Wario Ware Touched! is probably the first new DS release I have been looking forward to since it launched in November. I was totally psyched about Super Mario 64 DS and then things kind of went dry. I have been looking forward to a new DS game to sink my gaming teeth into, and I was more than happy to get to review Wario Ware Touched!.

As far as my Wario Ware history goes, I have been an avid fan since day one. I bought the Game Boy Advance game the week it released and played the tar out of it. Then I proceeded to force everyone I know to play it because it was so insane and equally awesome, and most of them went out and bought it as well. After the GameCube version was released I spent many hours battling against friends and family members (the way Nintendo intended it) playing the same great games from the GBA game in competition with one another.


Punch Out!

In case you are not familiar with what Wario Ware brings to the table, I will do my best to explain it. The Wario Ware games are made up of hundreds of .0005 to 5 second long micro-games, or microgame$ (emphasis on the dollar sign) as the game is titled. The extremely faster-than-fast gameplay is only half of the draw. My favorite part of the games is the totally insanity in what is happening on screen. In one game you will be bouncing watermelons off people, then in the next you are trying to shake a golden retriever’s paws, and then after that you might find yourself picking someone’s nose or sniffing up their snot drippings. It is completely nuts, and that is the best part.

Wario Ware Touched! continues this tradition with a load of completely new microgames, where just as much craziness is to be had for all. The difference this time is there are two screens to watch to keep track of the action, as well as having a touch screen to get involved with. You will also come across a select few games that take advantage of the DS’s built-in microphone.

Thankfully all the games fully work with the stylus, because I hate touching the “touch” screen with my bare fingers. I am a freak about fingerprints on clear surfaces. While this is a blessing, the stylus is also the game’s biggest fault as far as I am concerned. Every single game that does not use the microphone uses the touch screen. Every single one. Not once do you use any of the buttons on the system besides to power it on. This makes the gameplay get semi-repetitive and monotonous, especially during the story mode. In story mode, you have to go through each character in the game’s little mini-story that has nothing to do with anything (but it still cool nonetheless) and they each have their own theme. In the GBA Wario Ware, the themes were things like: reality, cell-phone games, and word games. In this version, the themes are things like: tap, drag, or rub. This means that you have to play ten to fifteen games in a row where every microgame in the series involves the same principle. Tap things for ten games, and then rub ten things in ten different games. Once you finish the main story you can unlock modes that throw random games at you, but you have to play through the themed games first to get to those.