The story is hardly its strongest feature (Obviously. - Ed), but it does serve it's purpose well. You see, each of Wario's friends have their own set of minigames. Defeating these characters by completing random minigames from a selection of more than 180 is what this game is about. The gameplay sticks close to the formula established in the previous GBA and GC versions, but rather than using the d-pad and buttons, Touched! relies entirely on the Nintendo DS's unique features. The two screens, the built-in mic, and touch screen are all used, and are occasionally used together in order to create some of the weirdest 'microgames' ever conceived.
Each minigame is random and lasts just a few seconds each. With every 3 games completed the game speeds up a notch. You repeat this until you can no longer keep up and lose all 4 of your 'lives' or you defeat the characters boss. On paper, it sounds like an accident waiting to happen, especially when you consider absolutely no attempt is made to explain to the player the controls of each minigame, nor how to succeed. The pace in which the game is played is unrelenting too - whether or not the player loses one of his four lives, it continues along to the next 5 second challenge regardless.
But in practice, it works. Before each minigame starts, there is a brief pause and a single word clue is given, so you're never completely clueless, but more often than not it's up to you to discover and complete the task set out infront of you. The task may be simple things such as popping balloons, cutting fruit or drawing lines to join up stars in the sky, to something as awkward as using the mic to carefully blow a deep sea diver up to the surface avoiding sharks along the way. Even those that are less obvious can be worked out by the second or third play, and this never frustrates. So then, sophisticated and deep? Certainly not. But it is highly addictive and most importantly, great fun to play.
There are two new characters in Touched, one of whom adds a considerable amount of spice to the final product. First there's Ashley who's a witch. She lives in an old mansion, carries a decapitated stuffed rabbit around with her, and is best friends with a tiny devil named Red. The second new character is a robot named Mike. His games are obviously those that are all solved by blowing into the DS' built in microphone. One of my favourite characters from the previous game was 9-Volt who presents you with a series of games that use the classic Nintendo franchises, such as Mario Bros, Metroid and Zelda[/] for the basis of microgames. For example, in one microgame, the player must use the stylus to clear all the Koopa Troopers and Goomba's within a [i]Super Mario Bros level screen. Another sees you collecting faries in Zelda or shooting clay pidgeons in Duck Hunt. Of course, at the end of each 'character' you get to the boss fights. These have no time limit so develop further outside of the rules of Wario Ware. Early bosses see you swatting flies off a window while later ones have you carefully blowing a dandilion to an island across the sea, whilst avoiding birds on the way. Some of the others are even better but I won't go spoiling those now.
Graphically the style changes rapidly from game to game. At times they are great, well drawn and vibrant, whilst at other times they are bland, black and white visuals that hark back to “game and watch” days. 3D is also occasionally used for some of the microgames. Just the sheer range of the graphics really make an overall visual style that is both unique and striking. The sound fits perfectly with the varying games on display. Basic bleeping sounds are accompanied with more sophisticated orchestrated tracks and even actual singing at times. Simple, but effective. The music is also used brilliantly to increase the tension. The further you go the faster the music will play thus amplifying the speed of the game.
Despite Touched’s excellent gameplay, there are a few secondary issues which hurt the game. Longevity is one of its problems. There are a handful of little bonus items that are stored in a toy room. While some of these, like the piano or the calculator provide a mild distraction for a few minutes, they're so limited (the piano only has white working keys while the calculator is just for addition and subtraction) so you probably won't even go back to them. There are some basic two-player games, the Ping-Pong especially is quite fun with both players using each screen and a shoulder button each with a single DS, but there really should have been more. Both the original and the new upcoming GBA Wario Ware Twisted offer much more value in terms of unlockable games, not to mention Twisted’s massive number of unlockable 'toys' which Touched really falls short on. There are also certain characters missing from the roster, though new ones have (partially) taken their place.
But my biggest problem with the game is really just the slight lack of craziness that I've come to expect from Wario Ware. I rarely laugh out loud at a game, but the original Wario Ware provided me with much humour with its general wackiness. Twisted has made me laugh even more so I can only assume it's down to it being made by a different developer (Intelligent Systems) rather than the humour of the first game being diluted on me over time. While Touched has you cutting up fruit that flies across the screen, replacing the word 'fruit' with 'flying horses' would have fit in with the Wario Ware way of doing things better. Don't get me wrong, it's still crazier than 99% of games out there, it's just lacking that little extra madness I was expecting.
While I can't say Wario Ware Touched! hasn't been a slight disappointment, I would still regard it as an essential launch purchase. Firstly because it's the perfect game to show off abilities of the DS with games using the touchscreen, microphone and dual screen capabilities superbly, but secondly because it's a damn good game. It's the longevity that hurts it most, with only a handful of worthwhile unlockables to retain long term interest, but with nearly 200 microgames available there's nothing stopping you having high score challenges with other Touched! owners, be they your friends or fellow forum members, so there are ways to make things last longer by competing with others. Those looking for a slightly lengthier single player may want to look into Project Rub (Feel the Magic) which is out fairly soon, but for overall quality I'd have to give Wario's game the edge. That said, the far superior Wario Ware Twisted! on the GBA is something that every DS/GBA owner should have down on their wishlist, so if you only want one Wario Ware game this year, make sure it's that one.
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