Sawaru (Touch!) - Made in Wario

[FreQstyle]

Yada!

This little beauty landed this morning (along with Mawaru) and it's looking good so far...

Only about 4 or 5 levels in and no great surprises so far, but it's been enjoyable nearly all the way - with the action marred only by some very lengthy, unskippable cutscenes the first time you play a new level. I'm guessing these would be more bearable if they were a) in English and b) they didn't come after 5 or 10 minutes of the usual Wario adrenaline rush. It's a small complaint though.

As I said there's been no real surprises game-wise yet, with the fruit-slicing, toilet roll unwinding, dog stroking fun that's been mentioned elsewhere. There's a ton of em to unlock though so I'm sure things will get crazier as the game goes on.

The action seems considerably more hectic than the original Wario Wares - time limits have been shortened and the lack of any english cues as to what you're meant to do on each minigame will have you prodding and rubbing random bits of the screen in panic the first few times some of the games crop up. Should add to the challenge a bit anyway!

Presentation is nothing too special, but it gets the job done and there's plenty of bits n pieces to muck around with on the title and level select screens.

It's a shame there's no apparent interaction with the pre-level cut-scenes though.


Overall it's already looking very promising and seems to do everything that was expected of it, although I have to admit that none of the games so far have had me grinning as much as the rotating-the-pizza (and yourself) bit at the start of Mawaru...

Anyway - back to the fun, more impressions later!

[evert]

Thanks for the impressions, send more as soon as, it sounds cool, hope there are lots and lots of unlockables. Aside from the touch motion, does it add anything else to the franchise? OK that's a bit greddy, the touch thing is a pretty big deal! Whats it like playing the game at really fast speeds?

[FreQstyle]

Done a few more levels and it's getting considerably better now!

The variety and general WTF?!-ness of the games is improving no end and I've unlocked my first proper minigame, which anyone who's been getting into the trampoline minigame on Mario64 will love.....

Pre-level cut-scenes are also getting shorter!

There's some new characters in there (I think - they may also appear in Mawaru) but so far it seems to be business as usual really. Not that that's a bad thing at all....

Hard to tell how much there is to unlock though - there seem to be two rooms in which you can put all the stuff you've collected, but no real indication of how much crap these rooms will get filled with. You can also take your favourite minigames and 'playthings' (see below) out of these rooms and have them sat in the normal level select menu, which is a nice touch.

Minigames and seemingly pointless touchscreen playthings (eg. a yo-yo) are dished out at the end of levels by a robotic flying pig that appears on the level select menu. Give him a prod and he usually coughs something up.

Time limits so far aren't too hectic, but I suspect that'll change soon...

[MikeF]

cheers for the impressions, helped me in deciding to order it today

[FreQstyle]

I don't think you'll be disappointed

Been hammering it all night and I think I might have unlocked all the characters now, but there's still plenty more games it's not shown me yet. Things definitely improve the further in you get though... and the microphone comes into play too!

As for unlockable minigames, no sign of Pyoro yet (boo!) but the few I've unlocked are goodies. There's at least one Versus game for you and a mate to play, with each of you having your very own screen and trigger button.

And just wait for the glider minigame - pushing for higher scores on that will quite literally bring you within an inch of your life....!

[Strider]

Is it easy to understand mate?

[FreQstyle]

For the most part, yea - there are a few games that are hard to tell what you're supposed to do immediately and I've come across a couple where some knowledge of japanese would help. Only a couple though.

I reckon if you brush up on what 'sprout' and 'cabbage' are in Jap you should be able to make it through tho...

If you're mad on Wario and don't mind not quite knowing what's going on occasionally, it's well worth the import - otherwise I'd hang on for the western release.

[evert]

please explain more about that glider game!!!!!

[Hulk Davidson]

Been playing this a for a little while now. Each character has a theme to their games, for example Wario has 'clicking' games, the first girl character (don't know the proper names) has pulling/dragging games, the afro guy has colouring/rubbing games etc.

What sort of things do you have to say for the microphone games?

[FreQstyle]

The mic games all involve blowing - I don't think you have to actually say anything.

There are a couple of bonus 'playthings' to unlock that you can, um... talk to... (!) though.... one even talks back.



As for the glider game..... *spoiler*

->Open Spoiler<-

You launch your glider off the end of a pier, and have to blow on the screen to keep it in the air as long as possible. Blow too hard and it'll nose dive into the sea, stop blowing (to take a breath!) and it'll dip down sharply too.

!

[importaku]

Been playing this today. It's pure magic the addition of the touch screen makes the games refreshingly fun.

By the way i don't know if any of you are aware of it but it links with mawaru made in wario. If you put both carts in you get a little extra item unlocked in sawaru. I had a 100% complete mawaru file but i dont think you have to unlock everything to get the secret extra on sawaru.

SPOILER
--------




















Well if you have played mawaru made in wario there is monas stage where she is singing that song on the tv. Well thats the extra, it's been made into a pop video LOL complete with karoke style words on the screen.

[Earl]

Mine arrived from PA today and it's my first Wario game. As a result I didn't know what to expect and initially felt disappointed. However, I found myself playing for 2 hours straight. Beat a few bosses and opened up a things, a little piano and weird lizard thing, really bizarre game but it's really growing on me the more I play. Especially love the option of playing the games with the gradually increasing difficulty, it gets quite frantic once you get to level 20 or so and you just have to love the teddy and crazy music that goes along with it. So to sum up my first Wario Ware experience in one word, weird.

[Strider]

Had a quick go today and it looks like great fun (although I'm not impressed with the non skippable cut scenes). Sadly not many people in the office are impressed with it and reckon it could be easily played with just the d-pad and a button. Still, I've plenty of time to bring them around

[FreQstyle]

The cut-scenes are only non-skippable the first time round so not too much of a problem.

I found the game really comes into it's own on the 3 or 4 level's which mix up the different game types (tapping, drawing, blowing etc.) - there's no way the same general craziness and level of panic could have been achieved with just the d-pad in my book. Sadly the characters who's games all revolve around using specific stylus movements in every game do get a bit samey though.

The only real disappointment for me is that some of the mini-mini-games are so well done you can't help but wish they'd included longer score based versions like they have with the hammer throwing. I don't really see the value (or point) of a lot of the playthings too, but there's a few gems in there (the harmonica!).

Nice to see the obligatory Pyoro in there though, and the re-invented skipping game that uses the mic. is class.

Not sure how it measures up to Mawaru (I'm saving that one for Xmas) but for me this is a worthy continuation of the series - a few less novelty items and a few more 'full' minigames would have made it just that bit better though.

[JibberX]

I completed the 1 played wasit last night, well ok, I did WarioMan, and now I am onto the scary lift levels. Because the Touch interface is so simple they've flippin' speeded up the games a notch. And I am at a complete loss as to what to do with the Snails. But the menagery of spinning, stretching, blowing, linking, filling in, etc etc etc is very fun. I only got Mawaru last week, but both are different enough to warrent induvidual play. Doesn't feel as comprehensive as Mawaru yet, but maybe thats becasue I haven't really gone deep with it yet.