Story: 4/5
MoD has one of
the most complex stories I've ever seen in a non-RPG! In a nutshell: Wario
is watching TV one day when he sees a TV show about a master thief, the
Silver Zephyr. Jealous, Wario constructs a virtual reality helmet that
zaps him right into the TV show. Wario crashes the show, and swipes the
Silver Zephyr's disguise wand, Goodstyle. With Goodstyle, Wario transforms
himself into "The Purple Wind" and adopts the catch phrase "Silent but
deadly!" Now Wario races Count Cannoli, the Silver Zephr's true identity,
and Carpaccio, a pompous pretty-boy chemist, to a legendary treasure called
the Wishstone. Using the Wishstone, he plans to wish for all the treasure
in the world! Not the greatest story ever, but good enough for a platformer.
Characters: 3/5
We've got five
main characters here: Wario, Goodstyle, Cannoli, Carpaccio, and the final
boss, whose name I won't reveal. Wario himself gets a whopping two points,
because he's so great! I just love his greedy, selfish, and crass personality.
Goodstyle, who helps Wario throughout the game, fits into Wario's two points.
The other bad guys, Cannoli and Carpaccio, get 1/2 a point each; I like
them, but I just don't think they're that great. And no stars for the final
boss, who is really lame.
Graphics: 3/5
The graphics
are good enough, but nothing special. They actually look more like GBA
graphics than DS graphics, unfortunately. Wario looks kind of odd when
he laughs, but he and his various disguises look decent enough. The levels
generally look nice, but nothing that will blow you away.
Sound/Music: 3/5
AHAHAHA! That
laugh of Wario's is so great, it gets two points! The other music and sound
is acceptable, but I've heard much better. The only tunes I really like
are the TV room and the boss music.
Controls: 1/5
Ugh. These controls
are terrible! The buttons work well, but all the buttons do is let you
run and jump. Everything else must be drawn on the touch screen: changing
disguises and attacking. To change disguises, you have to draw the desired
disguise’s symbol on Wario. The problem? Too many symbols are just too
darn similar. For example, Arty Wario is a box with a line through it,
and Genius Wario is a circle with a line through it. Dragon Wario is one
kind of triangle, and Wicked Wario is a different shaped triangle. See
the problem? The touch screen often gets confused about which disguise
you wanted to change into, which is a real problem in a boss battle.
Gameplay: 3/5
Ah, the gameplay.
The meat of any game. Unfortunately, MoD falls a bit short here. It is
a lot of fun running around and collecting all the various treasures, but
I have a problem with what you have to do before you can get the treasure.
Every time you open a chest, you have to clear a WarioWare-like minigame
to get the treasure. There are, however, only about 8 different minigames,
and none of them are nearly as fun as the WarioWare ones. Some of these,
like the tracing one, can be REALLY annoying as the level increases.
Otherwise, MoD has a pretty standard gameplay style. You must play through each level (grabbing all the treasure you see, of course!), and then face the boss. The bosses are generally imaginative, though the 3 or so incarnations of Cannoli's hat get old real fast. Once you beat the boss, the money you earned is totaled up, and once you reach certain amounts of money, you get various titles (e.g, Paragon of Disguise). Not bad, but I've played better.
Difficulty: 2/5
The difficulty
rating is one of the top 3 things that can make or break a game. This is
MoD's problem with the difficulty: the enemies and bosses are generally
way too easy, and the final boss isn't that much harder, just super-annoying.
The hard part is that MoD is much more puzzle-oriented than Wario's other
adventures, and oftentimes, I found myself wandering around a level wondering
what on earth I'm supposed to do. In my opinion, the bosses should have
been harder and the puzzles should have been easier.
The game has only ten episodes, but the game is not overly short because each episode can take 30 minutes to an hour to fully complete. Still, I wish the game was a bit longer.
Replayability:
4/5
The replayability
of MoD is surprisingly good. After you beat the game, you can go back to
previous levels and get treasures you missed. Some treasures even require
you to go back to previous levels, since they can only be obtained using
disguises that you get later in the game. Also, once you beat the final
boss, 5 extra episodes are playable, in which you must race Count Cannoli
through some of the original levels for various new treasures. I would've
given this a 5, but I had to compare it to games like Mario Kart and SSBM.
Fun Factor!: 4/5
I really had
a lot of fun playing MoD. Wario's great personality was a big factor; the
game reeked of Wario's vulgar, greedy, and crass personality, as well as
all the garlic that he loves. The disguises were fun and creative, and
I liked all the weird treasures you can acquire.
Overall: 3/5
Whether or not
you should buy Wario: Master of Disguise is up to whether you like Wario
and puzzle-y games or not. The game is full of Wario's in-your-face character,
and it has far more puzzles than your typical platformer. It's not the
best game in the Wario series; that honor goes to Wario Land 2. But, it
is a decent game, ruined only by terrible controls and lousy difficulty.
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