WarioWare DIY: Personal microgames and video game snapshots

snap·shot, noun
1: a casual photograph made typically by an amateur with a small handheld camera
2: an impression or view of something brief or transitory <a snapshot of life back then>

The brilliance of WarioWare D.I.Y. is it gives gamers the power to create video game snapshots, not just in the sense of brief video game experience, but also personal, perhaps clumsy interactive scenes.

Instruments like Klik & Play, modding tools, and (pirated copies of) Adobe Flash Professional have brought the game creation process to the masses for decades, but WarioWare D.I.Y. is unique in that it limits developers, no matter their talent, to 5-10 second affairs.

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tags / ec / ian bogost / made in ore / snapshots / warioware diy

WarioWare: D.I.Y. coming March 28th

WarioWare D.I.Y., the WarioWare DS title that empowers you to create your own microgames about Golgo 13 and dragon punching Ken’s wife, finally has a North American release date: March 28th, 2010, almost a full year after its Japanese debut. Its complimentary WiiWare game for playing the microgames on a big screen, WarioWare D.I.Y. Showcase, is also slated to hit in the first quarter of 2010.

A quick game recap for newer Tiny Cartridge readers: WarioWare D.I.Y. gives you the tools to create graphics, music, rules, and even comics for microgames. It’s a neat app that’s already been abused to create dozens, if not hundreds, of perverted mini games in which you grope and poke anime girls in vulnerable positions (there’s even one for Hachi Koi’s Kurumi floating around somewhere!).

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tags / starship defense,t / made in ore / warioware / warioware diy / dsiware / intelligent systems / trajectile / q-games / reflect missile / number battle / suujin taisen / touch solitaire / x-scape / link n launch / ec

Games missing from Nintendo’s lineup

With today’s DSiWare surprises and announcement that The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks will hit December 7th, Nintendo posted its consoles’ fall/winter release schedules. The list of upcoming games is too long to even skim here, so I’ll let you read the full tally yourself and instead talk about what wasn’t included in the roster.

Five first-party games I hoped to see on Nintendo’s late 2009 and early 2010 slate but were unaccounted for:

1. Sin and Punishment 2 - Ships in Japan on October 26th, but last I heard, this won’t reach the U.S. until the first quarter of 2010
2. Picross 3D - Originally scheduled for the third quarter of 2009, but now absent from the fall/winter schedule
3. WarioWare D.I.Y. - Announced for North America at E3 (which doesn’t guarantee release — e.g. Jam With The Band) without a set date
4. Another Code: R - Released in Japan and Europe but not in the States or Australia (sounds like another Disaster situation)
5. Game & Watch DSiWare games - It’s strange that Nintendo announced its Electroplankton minigames but not these, though it’s likely the company will throw these onto the service without any warning

Were there any missing DS or Wii games that you wanted to see on the list?

Buy: U.S. Matte White, Pink, Black and Blue DSi

Import: Japanese Nintendo DSi (White, Black, Pink, Red, Lime Green, Metallic Blue)

tags / dsiware / sin and punishment 2 / picross 3d / warioware diy / made in ore / another code r / game and watch / ec

Sakurai’s Project Sora releases first game

Project Sora, the new studio headed by Super Smash Bros. creator Masahiro Sakurai, just shipped its first title in Japan, Issen, a Made in Ore microgame (Sakurai says this as a joke, but it’s technically true!).

This release is part of Nintendo’s selection of celebrity-created downloadable microgames posted every week — the last of which was Takahashi Meijin’s bomb-exploding piece. In this game, which Sakurai spent around 2 hours whipping up, players slash watermelons and Tengu heads (but not bombs!). You can see bits of it scattered throughout this five minute video.

Speaking of Made in Ore, Takahashi Meijin, and watermelons, someone made this wonderful microgame based on the legend’s watermelon-splitting technique:

Absolutely genius.

Import: Made in Ore

See also: Soooo many Made in Ore posts

[Via Andriasang.com]

tags / Masahiro Sakurai / made in ore / project sora / issen / import / takahashi meijin / watermelon / ec