Wario World (GameCube) Preview

Where to start? Well, if you're expecting the game to be what Mario Sunshine should have been then you have been mislead. For starters, the main game is based around a giant Castle. Other than that, in this instalment Treasure Studios, the developers behind the game have opted for an isometric view. This basically means that the screen is at a fixed point. You can't just spin around Wario as seen in Mario Sunshine. There are advantages and disadvantages in this. The advantages are that when in combat you don't have to move around Wario to see what is going on. The disadvantages are that if Wario is behind an object you won't be able to see him.

This isn't as drastic as it sounds though as you can slowly move the camera, not much but enough. The isometric view means you won't have all the freedom you found in Mario Sunshine and Mario 64 and will be more like Luigi's Mansion. This is why Nintendo are calling it a 2.5D adventure. If it has to be compared to a Gamecube game that most people have played it has a strong likeness to that of Luigi's Mansion.

You see, like Luigi's Mansion, most of Wario World takes place in a house, or, at least a Castle. In this Castle is a whole stash of treasure, money, gems and precious jewels that Wario stole. This massive great stash of treasures has been looted from the looter! Wario has lost all of his life savings, or should that be life lootings. Anyway, Wario as you could imagine is not happy. Like his victims, he is not happy and he wants his belongings back. But it is not just as simple as going to find the thief and taking it back. Reasons? Well his hard earned treasures have turned into disgusting monsters. The only way Wario can get it back is to destroy the evildoer of all this mess. Wario won't be happy if he gets anything less than all of his loot back...

The whole game won't just be cooped up in Wario's castle though as there are a tonne of levels for you to get through. After each level there will be a boss that will get progressively harder, unlike the bosses in Mario Sunshine. To get to the boss you will have to get through the levels and collect 8 shiny silver diamonds that are very rare and grant access to the boss when all are found. The exact number of levels hasn't yet been announced yet but we can expect a pretty good number. These will range from in the dingy depths of the Castle to a great forest even to a snow covered paradise!

The gameplay is pretty good as well as having an okay storyline. The fighting and brawling will consists of all of Wario's trademark attacks such as the piledriver. Wario can easily take out maybe 10 enemies at once by picking up one of his opponents and swinging them round whilst they knock his other enemies. This makes for frantic gameplay that should offer something of an opportunity to those of you who wanted to get back to basics instead of utilising GADD science items. The controls are very simple and could be mastered quick but creating more powerful combinations of attacks, punches, grabs and throws.

Much like Mario Sunshine A makes Wario jump and pulling on L will make Wario give his foes a traditional Butt Stomp. Pressing B and a direction will open up a whole variety of moves such as grabs, blows, kicks and throws. Its all in here, no messing about switching between Nossles just pure beat 'em up style gameplay, this is what we all want and Treasure Studios are promising to give it. There will be plenty of old skool moves in their for Wario to use.

The gameplay in Luigi's Mansion was somewhat lacking but this should fix this problem. There will be tonnes of treasure that's just been left about for Wario to find such as Hearts for recovering health, Treasures which can be used to upload levels through the GameBoy Advance connectivity. It seems Nintendo are very keen to get the GameBoy Advance to Gamecube connectability going well and truly.
The graphics look to be shaping up pretty nicely as well. They have a darker look than Mario Sunshine did, keeping in touch with the evil reaches of Wario. All the environments are fairly detailed but could have more care taken in some of the textures and blocky shapes. Overall the graphics are good enough for what they need to be.

Length wise this game should be fairly good, hopefully it won't be the two-day rent and complete type of game that so many found Luigi's Mansion to be. Although as this one doesn't have as much hype it might not be such a disappointment if it is even though it is expected to be a strong alternative to some of the other adventure games already on the 'Cube. With the addition of downloadable levels from Wario World to Wario Ware inc. and so on the game will keep fresh for much longer.