Greed
As most of you would know, Wario is greedy. He likes money, and will never have enough to satisfy his craving. Treasure is also another love of Wario's, but his latest acquisition may cause him to feel differently, as it has transformed all of his treasure into evil monsters. Wario decides that he is going to beat each and every one of these monsters so he can regain his vast wealth.
Repetition
Fans of the classic Wario Land games will probably be the most disappointed by Wario's Gamecube efforts, as the feel between this game and that series couldn't be more different. It's also likely to disappoint Treasure fans as well, as Wario World is not up to the developer's usual (though it has never been perfect) standard. Wario World is short, piss easy, and never seems to stray too far away from traditional platforming ways.
Wario World is executed as a semi 3D platformer that seems decidedly 2D in appearance. Most of the levels require Wario to travel either from left to right or bottom to top - standard platforming fare. Wario can still run back and forth in these plains, giving the game a 3D feel. Levels are comprised of platforming, collection and beat ‘em up elements. Platform elements are relatively straightforward, though moments where you are forced to make blind jumps are positively irritating. There are a few puzzle elements thrown in to break up the platforming action, and while some of these are rather imaginative (spinning an enemy against a wheel to open a door), they're rather simple, and don't do much to try and hamper one's progression. Secret areas are also strewn throughout the levels, and provide a little bit of extra cash, but really don't offer much incentive for players to go out of their way to find them. The collection aspects of Wario World are also quite limited, as Wario only needs to collect a few crystals before he can progress onto each level's boss.
Combat in Wario World is very streamlined, and centered on repetition and button mashing (either or, depending on your style). Wario has five main attacks at his disposal - punches, shoulder barge, throw, swing attack and a piledriver. Each attack has its own advantages, like a piledriver can take out multiple enemies with its impact, but attacks also have disadvantages - a piledriver is rather risky to execute. Bosses take a few more hits that normal enemies (obviously), but lack the imagination and charm of Wario Land bosses.
Wario World offers very little in the way of long term playability. There are only 4 worlds with 3 stages a piece - two platform levels and one boss fight. As you can imagine, this lack of stages combined with the easy difficulty culminates into a very short game - a decent player may only need 3-4 hours with Wario World to finish it and unlike Nintendo's other short mascot piece, Luigi's Mansion, Wario World's simple mechanics don't really allow for anything in the way of replay value. One thing Wario World does do right, however, is offer unlockable connectivity bonuses for your GBA – a few mini games from the awesome Wario Ware: Minigame Mania.
Mamma-mia
The visual presentation of Wario World is relatively easy on the eyes, but fails to deliver anything really impressive. Most of the environments in the game are constructed with fairly low polygon counts, and lack any sort of significant special effects. The textures range in quality from excellent to poor all throughout the game - this sort of inconsistency is mind-boggling. Many of the game's player models have a decidedly low poly count to them, and feature rather low quality animations. The action is, thankfully, locked at a solid 60 frames per second throughout the piece, with slowdown only occurring when the screen gets seriously overcrowded.
Wario World's sound is really quite odd. The music is strange, featuring a variety of odd tunes that barely fit together, not to mention Wario's "Nah, Nah, Nah-Nah, Nah" during the pause menu. Charles Martinet returns once again as the voice of Wario to provide his usual lines of speech, such as "Have a rotten day" and "I'm number one!" The audio is also enhanced by Dolby Pro Logic II support, so those with the appropriate equipment should take advantage.
Have a Rotten Day!
Some will probably be shocked by the score attached to this review (especially if they don't bother to read the justification behind it), but I honestly feel that Wario World is a below-average game. The mechanics are far too simple and repetitive, and the game is over in the blink of an eye. Wario deserves far better than this, and we know for a fact that Treasure is more than capable of producing better games than this - where did it all go wrong?
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