With the release of the Nintendo DS came a new way to play and with that came WarioWare: Touched. While not being as widely appreciated as the previous two versions it showed DS owners what kind of control schemes to expect from developers when it came to utilising the new system.

This title didn't manage to sell as well as the previous two so the development team went back to what they knew best, the Game Boy Color. By introducing a gyroscope into the cartridge WarioWare: Twisted managed to breathe more life into the series and the franchise was once again a huge hit with gamers worldwide.

This leads us to WarioWare: Smooth Moves. A new system, a new way to control our games and with that Nintendo feels they need to show us what to expect from developers over the life cycle of the Wii. The game really isn't about story, but manages to find a way of introducing us to the franchise again and again. Wario loves money, and he'll do whatever it takes to get it. If that means stealing others ideas or accidentally creating a new machine to do so, then he'll do it.

This time we see him getting his snacks stolen by small creatures. By chasing them to their dwelling he stumbles across a small stone baton. Upon picking it up he realises it controls things around him, and herein starts his money-making idea.

The first control style you are introduced to is the "Remote Control". Hold the Wii controller like your standard remote and try and figure out what you're supposed to do. Fans of the franchise know exactly what to expect, but for those who have never picked up a WarioWare title it's time to open your mind.

You are given five seconds to figure out what is happening on screen and doing it thus completing the micro-game. Once you've beaten one you are quickly reminded which way to hold the controller then it's onto the next.

After a set number of microgames you will be introduced to your first boss stage, and while they're a little harder than your standard micro-game you won't get stumped. After you complete the boss stage you are given a small epilogue cutscene and then are returned to the overworld map to see a few more characters appear.

Each character has his own little story made up of a prologue cutscene, a set number of micro-games, a boss battle and an epilogue cutscene and completion of each stage sees more stages open up for you. It's a pretty simple premise and it works to help keep your focus until everything is unlocked.

Once all stages are unlocked its a matter of going back into each stage and trying to beat your last attempt as now the stage does not end after the boss battle, it ends when you run out of lives - which are lost if you fail a micro-game, and gained if you beat a boss battle.

Over the progress of the game you will come across many different ways to hold the controller, from sitting it nicely in an open palm (the Waiter) or putting it face down on a flat stable surface (the Discard). Most of the micro-games are extremely fun and a lot of the satisfaction of the title is coming across new ones or finally figuring out some of the more obscure.

It's a matter of thinking a little more literally than it simply being a controller in your hand, and that you may even need to use your empty hand to help get through some.

A big problem with Smooth Moves is the lack of unlockables. Sure, you have a whole slew of characters to unlock, and 200 micro-games that need to be beaten, but the WarioWare franchise is known for its quirky mini-games and unlockable toys.

Twisted not only featured 200 micro-games but also over 130 unlockable toys to help show off the gyroscope feature, but where are the unlockables for Smooth Moves? You get to unlock four mini games - two of which are good - and a couple of multiplayer modes, but there is nothing in them that really asks you to come back once you've tried them out.

Smooth Moves stays very true to the graphical presentation it's known for. All of the story cutscenes are all in a very quirky 2D style, but they've been polished to a level that makes them enjoyable to watch.

Simple and effective seems to be the style for everything else. The overworld map could've been bumped up a little more and for people new to the franchise a lot of the micro-games will make you wonder why Nintendo just didn't try that little bit harder.

The fact of the matter is - and it shows by the lack of screenshots Nintendo revealed - is that graphics just don't matter to Nintendo when it comes to fast-paced, frantic titles like this. Each micro-game is only on the screen for a few seconds so it doesn't need to amaze you visually. There are some which will surprise you with 3D graphics and downright impressive lighting, but the majority are hand-drawn.

As in every WarioWare title, there is a character by the name of 9-Volt. All of his micro-games are based on older Nintendo products, and while we've only seen the inclusion of NES/SNES titles in them, Smooth Moves introduces micro-games based off games like Wind Waker, Pikmin and Star Fox 64.

Nine-Volt's stage is normally the most fun as you know what you're heading into. The game would have been a lot more fun if every character's levels had a certain theme or design to it as the potential is truly there to be utilised. But instead we see a dark character like Ashley use what seems to be a completely random set of games with multiple ways to control them.

Touched proved that giving each character his own control style worked, and Nintendo seem to have forgotten that. All in all Wario Ware: Smooth Moves is well worthy of a rent, and fans of the series will almost need to have this as part of their collection, but with the lastability being restricted due to a lack of unlockables and what feels like a completely random delivery it's hard to score this one as highly as others.