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New Wario game best for groups

It’s been a couple years since the last “WarioWare” game, but with a new Nintendo console out, it’s time to start on those franchise sequels.

“WarioWare: Touched!” and “WarioWare: Twisted!” for the Nintendo DS and Game Boy Advance turned the series around by making it more innovative.

“WarioWare: Smooth Moves” for the Wii follows this inventive formula and uses the Wii’s motion controls to play the game.

For those who haven’t played “Smooth Moves”, it’s different from Wario’s normal greed-filled quests. In the game, Wario finds a mystic artifact known as the Form Baton. Of course, this object very closely resembles the Wii remote.

You must use the Form Baton to complete a series of three- to five-second microgames. Each character has its own set of microgames for you to play, which are beaten once you defeat the boss stage.

What sets this apart from the other “WarioWare” games is how you use the Wii remote. At first you only play the fast-paced microgames by pointing it at the screen like a TV remote, but soon after you learn new ways of holding the remote such as The Umbrella, The Mohawk and The Sketch Artist.

All of these different forms add variety to the gameplay, though some are just attempts to make the player look ridiculous.

After completing all of the character’s microgames in single-player mode, you unlock the multiplayer mode, which is really what this game is all about. You only need one controller to play all of the different games so you won’t need to search for the ever-elusive Wii remote in stores.

You can start out by playing a game of darts and then move on to play a single-elimination 12-player microgame survival. There is also a hot-potato-like game in which each player beats microgames until a balloon bursts on them. There is great variety in the multiplayer mode, and “Smooth Moves” is almost an essential addition to any collection as the party game.

Unfortunately, it seems that if you’ve already played “Touched!” and “Twisted!” to death and you don’t have a huge group to play with, this game probably doesn’t have much more to offer you. Granted it is a ton of fun, but the microgames just seem like variations of what you could find in the previous games.

Also, it is slightly frustrating when a movement doesn’t work because you are not exactly in front of the TV.

If you have a Wii and “Wii Sports” is still the only multiplayer game you have in your arsenal, you need to pick up “WarioWare: Smooth Moves.” Even if you have played “Touched!” and “Twisted!” before, this game provides a lot of crazy random fun in big groups that is not to be missed.