WarioWare D.I.Y.

WarioWare D.I.Y.

North American box art
Developer(s) Intelligent Systems
Nintendo SPD
Publisher(s) Nintendo
Director(s) Goro Abe
Taku Sugioka
Producer(s) Yoshio Sakamoto
Designer(s) Masahiko Nagaya
Programmer(s) Taku Sugioka
Artist(s) Ko Takeuchi
Masahiko Nagaya
Asako Kagita
Writer(s) Kyoko Watanabe
Composer(s) Kenichi Nishimaki
Takeru Kanazaki
Series WarioWare
Platform(s) Nintendo DS, WiiWare
Release date(s)
Genre(s) Action, Rhythm
Mode(s) Single-player

WarioWare D.I.Y., officially called WarioWare: Do It Yourself in PAL regions and known in Japan as Made in Ore (メイドイン俺, lit. "Made by Me"), is a mini-game compilation and design video game released for the Nintendo DS in 2009. It is the seventh title in the WarioWare series, after WarioWare: Snapped! It was first revealed at Nintendo's conference on October 2, 2008[5] and it was released in Japan on April 29, 2009. It was released in March, April, and May 2010 in North America, Europe and Australia respectively and was accompanied by a separate WiiWare title, WarioWare D.I.Y. Showcase. The game revolves around the Super MakerMatic 21, a machine that allows players to make microgames, music records and 4-page black-and-white comics.

Story

Dr. Crygor dreams that he is playing on a game console (which resembles a Wii with a Classic Controller) when suddenly all the characters in the game come out of the screen and cause a stampede. Waking up from the nightmare, Dr. Crygor comes up with a brainstorm and invents the Super MakerMatic 21. While the machines are being assembled in Dr. Crygor's lab, Wario enters with a broken television set for repairment and notices the Super MakerMatic 21 is being assembled. He wants to trade his broken television for one of the Super MakerMatics (thinking that it is a television set as well), at which point Dr. Crygor explains what it actually is and its ability of making microgames easily. Wario is amazed and realizes that Dr. Crygor's invention is the key to making huge fortunes and starts WarioWare, Inc. once again. Unfortunately, many of his employees have quit, so he hires the player to make microgames for him.

Gameplay

WarioWare D.I.Y. allows players to design their own microgames, creating their own graphics, music and designing a 'cartridge' for them. The game features five sections in its main menu: D.I.Y. Studio, where the player designs microgames, WarioWare Inc., the tutorial, D.I.Y Shop, where the player makes microgame cartridges, Options Garage, where players edit preferences and names, and Distribution Center, in which players send games to the Wii or vice versa. Players can also receive games from the NinSoft store while at the Distribution Center.[6] Due to its cross-compatibility with the Wii, the gameplay is restricted to tapping mechanics. When creating the music, the player can hum into the DS's microphone, which the DS then converts into notes, or create their own music. These notes can then be performed by various instruments such as pig noises, similar to music creation in Mario Paint.[7]

Players can send their creations to other D.I.Y. owners or receive other people's works. They can also be uploaded to Nintendo Wi-Fi connection for contest purposes. Microgames made available by Nintendo could be downloaded until May 20, 2014, when the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection service has been discontinued.

Additionally, the WiiWare game WarioWare D.I.Y. Showcase allows users to play the microgames on the Wii using the Wii Remote.

Aside from the user-generated microgames, WarioWare D.I.Y. includes over 90 pre-made microgames featuring the characters Mona, Jimmy T., Ashley, Orbulon, and 9-Volt. WarioWare D.I.Y. Showcase includes 72 different pre-made microgames featuring Wario-Man, Dribble & Spitz, Kat & Ana, and 18-Volt.[8] Each character has microgames set to certain themes, similar to WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$!.

Development

Development of WarioWare: D.I.Y. began in September 2003 when its developer, Goro Abe, decided that due to how entertaining it was for the team to create microgames, they would make a game that allowed gamers to do the same thing. In an interview, Abe referenced other video games that allow players to create their own role-playing or shooting games, but despite finding it fun, he would quit making them before finishing them. Because of this, he decided that the short nature of the WarioWare series' microgames were perfect for this kind of game, allowing for those with a short attention span to make use of the game. Development took long as a result of the successor to the Game Boy Advance, the "Iris", being replaced by the touch controlled Nintendo DS, which Abe felt was an ideal way to create microgames. However, due to a combination of the difficulty in creating microgames and other projects Abe had to develop, it was put on hold. The project gained new life during the development of the Wii video game WarioWare: Smooth Moves when the developers learned of the WiiConnect24 feature that allows players to exchange or send data. He decided that with D.I.Y., players would be able to make microgames on the Nintendo DS and then send them to the Wii to play. Development restarted after the completion of Smooth Moves. Another designer, Masahito Hatakeyama, got involved after discussing the project with Abe. Hatakeyama was also interested in video games that allow players to make their own content, but he suffered from the same problem and would quit creating his content 1/3 through. He also cited Mario Paint as another game that he played that allowed him to make his own content. He eventually asked Abe if he could participate in the game's development, which Abe said yes to. Taku Sugioka, an employee of Intelligent Systems who had also worked on the DSiWare video game WarioWare: Snapped!, had heard that after Smooth Moves was completed, Abe was going to try something new. Soon after, Abe asked him if he would be interested in participating in its development. He found it to be an interesting project, but was not sure if Abe's ideas could translate well into a video game.[9]

