First impressions
Well its been three days since the MCM expo now and I think its due time for my first expo related post. This years Expo was a busy one, with a truly epic turnout larger than any previous expo. With a crowd over 40,000 strong it was surprising that we were able to battle through the crowds to get our hands on what the game section had to offer, however with true drive and dedication we fought on to bring you the news. Between interviewing cos-players, queuing for the cashpoint and a lot of shopping I dared to brave the crowds in order to find the Nintendo DS stand, where I took the opportunity to try the latest addition to the Warioware family, Warioware D.I.Y.
Years ago, many long hours spent in our old school common room with a borrowed copy of ‘Warioware touched’ made me somewhat of a warioware fan, and so given the chance to try the latest offering in the warioware series I was eager to see how it compared. As a ‘Touched’ fan to me Warioware was all about one thing. Killing time. It was the kind of game I could pick up when I had a cheeky half hour between lessons and jump right into, no strong story, no commitment just addictive, colorful, erratic fun. Though I cannot deny that I loved Warioware touched, when reading about this game in my pre-expo prep it seemed quite obvious that Nintendo have decided to move the Warioware series along just a teeny bit. As well as offering a host of new mini games, Warioware D.I.Y also boasted an impressive array of what I can only describe as customizable content. The game not only offered the chance to customize existing mini games, but also the chance to create new characters and scenery, create your own virtual comic books and even write music your own music. Was this to be the little big planet of the D.S? With such an impressive array of features you can see why I was eager to try the game.
So, did warioware D.I.Y live up to its online claims? Read on to find out…
I must say that despite the impressive claims above my true first impression of Warioware was one of confusion. The opening screen gave me 5 options: D.I.Y shop, Warioware Inc, D.I.Y studio, Distribution Center and Options garage none of which I really knew what to do with. I eventually worked this out by trial and error, and though I suppose the confusing start screen is a little irrelevant once you have played the game a couple of times. Nevertheless I do feel that the game could have benefited from a large button which simply said PLAY NOW just to make the game more instant. Once I had successfully negotiated the menu screen I soon found my way to the part of the game I was most eager to try, the game creator. In my opinion it is the game creation/editing ability which makes up the true meat of this game. The D.I.Y studio gives players the ability to draw, animate and create their own characters, scenery and music, in effect allowing you to create your own unique mini games.
Creating your own characters appeared easy enough. To help you get started the game has a number of pre-set images which can be dragged onto your game space, either as scenery, characters or whatever takes your fancy really. In addition to this once you get more confident you can also use the stylus as a brush to paint your own unique characters providing infinite possibilities for game theming and really helping to give your mini games unique character. The game then gives you options which allow you to animate the characters you have created. These options vary in relation to the type of game you are aiming to create, but examples include such options as determining which type of movement you would like you character to have, defining the areas in which your character is to move and assigning commands to on screen buttons. I am not sure that everyone will be using this paint and animate your own character feature in the innocent way that the game suggests, but whichever way you choose to use it it looks like a lot of fun.
As the resident music and rhythm game specialist here at PlusXp it is not surprising that the music making feature of this game also caught my attention. Like the Game creator the music creator allows you to either edit existing tracks, or create entirely new ones which can then be assigned to your mini games. The music creator gives you 5 tracks to play with, along with a variety of instruments allowing you to lay down beats and create harmonies adding depth to your music. In order to create music you must first select your instrument, and then build your song by placing a series of dots along a grid which sort of resembles a scale. Helpfully there is a small keyboard to the left of the screen which allows you to see which note you are playing, and a series of vertical lines which will help you to give your song a basic sense of rhythm. Though the music creator is essentially quite basic, I found the simple layout extremely easy to understand and play with leaving me free to get crazy and creative with my 5 tracks. I don’t expect anyone to write a masterpiece with this, but adding your own music definitely adds an extra dimension to this game, allowing for even more creativity and experimentation.
Now its time to talk about the comic book creator this game has….Oh wait….I didn’t get time for that….Oh never mind, you will just have to find that one out for yourselves!
I only had a brief go at the D.I.Y elements of the game but from what I saw I do get the feeling crating your own games from scratch may take a little getting used to. Helpfully Warioware DIY not only allows you to create entirely new games but also has a feature where you can edit existing games. This feature not only makes creating your own games a lot quicker, it also helps you to become accustomed to editing tools more easily making it much easier to create your own games in the future. On top of this if you still can’t figure the editing studio out good news! In researching this article I found the warioware website to be full of online video tutorials just waiting to teach you anything you could possibly want to know about this game in colorful attention span holding video glory. Even if you still don’t understand the animation, if your anything like me the music behind the various trailers clips and tutorials will be enough to keep you amused for a fair while…now thats what I call entertainment.
Oh, and I almost forgot. As well as allowing you to make your own mini games D.I.Y also gives you the ability to share your creations with friends. The fact that you can share the games with friends (or complete strangers, whatever floats your boat) means that the game has almost infinite possibilities for new downloadable content. Games, music and comics can be shared either by transferring locally to other D.S consoles, or Via web upload. If you choose to transfer your games online you can also upload them to your Wii console and play your creations on an even bigger screen. All mighty impressive, no?
In addition to the D.I.Y features, Warioware D.I.Y also has 90 in built games which you can mix up and play using what it calls the game blender. I found these games a little hit and miss, with some having the true warioware eccentricities and others just being a little too normal. In addition to this the game blender lets you chose to an extent which type of game you would like to play, which to me takes some of the fun out of the Warioware experience. One of my favorite thing about warioware was that you would spend a good half an hour battling your way through mini games getting faster and faster only to be hit with something you didn’t quite understand seconds before beating your all time record. Though this was undeniably frustrating, it was also extremely compelling and after playing D.I.Y for a short time I am starting to wonder weather in having the ability to chose your own games and practice them to death, it may risk losing the sense of crazy urgency I used to love about the older games. I am not sure of this as yet, but I suppose time will tell.
All is not lost though, there are still some truly random gems to be found. For example my favorite mini game has to be “Keep your bow on to impress boys” in which you have to tap a large bow on the back of a girls head to stop it falling off. Completely random, completely pointless but completely brilliant. Another game I enjoyed playing (more for the gameplay this time, not the crazy title) was a memory game which involved memorizing Wario’s face for a couple of seconds before having it disappear and having to re-compile it out of random mr potato head style pieces within a set time limit. I know that this is not a particularly innovative concept for a game, but it was harder than it looked and quite addictive. I found myself having to give the various types of eyes and noses on offer names and shout them out in order to help me remember them. Looking back it must have been a little strange for expo passers by to be confronted with me shouting ANGRY, BEADY, PURPLE, TRIANGLE!!! But hey, it worked!
So how would I sum up this game? Well to be honest for me the standard mini games were nothing that new, but the ability to create and share mini games to me has great potential. Although the game creator seemed a little complicated Nintendo seem to have done a good job at creating tools to help us to get to grips with it, leaving me confidant that even the least creative gamers will be able to understand and experiment with this game. Though I cannot deny that in adding structure and choice to the gameplay this game has lost a little of the wackiness which the earlier warioware titles had, I like to think that maybe the mistakes made whilst getting to grips with the animation tools will lead to more interesting games. It seems that this time it is us who must put the random factor back into Warioware. I for one accept the challenge, as soon as I get my copy I’m going to make a game all about throwing slices of toast at Nuns. Anyone like to join me?
Warioware D.I.Y. is on sale now.
Until next time,
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