GamesRelay

Name: WarioWare: Snapped

With the release of the new Nintendo DSi and DSiWare store, it comes as no surprise that one of the DSiWare launch titles would be something to show the capabilities of the new handheld in some shape or form. WarioWare: Snapped is it, showing off the DSi's built in camera capabilities, the game will see you performing some strange poses to complete the various challenges presented.

While the DSi is a portable console at heart, Snapped isn't something you can really play on the move since the handheld needs to be open at roughly around a 120-degree angle while being placed on a flat surface, so playing on the way to work is out of the question. One issue you also face is calibrating the camera so that it picks you up, the game doesn't work well under low lighting conditions due to the camera and sometimes doesn't even work when it's too bright often having you re-calibrate it just to pick you up, it happens rarely once you have it set up, but it can be a slight bug-bear.

When you start the microgames the DSi will show a silhouette of yourself on the top screen so you can position yourself accordingly before playing, the majority of the games being single player but five of the microgames allow you to play with another friend on the same DSi, these again involve you doing funny things on screen while the DSi takes random pictures of you in various positions which actually are quite funny, but the game lacks the ability to save these pictures making it fairly pointless other than that short laugh you'll get from viewing them once it's over. Being able to export these and save them would have been a great idea, alas, it just wasn't meant to be.

Snapped is made up of around 20 microgames which range from picking peoples noses on screen to playing peek-a-boo with babies, it's all of course played with the new camera, for instance you use your fingers to pick the giant nose on screen, something strange, but mildly entertaining, especially shown to friends. All the games involve you using some part of your body to participate, from your head to your hands and your mouth since some require you to blow into the microphone, it's fun and unique, and shows what the DSi is capable of. The problem with these microgames is just that, they are small and easy to play, there's no real challenge involved and they don't last long enough to really have an impact apart from the initial novelty value, replay value is near none existent here. The whole game will only last you about thirty minutes to get through but once over, you'll probably find that the only other time you play it is when you want to show other people what the DSi can do. While these DSiWare games are supposed to be small games and not full blown releases, it should be expected to offer some replayability throughout.

Unfortunately, Snapped doesn't come with any sort of difficulty scaling and while it's all down to your actions to complete the microgame, these are timed and it isn't something you can easily get wrong, being able to bump up the difficulty to get it done in a shorter length of time would of added some extra playtime to this otherwise short game.

So for the first in most likely a long line of DSiWare games, WarioWare: Snapped does an adequate job of showing you the new camera and it is fun for the first play through, but with no replayability present, it should make you think twice before choosing whether to give this a miss or not.