Review
Wario Master of Disguise (DSN)
In 1989, Nintendo released a portable adaptation of their wildly popular Mario franchise called Super Mario Land. The team that developed this monochrome gem was Nintendo R&D1, a section of Nintendo that was doomed to create games only for the handheld that they themselves created. R&D1 clearly resented the business decision to have them create games based on another team's franchise, so they took the world of Mario and altered it completely to their tastes. Now Mario could pilot submarines, explore ancient tombs, fight charging Easter Island heads, and even fly a biplane. When Super Mario Land 2 came out in 1992, the design choices became so bizarre that it warranted an even more prominent new main character: Wario, Mario's evil twin brother, became the fearful villain in 6 Golden Coins.
In 1994, Super Mario Land 3 dropped our fair mustached hero in favor of the jagged mustache of the anti-hero. This began a four-part run of the cult favorite Wario Land games, which are all about exploring nicely detailed stages in search of treasure. Each Wario Land game had a different locale, interesting gimmicks, and pleasantly strange aesthetics that evolved with the series.
So now we're in 2007 and it's been nearly six years since the last Wario Land game was released, and Nintendo has decided to hand R&D1's beloved Wario franchise over to Suzak. For those of us not in the know, Suzak developed F-Zero: Climax and F-Zero GP Legend for the GameBoy Advance, along with a puzzle game spin-off of the Shin Megami Tensei series and a Domo-kun game. Clearly the team for the job, they began work Wario: Master of Disguise with possible hopes of recapturing the magic of the Wario Land games for a new generation of DS consumers. The result is the most unfortunate Wario game I have ever played.
In Wario: Master of Diguise, our favorite yellow brute has hatched up yet another crazy scheme to get rich quick. To that end, he invents a helmet that will allow him to break into a fictitious television show about master thieves and take over. He does this fairly quickly. Once inside the program, Wario is confronted by Count Cannoli, the purple top hat-wearing star of the show. Wario, being the selfish bully he is, steal's the Count's magic wand, which allows Wario to change into various disguises that will allow him to steal as much treasure as possible. Soon enough, Wario and his new wand friend discover a fragment of the Wishstone, which grants people – you guessed it – wishes, no matter how unearthly the desires may be. The game then becomes a race through its ten chapters in order to collect all of the fragments before Count Cannoli does.
While Suzak did a decent job making Wario look like an unwavering jerk, the entire story plays out like a bad fanfiction, with lengthy dialog scenes you can't skip, soulless minor characters, and gags that fall flat at every turn. But if you like fart jokes, have I got the game for you. Master of Disguise is peppered with so many jokes about flatulence that it goes beyond the realms of tasteless – it's just stupid. Suzak, not being the developer to dispel any stereotypes of video games as the lowest of lowbrow entertainment, shoves a fart joke in nearly every scene. For example, Wario refers to himself as the "Purple Wind" and calls his tactics "silent but deadly" at least three times each chapter. It's cute the first time, I'll admit. But not when he threatens to pinch a loaf on Count Cannoli whenever he gets the chance, nor is it when he farts and you see a brown cloud come out of his butt. This is like a cruel joke on anyone who even had a remote interest in Wario's persona.
But the real gas is how the game feels like the red-headed stepchild of the Wario Land canon. Outside of there being copious amounts of treasure, there is very little correlation between this game and any other Wario game before it. The character designs are too random and disunited, the music is bland, and worst of all the game's overall gimmick is very poorly implemented.
Gameplay revolves around Wario's eight disguises that you find throughout the course of your travels. They are activated by drawing a little pattern over Wario and then using the touch screen to activate the special powers each suit has. By the way, you only use the D-pad and face buttons (which are redundant to each other) for Wario's movement – everything else is done using the touch screen. I found the touch screen recognition to be fairly responsive and no-hassle, but the problem lies within the costumes themselves.
Out of the eight different suits you acquire, you'll only ever really be using two or three of them on a regular basis. This is because some of them are so element-specific that there is no reason to use them outside of certain points in the game. Good examples of these would be Captain Wario, which is only good for traveling over water, and Sparky Wario, which is only useful when the area you're in is dark. Otherwise they are totally useless. What's an even more questionable design choice is the inclusion of mini-games to chop up the platforming action. In order to open chests, Wario much complete a simple mini-game using the touch screen that usually consists of trivial and uninspired borefests that serve more to impede progress than they do to make the game fun. Things like connecting the dots, coloring in pictures, and tracing outlines hearken back to my glory days of pre-school. And what's worse, there are fewer than ten mini-games that you'll be playing over and over again in order to open up the dozens of chests to be found in each stage.
While the game doesn't feel like a Wario game, or play like a fun game, for what it's worth it is fairly competent in terms of visuals and polish. The stages are interesting to look at, the puzzles tend to be nice brainteasers, I never ran into any glitches, and it controls really well. It is by no means a mess or a total disaster. But all of these pleasantries are wasted in the shallow pool of purple overalls and maniacal laughter sound effects. The overlying elements of this game seem pointless and poorly conceived. And unless you're a score attack lover, there is no reason to revisit the game after you have completed the main story mode – the game's only mode.
