Topic: Sawaru: Made in Wario impressions

[Caustic Saint]

Today (02 Dec.) was launch day in Japan, so I scooped up a DS, along with Mario 64 and Sawaru (Wario Ware DS). I won't go over Mario, since that's out in the US already, and is essentially the same as on the 64. But I will say that I love that Missle Command-esque slingshot minigame.

(For impressions on buying a DS on launch day in Japan, check out the 02 Dec. entry on my blog - http://www.wheresdrew.com/ )

Now, I'm writing this without the benefit of having played any of the previous Wario Ware games. I know, I know- a sin. But one I hope I'll be forgiven. WW is one of those games "I really oughta play someday" but never got around to picking up. Well, today I finally did.

The DS is the perfect vehicle for the series (based on what I've seen and heard of the other ones). The touchscreen opens up whole new realms of minigames. I'm sure everybody remembers the "food slicing" one from E3. Some of my favorites so far have the player setting off fireworks, popping bubblewrap, and waking up sleeping people. My best so far is 32 games in a row, but I'm still working on it. The more levels you pass the more toys you get. I've gotten a piano I can plink on (sounds nice on the DS' speakers - or would if I could remember anything besides Mary Had a Little Lamg), a yo-yo that you play upside down and a stretchable custard pudding.

The Boss Level is great. There are flies inside your DS and you have to swat them. Just be careful...that screen can only take so much abuse....

The only flaw I've found is a personal one. I'm not used to looking at two screens yet, so I sometimes focus on the bottom screen too much, not realizing that I shoule be paying attention to what's happening on the top one.

I don't know what the foreign release dates for this one are, but if you like the WW series (or want a great game for building up your stylus reflexes) you may want to import this one. There is a story mode that pieces all the different characters in the game together, and that's all in Japanese. Not being able to follow it doesn't take away from the gameplay, so it's hardly an essential component of the game.

So, import or wait for the release in your country. Either way you'll end up with one great game.

Actually, you'll get something like 200 games!

[Bill Aurion]

February 14th, the same day Starfox Assault is coming out...What a sweet Valentine's Day it will be... ^_^

[Mario]

Awesome, thanks for the impressions, I've only heard positive things about this game, this looks like the Nintendo DS game.

[Caustic Saint]

I spent a couple hours with it last night (this game really should come with an addiction warning!) and got a bit deeper in the game.

As you progress, you unlock other characters who each have a little story of their own. It seems everyboody in town is coming to a 'Live House" (night club) to hear Mona's band. I'm not sure who Mona is, but she's prett popular. After you get far enough in Wario's levels, he goes to the Live House and starts to meet other characters. Each character has their own set of microgames (12) and a boss level. (Some may have a fewer or more levels. My ranking board shows 11 on one and 16 on another. If you make a mistake on a boss level but have more chances, you get another shot and it's counted as another level. I messed up on the boss of a 13-level stage, then beat it, so my "best" for that character is 14 - even though there are only 13 levels.) Beat a character's boss level and you unlock another one. Each character has their own "environment" you play in. The environments consist of the background graphics, music and life tokens. (I'm not sure what they're really called, but you get four screwups each time you start playing. Make four mistakes and it's game over.) Wario's on his motorcycle and has speedometers for his tokens, Ashley the goth/witchy chick has pumpkins, Jimmy T. has disco balls - you get the idea.

All of the music is great, and really adds to the tension. I need to let one of my friends play it, because when I'm playing it, I'm concentrating on what I have to do in each microgame so much that I know I'm missing a lot of details in the levels and such.

I'm not sure how many characters there are to unlock There are 8 with their own pages in the manual, plus three more pictured who don't seem to be "featured" like the other ones. 8 x 13 gives 104 levels, plus however many Wario has. Wario is the only character where you can play "forever."

I don't know about this being "the" DS game, but it certianly is one of the top ones. It's not pushing the system's power, but it's incredibly fun and addicting. Whether you import it or wait for a localized version, I think it's pretty safe to call this one a "must buy."

