technology at hand. Each installment has brought something new to the table, and the series as a whole has changed the landscape of party games. Smooth Moves gets the most out of the Wii's unique control mechanics but doesn't do as much to further the series itself.

Like other Wario Ware titles, Smooth Moves is made up of hundreds of micro-games. Each takes mere seconds to either pass or fail, creating a frantic pace. Its oddball style will leave you shaking your head in amused confusion -- kind of like seeing a two-legged dog walking upright. Separate stages break up the micro-games, as well as providing a brief but hilarious back-story. Dancing machine Jimmy T gets flanked by a pack of funky cats, while newcomer Young Cricket leaps to the front of the line at a pork bun stand. These plots share a sense of humor with the recent DS title Elite Beat Agents, albeit shorter in length.

Almost every character will be familiar to Wario Ware fans -- which isn't necessary a bad thing. Using the Wii's graphical power, Nintendo fanboy #1 9-Volt shows off some micro-games based on Animal Crossing, Nintendogs, and Pikmin -- while still alluding back to even Nintendo's days as a playing card manufacturer.

Instead of relying on the themes of the stages themselves, Wario Ware: Smooth Moves gets its variety from the stances you'll take with the Wii remote. You'll be tasked to hold the controller in no less than 20 different ways: Saw wood in Tug-Of-War stance; reunite an old lady with her false teeth using Sketch Artist; run a cell phone along a cheese grater with Thumb Wrestler; or wash a cow's rear end in Boxer stance. The game alerts you which form to take before a given micro-game, but even then you'll have to be quick about adjustments.

The Wii remote is more analogous than any other controller before it, which gives the designers room to get even more creative with the micro-games. At the same time, though, you'll come up with instances where the controller doesn't seem to do what you tell it to. It only happens on a percentage of the games you run across, but it's still more of a problem in Smooth Moves than in any Wario Ware game before it. You're more likely to remember the outrageous boss levels than the tough time you had in the collating paper micro-game.