Wario: Master of Disguise

Posted June 5, 2012 by Speed - 0 comments

The most vicious Italian villain after Berlusconi is back in a new platform adventure. I’m curious if Wario: Master of Disguise can compete with the hours of fun I had with Wario Land on my old gameboy. Wario Land is known to be an anarchistic version of Mario Land but behind this simple concept, there was a very amusing game. After all these years, Wario joined Mario in a few too many sport games and some fun games where he was the central character. With Master of Disguise, he’s back on track with his own platform game.

When Wario is watching some boring television, he stumbles upon a strange show about a master thief called Count Cannoli. This guy obtains a magic wand, giving him the ability to transform into any character he wants. Naturally, Wario isn’t blind for the vast amount of abilities this could bring him. It doesn’t take him long to come up with a “cunning” plan. He creates a helmet which teleports him into the tv show, to steal the magic wand from the count.

It’s the beginning of what turns out to be a pretty standard platform game. Of course the DS stylus offers some new insights into the genre, duh. Too bad they aren’t all that well brought into the game. You can change into your disguises by painting movements on your screen. Painting a circle around your head makes you a laser shooting astronaut. Creating a painting makes you an artist who can make blocks. And painting a tail on Wario makes him a dragon who shoots fire. Naturally, there are many more disguises, maybe even too many.

Too many? Indeed, because these disguises are easy to mix up. Especially in the hectic situations, when you get carried away, it’s hard to keep a steady drawing hand. And you will have to change a lot, because an artist can make you paint blocks, but only an astronaut can shoot things and can make you jump higher.

Throughout the game, you will have to unlock treasures to feed your wand with gems. To open these treasure chests, you’ll have to play some stupid, uninspired no good minigames. It’s just a gimmick that shouldn’t be a gimmick anymore. These games are just meaningless efforts to thicken the gameplay up with bullshit.

And that’s the biggest problem of the game. Not the bullshit, but the fact that it’s just a gimmick that ‘s already expired. It’s not that Master of Disguise is a terrible game, it’s just that I don’t think anybody would pay money for this and actually feel good about his purchase. The graphics aren’t too shabby, but you could expect more from a DS. The sound is ok, and Wario is always guaranteed to have funny oneliners.

I think Nintendo should take better care of their characters. Sure, Mario games are almost always great, but other characters don’t seem to get the same attention and care

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