WarioWare: Move It! asks players to gently shake, punch, dance, wiggle and even curtsey through more than 200 microgames, and it mostly works. Nintendo released the party game on November 3, 2023, for the Nintendo Switch. Intelligent Systems developed it. It is the twelfth WarioWare entry and the first direct sequel in the series, following up 2006’s WarioWare: Smooth Moves.
Trailer, via Nintendo of America.
Form Stones and the Joy-Con
The game is built around microgames that last a few seconds. Before each one, the game tells the player how to hold the Joy-Con controllers — one of several “forms” — then throws the microgame at them. Fail, either by losing or running out of time, and one of four lives is deducted. The stage ends when the lives run out. Clear a section and a longer, more complex boss microgame waits.
Some microgames also use the infrared camera on the right Joy-Con. That is a small addition, but it is the kind of thing that keeps a motion-control gimmick from feeling like a retread of Smooth Moves.
The Form Stones come from the story, not the menu. On Caresaway Island, the residents hand the gang stone Joy-Con called Form Stones, which the characters use with their hands.
Caresaway Island
The plot is pure Wario nonsense, and better for it. A TV commercial offers a trip to Caresaway Island with the purchase of a garlic burger. Wario orders fifty. He wins the trip for himself and twenty friends, to his dismay, and the gang reluctantly tags along.
The stages split the cast into their own adventures. Mona dives for mermaids in Mermaid Meet and Greet. Dr. Crygor, Penny and Mike travel to the Stone Age in A Curious Case of Cave Art. Ashley tries to restore Red to standard size after blueberries shrink him in Caveat Imptor. Orbulon gets amnesia and is mistaken for a god in Sweet Dreams, Sweeter Fruit.
The final stage, Lava at First Sight, sends Wario back to the temple, where lava overtakes him and merges him with the island’s volcano.
A hungry Wario passes by the local burger joint and orders fifty garlic burgers, which results in him winning a trip to Caresaway Island with twenty friends, much to his dismay.
| Mode | Players | What it needs |
|---|---|---|
| Single-player | 1 | One set of Joy-Con |
| Local co-op | 2 | Two sets of Joy-Con, synced motion |
| Party Mode | Up to 4 | One Joy-Con each |
The Party Mode Problem
Party Mode is where Move It! gets thin. The source describes minigames like a dicey board game with Wario-style rules, and that is a fine idea. It is also the mode that depends most on having the right people in the room.
The co-op asks two players to sync their motions with one another. That is a real ask. Motion controls that demand precision are fun for ten minutes and frustrating by minute thirty.
Move It! is not trying to be more than it is. It is a party game with a clear gimmick, a big pile of microgames, and a cast of WarioWare regulars. The form prompts give the motion controls a structure, and the boss stages give each run a finish line.
What holds it back is the same thing that holds back every motion-control party game: the fun scales with the room, not the disc. Four players with four Joy-Con will get exactly what they paid for.
WarioWare: Move It! is a solid entry in a series that has never needed to be more than a few seconds of chaos at a time.
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