WarioWare Smooth Moves

Best For: Ages 10 and Up
ESRB Rating: E-10
Genre: Arcade/Puzzle
Available For: Nintendo Wii
# of Players: 1-4
Fun Factor: 5 out of 5

Seems Mario's greedy alter-ego Wario has found an ancient artifact that looks an awful lot like a Wii remote. He names it the "form baton" and uses it to make more of his trademark WarioWare microgames (like minigames, only smaller). "WarioWare: Smooth Moves" features 200 games that take full advantage of the Wii's exciting new motion control scheme. The challenge is figuring out what you're supposed to do! For example, there might be a black screen with a light circle. The words "FIND HIM!" appear on the screen. Realizing the circle is a flashlight, you move it quickly around until you find the guy in the darkness. Then the next five-second game starts.

Smooth Moves is steeped in cleverness, in addition to the renaming of the Wii remote, it uses Eastern music, and calligraphy. Plus, it has a disarmingly silly sense of humor, and teaches you how to hold the remote correctly. The "umbrella" form has you hold the remote straight up at eye-level with -- as the game says -- "... the dignity of a circus clown caught in a rainstorm." Umbrella form is used for simple tasks like swatting a fly. Holding the remote horizontally in front of you is the "handlebars" and the "elephant" form has you hold the remote against your nose, which allows you to you move balls from one container to another. Beating the main game unlocks more microgames that use the Wii remote along with the Nunchuk controller. There's even a multiplayer mode for up to four players once you finish the main game.

Parents take note: Smooth Moves is good clean fun, but has an immature sense of humor. For example, there's a microgame involving the plucking of nose hairs, while others feature mild slapstick violence, but nothing gratuitous. Reading isn't necessary, but younger kids might have trouble figuring out what to do in the few seconds the game gives them to complete each game, and that's frustrating because the only way to get a second chance is to replay the whole string of games.

Non-Wii owners take note: WarioWare exists on every Nintendo platform and many can be found at budget prices. Each title is different and takes full advantage of the platform it's on in much the same way "Smooth Moves" uses the Wii remote so cleverly. The one for the DS uses the stylus, the GameCube version uses the gamepad, and a really clever one for the GameBoy Advance uses a motion sensor and has you tilting the game in every direction to play the microgames. WarioWare: Smooth Moves is terrific, offbeat, and charmingly weird fun for the whole family.

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