Loving this game so far. 3 of us spent a few hours unlocking multiplayer last night and then 5 of us did the multiplayer for a while.
I think enough people have spoken about the single player experience, so here's our multiplayer experience (I'm doing this from memory, so I apologize if I call something by the wrong name or miss something):
First of all, there are 4 main modes that use the microgames, and then some minigames.
Minigames
Darts (2-4 players)
There is only one game mode: 301. If you've played the monkey ball version of darts, this is a real treat in comparison. You aim at the screen and throw - no button presses, no need to pull back and then release.
It's fun, but it gets old fairly quickly. Wish there were more games besides 301. I doubt anyone was expecting it to, but this will not replace a real dart board.
Nose Flying (don't remember the real name; 2 players)
You use 1 Wiimote and 1 Nunchuk in this game, with each player controlling one or the other. The object of the game is to either be the last one surviving or be the first to collect 3 pieces of fruit.
The game itself is similar to the paper airplaine microgame. Tilt downwards to go down, up to go up, and rotate (like a key) to turn. There is no speeding up or slowing down though.
The best part of this game is that you can smash into the other player and possibly force them to crash into a wall.
Bungee Buddies (2 players)
Again, this uses 1 Wiimote and 1 Nunchuck, each player controlling one of them. But this time you're working together. You're intructed to hold your peripheral at your hip and jump when necessary.
The game is played on a long, straight path. Along the path you'll find obstacles to jump over (holes and hurdles). Sometimes only one of the players must jump, while others times both must jump in unison. Each time you fail to jump, you get slowed down as you recover. If you do well, a piece of cake appears that you can jump and grab which will warp you further ahead.
The game ends after 60 seconds, and your score is the distance you were able to travel in that 60 seconds.
The game is fun, but after the first time we went through without hitting any snags, it lost its replay value. I feel like we 'beat' it. This game (for better or for worse) is also very tiring if you actually jump as intended. After the fourth time going through jumping, we found that flicking the remote upwards actually registered better and didn't leave us dead tired afterwards.
Microgames
I can't remember the names of these, but you should be able to figure it out.
Survival (2-12 players)
This is basically elimination, last man standing wins (or in this case, last man flying - players' Miis are shown in angel-form soaring in the clouds). Players take turns in a random order doing microgames. They start off easy and get progressively more difficult. Once you lose a game, you're out.
Not much to say on this one. If you enjoy the microgames, you'll like it. This is also the only way I saw to play with more than 5 people.
Rope (2-5 players)
Players do 4-5 rounds of microgames round robin style. Each time you beat a game, you earn points. Each round ups the ante. So, the first round is worth 10 points, 2nd round is worth 15, then 25, and so on.
After all of the rounds are complete, the players are placed on ropes hanging over crocodile infested water. The top players get 3 ropes, mid players get 2 ropes, and last players get 1 rope. Players then take turns choosing a random rope to cut (As an aside, sometimes we found the ropes were color coded - ie, some players had red ropes, some had blue. In this case, the random rope you're cutting isn't quite so random. I'm not sure what caused the color coded ropes, but we did find them more entertaining.). In this way, even if you do the worst at the microgames, you still have a chance of winning in the end.
This variation was a lot of fun, as it tended to even the odds a little bit. Those that weren't as good at the microgames still had a chance in the end.
Bomb (2-5 players)
In this game there is 1 loser, and the rest of the people are all considered winners. One player is randomly selected to go first and is given a microgame. If they lose the microgame, they also lose the main game. Upon successfully completing the game, they choose who goes next and which form they will use.
Each time a form is used, the next person to use it gets a more difficult game. For example, if the first player had the Elephant form, the next player to play an Elephant-form game will have a more difficult one.
Players keep choosing who goes next and with which form until somebody fails. Once one person fails, the game is over.
This mode also did a fairly good job of balancing novice and advanced players. When somebody chose a novice player, they could give them a fairly easy game, while still giving the challenging games to the advanced players. It would have been nice if this were elimination style though, or at least had the option of being so.
Balloon (2-5 players)
Those familiar to the GCN WarioWare will be familiar with this game in concept. The objective is to avoid being the player taking his or her turn when the balloon pops.
Players are put in a random order. At the beginning of a player's turn, they are asked to pump the balloon. You can do so as fast or slow as you like (or even not at all). Then the player plays microgames until they successfully beat one. While the player is playing microgames, other players pump up the balloon automatically.
When the balloon pops, the current player is declared the loser, and everyone else wins.
As I mentioned above, this was seen in similar fashion in the GCN game. However, in that version, players each had their own controller and could pump the balloon as fast as they wanted when it was not their turn. This added a level of franticness that feels missing from Smooth Moves.
Conclusion
The microgames in Smooth Moves are excellent, but it feels like the multiplayer doesn't reach the same level that I was expecting after playing WarioWare on the GCN.
I like the ability to play more than 4 players, but it would be nice if there were some 4-player games in which each player had his or her own Wiimote.
In any case, I can't complain too much, because everyone still had a blast. Definitely worth your money.
), what the hell are you supposed to do on the 4th round where the other dancers point back? I simply can't get through that and hate having to play through 18 games to get back to it each time (I tried it 3 times).
ing game so far. The $10 coupon shall ease the lack of replayability although I like trying to beat my own high scores even if I haven't beaten the main game.
