WarioWare: Twisted! - Final Play!

I’m finishing this Progressive Review of WarioWare: Twisted! once and for all dog gone-it! But that’s not to say I’ve finished playing this cracked out gem of a game. Quite the contrary in fact, as this game has become the main steed in my GBA stable. Indeed, it is the alpha-male GBA cartridge on my game shelf. Wario’s bulky cartridge will only fit in the larger pocket of my fashionable GBA carrying case leaving all my other games to fight it for the tiny pocket in the back.

But I digress; there is more to say about the gameplay.

Just as I got comfortable with the timing and nature of the gyroscopic controller, I reached a stage where I was instructed to make a girl jump over a rock so that she could hug her boyfriend. As the game began, I tilted the GBA to the left and nothing happened. Panicking, I swung it desperately to the right and the girl tripped!

I shrugged it off and awaited the next game.

A boy lies on his back blowing a gum bubble. A hand is moving vertically on the right side of the screen. The instructions flash on screen reading, “Pop”.

I tilt the GBA to the left when the hand lines up with the bubble.

Nothing happens. Again, I lose.

Sweat begins to leak out of my palms as the pace quickens. I panic and end up losing the next two mini-games. The round is over.

The next couple of games end up like this until I ultimately lose the round. Infuriated, I turn the GBA off.

After fiddling around the Internet for a few minutes, I power the GBA machine back on and plow through the entire round of mini-games this time using the A-button. I win the round however I was disappointed that a stage worth of mini-games didn’t use the tilt-sensor. It was only the fourth level in the game (out of fifteen) and already I was playing through a round with no gyro-sensor? I couldn’t help but feel the developers ran out of steam. Would the rest of the game be like this?

Luckily, this wasn’t the case. I’ve since completed every level in the game (although, I haven’t unlocked every mini-game) and the aforementioned level was the only one that didn’t use the gyroscope sensor. Perhaps the developers intended it as a break in the action?

Ultimately, the inclusion of these non-gyroscope mini-games made the last two levels of the game extremely difficult. The final two stages are randomly made up of different mini-games from every level. Final Level A (the Tower) plays incredibly fast with each game lasting less than 2 seconds. Final level B (the Mansion) slows the time down, but the mini-games are picked from the hardest batch and you’re only given a single life. Factoring in the uneasiness of not knowing which games are coming at you next makes for a palm-sweating experience.

Therefore, I believe that including a stage worth of non-gyroscopic mini-games was yet another stroke of good design on Nintendo’s part. It keeps you on the your toes in those final stages.

And I have to say I’m addicted to 9-Volt’s stage. 9-Volt is a little kid who DJ’s and shows off his vast collection of NES games to his school buddies. His entire stage is made up of re-mixed NES games that utilize the gyroscopic control. Imagine my surprise when one mini-game involved titling the GBA to make Kid Icarus avoid bombs thrown by the Eggplant man. It even had the original game’s music! I wore a smile for the rest of the day humming the song in my head. Mini-games made up from Metroid, the Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Bros 3, Donkey Kong Jr. and some lesser-known games like Nintendo Ice Hockey, Open Tournament Golf and Clu Clu Land also make an appearance.

In my last review, I complained about the length of the game. Like I said before, WarioWare is best in small doses. With that in mind, this game packs quite a bit of replay value because it’s always fun. Now if only Nintendo came out with a cartridge packed with 20 full NES games on it that doesn’t cost 100 dollars.

So, overall WarioWare: Twisted! ended up pleasing me a great deal more than the original WarioWare. The gyroscopic control works well, the mini-games make good use of it, and the presentation is wacky and endearing. Watching my non-gaming family members and girlfriend get into the game after a couple of tries was a real treat as well. And there is still a lot more to be uncovered. Each mini-game can be revisited individually in a never-ending loop of games that continue to speed up and become more challenging. After beating each game at least ten times, a prize is unlocked. With 200+ mini-games to replay individually that makes for some good times ahead.

Though, I’ve played through most of the mini-games and completed every stage there is still a great deal of goodies to unlock. I wanted to get them all done for the write-up but then I began to get defensive. I don’t want to rush my Wario. I want to savor the insanity for the next year or so.

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