WarioWare: Twisted!

WarioWare: Twisted!
North American box art
Developer(s)	Nintendo SPD Intelligent Systems
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Director(s)	Goro Abe
Producer(s)	Yoshio Sakamoto Ryoichi Kitanishi
Artist(s)	Ko Takeuchi
Composer(s)	Kenichi Nishimaki Masanobu Matsunaga Yasuhisa Baba
Series	WarioWare
Platform(s)	Game Boy Advance
Release date(s)	JP October 14, 2004 AUS May 19, 2005 NA May 23, 2005
Genre(s)	Action, puzzle
Mode(s)	Single-player

WarioWare: Twisted!, known in Japan as Mawaru Made in Wario (まわる メイドインワリオ, lit. "Turning Made in Wario") is a video game for Game Boy Advance by Nintendo. It is the third installment in the WarioWare series. The game is of a variety and puzzle genre. It was released on October 14, 2004 in Japan, May 23, 2005 in North America, and May 19, 2005 in Australia.

In the game, Wario and his friend Dr. Crygor invent a Game Boy Advance that only reacts when tilted around. The game follows the WarioWare formula with a variety of games that lasts for only a few seconds. The cartridge utilizes a gyro sensor and players must spin and twist in order to play the games.

Twisted! was critically acclaimed and has won numerous awards. Reviewers found the gyro sensor to be innovative and adding to the gameplay aspect.

Gyro sensor

The WarioWare: Twisted! cartridge has a built-in gyro sensor and rumble feature (for feedback during rotation). Most of the microgames are played by rotating the entire handheld device. The gyro sensor uses a piezoelectric gyroscope developed by NEC^[1] to detect angular movement. The gyroscopic sensor does not contain mercury, despite a false rumour that mercury in the sensor resulted in the game's being banned under European environmental regulations.^{[citation needed]}

Because the game automatically calibrates the gyro sensor when the game is turned on (and after every "micro-game"), it works with both top-loading slots (like the Game Boy Advance) and bottom-loading slots (like all other models after the original GBA: Game Boy Advance SP, Nintendo DS, Game Boy Micro, and Nintendo DS Lite). The manual states that Twisted! is not compatible with the Game Boy Player; although the game loads as normal, players would have to carry and tilt the connected GameCube console and use its controller for button presses, thus it is simply not practical.

Plot

One day, while playing with his Game Boy Advance, Wario becomes frustrated with a particularly hard game on it and throws the system at a wall, causing it to hit him on the head. After his temporary rage, he notices his GBA is broken. He requests Dr. Crygor's help in mending it. Crygor, however, places it in his new invention, the Gravitator, which spits out dozens of buttonless objects similar in form factor to a Game Boy Advance. It demonstrates that in order to play, the device must be physically moved. Mona and 9-Volt arrive and toy with these new units, enjoying themselves. Wario, taking note of their reaction, decides to take advantage of these motion-sensing abilities as a selling point, and recruits his friends to design Microgames based on this concept.

Gameplay

This game changes the scoring from the other WarioWare titles. Previously, the score was the number of games that were played, but Twisted! only counts the number of games that the player won. The game features items called "souvenirs", which are unlocked after boss stages in story mode. Records, musical instruments, figurines, games, and many quirky items are possible to unlock. Like other previous titles, each character has their own style of gameplay.

Development

Nintendo programmer Kazuyoshi Osawa took lead of developing the game engine with several members of the original WarioWare staff.^[2][3] Intelligent Systems provided half of the work force including several programmers.

European release

This game was originally set to be released in Europe on June 24, 2005;^[4] however, it was later pushed back to February 24, 2006,^[5] before Nintendo of Europe changed its release date to "TBD" on the company's website. In the January 2008 issue of the Official Nintendo Magazines "Ask Nintendo" section a Nintendo-Europe representative shed some light on the situation and claimed the WarioWare: Twisted! delay was because Twisted! was still undergoing the compulsory LGA testing and approval for Europe. There has been no further official information since this statement. European copies of the 2008 game Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii list the title in the included database of Nintendo games as "Not Released", while that year also saw the game's page on the Nintendo of Europe website removed. This indicates that the game was cancelled and shelved in Europe. It is likely that the game failed its safety testing. It did receive good reception, so it would have been released in Europe had it not failed. ^[6]

Reception

WarioWare: Twisted! currently has an aggregate 87.79% rating on Game Rankings.^[7] In Japan, it won Grand Prize for Entertainment at the 2004 Japan Media Arts Festival.^[8] Craig Harris from IGN channel named Twisted! the No. 1 GBA game of all time, and gave it a rating of 9.5/10.^[9]

Book: Mario video games

References