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WarioWare DIY Showcase Nintendo Wii

Format:
Nintendo Wii

Genre:
Improvement

Buy/Support:
Support Simon, click to buy via us...

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WarioWare DIY Showcase offers micro-game addicts another 72 shots in the arm. But more importantly, it's the place to test our your DS WarioWare DIY creations to friends and family. Create on the commute to work then impress them that evening. The complete game development cycle in bit size pieces.

WarioWare DIY Showcase is 800 points from the Wii-ware channel. Technically this is a place to show off your WarioWare DIY creations, but for the price of entry you also get 72 pre-made micro-games featuring Wario-Man, Dribble & Spitz, Kat & Ana, and 18-Volt. These complement the 90 or so in WarioWare DIY DS from Mona, Jimmy T., Ashley, Orbulon, and 9-Volt.

Although from a technical point of view I would like to have seen more augmentation of the Wii's abilities into the WarioWare DIY games, but it seems a WarioWare creation tool for the Wii is for another day. And in fact the process of creating games on the DS while you go about your daily busyness and then bringing them home in the evening to share with friends actually makes a lot of sense.

In snatched moments through the day WarioWare D.I.Y. DS lets you create your own WarioWare micro-games - complete with graphics, music and packaging. Once you have worked through the tutorials and created your game you can share it with friends via Wi-Fi, Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection or finally play them here on WarioWare D.I.Y. Showcase game.

For an up and coming game designer like me this is all pretty inspiring stuff. As I said in my WarioWare DIY DS review. it's a shame that you can only chare creations with friends. Compared to Little Big Planet's ability to create a game then publish to the world and see how popular it becomes WarioWare DIY's sharing is pretty limited.

I like that Nintendo, along with some famous people, will provide a steady stream of games to download but again it seems that they should also select the best user created content and promote that as well. There are contests planned to plug this hole in the future, so fingers crossed that helps budding designers get their WarioWare work in front of a bigger audience.

Even though I'm well acquainted with the game development process and the elements involved, I was really impressed by the clarity on display here. In fact, revisiting some of the building blocks to game creation help refresh some old ideas for me and got me thinking of new ways to create games again.

One nice touch is that once the games are on WarioWare DIY Showcase you can then play them with up to four player - each taking turns. Again, this makes the singular experiences you have created on the DS more into mini-party games. I also found that these Showcase sessions enabled me to come away with tweaks and improvements to the WarioWare DIY levels I had created. It was like having my very own play testing team.

WarioWare DIY Showcase complements the DS game well. Not only do you get to play your creations on a big screen, but you also close the development cycle with play testing and quality feedback. While WarioWare DIY gets you started in game design, it's not until you start Showcasing your creations on the Wii that you start to engage the real hurdles of creating something playable, challenging and fun. A master class for all us budding designers.

The nagging worry I have though, is that when everyone's a game designer, surely no one is. This sort of democratisation is a little worrying for my career aspirations. I'm sure it will work out though.

Written by Simon Arquette

You can support Simon by buying WarioWare DIY Showcase



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Simon Arquette writes the Tech Gamer column.

"Gaming technology and techniques fascinate me, always have and always will do. They've driven me to a gaming degree, and aspirations to a whole lot more. Here though, I'll be reviewing games for how they put their technology to work to deliver a compelling experience."

Here are the games I've been playing recently:

• Skylanders Trap Team
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• Handheld
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