WarioWare: Touched! [DS]

The battle-hardened gamers took on the crowds to be among the first to own a Nintendo DS unit. Now, the scars have healed and boredom has set in. There's only one cure: more Wario! The rude, gross, greedy anti-hero who starred in the frenetic Game Boy Advance blockbuster is back, and more innovative than ever.

Who needs buttons? In this game, you sure don't. Almost every action uses the touchscreen, from navigating menus to playing the 180 fast-paced minigames. That's why you got a DS in the first place, right? Then rejoice, because you'll be coloring moustaches, milking cows, yanking lizard tails, and even playing old-school Nintendo games. If you're not using the touchscreen, you're blowing into the mic to fog up windows or blow pinwheels.

These myriad tasks are broken up into several levels. There are those that require putting the stylus on an object and dragging it across the screen, while another level is more draw-centric. And if you don't like the minigame you're on, just wait a few seconds -- it'll change. Each one culminates in a boss stage, which are more challenging encounters that usually require more than one action to defeat.

It's relatively easy to "beat" the game by simply conquering all the level bosses, but that's barely a fraction of what WarioWare: Touched holds in its tiny cartridge. Each minigame has several variations and infinitely increasing speed; play them individually to both hone your skills and complete the scoring goal.

Then there are the toys, which are side games ranging from a grandmother who gives goofy advice when you blow on her tea, to a chameleon that changes its color to match the background you pick, to a touch-screen paint program. These are unlocked whenever you reach certain milestones, and there a ton of them, too. It will take you countless hours to see and do everything the game has to offer. There's even hidden interactivity, such as touching characters between scenes or rearranging icons on the main menu.

Graphically, WarioWare: Touched doesn't offer much more than its GBA predecessor. At least it retains the wacky, unique style, which is worth more than polygon counts or sprite sizes. The music also doesn't dish out many improvements, but there are some songs that will stay with you for days. Wait until you get to the song about friendless witchwannabe Ashely, complete with sung lyrics.

Leave it to WarioWare to bring to fruition all the dreams gamers had when the DS was first announced. It has quite literally everything you can think of to take advantage of the touchscreen -- especially compared to the platform's lackluster library so far (with the exception of Sega's Feel the Magic, a similarly excellent minigame fest). WarioWare: Touched's fun extends far beyond the quality of the graphics, sound, and individual minigames. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and this game wholly kicks the butt out of any other DS game out there so far.