WarioWare Move It: a creative way to play

Within Nintendo’s catalog of titles, the WarioWare franchise is one that, while not as popular, has stood out for its creativity in bringing players fast, curious, and sometimes very strange mini-games. Although we had a Nintendo Switch installment not too long ago, Intelligent Systems has found a way to refine what was done with WarioWare: Get It Together and deliver a new experience along with Wario and his friends.

Welcome to Caresaway Island!

WarioWare: Move It! is a party game in which players, either alone or with others, must participate in a series of microgames that last only a few seconds in order to advance through the stages. For those new to the WarioWare series, these microgames range from simple experiences such as cleaning a turtle shell, putting out a fire with water from a waterfall, and quick judo matches, to much more complex experiences such as becoming a robot that has to dig gold out of a mine. There are over 200 mini-games of varying complexity to unlock by using a variety of gimmicks.

Although the story is not deep, the game begins when Wario wins a trip for himself and (unfortunately) all his friends to a vacation island. There, they discover special stones (suspiciously similar to Joy-Con’s) that are used in ceremonies by the islanders. These stones are used to imitate ceremonial forms, and become the basis for microgames.

Forms for Everyone!

In Story Mode, Wario and his friends make their way around the island through more than 10 scenarios, unlocking microgames and getting to know the forms, either alone or with a friend. Each stage puts us in a situation with some of these lovable and strange characters, and we have to complete a certain number of activities to reach a final stage. When playing with someone else, players take turns and even play cooperatively in some of the microgames. Also, if one player fails, the other player can replay the microgame to avoid losing one of the 4 chances.

The Forms are basic positions in which we must stand and arrange our Joy-Con before a microgame. You could say that it is a neutral position that we start with, and that the game tells us before the microgame starts in order to accommodate us. WarioWare Move It! has a total of 18 forms, ranging from basic positions where we raise our arms to the sky, pretend to have a sword, give a massage, or have a bow and arrow, to more ridiculous poses like pretending to be a chicken, posing as a model, or pretending our arms are the mouth of a crocodile.

Each of the forms is extremely intuitive and once you understand the action to be performed, it is quite obvious what to do and how to move. This is where the creativity of the microgames comes to the fore, because although many are simple, there are some that are truly surprising. For example, there are microgames that use the “Hand Model” pose and require you to use the infrared of the right Joy-Con to indicate the number of candles on a cake or follow a sequence with your fingers. On the other hand, and using the same pose, we have to let go of the Joy-Con (with the strap on, of course) so that a prince can swing towards his princess. There are even games that later ask us to press one of the Joy-Con buttons, such as closing bottles with the thumb, which shows a very ingenious way of playing.

However, as the game progressed, we noticed some details in particular. Sometimes the precision of the Joy-Con leaves a lot to be desired, and although it doesn’t always happen, there are some movements that it doesn’t detect as well as others. On the other hand, in remix scenarios or when you have to move from one position to another, there is sometimes not enough time or the game itself does not correctly indicate the neutral position in which we have to place the Joy-Con with each form, so new players or those not so familiar with the Nintendo Switch may be confused.

You must add the Sacred Poses to the Story Mode. If at any point you lose all 4 lives, a light will prompt you to perform one of the sacred poses. If you perform it correctly, you will come back to life and be able to continue the adventure.

More party options

At the beginning of the game there is the option of the story mode, where we unlock the microgames and the party mode. In general, you can see the end credits after almost 3, 4 hours of gameplay, but it is necessary to continue playing in the scenarios of each of the characters to unlock all the mini-games.

Once completed, we will have access to new places on the island where there will be more game options, both for one and two players. It is worth mentioning that here begins a series of challenges that must be passed to continue unlocking new places on the island. We won’t give too many details for you to discover, but the first one is MegaGame Muscles, where we will have 20 randomly selected microgames where generating muscles is more important than winning.

Within the options that are unlocked for two players, there are some interesting experiences. Double Act allows you to play microgames that can be played back-to-back between two players. Switching Gears allows two players to switch places, where one has to move some sort of mechanism for the other to see and play the microgames. There is also Showdown, which is a confrontation between two players to see who can do the microgames better, simulating a fight. To this we must add the Copycat Mirror mode, where one player must leave the screen visible to follow the instructions of the other, following it as if it were a mirror.

There is also the aforementioned Party Mode, which is designed for 2 to 4 players. Here, we use only one Joy-Con per player and compete in a series of themed boards, with the winner being the one who accumulates the most points. The boards have prizes or punishments in each of their squares, which lengthens and rotates the experience and basically turns the game into a mini Wario Party. The mode has 5 boards, one of which is exclusive to 4 players.

WarioWare: Move it! is a game that showcases Nintendo’s creativity with simple, yet extremely ingenious mini-games that introduce new mechanics as you progress. However, the game has some details. There are mini-games where the precision of the Joy-Con is not entirely effective, and on the other hand, the endgame, although it offers many possibilities, is limited to a multiplayer experience, but considering that it is a party game, this is understandable.