I wasn't expecting much from Master of Disguise, but ended up really liking this quirky and lovable Wario adventure.

User Rating: 7.5 | Kaitou Wario the Seven DS
By liugeaux | Review Date:
Wario has had a strange life since he was conceived. He has had success as a platformer star, has been in several Mario sports and party games, and stars in the wildly popular Warioware games. Wario: Master of Disguise is somewhat of a sequel/spin off of the Wario Land Series. Wario Land is a Spin off the Mario Land Series, so with all of this I don't even know if he has had a decent origin story. That is beside the point. Wario: MOD is a stylus heavy platformer that's not as action based as New Super Mario Bros or Yoshi's Island DS, and not as point and click based as Kirby Canvas Curse or Yoshi Touch and Go, it's kind of a blend of the two styles

You control Wario's movements with the the D-Pad and Wario's attacks/transformations with the stylus. Wario uses a wand to change into different costumes that give him different powers. These powers are the bread and butter of MOD. All of the games puzzles are built around these abilities that Wario gets from the wand's costumes. The way you change in to the costumes is by drawing certain shapes on Wario's head and chest area. While this works pretty well, it can be a hindrance when fighting a difficult boss.

The gameplay is solid and it's only two flaws are the DS's form factor, and the touch screen shape recognition. The way you have to hold the DS caused my hand to go numb...often...which I'm sure will end up giving me some sort of long term hand disorder. However you really can't blame developer Suzak for the shape of the system. Also, some of the shapes you have to draw to transform can be hard to trigger. If I would have the developer to go back a work on something else it would be that.

The puzzles, are pretty easy for the most part, but their are some head scratchers in there. The leveling up process of the powers seems pointless but each power does has a very distinct use and you MUST use them all extensively to complete the game. One of the most surprising things about Wario MOD is it's length. It has 10 chapters and will probably take the average player 10+ hours to complete the first time around. This adds huge value to the game.

The story isn't great, and the dialog sequences slow the game down a bit too much, but overall Wario: Master of Disguise is a very solid DS title that can be enjoyed by a very large audience.

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