Welcome to VC Weekly, N-Europe’s guide to the wonderful world of Nintendo’s download service. Written by Sam C Gittins

If you're a fan of games featuring a certain anti-hero based on a popular Nintendo character then even you will possibly want to look away from this title. Anyway enough from me and on with the game!
 
Available for download this week we have...     

Wario: Master of Disguise

Price: GB £8.99, EU €9.99
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Suzak
Released: 2007
System: DS

Wario has had a rather interesting history beginning with his first appearance in the unforgettable Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins which cemented the demented villain's place in Nintendo history as he then moved onto his own series in Wario Land before becoming entangled in the web of Wario Ware with no real deviation aside from the underrated Wario Land: the Shake Dimension and this unfortunate experiment gone wrong called Wario: Master of Disquise on the Nintendo DS which originally came with a shiny cover that I have always been wary of to this day; seemingly with good reason! The story goes that Wario sees a show on TV featuring a thief who has a range of disguises which each have different abilities, a envious Wario then makes a device which allows him to enter the world inside the TV - as you do - in order to steal his powers for his own use; he then finds something valuable and decides to obtain as much treasure as is inhumanly possible.

Being that this title is developed by Suzak - who previously worked on two portable F-Zero titles - you'd think that while feeling different it would at least seem to be a competent platformer, unfortunately because they seemed to go all-out in attempting to push the touch-screen in all of the worst ways possible it further fragments the gameplay making it into an awkward experiment gone wrong which once you've started playing you'll just want to carry on out of sheer morbid curiosity alone; not beacuase the game is any good which isn't really the way it's supposed to be. With disquises being the main mechanic here when you acquire them you'll be bestowed with various abilities such as Cosmic Wario who can float in addition to being armed with a laser pistol, some of these abilities will allow you to reach previously inaccessible areas, you can pick up extra items which further enhance your abilities and it's worth noting that you are not invincible here like in previous games having a heart-based life system instead.

Some of this may sound fine until you consider the control scheme which uses the d-pad to move yet pressing "Up" jumps which feels counterintuitive, then you have ability-switching which is done by drawing on the touch-screen every time you wish to change, so as you can imagine if even basic scrawlings have a habit of being mis-read by the stylus-based input then just think how annoying it will get later on in the game if you even make it that far. That's not the end of the touch-based festivites either as when you find treasure chests you will be required to complete a mini-game which just feels like a chore, perhaps if these parts were more Wario Ware in style then it wouldn't have been so tragic; of coruse it's not all bad as at least some of the stages are reasonably well designed plus it can be interesting to go back to previous areas with new abilities just to see what you can find, plus there is at least some challenge plus a good bit of humour in there as well but it's far from the stellar standard fans will have become accustomed to over the years.

Visually the game isn't that bad at all as it does take advantage of the DS hardware, it might not be to everyone's taste but a commendable amount of effort has been put in here as it features a decent level of animation with a decent amount of unique character. The audio seems reasonable for this standard of game, it's not particularly memorable like past Wario games have been - bar a few really good tracks - but it certainly serves a purpose plus the sound effects add the right amount of crazy to the general tone.

Conceptually this sounds like a good game but unfortunately it gets so bogged-down with the drawing mechanic of having to use the touch-screen every time you want to transform that it just saps a lot of fun from it all, the range of costumes is decent though and there is certainly some fun to be had so if you are a huge fan of Wario and want to play all of his games then there's nothing to stop you. Everyone else will want to give this a miss however as it's a part of Wario's past that should perhaps remain there, like a wardrobe full of garish outfits which are good for a laugh but not much else in the long term.

Verdict : Wario masters mediocracy and parades it perhaps a little too proudly.

That's it for another installment of VC Weekly which will return again soon. So until then, enjoy the rest of the week and Game On!