The drawing and music-making portions were made to be based on the drawing and music-making portions of Mario Paint. However, they found difficulty in designing the portion of the game where players designate the objectives of the microgames. Originally, they intended to make characters and items, which they designated as "objects", able to move depending on the players wishes, but they needed to make the game interactive and approachable for players. After Smooth Moves, development of D.I.Y. took two years to complete; one of those years was spent attempting to figure out how to make such interaction and approachability doable. Eventually, they decided on splitting the microgame design process into three phases – the object phase, the background phase, and the sound phase. They created a test model which they viewed as successful after a designer created a microgame in a few hours. At this point, the development had picked up, Sugioka commenting that the team was amazed by this since he was just a designer and not a programmer, meaning he did not have access to special techniques to do this. As the development continued, the game design mechanics grew from the simple test model, as if like they were adding to a puzzle, in Sugioka's words. The developers intended on keeping it simple, however, only implementing six buttons. For example, for a microgame that features a jumping character, players may dictate where the character may jump by selecting the "Boing!" button. While Hatakeyama wanted to add more functionality, Abe retorted by commenting either that the player could combine two functions to do what Hatakeyama wanted or that the microgames only lasted a few seconds and did not need to get too complex. The development team attempted to recreate microgames from WarioWare: Touched! to test how easy it would be for players to do so. For some they could recreate, while others they could not. In response, they adjusted the game to make the ones they could not recreate workable. The debugging process was a difficult part of the development due to how many possibilities there were in creating microgames.[9]

While the game originally was going to use a normal Nintendo DS game card, it uses a NAND flash memory card in order to save and load microgames faster and allow players to store more microgames. While this was initially rejected due to a tight schedule, it was eventually implemented. However, during the mass production phase of the development, the game would stop when they tried to utilize the memory. Sugioka was placed in charge of debugging the NAND card, and eventually found the cause. While Abe considered that there would be people who would not want to make microgames, he implemented a feature that would allow players to edit the microgames the developers included to make their own. Initially, they considered having players download microgames from people who have given their friend codes to them, Abe commenting that microgames made by friends and family are more entertaining than those downloaded from anonymous people.[9] However, both methods of exchanging games were eventually included in the game.

WarioWare D.I.Y. Showcase

WarioWare D.I.Y. also uses connectivity with a WiiWare title called WarioWare D.I.Y. Showcase, known in Japan as Asobu Made in Ore (あそぶメイドイン俺, lit. "Play Made by Me") and unofficially called WarioWare: Do It Yourself Showcase in PAL countries, allowing users to upload their creations to play on a big screen, and even upload them for contests. The game allows players to play up to 72 pre-made games, listen to pre-made music, or read pre-made comics. Players can also play, listen, or read the things they have already made. Along with that, users can fill out surveys for games that their friends have made. They can also download new content when it comes out and upload their games for other players to download.[10] WarioWare D.I.Y. Showcase also includes an unlockable versus mode, but options are limited to shuffling every game, user-created and pre-made, alike.

Reception

Reception
Aggregate score
AggregatorScore
Metacritic82/100[11]
Review scores
PublicationScore
IGN9/10[12]
ONM92%

WarioWare D.I.Y. holds a score of 82/100 on Metacritic, indicating generally favorable reviews.[11] IGN gave the game an 'Outstanding' score of 9.0/10.[12] Wiiloveit.com awarded the WiiWare download a similar grade, with a 27/30 (or 90%), claiming it's a "great compliment [sic] to the DS release".[13] Additionally, British publication Official Nintendo Magazine gave the game a 92%.

Sales

Famitsu reported that by May 31, 2009, WarioWare D.I.Y. sold 156,692 units in Japan.[14]

References

  1. ↑ "WarioWare Myself Japanese Overview Trailer". GameTrailers.com. April 15, 2009. Retrieved 2009-04-15.
  2. ↑ "Supplementary Information" (PDF). Financial Results Briefing for the Six-Month Period Ended September 2009. Nintendo. October 30, 2009. p. 8. Retrieved October 30, 2009.
  3. ↑ "News: WarioWare: Do It Yourself – April 30th". February 25, 2010. Retrieved February 25, 2010.
  4. ↑ "Nintendo Australia confirms WarioWare D.I.Y for Thursday". Aussie-Nintendo.com. May 17, 2010. Retrieved 2010-05-18.
  5. ↑ "Made in Ore (new WarioWare title) – more screens". GoNintendo. October 2, 2008. Retrieved 2008-10-04.
  6. ↑ "Make Your Own WarioWare Games: News from 1up.com". 1UP.com. April 8, 2009. Retrieved 2009-04-10.
  7. ↑ WarioWare D.I.Y. Intermediate Lesson 1
  8. ↑ WarioWare: D.I.Y. Game Overview
  9. 1 2 3 "Iwata Asks WarioWare D.I.Y.". nintendo.com. Retrieved March 26, 2010.
  10. ↑ "Nintendo Reveals New DSi WarioWare, Art Style Games". Kotaku. October 31, 2008. Retrieved 2008-10-31.
  11. 1 2 "WarioWare D.I.Y.". Metacritic. Retrieved March 29, 2010.
  12. 1 2 Harris, Craig (March 25, 2010). "WarioWare D.I.Y. Review". IGN.com. Retrieved March 25, 2010.
  13. ↑ Wiiloveit.com: WarioWare D.I.Y. Showcase Review
  14. ↑ Graft, Kris (June 8, 2009). "Japanese Game Charts: Kingdom Hearts For DS Leads May". Gamasutra.com. Retrieved 2009-07-29.
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