REVIEW | Warioware Move It!

“Warioware Move It is the perfect party game to play when friends come over”

Warioware games have a long history of using the Nintendo hardware’s full potential and I’ve been waiting for a Switch version to do just that. The motion controls steal the show in this collection of over 200 minigames with a sense of humour that feels typically Japanese and over the top in the best of ways.

It’s like getting a ticket to participate in a wacky game show where the goal isn’t so much to win, as it is to look ridiculous while playing and providing entertainment for the other people in the room who are watching you fail. While you can easily play Warioware Move It by yourself and still have a great time, it’s important to emphasize how much more enjoyment you’ll get out of it when playing with friends & family.

Now, assume the review-reading pose and enjoy!

It’s cru-shell to stay clean!

Things I liked!

• A lot of different games | Warioware Move it uses the Joycons in various clever ways and it’s always great to discover what the game is expecting of you. Before each minigame, it’ll instruct you to assume a pose and from there, it’s vital to recognise as soon as possible which motion you’ll need to make to succeed. Discovering this for all the different minigames is a huge part of the fun, and I was honestly impressed with some of them, like dangling your Joycon from the safety strap and then grabbing it to fish, or using the camera on the right Joycon to play a game of rock-paper-scissors.

• Funny cutscenes | When you play the short single-player campaign, you’ll get a funny introduction to each character before and after each run, and these were by far the biggest highlights for my kids, who couldn’t get enough of them. They have that unmistakable Warioware charm that makes these games such a joy for players of all ages.

• Nintendo cameos | The biggest smile appeared on my face when I got to the sections where you enter an arcade and play various Nintendo-themed minigames. Here’s a small list of fun things I did:
  – Get a chicken to run away from Link
  – Dig up treasures in Animal Crossing
  – Smash Trees or peel away stickers in Paper Mario
  – Dash through blocks as Samus from Metroid
  – Pet puppies and cats from Nintendogs
  – Putting a ring on your finger in Fire Emblem Engage
  – Sliding down a ramp in Super Mario 64
  – and so many more!

• Adaptive difficulty | The single-player campaign will give you an infinite amount of tries as long as you can mimic a simple pose when you run out of lives. It’ll even give you a free pass from time to time and move you up a level, or it will detect that a certain minigame is too challenging and slow it down for you or make it more manageable. For my 5- and 8-year-old kids playing, this was a blessing and was such a good addition, that I bumped up the review score by a significant amount just for this. I love accessibility in games, especially ones aimed at kids.

• Multiplayer | Warioware Move It is the perfect party game to play when friends come over or, in my case, to play against my kids. It’s hilarious when you’re watching each other fail or you can even celebrate each other’s successes. There are multiple ways to play together with up to 4 players locally, with my personal favourite being the boardgame where you can steal points from other players or play red-light/green-light versus Medusa. There is even a mirror mode where you can play facing away from the screen and mirroring the movements of all the other players who can see the screen.

You won’t be board.

Neither good nor bad

• Movement controls | Using your body to control a game can be hit or miss. If you’re tired, this isn’t a game you can play. If your living room doesn’t allow you to easily push things aside or if you have a ceiling light dangling above your head, you’ll face some issues as well. But damn, does it feel nice when you get a good flow going, and you can act out all the minigames correctly. It can be super satisfying!

• Novelty runs out | The most fun is discovering what the game expects of you, and that “aha!” moment is quick to vaporize into thin air once you’ve played each game a few times. This is a great party game to introduce to new friends, but the veterans in the room will have the edge and eventually winning will also start to lose its appeal. Warioware Move It, just like the other games from the franchise, will not have an incredibly long shelf life.

egg-cellent effort!

Things I disliked!

• Feel-bad moments | Failing a minigame because you didn’t understand what the game expected you to do in time can feel bad, but you’ll get over it and try to do better next time. But in about 1 in 20 games, you’ll feel like you’ve done exactly what was necessary, but the Joycons didn’t track your movement correctly and that’s when enjoyment makes room for frustration. It feels bad when it happens once, it can become infuriating when it happens a few times in the same play session.

• It’s very short | If you’re playing the story mode, you’ll see the credits run in about 1-2 hours max. That’s a very short time, and while you can keep playing and challenge your own scores for as long as you like, I would have appreciated even more cutscenes and character expositions to keep my sense of progression going.

How long did I play the review before publishing? 6 hours
How long to beat the story? ~1.5 hours
You’ll love this game if you like these | Other Warioware titles, Rhythm Heaven, Headbangers