Wario is finally living large. The arch-rival of Mario, after starring in nearly half-a-dozen GameBoy games, and appearances in the Mario Kart and Super Smash Brother series, finally has a game on the big screen that he can call his very own. Wario World, a GameCube exclusive game developed by the semi-famous developer Treasure, hit the shelves this week. As some of you may know, I don’t own a GameCube anymore, but I went to a friend and we rented it right away. I have been a fan of his GB games, and have really anticipated the release of Wario World.
The plot in this game is very interesting. As you all know, Wario is obsessed with treasure and coins. One of the pieces of treasure that he has captured is a big black jewel, but to the dismay of Wario, this jewel is evil. The black jewel has magical powers and it turns all of Wario’s treasure into monsters. Wario must find the jewel, and along the way he must convert all of the monsters back into their original state.
The controls in this game are very easy to learn. The A button is used to propel Wario into the air, otherwise known as jumping. The B button is used to punch the living daylights out of the monsters. To my disappointment, the X and Y buttons are not used at all, while R is for Wario’s famous shoulder charge and L is to inhale coins (that is how he collects them). Wario also knows an array of new moves. Most enemies can be killed by punching them once, but some are only paralyzed. You can pick up the paralyzed enemies, and spin them over your head, pile drive them into the ground, thereby knocking nearby enemies, or even throw them. All of this is very fun.
Wario World is a 3D game, but the camera is basically fixed in one angle and you move up or down, left to right throughout the entire game, thereby making the game feel a little bit 2D. The game features four different worlds in all. Each world consists of two levels, and at the end of each level you fight a mini-boss. After completed two levels, you fight a much larger boss in the third level of the world. When you beat the boss, you receive a part of a key. After completed all four worlds, you have a whole key and can open the treasure chest that has the evil jewel, and you will face-off in the ultimate boss fight to cap off the game.
Being a platformer, this game has many items that you must collect. First of all, to complete a level and be able to fight the mini-boss, you must collect up to eight red jewels. These jewels are located behind gleaming trapdoors. To get to the jewel, you must complete a bunch of challenges, including jumping from platform to platform, or climbing up to it, with many invisible or moving platforms to help or annoy you. If you fall, you won’t lose a life, you will just restart the challenge from the beginning. None of the challenges are hard, some might be slightly challenging, but after a while they became sort of tedious and dreadful. Also, located throughout each level are five black, bouncing boxes. If you get one, a spriteling pops out and gives you a tip, including how to beat the evil jewel. It is unnecessary to collect these boxes, but I did it for the heck of it. Two more types of items are scattered throughout the levels as well: eight pieces of golden Wario statue and eight artifacts. The statues are very useful, as your maximum health (number of hearts) will increase. The artifacts are what you call filler material, since they unlock a few mini-games from the recently released GBA game, WarioWare Inc. But you can’t even keep these mini-games on your GameCube. For those that have already purchased the GBA game, the mini-games will not be anything new.
Other than by collecting the Wario statues, you can only gain extra health by discovering garlic in treasure chests or by purchasing garlic in garlic dispensers, which are located farther and farther apart from each other the farther you are into the game. However, lives are not a problem in this game. Whenever you fall into a pit, you actually fall to the bottom without dying and then can spring yourself back up. However, if you manage to die, you have the option of continued from where you left off with half of your health for some coins. Coins are very easy to come by. They are found after punching enemies or opening chests, and accumulating thousands of coins is quite easy because they are so many enemies everywhere. Sometimes killing enemies will become very boring, and you will avoid them for a while. The bosses are what make the game a bit more entertaining as the battles can last quite a while and they are easy to beat but you must first find their weak spot. There are very short bonus levels here and there in Wario World, too.
As you can see, this is a typical yet fun platformer game. The only problem with the gameplay is that this game is just way too short. Beyond, the single player adventure, Wario World does not offer you anything at all. There are no multi-player functions, no extra levels, nothing. And the main adventure is really short. If you were to complete the whole game, kill every enemy, complete every puzzle, and collect every single item, it should not take you more than eight hours. If you are horrible at video games, no more than ten hours. If you only collect most of the items, and do no bother to kill every enemy, you will zip through this game in five hours. The point that I am trying to make is that this game is not worth $50 at all. I recommend borrowing it for a day or two, because you won’t need it for the eight or so days Blockbuster gives it to you. Therefore the length is a real disappointment.
The graphics are a real treat, as the worlds are colorful. You will trek through a jungle, ice world, haunted castle, circus arena, fire world and other magical places. Wario looks better than ever in 3D. The game ran smoothly and I think the framerate is a solid 60 frames per second. There were some instances of slowdown, but these were rare and only occurred when there were many enemies around. The different enemies are well drawn, however some appear to be less detailed and pixilated than others that look spectacular. If I were to compare the graphics of Wario World, I would say that this a mix between Mario Sunshine and Luigi’s Mansion. It looks like Sunshine because of the nice colors, while it looks like Luigi’s Mansion because of good shadow and lighting effects.
The music in this game is extremely odd and original, however every level has its own music that fits well with the environment. Therefore the soundtrack was well handled and to add some comedy, Wario sometimes sings along with the music. The sound effects are well done, from the enemy bopping to the click-clack you hear when you walk on stone. Wario has always been known to be an evil, yet funny guy, and this is true in Wario World. Wario constantly has a few witty remarks, which become obsolete pretty soon but in the beginning I laughed often. Lines such as “Have a Rotten Day” (when throwing an enemy) to “I’m Number One” are voiced by a famous man, Charles Martinet, also known as Mario and Luigi’s voice.
Overall, Wario World is great platformer and a great introduction of Wario to the big screen. This would have been an excellent game, but due to its brevity, I will only give this game three stars. A $50 game that will take 5-8 hours to complete surely can’t be an awesome game. I would recommend this game to a friend, to play through once without actually purchasing. I recommend this game to people of all ages and genders, however as I previously stated, do not buy, borrow or rent this game.
Greedy Wario's priceless collection of gold & artifacts has been turned into monsters by a mysterious black jewel. Help Wario get his treasure back an...More at Amazon Marketplace
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