Those major, corporate-sponsored gaming news sites out there have posted their reviews of the highly-anticipated WarioWare: Smooth Moves for the Wii. The overall impression? Heckuva fun… with some reservations. IGN.com notes the similarity (in release date at least) to the WarioWare: Touched game for the DS. Both games are meant to introduce gamers to a new way of controlling a system, and in that respect, IGN gives Smooth Moves the upper hand - overall they found the design of the game to be much tighter, with a better-thought-out game progression and a much wider variety of tasks. 1up.com posted similar impressions, noting that controller issues may pop up for the novice gamer especially in those challenges where the Wiimote has to be pointed at the screen and be able to “see” the IR bar. Finally, Gamespot.com gives Smooth Moves the superb score of 9.1, giving the game lots of nostalgia points for its incorporation of minigames that resemble Nintendo classics, from the NES through Gamecube. Regardless of the scores though (8.2, 8.0, and 9.0, respectively), all the sites agree that WarioWare has a severely high fun quotient, and is likely to become one of the best games for introducing folks to the control possibilities of the Wii.

We’ll be getting our hands on this game shortly, picking up our pre-order first thing tomorrow when it ships. We’ll have our own impressions posted soon after - personally, I can’t wait to watch my non-gaming friends try out this one.

Read More | IGN
Read More | 1Up
Read More | Gamespot