DS review

Wario: master of disguise

hands-on review by Snake202

American game - not out in the UK yet

The warioware series may be the wario series in the centre of the stage, but don't forget that wario also had many platforming outings before warioware came along. There were the very impressive warioland games, which provided solid platforming which replaced mario on nintendo's very popular portable consoles. There was also warioworld for the gamecube. Wario: master of diguise goes back to Wario's platforming history, but iis still a very unique adventure. Here's the story: Wario becomes envious of a master thief who appears on the TV and, using a weird gadget, he goes into the telly to meet the thief. He discovers that the thief's skill comes from a magic paintbrush. Wario steals the paintbrush and sets off on an adventure to become the ultimate thief, using the powers of this magic paintbrush. Using it, Wario can turn into different forms, such as artist wario, who can draw blocks and cosmic wario, who has a laser gun.You need to unlock the powers first though. You could guess that there would be lots of puzzles involving the different forms.

So what's the gameplay like? The way to think of Wario: master of disguise is like a sudoku puzzle. Somewhere in the level, there's a switch or chest that will let you progres through the level, just like a certain number/ letter that will complete a line, making more numbers apparent in sudoku. Another similarity is that, just like you'd be gnawing the end of a pencil during doing a sudoku puzzle, you'll be doing the same to your stylus when playing master of disguise. The puzzles can get overcomplicated. The levels are massive and it can be annoying going from one place to the next searching for what to do. However, the puzzles are very inotative and clever. In one, there are two out-of-reach switches you need to press at the same time, either by standing on them or putting blocks on them. You could use artist wario to make a block over them, but he can only draw one block at a time. instead, you draw a block to give wario a lift up to one of the switches so he can stand on it then draw another block on the other switch. Genius as Wario in his genius form.

The controls are like many DS games - hold the stylus in one hand and use the buttons/ D pad with the other. You move with either the buttons or D pad to move and jump, and use the touch screen for everything else. This is an effective control scheme that works very well, even for left-handers (like me).

Aside from some annoying parts where you're constantly scanning the level for what to do next, Wario: Master of Disguise provides good, solid platforming/ puzzling entertainment.

Wario: Master of Disguise Format: DS Players: 1 Age Rating: 10+ (american rating) wi-fi: no When it will come out in the UK: TBC June
+ Clever puzzles
+ colourful graphics
+ inotative controls
- Can get irritating	May not be perfect, but is a very good blend of puzzling and platforming.	83%recomended