Wario World

"Treasure has made a highly playable action/platforming throwback"

Ahh... the combination of Treasure and Nintendo. It's enough to make the long-time diehard gamer salivate with anticipation. Nintendo, of course, is known the world over for its franchises and classics, and Treasure is renowned for their highly playable, innovatively designed games. As a longtime Treasure fan (Gunstar Heroes being my favorite game of all time,) this game seemed like a match made in heaven.

Wario World doesn't have much of a storyline, but for this game, it doesn't really matter. Basically, Wario stole an evil jewel that has turned all his treasure and gold into monsters. It's up to you to guide him through four worlds to fight off the jewel, and reclaim his treasure, where he will (presumably) sit around and wallow in it, I guess. Basically, like a lot of 8 and 16-bit action games, the story doesn't really matter.

Gameplay wise, Wario World manages to take many disparate elements of classic platformers and combine them with some innovative new tactics to put together an outstanding gameplay package. You've got elements of classic beat-em-ups such as Final Fight, as Wario punches, throws, and pile-drives his way through enemies. You use these tactics to solve puzzles, open doors, and collect lots of treasure. The levels are expertly designed and well themed. Each level is designed to maximize the use of the many different skills you have, just like the best of the classic platformers. Plus, like the best designed games, there's secret stuff hidden around every corner. You can easily finish each level with the minimum of items, but you'll want to go back and find all of the treasures, statue pieces (each completed Wario statue adds to your lifebar), and hidden items. Finishing each of the 8 stages with all treasures and items unlocks minigames and trial versions of Wario Ware that you can download to your Gameboy Advance.

There are a total of four worlds in Wario World, each containing two levels and one boss. Each of the individual levels has a boss after it as well. While eight levels doesn't seem like a lot, each one is long, entertaining, and expertly designed. Unlike most modern platformers, you can't really ''go anywhere''. Instead, the game plays more like a classic sidescroller projected into 3D. While some may debate this design choice, it really puts the focus on the action and eliminates the aimless wandering found in many other 3D platformers. The difficulty ramps almost perfectly, also. The beginning level is pretty easy, but things really start ramping up around the second world and continues through the end of the game. One thing I really like is that each level introduces new skills while building on all the skills learned in previous levels. Also, each stage includes ''puzzle rooms'' that contain items necessary to finish the level. These also ramp perfectly in difficulty, becoming downright hard near the end of the game. What we have with this game is near-perfect action platform design.

The only real problem I have with the game design is the overly forgiving continue system. You can basically continue infinitely from the exact point you died. It does cost you coins to continue, and the number of coins that it takes to continue increases throughout the game, but it's still really easy to ''bully'' your way through the game this way. Playing the game in this manner, however, is really defeating the purpose of the game. Some tweaking to the way dying and continuing is done would have made the gameplay almost perfect.

The graphics aren't spectacular, but they're solid and get the job done. The game runs at a consistent framerate, and everything is bright, clear, and easy to see. There are some really neat effects in some of the levels, including the ice level, and the level where you must use mirrors to progress. The bosses are huge, well designed, and suitably impressive. The sound is much the same- the music is simple and unobtrusive, always fitting in well with the action, and the sound is typical Nintendo, with lots of Wario-speak, but it never really gets annoying. The audiovisual aspects of this game are good and solid, but it's obvious that the gameplay and level design is the focus here.

Wario World is relatively short, but the gameplay is so much fun, you'll probably want to return to it after you've finished it. You'll probably beat this game in about 8-10 hours the first time, but in the typical Treasure fashion, Wario World is highly replayable. As a throwback to old-style platformers, Wario World's unique and quirky gameplay may not appeal to everyone, but old-school gmaers should enjoy it. You may want to rent it first to see if the gameplay appeals to you, but for a longtime Treasure diehard, Wario World is a must for my Gamecube library.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/27/03, Updated 06/27/03