WarioWare is Mario Party for cool kids. As chaotic as Mario’s shindigs get, they are positively tame compared with the microgame mayhem that Wario has delivered for 20 years. A spiritual sequel to the Wii title WarioWare: Smooth Moves, WarioWare: Move It for the Nintendo Switch ($49.99) focuses on absurd motion controls that require you to get up and shake your body around. Therefore, it leans in a more casual and multiplayer-focused direction. Wario’s shenanigans have highs, lows, and don't last long overall, but there's no party like a Wario party when everything comes together.

Do the Locomotion

For a series all about confusion, the core WarioWare formula remains remarkably consistent. You tackle a gauntlet of “microgames,” bewildering five-second-long gameplay snippets. You receive a single clue to interpret and overcome the challenge. In addition, you have a limited number of chances to screw up, keeping tensions high for a breezy Nintendo game. That said, Move It is pretty forgiving and offers players a chance to revive themselves during tough story mode challenges.

(Credit: Nintendo)

Move It tasks you with completing microgames by using motion controls that pair well with WarioWare’s sensibilities. Discovering how the game wants you to move your body adds to the wackiness and leads to many funny moments. A microgame about ringing bells on beat sounds simple enough, but how about a microgame where you draw shapes with your butt? To stop you from gesturing wildly (and potentially sending your Joy-Con hurling into your TV), Move It gives you a clue about where you should hold the controllers. For example, you may need to hold your hands on your thighs and squat, or adopt the “Choo Choo” pose and hold your bent arms out in front of you. There are nearly 20 poses to unlock, requiring you to contort your body in various ways, from holding your hands at your hips with "Big Cheese" to stretching out your arms to form a "Crocodile" jaw.

There's some overlap between poses (you can only put your hands in so many different places, after all), but Move It's microgames find exceedingly creative uses for them that I would rather not spoil. I yanked wigs off heads, scrubbed dirty windows, denied entry for kangaroos, flipped steaks before they could burn, and saw Wario's awful mustache plastered onto all sorts of anime faces.

What really impressed me, though, were the tasks that required you to move the Joy-Con in an almost dangerous way. Be sure to tighten your wrist strap because you may need to drop the controllers, place them on a flat surface, or just let them dangle in the air. Move It's microgames provide some unforgettable moments, a nice change from the more conservative activities in the previous Nintendo Switch WarioWare game, WarioWare: Get It Together.

(Credit: Nintendo)

Move It's motion controls provide some of the best video game comedy you'll experience all year. However, the motion controls have drawbacks, too. The need to constantly adopt new stances slows things down, especially compared with Get It Together, which has a much more breakneck pace due to its use of buttons and control sticks. Those traditional inputs are also more reliable, if less creative, than Move It’s motion controls. Sometimes Move It barely recognized what I was doing, like a Just Dance game.

At its worst, the controls are just frustratingly unresponsive, particularly for microgames that require the IR camera. Plus, motion controls make Move It unplayable in handheld mode. Like Nintendo Switch Sports, this game is best enjoyed with lots of local friends getting up off the couch.

Moving It Together

WarioWare is more than just microgames. Move It features multiple modes to play those microgames in new contexts. In The Museum, you practice tougher microgame variations. In Story Mode, you and a friend team up to tackle as many microgames as possible, including boss fights. Party Mode lets four players compete in a Mario Party-esque board game or a Jackbox Party Pack-style mode where you perform actions in the real world in front of each other. I dug the Copycat Mirror mode where player one watches the TV and player two copies player one, almost like a physical game of telephone. Party Mode also only requires one Joy-Con per player instead of two.

(Credit: Nintendo)

These (strictly offline) multiplayer modes give Move It staying power, something to bust out when friends come over. However, WarioWare games are typically light on content and this is no exception. You can play through the story mode in just a few sittings. Other additional modes are just slight repackages of existing microgames, like an exercise mode or chasing high scores for personal glory. Get It Together offers more substantial single-player and multiplayer post-game and progression (either online or offline). I almost wish these two games came bundled together for the ultimate WarioWare package (even if the best game is still the GBA original now available on Nintendo Switch Online).

Tropical Style

Move It retains WarioWare’s typical presentation, with Wario being his usual vulgar self, eating garlic and hanging out with his weird friends. Compared with most safe and nice Nintendo games, WarioWare: Move It features a madcap array of graphical styles, from hyperrealism to stylish 2D animation, that conveys an anarchic sense of humor. During cutscenes, the cartoon aesthetic here is more flat and straightforward than Move It's strange and cool mixed media, but it's pleasant enough for the island vacation theme. Shout out to Wario's hair.

The writing, though, stands out with its charm and humor. Every new pose comes with a short comedic fable about how that form came to be in the island's past. As with Super Mario Bros. Wonder, Kevin Afghani has now taken over the voice role of Wario from Charles Martinet and does a fine job.

It’s Wario’s Party, and I’ll Cry if I Want To

Like Wario himself, WarioWare can be many things. The franchise that began as an intimate handheld game proves it can evolve its formula with its eccentric motion controls and local multiplayer mayhem. The series’ second outing on Nintendo Switch may not be exactly what all fans are looking for, but WarioWare: Move It is a worthy entry in Nintendo’s strangest canon, even if it's not at the top of the list.

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