WarioWare Smooth Moves: Hands On

It was the final day of E3 and many of the SPOnG crew had yet to so much as touch a Wii. So what's an over excited pack of games journalists to do? Easy, wrangle up one of Nintendo's many lovely PR folks and have them cut in lines for you, so you can play all the games you want at length, while all those poor normal folk wait angrily at the side lines, after having waited hours to play Wii.

Not that we enjoy ruining anyone else’s time mind you. And to those of you out there we pushed in front of, thanks for not kicking us in our bits and pieces.

When Nintendo first revealed its now infamous motion-sensing remote styled controller, the first thing nearly every one said was "damn, that's gonna be great for WarioWare!" Lo, indeed it is. While we certainly didn't have time to play every mini-game available (to be honest, we're pretty sure we haven’t played every game on the version already released) we did get a good sampling of what was on offer.

Without the slightest bit of hesitation SPOnG can, with great pleasure, report that to date this will indeed be the best rendition of the series. Taking the already inherent sillyness of it’s predecessors and mixing in WiiMote flailing in a multiplayer format just makes for a fantastic and hugely fun gaming experience.

The best part is of course the creative ways the development team has come up with zany ways for using the WiiMote. Each game is preceded with a quick graphic showing which of the many styles of holding the controller should be used. Our personal favorite had to be the balancing game where an on-screen hand balanced a some sort of stick (fly squatter, baseball bat? We can't honestly remember off-hand) and the player just rests the remote in his or her hand and actually balances the virtual stick.

It was actually one of the most direct uses of the full range of motion available in any of the Wii games we saw being demoed at the show. Several other uses included holding the WiiMote to your hip like a sheethed sword and then slashing out at a target; holding it above your head and doing squats, and even placing it against your hip and hula dancing. All of of these controlled perfectly, were easy to figure out and were not only a blast to play but to watch as well. Even after our short demo we were very content to hang about and watch others gladly make massive tits of themselves in public. After a bottle of Baileys and a few large gins, this is bound to be THE videogame this Christmas (depending of course on Nintendo releasing it for the holiday season, which it surely will).

To summarize, WarioWare Smooth Moves is the perfect example of Nintendo's strategy for this generation. A simple game, without any fancy graphics, but one that makes excellent use of the revolutionary controller and is just a blast to play alone or with friends, and can really be enjoyed by anyone. Yes, even your gran (just add gin, baileys or advocaat and watch her go!)

As always be sure to accuse us of blatant Ninty fan-boyism, and any other unfounded opinions you may have in the forums located below. Face it, you’re just jealous because we’ve played it and you haven’t.