as a normal warioware game in the year 2024, where the online servers are no longer active and you cant download custom microgames anymore (kind of) this game is a pretty whatever title overall. the microgames are all touch based and pretty limited, and don't have much depth to them.

but if you're the creative type who loves making stuff (such as myself) warioware diy is a BLAST! the tools take a bit to learn, but the tutorials are super helpful and have so much personality, and making games is SO much fun in this. the editor is pretty limited in what it can do, but working under those limitations makes for a pretty fun puzzle, and you can do some REALLY intricate stuff with the tools youre given. the music and presentation of the editor are amazing as well, and make what could have been a pretty basic and boring process into a fun experience filled to the brim with charm and personality. i also love how a lot of the graphics and music outside of the microgames themselves try to work under the same limitations, the music for everything uses a lot of the same instruments you're given in the composition software, and the sprites tend to use a lot of the same colors that the graphics editor gives you. it gives this whole game a really homemade feeling, which is perfect for it, given its whole mission statement. i also love that the packed in microgames are made in the same editor you're given, and you can import pretty much anything from them into your own games. it lets you see a microgame they made, wonder "huh, i wonder how they did that?" and then you can take a look at what they did to get an idea for it. also, ive never been one for music creation, its just never really clicked for me, but the composition software they include in this game actually made me give it a shot and i've actually kind of figured out a bit about music now! i also really like the comic creator, one of my favorite things to do is use the "Auto" option when typing in a title, and then making a comic based around that. its a fun little creative exercise that i like to do every so often. unfortunately, this is ignoring the fact that the online isn't on anymore, so you can't download other people's games normally. that being said, there IS a way to still do online stuff with this game, and it's called doujinsoft! from my experience with it, it works pretty well, although it does require you to either move your save from your wii to your computer, then back to your wii, or just straight up mod your wii. and it requires you to have a wii in the first place to use warioware diy showcase, so its not exactly a perfect solution, but it does the job! overall, warioware diy on its own is nothing special, but if you really love creating and downloading custom games, it's an awesome package that's full of love and charm you won't find anywhere else.

really solid and fun puzzle platformer with really fluid controls. i had the wiiware version as a kid and never beat it, then in 2017 i found it on steam and decided to pick it up. i didn't mesh with it though, the controls felt worse than i remembered and was super sluggish and unintuitive. then, a couple days ago, i finally picked up the wiiware version again and told myself i was gonna beat it that day no matter what. so i sat down, started playing it, and it really clicked for me this time. it also made me realize they really butchered things in the pc version, the wii version has separate buttons for doing normal gusts and doing a slipstream, while on the pc version theyre one in the same, and it makes it really annoying to do certain things there. i also feel that the wii pointer just works a lot better for a game like this, it could be that im just not very coordinated when it comes to using a mouse, but i found the pointer controls to be a lot smoother. i also didn't mind the short length, it makes it easy to just pick up the game and blast through it in one sitting like i did, and the extra collectables makes replays a pretty fun time. i also think the game looks absolutely gorgeous for a wii downloadable game, especially on something like a crt which hides the imperfections. the combat was also a highlight for me, i thought that the way they made combat work in a game like this was super cool and clever. same goes for the puzzles, those were really fun to figure out and they used the mechanics of the game in a lot of cool ways. overall, if you're gonna play this game, PLEASE play the wiiware version. it just functions so much better.