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Giant Bomb Review

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WarioWare: Snapped! Review

3
  • DSI

WarioWare: Snapped! is more of a tech demo than a full game, so if you're looking for something that you can use to show off the DSi's camera, go for it.

Use your fingers.
Use your fingers.
The WarioWare series has been a great alternative series for Nintendo. It's let the company offer something that's a little outside the norm, a little weird, and a little Japanese. It's also been great at using whatever technology the hardware it's running on has to offer. The DS WarioWare made great use of the touch screen. On the Wii it was one of the first terrific uses of the Wii's motion-sensing controller. Now, with the launch of DSiWare and the Nintendo DSi, the handheld has a camera. So WarioWare: Snapped! is right here alongside it to give you something to do with that camera.

That said, Snapped! isn't really a full game. At 500 points ($5), this is more of a quick tech demo than a full retail product with the full cast of WarioWare characters. It offers four sets of five games each, and the games are all a lot easier than what you normally get from the franchise. And like every other camera game out there, it requires you to calibrate before you can play. The game is played by setting the DSi down on a table and aiming the internal camera at your face. The setup seems very picky about lighting, so you'll have to find a reasonably bright place to play. Once it's detected your face and hands, you can move on to the actual games.

Before each game, the system quickly recalibrates and tells you what pose you'll need to use to play the next challenge. For some games, this just uses your head. For others, you'll use both your hands as well. The games are really basic, like tilting your head to dump a watering can over, or moving close to the camera to simulate a kiss. After five games, you're done... and it shows you the results.

The results are pretty good. The game secretly records you playing and then play back a sped-up roll of you playing the game and generally wiggling and freaking out. It's funny to see and fun to show off to friends. Unfortunately, the game doesn't store your performances, so once you quit, you'll have to play again to get new clips. With four different tracks of games (one of which is designed to be played with two people) and one game played during the credits, you'll see everything there is to see really quickly. Since the games themselves aren't really tough once you get everything properly calibrated, you probably won't come back to it very often for gameplay reasons.

WarioWare: Snapped! does make for a great tech demo, though. It's pretty crazy that you can do all this on a handheld, and it's goofy enough that you'll want to show it to your friends. If you're the type of person who likes these kinds of flagship, techy experiences, or if you're enough of a fiend for WarioWare material that you'll take it where you can get it, it's worth the 500 points.
Jeff Gerstmann on Google+

10 Comments

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ArcBorealis

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Edited By ArcBorealis

I'll probably check it out, even if it won't pull me back to it constantly. It would've been much smarter if they made it a DSi specific cartdridge for this than just a download.

Thanks for the review. And yeah, you've been on them ALOT today.

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JJOR64

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Edited By JJOR64

I got it and it's ok.  I think it would be more fun to play it with other people.

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zitosilva

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Edited By zitosilva

Hum... seems like it would be more worth if it came free with the DSi to show its capabilities.

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jakob187

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Edited By jakob187

So...in other words...it kind of almost sucks shit through a pipe marked shit delivery system?


ZING!
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RedSox8933

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Edited By RedSox8933

I got this and Aquia, and I can't seem to get this to work. No background in my house is bright enough for me to play the game. I might try going over to my friends house and see if it works, though.

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Media_Master

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Edited By Media_Master

This looks the most fun after opening a new DS

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iamjohn

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Edited By iamjohn

One question, Jeff - did you use Giant Bomb's green screen when playing this?  Because in my experience, the calibration is absolutely awful and I've only been able to play a full five-game streak once out of the five times I've tried.  Not that it really matters, I guess, because none of the microgames are particularly fun.  Had the game not given you any of the post-game stuff (the recorded reel-of-shame or the edited photos), I'd say there's absolutely nothing redeeming about this game whatsoever, and it's easily the worst WarioWare out there (but what do I know?  I wish wish they would make another WarioWare like the first!).

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MeatSim

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Edited By MeatSim

What is that 4 reviews posted in one day? that must some sort of record somewhere.

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Tiz

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Edited By Tiz

It was definitely worth half of the 1000 free points I got from going into dsiware. Is that only in europe or do you get that in the us as well? Anyhow, a great little game to show friends. Only thing is, it seems hard to get calibrate, which is a pain. All of our faces here in finland seem to be the same color as white walls..

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Pathos

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Edited By Pathos

I love the fact that he used the word "fiend" to describe WarioWare fans.