Metareview: Wario: Master of Disguise
The reviews are coming in and they're all over the place for Wario: Master of Disguise. We've grown to expect innovation and even brilliance from Mario's unruly counterpart, but the thing about innovation is that it's a risk ... and often, opinions can vary, as we see below.
GameSpot: 61% - "...the game's real problem is that it stops being interesting after about an hour. Cutting down a chandelier with a laser is cool the first couple of times you do it but not the 100th time. By the third or fourth episode, you've interacted with the same objects and experienced the same set of eight minigames so frequently that the process of switching costumes and using the stylus becomes rote."
1UP: 40% - "It's pretty clear from the get-go that WMD isn't the work of the usual Wario crew (who is presumably far too busy coming up with new WarioWare concepts to revisit their mundane platformer roots). Gone is the Wario Land series' graphical finesse, its quirky sound design, its gorgeous music, and its unconventional gameplay. Oh, and its ability to get right to the action -- WMD is bloated with story. And not good story, either. A trite, uninteresting story full of fart jokes. And don't even ask about the lame nods to WarioWare that come in the form of constant minigames. And not good minigames, either. Trite, repetitive minigames designed for preschoolers."
GameSpy: 80% - "Wario: Master of Disguise is precisely what you'd expect from Wario: tons of juvenile, yet still pretty funny, scatological humor and some passable minigames. What saves it from mediocrity is the fact that it is actually really challenging. Each level is a puzzle packed with a Russian nesting doll of other smaller puzzles (and minigames), so you can expect hours of frustrating befuddlement (in a good way, though). In addition, it use of the stylus to do just about everything feels inventive and new. If you're looking for something to occupy your time on the bus, you could do far worse than Wario: Master of Disguise."
