Posted 5th March 2007 23:43 by Mark Turner
PlanesWalker: Hey everyone, it’s PlanesWalker with another interview for you guys, this week I bring you the top player in the Wario Ware series, thats right, I bring you Prenz.
PlanesWalker: Ok. First, tell us a bit about yourself if you want, what kinds of games you play, what other hobbies you have, things you enjoy doing, etc.
Prenz: My hobbies have changed quite a bit over the years (well I'm only 23!), but one thing that remains constant is I tend to get really into a specific video game every two years or so. My favorite of all time has to be one of the first such games, which was StarTropics for the NES when I was about 7-8 years old. Since then I've loved adventure type "Rob the castle/ pyramid" and "Get the bounty" type games: from Monkey Island, Indiana Jones, and Legend of Kyrandia on the computer, to the Wario character of Nintendo which had me hooked since Super Mario Land 2. I've enjoyed stealing gold with Wario on his adventures from the GameBoy to the Virtua Boy to the DS. The other hobbies that have come and gone over the years are skateboarding, playing piano, hackey sack, baseball, and one more: Spiderman! I have one of the best Spiderman card collections you can check out on http://bruiser.250free.com/1997Sketchagraphs. And that's about it!
PlanesWalker: Spiderman, I'm sure you can't wait for the 3rd movie to come out looks amazing. Anyways, how much time have you put into The Wario Ware games to become this good at them, and any of them take longer than the others?
Prenz: I had a really great experience coming into the WarioWare competition at Cyberscore. I had bought Inc. about 2 years ago without really playing it much, but when I bought Twisted! I fell in love with it so much that I had to find high scores on the Internet. I found Cyberscore, and specifically, my greatest enemy (and friend!) Sick Bullet. Playing Twisted! For the 6-7 months that I played it really honed my skills as a WarioWare gamer, because I was playing someone so close to my level. We inched up our respective skills slowly in attempts in one-up the other, and in the end we were much sharper than when we began. I then decided to pop in WW Inc. and see if my new sharpened self could do some damage, and it took about another 6-7 months to get up to par and get some lasting records against packattack and company. Playing against packattack taught me how to take a beating, and it was so rewarding to be able to get a lasting win against him. But playing Sick Bullet and then packattack was a great order to compete in because it allowed me to creep up to their levels over time. By the time I had ripped out scores on Inc. and Twisted! for about a year, I decided to work underground and rip the entire (more or less) castle of gold medals from my long-adversary Sick Bullet on WW: Touched! It was a coup that nobody saw coming, literally. But with 160 new gelds overnight, I think I demodulated all competition for at least a month!
PlanesWalker: I'm sure Sick Bullet didn't enjoy you taking all his gold, but you guys are friends so it's all good. So Prenz, can you tell us what your likes and dislikes about the three games were? Also tell us your least favorite to most favorite.
Prenz: Good question! I think about that one from time to time so I should have a good answer. Well I'm going to talk about each in order of ascending preference (working up to most favorite).
Wario Ware Inc.
Likes: You have to admit, the variety of what they make you do with a D-pad and A-button is astounding. Games range from the purely logical (no real physical prowess needed, just mental) like Matchboxes in IQ, to games where the masher is King so to speak: Make my Clay in Reality, and even Wario Pinball (a remaining "gem" score of mine, haha). Mashing both the D-pad and A-button at full speed - nuts!
Dislikes: Well, if I was more of an "Elite Beat Agent" type of guy, I'm sure I'd fare better on the abundance of rhythym requiring games on this cartridge. You might have noticed that my few sweet scores on WW Inc are not in these types of games at all, but in puzzle-type (the way I see them, at least) microgames like Ice Climber, Helmet, Super Mario Bros., and other goodies like those!!
Wario Touched
Likes: The fact that contrary to warnings brought to my attention about a year ago that Touched had little to do with the mind and more to do with touch-mashing, I actually really enjoyed this game. AND, I was successful I think in redefining scores across this entire game because I relied on keen solid new techniques and other mental tricks. I'll have to give some examples: on
the boss level for WarioMan, where you have to scratch the giant patches of nose hairs, it may seem best to scratch at your full potential speed. But there is actually an optimal speed you can start to get a feel for to remove hairs most efficiently, that certainly isn't fast at all. On One-Liner... they give you an arrow telling you to start in a different place every time. Don't listen to the arrow! Start from the easiest place you want to start from, and you'll still pass.
