Pyoro Review - Screenshot 1 of 2

Anybody who's played every microgame in the original WarioWare will have met a small red bird called Pyoro. Basically, Pyoro is a member of an unknown species who has an extremely long tongue and an insatiable appetite for beans. And now, he's the star of not one, but two games for DSiWare: Pyoro 1 & 2.

We'll warn you now: those of you that actually have access to Pyoro and Pyoro 2 in the WarioWare games have no need to pick this up; its purely one for those who don't have access to either game. Unless, of course, you want to play both games on your DSi, where your GBA WarioWare isn't playable.

In Pyoro, beans constantly rain down from the sky, with your job being to guide Pyoro left and right to try and grab those legumes with his long, frog-like tongue. The controls are simple enough; press left and right to move the bean-munching bird across the floor tiles, and hit the A button to extend Pyoro's tongue. This froglike tongue stretches out diagonally and upwards, allowing you to grab the beans that are high up in the air; the closer beans are to the ground, the less points you obtain for eating them. To progress, you must constantly eat beans; if a bean ever hits the ground, it'll destroy a floor tile, creating a hole that Pyoro can't cross (he can't jump). As floor tiles disappear, Pyoro has less room to move around, which is dangerous, because if a bean hits Pyoro's head, he's knocked out, and then it's Game Over!

Pyoro Review - Screenshot 2 of 2

There are three kinds of beans in Pyoro: normal beans, which are green in colour; white beans, which replace a random floor tile when eaten; and flashing beans, which not only destroy all other beans on screen when eaten, but also replace a huge number of floor tiles at once! As you build-up points, the background changes vastly: you slowly see a carnival being constructed in the distance; if you reach 5,000 points, the sky colour changes to represent sunset; and if you manage to obtain over 10,000 points in one go (or play the game a set number of times), you unlock a very different game.

Pyoro 2 is this unlockable game. Here, you play as a yellow-crested variety of the standard Pyoro: this subspecies can spit seeds at incredible velocity, allowing you to eliminate the falling beans instead of eat them. The points scoring works very differently in this mode too: you only get 50 points for each destroyed bean. This, however, lends itself towards a combo system; since one seed can wipe-out several beans in a row, it is possible to obtain extra points for multiple beans destroyed with a single seed. Being able to destroy many seeds at once allows you to build-up points quicker than in the standard game, especially when you pass the 5,000 mark and the screen is filled with seeds!

Conclusion

This is definitely one of the more enjoyable DSiWare purchases. If you already own both games in the original WarioWare and have access to a GBA or original DS, there's not much need to purchase this compilation. If you don't have WarioWare, and like the sound of Pyoro, then this is an essential purchase. At 200 DSi Points it's a steal!

Go on, try Pyoro. It's pure, mindless fun.