It's tough not to like Wario as a character. He's basically the antithesis of everything classically identified with Nintendo. He's ugly, he's rude, he's greedy, and he's deliciously evil. While he's certainly not the first Nintendo villain to star in his own games (remember, Donkey Kong wasn't a particularly likable gorilla before Donkey Kong Country came along), Wario's adventures tend to be different than the norm. Generally, Nintendo placing Wario in a game means that they're taking a chance on something new. This is somewhat rare lately, given Nintendo's current trend toward the tried-and-true, both in the overwhelming number of SNES remakes for the GBA (Super Mario Advance, Zelda: Link to the Past, Donkey Kong Country, etc.), and GameCube extensions of N64 series (Super Mario Sunshine, Super Smash Bros. Melee, Mario Party 4, and so on). Knowing this, and seeing the success that Nintendo had with Wario's other recent outing in WarioWare, I almost didn't care what kind of game Wario World was going to be when I bought it. I knew it was a Wario game, so I knew I was in for a treat, and it turned out I was, more or less.
As much as WarioWare is a throwback to the simple video games of the Atari 2600 era, Wario World is a similar throwback to the era of 2D platformers and beat-‘em-ups, for which just about every old-school gamer pines. While the game is fully 3D (unlike so-called 2.5D games like Kirby 64, where the game is rendered in 3D but takes place entirely in two dimensions), the camera angle is completely fixed. The most control you have over the camera is to slide the perspective slightly left or right, similar to pressing the shoulder buttons in Super Mario World. Really, the game can be describe either as a platform game with more fighting, or a beat-'em-up with more jumping and puzzles.
The story is also reminiscent of old platform games, in that it is nearly nonexistent. Basically, Wario is a greedy guy, which we all know, and one day his greed got the best of him and he brought home this cursed black jewel. The black jewel then turned all of Wario's treasure (of which there's plenty; the opening scene has him sitting in a room about as full with gold as Scrooge McDuck's money vault) into evil spirits. Needless to say, Wario and his money are not easily parted, so he has to go take back the night... er, something like that. That's it. There are no story developments to be found after the opening sequence, no real explanation for where these random worlds you have to fight through came from, just a bunch of enemies in between you and the end of the game.
So your mission as Wario is to go through the conveniently laid out stages and kick some animated treasure butt. Wario has a number of attacks at his disposal, the most basic of which being his fists and the ubiquitous 3D platformer butt-stomp. (Can’t have a platformer without a butt-stomp!) The real fun comes when you actually pick up some of the stronger enemies, though, because Wario’s stronger attacks are only performed when he has an enemy in his fat hands. You can obviously throw said enemy, but that’s boring. Alternatively, performing a butt-stomp while holding an enemy converts the move into a devastating spinning piledriver that would make Zangief from Street Fighter jealous. Or, by spinning around with the enemy on land, you can perform the “Wild Swing-Ding”, which basically turns Wario into an invincible whirling dervish, knocking out anything in his path. I’ll admit, it’s incredibly fun for a while just to beat on monsters and watch Wario doing his thing, because it’s all animated in a comical fashion and simply entertaining to watch.
Mindless destruction does have its purposes, however, because the aforementioned moves are essential in order to pass certain obstacles in the levels. So, after the fun of kicking butt and taking names wears off, the enemies become less of a hindrance and more of a tool to go further. For example, there are door mechanisms which must be operated by spinning them with the Swing-Ding, and platforms that are durable enough to withstand a simple butt-stomp, but crumble under the might of a spinning piledriver. I can’t remember any game that integrates its action and puzzle solving elements this well, and it really makes Wario World a lot more interesting that it may seem upon first glance.