In 1994, Super Mario Land 3 dropped our fair mustached hero in favor of the jagged mustache of the anti-hero. This began a four-part run of the cult favorite Wario Land games, which are all about exploring nicely detailed stages in search of treasure. Each Wario Land game had a different locale, interesting gimmicks, and pleasantly strange aesthetics that evolved with the series.
So now we're in 2007 and it's been nearly six years since the last Wario Land game was released, and Nintendo has decided to hand R&D1's beloved Wario franchise over to Suzak. For those of us not in the know, Suzak developed F-Zero: Climax and F-Zero GP Legend for the GameBoy Advance, along with a puzzle game spin-off of the Shin Megami Tensei series and a Domo-kun game. Clearly the team for the job, they began work Wario: Master of Disguise with possible hopes of recapturing the magic of the Wario Land games for a new generation of DS consumers. The result is the most unfortunate Wario game I have ever played.
In Wario: Master of Diguise, our favorite yellow brute has hatched up yet another crazy scheme to get rich quick. To that end, he invents a helmet that will allow him to break into a fictitious television show about master thieves and take over. He does this fairly quickly. Once inside the program, Wario is confronted by Count Cannoli, the purple top hat-wearing star of the show. Wario, being the selfish bully he is, steal's the Count's magic wand, which allows Wario to change into various disguises that will allow him to steal as much treasure as possible. Soon enough, Wario and his new wand friend discover a fragment of the Wishstone, which grants people – you guessed it – wishes, no matter how unearthly the desires may be. The game then becomes a race through its ten chapters in order to collect all of the fragments before Count Cannoli does.
While Suzak did a decent job making Wario look like an unwavering jerk, the entire story plays out like a bad fanfiction, with lengthy dialog scenes you can't skip, soulless minor characters, and gags that fall flat at every turn. But if you like fart jokes, have I got the game for you. Master of Disguise is peppered with so many jokes about flatulence that it goes beyond the realms of tasteless – it's just stupid. Suzak, not being the developer to dispel any stereotypes of video games as the lowest of lowbrow entertainment, shoves a fart joke in nearly every scene. For example, Wario refers to himself as the "Purple Wind" and calls his tactics "silent but deadly" at least three times each chapter. It's cute the first time, I'll admit. But not when he threatens to pinch a loaf on Count Cannoli whenever he gets the chance, nor is it when he farts and you see a brown cloud come out of his butt. This is like a cruel joke on anyone who even had a remote interest in Wario's persona.
But the real gas is how the game feels like the red-headed stepchild of the Wario Land canon. Outside of there being copious amounts of treasure, there is very little correlation between this game and any other Wario game before it. The character designs are too random and disunited, the music is bland, and worst of all the game's overall gimmick is very poorly implemented.
Gameplay revolves around Wario's eight disguises that you find throughout the course of your travels. They are activated by drawing a little pattern over Wario and then using the touch screen to activate the special powers each suit has. By the way, you only use the D-pad and face buttons (which are redundant to each other) for Wario's movement – everything else is done using the touch screen. I found the touch screen recognition to be fairly responsive and no-hassle, but the problem lies within the costumes themselves.
Out of the eight different suits you acquire, you'll only ever really be using two or three of them on a regular basis. This is because some of them are so element-specific that there is no reason to use them outside of certain points in the game. Good examples of these would be Captain Wario, which is only good for traveling over water, and Sparky Wario, which is only useful when the area you're in is dark. Otherwise they are totally useless. What's an even more questionable design choice is the inclusion of mini-games to chop up the platforming action. In order to open chests, Wario much complete a simple mini-game using the touch screen that usually consists of trivial and uninspired borefests that serve more to impede progress than they do to make the game fun. Things like connecting the dots, coloring in pictures, and tracing outlines hearken back to my glory days of pre-school. And what's worse, there are fewer than ten mini-games that you'll be playing over and over again in order to open up the dozens of chests to be found in each stage.
While the game doesn't feel like a Wario game, or play like a fun game, for what it's worth it is fairly competent in terms of visuals and polish. The stages are interesting to look at, the puzzles tend to be nice brainteasers, I never ran into any glitches, and it controls really well. It is by no means a mess or a total disaster. But all of these pleasantries are wasted in the shallow pool of purple overalls and maniacal laughter sound effects. The overlying elements of this game seem pointless and poorly conceived. And unless you're a score attack lover, there is no reason to revisit the game after you have completed the main story mode – the game's only mode.
Closing Comments
It's either sequel syndrome, rehash disease, or really bad gas.
As I mentioned earlier, Wario: Master of Disguise is an unfortunate entry to the series. It's not so totally sloppy that it's unplayable, but it's consistently uninteresting and too off-beat and random to be considered a good Wario game. R&D1 would have done it better.
