Wario World Review
by Jody - July 24, 2003

After several years of Wario wanting his own adventure, he finally got it! He has starred in his very own Game Boy games and even had a puzzle game that came out in the 90s, but now it�s finally time for Nintendo�s bad boy to receive his five minutes of fame. Unfortunately, much like Luigi�s Mansion, Wario World doesn�t capture the same magic that makes the traditional Mario games so much fun to play.

Wario finally gets his own title.

After awhile of looking into this game, I finally get to play it. Luckily, the game does exude the same charm found in the Game Boy games. It�s actually pretty fun to be the bad guy once in a while so controlling Wario isn�t as bad as initially expected. Wario�s trademark voice is back and it never fails to put a smile on my face when he dishes out the one-liners, despite the fact that nearly every move, from jumping to grabbing an enemy will have the fat guy saying something. It�s this charm that makes the game more bearable than it would have been with any other character.

The gameplay is pretty much par. Get coins, find treasures. Use Wario's signature moves, like the aforementioned butt-stomp, charge move, making stunned enemies living weapons, and lots of punching. They did a nice little job of translating Wario's gameplay to the 3D realm of the Cube. Particularly since all the moves you have at the beginning of the game are the moves you have to the end, the game seems sort of, well, redundant. Nothing gets added as you go along. All other parts of the gameplay do a good job of getting more difficult as the game progresses. With the first three levels, I was truly worried that we had another "way too easy" game on our hands. That worry soon evaporated. The further I got into the game, the better the chance that I would have to use a continue. That is the way it should be. Puzzles became more intricate. Remembering where to backtrack got harder. Hidden levels were more progressively hidden.

The levels are all pretty basic. You�ll go through killing as many enemies as possible and collecting as much stuff as you can. There are some hidden, off the path areas for you to explore, but the pay off is very minimal and usually results in finding yet another gem or jewel. Upon completing two levels you�ll then be able to take on the boss of that realm. The bosses aren�t overly difficult, but at least there�s some variety in the ways you have to take them out. The first main boss requires you to latch onto its tail, wait for its tail to rise above its head, and then jump off and butt-stomp its head. This will paralyze the creature, allowing you to pick it up and throw it into the lava, ala Bowser from Super Mario 64.

You need to get through all these hidden levels though, if you want to get all the items and unlock all the extras. Every time you complete one of Wario's statues (of himself, of course), you get another half unit of health (marked by hearts, of course - this is a Nintendo game). The more Spritelings you free, the better the ending you get. And, the best of these extras, if you find all the treasures of a level, you unlock a little sample version of Wario Ware to download to your GBA. These little games are an Attention Deficit Disorder patient's best friend.

Wario World can connect with the GBA via Wario Ware Inc., but the connection benefits are limited. Several Wario Ware games can be transferred onto your GBA if you don�t already have it. The first one is free, eh? Though we don't review GBA games at GP, Wario Ware is awesome, essentially a collection of mini-games pared down to their most basic and then strung together in rapid barrage. The games are as weird as they come, from nose-picking to NES classic throwbacks. I wish there was more complete interactivity between Wario Ware and Wario World, but each on its own is still complete.

Wow, Wario in 3-D!

Just like Super Mario 64 and Metroid Prime, when it�s time for something to go 3-D, Nintendo does a better job at it than anyone else. There are some nice designs on the enemies and some of the levels. Out of the thirteen levels (broken into four areas of three and one final mega boss) there are five that are boss-only levels. The remaining eight aren't particularly expansive and don't really give us all that much as far as backgrounds. The environment is pretty darn interactive though, with pillars that you can pick up and use as weapons and some levels where a butt-stomp (Wario's jump and smash move) will get you mired in sand or snow. The enemies also have some pretty good AI. They'll follow you around and gang up on you when you're trying to do something. Sometimes 2 & 1/2D, sometimes full 3D; the camera usually doesn't become an issue. You get some limited control of the angle, which keeps you from running into a cheap death, while not giving too much away.

Muwhahahaha!

There are some good sound cues, like when you can hear a nearby Spriteling that needs to be rescued from its prison (just one of the things about this game that reminded me heavily of Rayman 3). The music is happy � makes you want to play some Mario Party or Super Smash Brothers. The only real voice is that of Wario himself -- I love his evil laugh.

It's no Mario game, but it's a lot of fun!

Wario World may be generic, but it's not bad. It definitely has its moments, and though the appeal wears thin after no more than a few hours, swinging dazed monsters around by the tail and seeing all the other enemies on screen go flying off in wild directions is definitely fun at first. What's more, you won't have to put up with it for any more than a few hours. Wario World, in keeping with many of Nintendo's newer games, is ridiculously short-lived; short-lived to the point of severe annoyance, in fact, as it's quite possible to reach the point of 100% completion in a single day. There are only four worlds, all of which are inhabited by identical enemies in different disguises, and each of those four worlds has only three levels, one of which is a straightforward boss fight. The other two are pseudo-3D side-scrolling events, punctuated by a bit of climbing, endless wading through enemy hordes and the occasional bonus-game bit of puzzling. Unfortunately, after the first world, where you will undoubtedly smile at a few discoveries and the occasional inventive touch, it all becomes very, very repetitive and tedious.

I love the evilness.

Despite its flaws, I personally had fun playing it. It�s pretty hard to make a Nintendo fan dislike a trademark game. It was, for the most part, fun though. Nothing unique or special, but fun nonetheless. The excruciatingly hard later hidden levels could have been toned down a bit. I also wish that you didn't have to complete a whole level in order to save -- no mid-level saves here. There's no real urge to go through the game again, except to find things that you could have found on your first run-through. But, I don't know. I guess there's something about playing the bad guy (even if it's an evil Mario) that appeals to me.

This game is fun, but it falls short of a lot of things.

Wario World is a fun little game while it lasts. I think the game is perfectly geared toward the younger audience due to its short length, simple controls, and minimal puzzles. That�s not to say older gamers shouldn�t try the game though. I think Wario World is one of those games that would be great at $29.99, but spending $49.99 is just asking a bit too much. If there had been more secrets, perhaps some power-ups like the Mario games and more variety to the action the game would have scored much higher. As it is, Wario World delivers on the action, but falls short when it comes to actual substance. Give the game a rental.