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While previewing Yoshi’s Touch & Go last week I made mention that there were a few games coming down the pipeline that would show off how the Nintendo DS was both different and fun to play with. WarioWare Touched happened to be one of the titles I was speaking of.

The DS version of WarioWare follows the same premise you’ve come to expect from the franchise. Wario in all his money grubbing glory cons people into creating mini games for his game, and then scams all the profits for himself. That’s as creative a premise as ever to try and make sense of the gameplay dynamics of this series.

If you’ve never played a WarioWare game before be prepared to be shocked. It looks simple, and plays even simpler. It’s a game filled with micro games, and each micro game last all of about 5 seconds. Wario Ware is more about fast twitch reflexes that it is about your ability to dodge and kill space aliens from the planet uktar.

The new wrinkle to WarioWare on the Nintendo DS is obviously the use of the touch screen and microphone. With the exception of the start button and very limited use of the mic you’ll strictly be using the touch pad. This makes for a much easier time on your wrists since the DS is far more comfortable to hold in your hands when you’re using the touch pad only.

The game starts and plays very much like a story -- albeit it a very brain challenged story. At the very beginning of WarioWare Touched you’ll play as the titular hero (or villain depending on which mythos of the character you’d like to use). You’ll play through Wario’s mini games, and if you/when you manage to get through his games you’ll finally be presented with the menu screen which will allow you to pick and choose more characters and their respective mini challenges.

Not all levels are available from the start though. You’ll unlock more mini games as you complete the challenges of the characters you currently have available. Each character has their own distinctive way of making use of the touch pad on the Nintendo DS. Some require rubbing the screen, others require you to draw loops on it, and some simply have you draw straight lines. There’s isn’t a crazy amount of variety in terms of what you can do on the touch screen, but quite frankly there’s little variety in any of the other versions of WarioWare. Like I said, this franchise is all about fast twitch reflexes.

What I must say is an absolute waste of time in WarioWare Touched is the use of the microphone. Using the stylus and the touch screen still requires a bit of precision, but the microphone portions of the game could be completed by your dog. In fact you might want to try that – get your dog to bark on command, and see if you can complete the levels that way. There’s way more skill required to do that, than actually doing it yourself.

The only other major gripe to be made about WarioWare Touched would be the cut scenes that occur before the start and end of every level. Those scenes are not designed for anyone over the age of 12, but you’ll HAVE to watch them in their entirety in order to actually play the mini games. Unless you happen to be the kind of person easily entertained by flashing lights (as someone under the age of 12 might be) you’re going to hate those cut scenes in short order.

WarioWare Touched is a great example of a game designed to play on the Nintendo DS. It targets its audience perfectly, and is easily recommended if you fall into the intended DS demographic. However, hardcore connoisseur gamers need to stay the hell away from this game. WarioWare Touched will appeal to the young’ens, Women, and casual gamers – and if the current data on Nintendo DS users suggests anything, it’s that this group makes up a fairly large chunk of DS owners.