My favorite game is about 3 seconds long.
Nintendo’s had a series of games out for a while now called Wario Ware. The premise is that a good game doesn’t have to be long. In fact, you can cram some pretty solid gameplay into about 3 seconds’ worth of game time. Of course, nobody’s going to pay $40 for a game that’s over in 3 seconds.
But would you pay that much for 190 of those games?
I would – and did. As I mentioned yesterday, one of the games I got was Sawaru: Made in Wario. (Made in Wario is the Japanese title for the series.) It could practically serve as a tutorial on how to use the stylus and touchscreen of the DS. There are 11 different characters and 9 classes of mingames (3 of the characters are related, and share the same class of games). Characters get unlocked as you move through the game, finishing levels and beating Boss Levels. Those are longer and sometimes more difficult than the regular levels. As characters are unlocked, they show up in the main game screen, which also happens to be a “Live House” (kind of a dance club with a live band).
Here’s a shot of what the club looks like:
Okay, so the decor’s not all that, but it serves well enough. My club is actually a bit more crowded now, as I’ve gotten all the characters unlocked. (I think.) There is a story that ties all the characters together, but since I can’t read Japanese, I have to infer stuff from the pictures. Apparently, this club is the happening place to be, since everybody ends up there sooner or later.If you want to take a break from the main game, you can try out individual levels. Useful if there’s one that’s giving you problems. These are accessed through the ??? (picture book) menu – the pink button, second from the left. In the Picture Book you can choose which character’s levels you want to practice, then pick the level you want to work on.
This is Wario’s Picture Book:
The box full of question marks is a level I haven’t opened up yet. (I’ve still got 40 of those.) Click on a thumbnail to see an enlarged view of one of the games and you’ll be given some idea what it’s about.
Like this:
The display shows what both screens of the microgame will look like (if the game uses both screens). A description will scroll past in the black bar – but it’s all in Japanese, so I’ve just got to puzzle things out for myself. This screen also shows the best score (number of times variations on the level have been beaten). The more you play, the more stuff there is to play with. In addition to unlocking more characters and games, you also get toys!
And a room to keep them in!
Two rooms, actually.
I’ve gotten a few more things to play with since I took these pics. Some of them are games in and of themselves, others are just widgets to play with, and others still are actually kind of useful. Don’t have a timer in your kitchen?
Now you do!
(The orange thing in the top pic.)There’s even the super-secret multiplayer game to unlock:
Ping-Pong!
This is actually a two player game. They hold the DS between them and look down at the screens. Top-screen player uses the left shoulder button and the bottom-screen player uses the right one. The paddles move side-to-side on their own, so players just have to time their button presses to make a return. Not really that deep as far as gameplay goes, but it’s still kind of nifty.I’ve got about 40 more games to unlock, so I’d better get back to it. If you have a means to import games (providing you’re not in Japan, of course) this is one I highly suggest picking up. It’s the ultimate “how can I kill a minute (or less) while waiting – for the bus, in line at the bank, for the train, for a movie to start… you get the idea. Of course, that’s not to say you can’t kill a few hours with it.
I’ve already done just that.
^.^
(Oh, please forgive the quality of the pics. It’s not like I have access to a dev kit or anything, so I had to take these shots with my digital – which you can see reflected in the DS’ screen in some of the pictures. Best I could do.)