This game represents the stillbirth of the Wariovania genre.

The gameplay concept is pretty basic Metroid-style exploration of a 2D cruise ship environment, where different disguises (switched between by drawing symbols on the touch screen) enable you to interact with and reach different parts of the levels. You’re trying to collect treasure which appears in mostly optional chests that contain perhaps the least inspired warioware minigames in existence. In between all this is an array of exposition and interruptions that are mainly annoying, at their height mildly amusing.

It’s simply not fun. The level design is uninspired and there’s not much satisfaction from successfully solving puzzles or navigating the maps. I played through several levels to give it a fair shot and while it wasn’t an outright offensive experience, there is simply no fun to be had here. The only thing of much value is the 3D renderings of Wario being a stinky slob.

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‘Wario: Master of Disguise’ es descarrilar un tren por la puerta grande y quedarse con la idea de que los pasajeros al menos han llegado a su destino. Un extraño caso en el que la mediocridad es la antesala a la grandeza, en el que se intuyen destellos tan escondidos como lo están sus tesoros. No es un juego brillante ni mucho menos, pero tiene ese algo que lo hace inclasificable y añejo, anclado a los tiempos que le tocó vivir. Y es precisamente en estas instancias donde claramente podemos extraer lo bueno, bonito y barato de la época Wii-DS de “sentir cómo jugamos” más que verlo por los ojos, de dejarse llevar por las luces y sombras de la innovación, de cambiar la forma en la que jugamos para que jugar no sea aquello a lo que estamos acostumbrados. “No por el mero hecho de ser diferente, sino por hacerlo mejor”.

This'll probably be my longest Backloggd review. I didn't think I'd have too much to say but here goes. If you want the tl;dr just scroll down at the bottom.

Master of Disguise is Wario's most jaded release by far; It's reputation as the touch screen gimmicky black sheep of the series is hard to ignore and its a label that it'll stick with probably for good. That said, I do have PLENTY of thoughts.

I've seen a three-way split between opinion on the game: "It's underrated!", "It sucks ass!", and "It's alright." The 2nd viewpoint tends to critique the game for it being a weird marriage of Wario Land and WarioWare. The game is very much its own thing, while it does take some elements from both, the elements are peppered onto the main course of the game which is the exploration based puzzle solving.

Watching footage of the game doesn't really do it justice, MoD is one of those games where its extremely boring to watch (I streamed it for my friends one of em fell asleep) but engaging to play once you get ahold of it's quirks.

The disguises are kinda similar to Wario Land's transformations except Wario turns into them on his own accord rather than it be an environmental hazard forcing the transformation against his will. Wario uses each disguise to solve certain puzzles, take out certain obstacles, you know, standard stuff, and the way to activate them is with the stylus and drawing a shape near Wario that corresponds to each outfit. I did find the disguises fun to use, but I really wish they were easier to cycle through. It wasn't a big deal when I had 3 costumes to keep track of, but once I've unlocked most (and eventually, all of them) there were times I was drawing the shape of a certain disguise I wanted only to put on a disguise I didn't want. It was pretty annoying to deal with especially in boss fights. A flaw like this could've been mitigated with cycling through the disguises with the L&R buttons but the devs didn't think to use em. Attacks and inputs for each disguise are also done with the touchscreen (with the exception of one that uses the DS Mic). Wasn't too hard to attack and do what I wanted with the disguises, but the finicky nature of the touchscreen did lead to me triggering misinputs from time to time. If you're wondering how Wario can move, he moves with the Dpad (or face buttons if you're a lefty, I can only imagine how annoying this game would be for a left handed person on original hardware)

You still collect gold and treasures like you would in Wario Land...Kinda. Money bags you blitz through and enemies you kill, they drop all that sweet valuables for keeps, but specific treasures are stored in chests. Red Chests have normal treasures that just increase your cash score when you beat a level, Green Chests contain gems that unlock your disguises and later upgrade them, and Purple Chests contain the episode exclusive items that help you progress. People tend to not mention the distinction between the three at all. If you're looking to just play the game and beat it then I highly advise focusing on the Purple and Green chests, ignore Red Chests. That said, the way to obtain the contents from any of the chests is to complete a small minigame from a pool of 8. This is where the WarioWare influence comes in. You're either tasked to connect dots, smash roaches, color a picture, etc. Green Chests always get the picture coloring minigame because it involves coloring a shape that corresponds to the disguise you unlock. Purple and Red Chests always pull a random minigame (excluding the coloring one). The minigames are fine, they're alot slower than microgames which isn't a bad thing, but I do wish there was more minigames (12-14 would've been great) just to maintain more variety. What we got is serviceable but I do understand the pace halting nature of having to do a minigame each time you wanna open a chest. Could've been mitigated if they went the microgame approach too, short challenges to obtain the contents of the chest.

After unlocking some disguises, you can revisit episodes you've completed and access new areas with outfits you didn't have before. Its an element shared between alot of Metroidvanias including Wario Land 3 where you revisited levels you beaten to access new places to progress. However, in MoD, revisiting old locales is optional and not required.

Bosses were fun, pretty easy as is, but I really enjoyed the puzzle solving you had to do with them since they all involved usage of the disguises in some way.

The game's writing is solid, while I wasn't too big on Wario leaning into the grossness, it didn't bother me and it was funny seeing Wario's brash attitude juxtapose against the semi-reserved/goofy nature of Count Cannoli, Carpaccio, Tiramisu, etc.

The visuals are...interesting. The characters look strange, Wario especially, but alot of the enemy designs look like they belong in different games. Pretty damn good spritework on the enemies and bosses though! The game also mixing in pre-rendered graphics was pretty odd too, kinda made the game look goofier than it is. The environments look very pretty though, best looking parts of the game by far.

The music is most likely the thing most people remember or know from the game. Its straight bangers from start to finish: Count Cannoli, Head Honcho Carpaccio, the standard Boss theme, Allegeria Gardens, etc. The soundtrack did NOT disappoint.


TL;DR Overall, I enjoyed Master of Disguise! Its a solid game that starts slow, and despite its flaws with its control scheme, I went into it with an open mind, and appreciated it for what it was and what it wanted to be, rather than criticize it for being something it wasn't trying to be (Wario Land and WarioWare). The music is great, the writing ain't perfect but it got some chuckles out of me.This adventure is something I won't forget.