When WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$ was released for the GameBoy Advance in mid-2003, many people questioned how a collection of games lasting no more than three or four seconds could possibly be engaging and entertaining enough to hold their attention. That is, until they actually played it. Yes, WarioWare showed us all that sometimes you don't need what Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has called called "fine French cuisine" in the form of epic grandiose adventures and RPGs everyday. Sometimes, you just need "a simple bowl of rice and soup." By that analogy, the WarioWare series has built its house on single pieces of rice and shotglasses of broth, providing just the smallest dining experiences to keep appetites hungry for more.

Now that WarioWare, Inc. has become a multi-faceted multinational corporation and enjoyed successful ventures in the GameCube version of WarioWare, Inc. (Mega Party Game$), as well as WarioWare: Touched! for the DS and the devastatingly enjoyable WarioWare: Twisted! for the GBA (complete with foreshadowing gyroscopic sensor), it only makes sense that a flagship collection of mini-meals and proof-of-concept demos for the Wii's interesting new controller is on the way in the form of WarioWare: Smooth Moves.

WarioWare for the Wii made a delightful showing at E3 2006, with two kiosks dedicated to sampling some of the minigames that will be offered up upon the title's release. Each "play" allowed the user to try out six different minigames. Because the focus was more here on just seeing different minigames, the timers weren't brutally hard and your success with the games didn't lead to any extra levels. What is probably the most different new addition to WarioWare is a screen that is displayed just before you start each minigame. I've been calling it the "position screen," and aside from the kinky, sex-related connotations, the name actually works quite well.


Pardon our blur, our E3 camera-ing was often quite incompetent.

At the bottom you've got a green bar with several squares, each one representing a "position" -- a new way to hold the controller for the upcoming minigame. Before each one actually starts, a position is randomly selected and then you get a larger sized "picture" with the name of the position next to it. The picture offers a quick visual representation of how you are actually supposed to hold the controller for the upcoming game.

The Waiter


In this one you hold the remote flat in your hand like on a silver platter. It smacks of high class and elegance. See? You are already esteemed.

The main game that was played out of this position was sort of like those old tilty games. You have a snowglobe-type dome object with a hole inside in the middle, and a ball sitting in there too. You have to tilt the snowglobe so the ball will roll into the middle hole.