Wario World

Take that, you thieving blighter!

Poor old Wario. He's spent most of the last ten years stuck in horrible little LCD screens with only the briefest of forays into the likes of Mario Kart and Mario Party. The poor soul never even got a walk on part in Super Smash Bros: Melee. But that's in the past, because now he has his very own GameCube title.

Wario World is a 2D platformer with 3D pretensions, similar to the adventure mode in Super Smash Bros: Melee. The plot is very simple: Wario has pinched a black jewel, which has turned all his treasures into monsters. Understandably peeved by this, the greedy little blighter is on the rampage, stamping, shouting, and stomping his way around his castle trying to recover his purloined treasures.

Levels and Areas

A green and pleasant land

Wario World begins in a central 'hub' area. From this area, four further areas can be reached, although only one is unlocked at the start. Each of these areas contains two levels, each with their own boss, and then a further area boss once the other two have been defeated. Scattered throughout these levels are Wario's treasures and a varying number of gems. These gems must be collected in order to unlock the level boss.

A wide range of enemies also populates the levels. These enemies can be punched, shoulder charged, picked up and spun around, thrown at things, pummelled, and used as clubs. The lot of an enemy in Wario World is not a happy one. As well as these combat manoeuvres, Wario can leap about the place like a mad thing, cling to ledges, and (most fun of all) grab a hold of poles and balls. This last provides some entertaining puzzling, whereby Wario most cling to a ball and position himself correctly on it so he can leap to the next one.

Floaty Puzzles

Up ye go

The boss gems Wario must collect aren't simply to be found lying around. Oh no. Remember those maddening Floodless levels in Mario Sunshine? Well, there are quite a few of those in Wario World. Although they are considerably easier to navigate, they are nonetheless the most entertaining aspect of the game. Falling off the floating platforms won't cost you a life, making the levels less panic inducing than they could have been, but I'll get to the difficulty level later.

At various points in the levels, Wario enters a combat ring. This rewards the player with a number of coins, depending on how many enemies he can pummel in a given time. These entertaining mini-games serve to break up the action.

Sound and Vision

Oh mummy!

The graphics in Wario World are superb. Although not quite as cheery as those in Super Mario Sunshine, they are still solid, colourful, and well animated. The fighting effects, particularly the piledriver, are spectacular and satisfying. The perspective is odd, but lovely. The camera views Wario from a fixed perspective, making the main parts of the game play essentially in 2D, although with 3D graphics. In the puzzle area and boss areas, however, the player can turn the camera around to get a better view of the action. I really wish someone would do a version of Super Mario World 3 like this, but I digress. The graphical system works very well for this type of game, more of a scrolling beat-em-up platformer than a modern 3D platformer.

The sound is of a high quality, with Wario's growls, grunts, and yells of abuse always entertaining although limited in scope. The music is great - just what you'd expect from a Nintendo first party title - the tune on the pause/status screen in particular cracked me up.

Length, or lack of it

Kerrr-thwak!

Hang on, you cry, I've heard that it's far too easy and far too short. You could probably argue that that's the case, but let me try and put it into perspective. If I were to say to you "Halo is too difficult and too long - I'm only 6 years old," you'd probably cuff me around the head and tell me to go and play Luigi's Mansion. The inverse applies here. This game is a godsend in my household because the difficulty level is perfect for my younger children, and the shorter length gives them a chance to actually complete a title. As a bonus, though, the game is a huge amount of fun for adults as well and, like the best short games, it's just the right length for having races to see who can finish it in the shortest time. There isn't a lot of replay value in the sense of unlockables, but there is plenty in the game design. It's simply a good, fun game. Playing it is very entertaining, whether you've seen all the graphics before or not.

If you're looking for a long, difficult game, then you'd be better looking elsewhere. If you're looking for something that's a huge amount of fun and that the younger members of your family can really get their teeth into, then you could do a lot worse. I'm not going to mark Wario World down for its lack of difficulty or shortness, because the target audience in my house (children younger than eight) are finding it neither easy nor short. If you're a hardcore platforming God then subtract a couple of points from gameplay and durability.