Simply beating up monsters won’t get you through, however. In order to unlock the level exit, you need to collect red crystals which are hidden under trap doors scattered throughout the levels. In order to reach the crystal, you must pass mini-stages that generally fall into one of categories. One is the simple jumping challenge, much like the stages in Super Mario Sunshine where your water pack would be taken away and you had to cross a series of moving platforms to get to the other side. The other is a standard puzzle stage, where you need to first figure out where you need to go (sometimes half the battle), and then figure out what you need to do to get there. Again, these are frequent enough that they break up the action well and provide a good variation to the standard mindless punching that can get repetitive toward the latter half of the game.
The designers also tried to keep the stages as unique as possible, despite all the repetitive fighting that gets tiresome after a while. One later stage is simply brilliant (albeit frustrating) in its use of mirrors, where your line of sight to Wario is blocked, and you must maneuver him via his reflection, which you can see. It’s almost a tease, however; since this extremely interesting level doesn’t pop up until the very end, it’s a bit disappointing because you know the designers could have done more with the rest of the stages.
This is all great, while it lasts. Unfortunately, the game isn’t very long at all. The game is broken up into four worlds, each of which consist of two stages and a boss battle. That’s eight stages in all. Granted, the stages are a decent size; depending on how obsessive you are about collecting all the treasure, each could take anywhere between 30 minutes and an hour. But when you add in the fact that, if you die, then you can continue from exactly where you died for an expenditure of a few hundred coins (and to say that coins are easy to come by in this game is like saying that the sun is kind of bright), and the game seems like it’s over much sooner than it should be. The game can be easily played through in a weekend or over the course of a few days without too much effort or consultation with strategy guides. That’s not to say the game isn’t fun, but it’s practically over as soon as it’s begun, which is my main complaint about Wario World.
Other than that, though, everything in the game is well-designed. The control is kept purposely simple, as any classic-style platformer should. A jumps, B punches and picks up enemies, R does Wario’s signature shoulder charge on land and butt-stomps in the air, and L makes Wario suck up coins like a greedy Kirby. Other than repeatedly trying to adjust the camera with the C-stick and failing to do so, I found everything about the control to be extremely natural and easy to pick up. Between my natural gaming instincts and the gameplay hints scattered across the stages, I had no problem doing what I needed to do.
Graphics are extremely well done and detailed. Each stage has its own theme, and everything, from the buildings to the enemies, is redrawn according to that theme, even down to little details like a spotlight following Wario around in a circus-themed level. Wario himself is also rendered authentically, down to his idle animations (one of which involved him scratching his butt which had me laughing out loud.) With no slowdown or clipping issues that I noticed, and the fixed-angle camera eliminating most camera-control issues, Wario World looks pretty from start to finish.
Sound is not offensive, but not particularly memorable. The highlight is Wario’s voice, as he randomly shouts out classic Wario quotes like “I’m number one!” and “Have a rotten day!” Other than that, there is no voice acting to speak of, and the background music is just kind of there, and fairly forgettable. You won’t be reaching for the mute button, though.
One other thing to note is that Wario World, being a first-party game, does have GameCube-GBA connectivity features. Specifically, if you collect all the treasures in a stage, you can download some sample microgames from WarioWare to your GBA. Unfortunately for current WarioWare fans, there are no new microgames to be found; the manual actually refers to it as a trial version of sorts. The microgames are fun on their own, but better in the context of WarioWare itself. If the microgames are a significant draw for you, just go out and buy WarioWare instead of downloading the microgames; it’ll be well worth the investment.
Wario World really puts me in the position of being impressed and disappointed all at once. On one hand, the gameplay is great, and I enjoyed just about every moment that I played Wario World. On the other hand, I don’t like the fact that I shelled out $50 for a game that provided me with, at best, a half a dozen hours of gameplay. If Wario World were priced closer to $30, I’d be able to recommend it enthusiastically. As it stands, though, Wario World is well worth a rental, but not a purchase. It’s a lot like Luigi’s Mansion where I really enjoyed the game while it lasted, but felt stupid for spending as much money as I did once it was over.
Basically, Wario World has many of the same qualities as its protagonist. It’s slightly rotten but likable, a bit too short, and awfully greedy.