Dislikes: Not much really. This game succeeded for what it was meant to be. Well, I do dislike how in the entire Dr. Crygor main game level, you pretty much spin non-stop and don't use your brain at all, but hey.
WarioWare Twisted
Likes: It was a level playing field. Discover new strats that involved throwing your GameBoy into a midair spin, or finding the fastest possible way to "vibrate/shake" the console left to right. Here, no "Elite Beat" type could just come along and match or beat my records. Here, any newcomer will have to get down and dirty and learn how to crazy things to your GameBoy Advance. That's really why I cherish this game the best, is that it entered a completely uncharted territory that may never be revisited save for Yoshi Topsy Turvy II (joke). I made it my mission to figure out what it takes to move that console in some insane ways. Here's a tip: on the level where you have to whack moles in the Dribble n Spitz section... I can tell that most high scores were hit by patiently looking out for moles and whacking upon sight. Well if you want to be nasty, just spin your system a full 360 degrees while slamming A the whole time (2 seconds), and you'll bring the high-scoring to the next level. These are the kinds of tricks Twisted will make you learn if you want to be top tier.
Dislikes: The terrible final unlockable prize. But that's it.
PlanesWalker: I'm not a fan of Dr. Crygor either. Prenz, I'm sure people are wondering, "Why hasn't Prenz taken all the 1st places in Smooth Moves?" Care to elaborate?
Prenz: Well, anyone wondering need only to read the topic in General Gaming entitled "I just smashed all of my WarioWare games" started by myself! At a certain point, WarioWare was definitely taking drug-like tolls on my life. Slipping school-wise, girlfriend on the verge on ditching me over playing so much, etc. But without elaborating there too much, let's just say I needed to finally say "I came, I saw, I conquered"... and be done with it. Like most hobbies I've really gotten into, it was time to close the books on it so to speak and try new things. WarioWare Smooth Moves is new but not exactly a new thing! I'm taking a much needed break from video games in general, although I do have a Wii that is just collecting dust. Maybe one day the WarioWare sage that is Prenz will rock the H*LL out of the present humble state of affairs that is the WarioWare Smooth Moves record table!
PlanesWalker: Well I hope you do, and take Smooth Moves to a new level like you did to the rest of the Wario Ware games. Is there any record that you are very proud of, and why?
Prenz: Remember I mentioned my love of rob-the-bounty type games?? My favorite microgame of all-time is Wario Bike on WW Twisted! This game really has it all; Super Mario on drugs (the characters all tripped out, green goombas and the like), mixed with NES ExciteBike elements and you have to accumulate as much gold in your run through the level as you can! I managed to escape that castle with 77,500$, and that makes me proud. The runner-up is a great Twisted player from Brazil, and he was certain that the maximum score was 72,000$ for a very long time. I found a way to do some nasty stuff on Wario's motorbike let me tell you! Now, this was a full-on minigame, not really a microgame. So as a microgame, then: I'm gonna have to go with Ice Climber on WW Inc, Nintendo section. I’m sure I like it significantly more than most people because I figured out how to shred everybody up with some serious technique (it wasn't a lucky run!).
PlanesWalker: Some nice records there, I'm sure they will be yours for a long time if not forever. Will we be seeing PRENZ dominate in any other games in the future?
Prenz: Well, I'm certainly getting Wario the Thief for DS, it'll be the first game I'll have played in a long time. If there's any sort of competition to be had with that stylus, it may be terrible news for anyone who isn't me (laughs).
PlanesWalker: Glad to see that side of you again Prenz, Any tips, final words?
Prenz: A tip for anyone who wants to unleash some wrath into the WarioWare series: don't play by the obvious rules, and just do what it takes to win a microgame (uhh... this doesn't mean cheat either!). If you're all about discovering uncharted techniques and kicking it with some true Nintendo goodness, WarioWare is your first stop. It's a manic type game though, and if you can't handle it, it may be your last stop as well (evil chuckle).
PlanesWalker: Thanks Prenz for your time, I am honored to have interviewed you, The Number One Canadian in Cybersore, and The Legend of Wario Ware.
Remember readers, if t here is someone who you would like to see in the hot seat than just message me and I’ll do my best!!
Written by: PlanesWalker