Summary
WarioWare: Move Itis yet another game in the twenty-year-old franchise that is known for being fast-paced but simple, as well as artistically quirky. While many entries in the series operate in the same way thatWarioWare: Move Itdoes, others have taken a different approach.Game & Wariois one example that failed to deliver on the usual microgame-filled fun that fans enjoyed, aiming to separate the game into multiple different mini-games instead.WarioWare: Move Itis a return to the classicWarioWareformula, but the game’s final unlockable is aGame & Wario-style mini-game known as Dirty Job starring Mona and 5-Volt.
Dirty Job is a shoot-‘em-up in a style reminiscent ofSpace HarrierandSpace Invadersthat can be unlocked after players completeWarioWare: Move It’s story mode and post-game content. AsWarioWare: Move It’s post-game modesare rather challenging, asking players to take on every microgame they have unlocked at highspeeds with limited attempts, many players might be hoping that Dirty Job is worth the effort it takes to get there. Sadly, design flaws hold the game back, making it hardly worth being a reward at all.
Dirty Job is Held Back by WarioWare: Move It’s Game Design
WarioWare: Move It’s Dirty Job Plays into a Joy-Con Criticism
Motion controls majorly replace buttons in themicrogame-filled formula ofWarioWare: Move It, and it experiments with numerous different “forms” throughout its many games to get players to strike a pose and use that position to defeat many in-game challenges. Dirty Job, despite being a rather different mode than everything else in the title, still uses these forms to allow players to interact with the game. Dirty Job uses the Scales form in particular, meaning that players have to stretch their arms out wide and bring them in closer to the screen to aim and shoot.
The use of players’ arms to control Dirty Job wouldn’t be a problem if it wasn’t for how themotion controls were implemented in the lastWarioWare: Move Itmini-game. Due to how players hold the Joy-Cons in the Scales form - vertically with their thumbs on the shoulder buttons - it’s tough to shoot at enemies, and the way that the attacks are acivated might hurt some gamer’s hands.
How the Size of the Joy-Cons Kills the Reward of WarioWare: Move It’s Dirty Job Game
In Dirty Job, players tap and hold SL and SR to shoot at enemies while using their arms to aim. Holding their hands close together charges up a stronger shot that can cut through numerous enemies at once, and deal heavy damage against the special dish-basedbosses inWarioWare: Move It. The only issue with this layout is that due to the Joy-Con’s small size, holding down the buttons or even tapping them every so often can lead to some players' hands cramping, as the position isn’t exactly the most comfortable.
Since the Switch’s launch, the Joy-Cons have consistently been criticized for their small size. While they’re understandably small due to how the Switch is meant to be a hybrid console, some control set-ups, such as the one in Dirty Job, cause some players to deal with hand cramps and pain. Often times, as seen in Dirty Job, there’s no way around this because the control scheme uses too many ofthe Joy-Con controller’s featuresto offer alternative controlling methods for those who find the position painful. As a result, if players don’t like the idea of tapping the SL and SR buttons with such a small grip, they may want to skip out on Dirty Job entirely. That may take all the fun out of the later challenges inWario Ware: Move Itas there’s no reward they’ll enjoy behind them.
