With a replay value that extends two-fold to both designers and gamers, WarioWare D.I.Y. is a satisfying treat.
At the get-go, there are 90+ microgames already included in the package. If you've played the WarioWare games before, you know the territory. If not, here's a brief lowdown: these games are exercises of reflex, coordination and a time limit of only a few seconds. You're given a not-too-subtle hint on how to solve microgames that quickly come at you one after another, and the more you progress, the faster they get. In other words, if you think too hard, you've already lost. Many of them are also quite silly, so even if you eke out a chuckle, you'll most likely mess yourself up in one form or another. Thankfully, the stylus is all you'll ever need to play these games, and you're allowed to goof up four times before you lose, so you can breathe a collective, yet temporary, sigh of relief. Themes range from sports, general weirdness, brainy mathematics, and bite-sized chunks of old Nintendo games (my personal favorite!)
But the heart of D.I.Y. is the opportunity to create your own torturous microgames. Up to 90 of them to be exact. (And that's not counting the 90+ more you can port over to Showcase, a WiiWare supplement to D.I.Y.) The game presents you with a surprisingly powerful toolset in which you can develop characters, artificial intelligence, backgrounds---even your own music. Yet, the tools are not so complex as to scare off those with little tolerance for a steep learning curve. The stylus makes drawing stuff easy and fun--even though sometimes it is a bit restrained. Unfortunately, as ambitious as you may very well intend to be when creating your own micro-masterpieces, a limit is imposed by a 256-point system---for example, larger objects and/or animation cels costs specific points to use. While you may not be able to craft an elaborate, Final Fantasy-esque microgame to blow discernible minds, the fact that you're able to create 90 of them should be well enough a reason to accept the shortcomings.
And it's not just microgames you can create; you're also given the chance to concoct your own music and four-panel comics. The music editor for D.I.Y., as is the case with microgame creation, is surprisingly simple to use yet far more powerful than anything of its kind. Whatever song you have in your head, it's possible to replicate here, and music you create can be used for your microgames (so long as it fits under two-phrases). Of course, if you choose not to use music for a microgame, you can compose an entire song for the fun of it. Four-panel comics are fun little vignettes that you can effortlessly put together regardless of how talented you think you are at drawing. (Character stamps are available if you're too lazy to even draw stick figures.) The stuff included are all hilarious quips that make absolutely little to no sense.
Everything you churn out from your own little D.I.Y. factory is "shipped" to the in-game distribution center, where you can share your creations with others and/or download their stuff either via Nintendo Wi-Fi or through an 800-point WiiWare download called D.I.Y. Showcase (provided you have a Wii lying around) There, you can play your created games, and everybody else's, on your TV screen using the Wii Remote. Sharing and downloading games adds tremendously to the replay value, meaning you'll always find something new to try out from other gamers as well as unleashing your creature to an interested world. Contests occasionally pop up to test the mettle of budding designers, giving them a chance to have their creations rated by the community. You'll even get to play microgames designed by the industry's foremost developers.
As I mentioned in the past, I enjoy creating games just as much as I do playing them. WarioWare D.I.Y. was purely designed with the creator's spirit in mind, but even if you don't have that, you can still get a lot out of it by downloading games from those that do. D.I.Y.'s replayability factor is two-fold; the chance to build games to your heart's content, and the ever-changing menagerie of new experiences for gamers who just want to have a good time. If you fit in either of these categories, or waffle around in both territories; needless to say, WarioWare D.I.Y. is the game for you.