Wario: Master of Disguise
© 2007 Nintendo of America
Mario's wild cousin and rival, Wario, is on a quest for money and treasure. It is up to you to explore eight worlds that take place inside a TV show to help him find it. As you explore, you might have to draw symbols on Wario, putting him in outfits or giving him items needed to attack the enemies in each location in order to get past obstacles. The opening menu is confusing, presenting you with a number of options. Reading is required at many points in the game, (e.g., "Whadda entrance! And for my big break in TV too! I'm on that dork's show." Notice the unconventional English). While there's a bit of "dorky" humor and language, there's nothing extreme to worry about in any of the content we played. Our testers noted this game would be fun for fans of past Wario games. Content includes eight stylus/microphone-driven mini-games that grow more difficult as the game progresses. Several are excellent for exercising fine motor abilities as well as memory and timing. For example, there's a dot-to-dot puzzle, several timed tracing challenges, and a sliding square game where you must create a match for a target picture. Progress is automatically saved. Developed by Suzak for Nintendo.
$35, Nintendo DS
Teaches: fine motor development (tracing), memory, logic, counting, creativity, reading
CTR Rating: 86%