[Caustic Saint]

I need to make a correction to one of the points I made above. When a new character is unlocked, you only play abotu 13 levels the first time through. Once that's done, you get an extra bit of the story, then you go back to the Live House and choose another one. You can choose any of the characters present, and if you've beaten their first boss level at least once, you get to keep going beyond 13 levels. The game tracks the best 3 scores in each of the different characters' levels.

It seems so simple at first, but this game is turning out to be much, much deeper than I'd expected. (I may never get around to playing SM64DS at the rate I'm going... )

[KDR_11k]

If it's anything like the first WW you "level up" after beating a boss which means the minigames get harder. There are three levels and after that it just gets faster.

[Lost101]

It sounds like standard wario ware.  Thats great though, Wario Ware was a great game and I was for a time worried that its sequels were gonna be reduced to unimaginative games like the Gamecube version.  

[UncleBob]

The GameCube version is pretty fun...  in fact, it's just as fun as the Game Boy Advance version.

[Lost101]

The problem is that it was pretty much the same game.  They were so lazy they didnt even bother properly adjusting the graphics to work on a TV screen.  The mutiplayer was fun and some things were neat (for some reason I loved the music videos that were in the game), but for an extremely creative and fresh game like Wario Ware the sequel seemed kind of forced.

[UncleBob]

Yeah, they were pretty much the same game... that's why I said it was just as fun.

I've always kinda felt that we wern't really supposed to think of Wario Ware (GCN) as a seaperate game from the GBA version...  just a port with a few features added/taken away - to optimize the game for play on the GCN... basically, if you own one, you shouldn't buy the other... (although I did....)

[Caustic Saint]

Well, I've beaten Sawaru, but I haven't finished it. All the characters are unlocked (I think), but there are still about 40 (out of 190) levels that I've yet to see. I did another writeup about the game on my blog ( http://www.wheresdrew.com/ 03 Dec. entry) and even put up some pictures. Now, it's not like I have access to a dev kit or anything, so they'e hardly high-quality shots, but they're up there.

No spoilers or anything, so don't worry about that.  

[Procession]

Damn, the DS in Japan has WAY cooler packaging than in the States.

[Ian Sane]

Damn, the [blank] in Japan has WAY cooler [blank] than in the States.

Realistically this applies for pretty much ANYTHING that originates out of Japan.

[Caustic Saint]

Ian, you're not far wrong, but don't go thinking there's no crap products (stuff, food, etc.) in Japan - there is. I think people attach too much of an aura of coolness to Japan, and while there may be some of that, it doesn't really exist to the extent people think it does.

The best word I can think of for the DS packaging is "elegant." It's very simple and understated, letting the product sell itself. The other side of the box is the DS logo and a picture of the system. I used the "plain" side for my pic because I had a pic of the unit a bit lower on that page.

They'd had the boxes (system and games) on display in the stores for a week or so (maybe longer) prior to launch, and I'd thought they were just placeholders until the real systems shipped. Nope. Same box with the minimalist design. Most of the stores I've been in had a little info booklet attached to the rack where the display boxes were, so there was no need to clutter up the look of the box itself.

[Mario]

Does the manual have stickers and games?

[Caustic Saint]

Which manual? The Sawaru manual is full-color, no stickers or anything extra. (Same for SM64DS.) The DS manual is black and white with nothing extra.

By "games" do you mean info about other games? None of the manuals have this. Most stores have a free booklet you can pick up (I got mine at Toys 'R' Us) that has screens and info on all the launch titles, plus Pac Pics and Nintendogs. I also have another booklet that I got at a Touch! DS show that has a lot more info.

(Sorry, no scanner - yet!)

[Mario]

Nah, it's just that the Wario Ware GBA manual had stickers and mazes and stuff that entertained me.

Thanks.

[AGENTDICKLAURENT]

Got this thing on order, and shipped. woh. May type up some quick impressions as soon as it arrives, which should be any day now. Nice impressions in here so far, though trying to read them and not reading someone going on in detail about this and that mini-game is a bit hard. Wario Ware is always best served fresh! The less you know beforehand, the better the mini-games are.