After having his own series on the various Game Boy systems and having numerous roles in other games, Wario has finally been given a console game of his own. Wario World is a charming tale of greed that’ll leave players wanting more, whether it’s more of Wario or just more is the question.

                There’s a small story revolving around Wario World. An evil jewel once existed that used the power of people’s wishes to create creatures that would run amok. Eventually this jewel was hidden away and forgotten about. That is until a treasure hunter (Wario’s a treasure hunter, go figure) found it. Well, now this evil jewel has used Wario’s greed against him and turned all of his gold into evil creatures. So to save his fortune, Wario ventures forth to confront, conquer, and reclaim. Normally I’m not too big on the story of games. The less there is of a story, the more time there is to play is how I feel. But the story here is even too little for me. Does Wario even know what’s happened to his gold or why he’s exploring these lands? In the beginning the Spiritlings tell a little about what’s going on, but eventually all they start to tell you are tips about upcoming parts or enemies. Wario World uses a 3D world, but while exploring the individual levels the land is narrow that it gives a strong 2D feeling. Because of this, the levels are linear. All of the treasures and such can be discovered with a minimal amount of exploring. The camera adds to this feeling by not allowing the player to rotate it 360 degrees. Instead, the camera can only be moved forward, backward, upward, and downward. Not that great when you want to see what’s behind a tree or off the side of a cliff. However, when in those areas that have those red diamonds, the camera can be moved a full 360 degrees.

                The controls should be simple for anyone to grasp. They’re just like any other Nintendo platform game from the past five years. In fact, most of the game is so familiar that players should have little problem passing the puzzles and bosses. A few of those red diamond rooms are the only real obstacles in the game. But with so many to choose from, the difficult ones can be bypassed. Most of the baddies that Wario encounters on his adventure are just the same creatures that were on the first level. Only difference is what they look like. They have the same attacks and same weaknesses, which is get punched, knocked out, and then slammed or tossed. Players shouldn’t find a challenge in the baddies that run around the levels, but a boss or two might cause some problems. The entire game can be beaten, not 100% but still beaten in one day. The desire to achieve 100% will be enough to get you through the game once more. A nice little bonus for collecting Wario’s lost treasures is that they unlock stuff for the GBA. Since I don’t own the cable required to connect the GC and GBA, I am not sure what you unlock or if it’s even worth it. Aside from this, there’s really nothing here to make you want to replay it again. Wario World is definitely not up to the current standards for graphics. The levels are all unimaginative. They’ve included all the stereotypical levels seen in tons of other games: grass, desert, snow, etc. All of which are done just to par and not more. With a few downgrades, Wario World might even be able to pass as a 64 game. Couple times during the game I even experienced some slow-down, just unacceptable for such a simple game. None of the characters look original and do anything spectacular while you’re pummeling them. Wario even loses his menacing feel. He’s just too plump and comical looking to be taken seriously.

                If the game’s appearance wasn’t enough to kill Wario’s evil persona, then the music should do the trick. Through out the whole game, players are treated to Nintendo’s classic sound of cute and catchy music. While the sound does a great job of making Wario seem all nice and such, it’s also one of the few things that help his image. Well, not the music, but Wario’s phrases that he says. Even a few old favorite sayings of his made it into Wario World.                Being a fan of Wario, I was expecting, and hoping, for so much more. I kind of feel bad for the guy. It’s his console debut and he gets such a poor game. Like Mario Sunshine, the only bright spots in Wario World are the red diamond levels. Normally it’s a bad thing when a game is too short, but in Wario World’s case, it was a blessing to finally be done with it.