In this review, we rescue the sprites in the Game Cube game, Wario World. We find out how well this adventure game plays.
This game was released in 2003.
We do have some pretty good familiarity with this sub-franchise. First, we played Wario Land – Super Mario Land 3. That game wound up being a very solid game. After that, we tried Wario Land II. That ended up being barely passable. After that, we played Wario Land 3. That ended up being a great game all around. Finally, we played Wario Land 4. That also wound up getting a great score here. So, interestingly enough, we wound up trying this game after that.
The storyline in this game is quite thin. Essentially, Wario has amassed a huge amount of wealth after awakening an evil gem. This evil gem then used it’s recharged power to start taking over the lands. In the process, Wario’s fortune was stolen in the process. So, it is up to Wario to re-take his treasure back and destroy the gem in the process.
This game, of course, differentiates itself from previous instalments in that it is Wario in an adventure game that is in the third dimension. If you’ve played the other games, you might be thinking that it would be interesting to see how all those powers are incorporated into the 3D world. The thing is, this game has actually been vastly re-worked.
Making a return is the health meter. Unlike some instalments, taking damage does more than possibly set you back. You also can potentially die if you lose all of your health. So, there is more traditional risk in this game this time around.
Like many Super Mario games, this game incorporates coins. However, interestingly enough, the coins don’t necessarily give you free lives like various other Mario games. Instead, dying means that you have to fork over some change in order to continue. The good news is that you basically continue where you left off. How much it costs you per life varies. The smallest amount for us was 100 coins in this game. The most we’ve ever had to fork over was 300 coins.
While that does seem like quite a bit, there are two things to note here: for one, coins are actually very plentiful in this game. The second thing to note is that coins are cumulative between levels. So, any coins you collect in one level carries over to another throughout the entire game. By the time we beat the game, we had collected over 20,000 coins. So, collecting coins, with some effort, isn’t necessarily that hard.
Another thing coins can be used for is buying health items. These are known as garlic sellers. Each piece of garlic will refill a whole heart. The thing is, the more you buy them, the more expensive they get. So, they will be quite cheap early on in the game, but later on, they can get fairly pricey. The most expensive garlic piece we bought wound up being 135 coins which… isn’t really that expensive after all.
Coins are collected in a variety of ways. Some coins are simply collected by finding them and touching them. Other coins are found by defeating enemies. A good way of doing so is smacking enemies into each other to get the bigger coins. Another method is by damaging mini-bosses and world bosses. Often, if you stun them, they will drop a large number of coins. Often, though, this comes at the cost of being able to actually damage that boss in the process, so, something to consider.
There are small coins that are worth one coin and larger coins that are worth 10 coins. Generally, larger coins are earned by hitting one enemy into another or defeating every enemy in a small area. This can cause a small set of large coins to drop in an area. Another thing to note is that you can also find boxes with a large number of coins or performing well in arena challenges along the way.
While it’s fairly straight forward to collect coins in this game, they really only serve two functions: buying health garlic and reviving Wario when you run out of health. They don’t really go towards a high score or help give you better endings. Instead, they just make it easier for you to survive the various levels.
The thing is, there are things you collect throughout the game that do count towards something bigger.
Each level has 8 reg gems to collect. Gems help you unlock the ending of a level. Earlier levels only require a small number of them, but later levels cost you up to six. This is one aspect that allows you to 100% complete the game, though collecting every one of them is not necessarily required.
To find these gems, you need to find special locations in the levels. These are trap doors with light shining through them. Some doors have a simple “X” on them which requires a ground pound. The heavier doors icon requires you to ground pound with an enemy or object (though objects may or may not allow you to get through sometimes). Once inside, you are challenged with a mini-level. The regular “X” door is just an underground level with a small challenge. The heavy doors is a sky level which generally makes it a little harder at times. Most of these levels features a red gem at the end, though some are located somewhere in the middle on a particular platform. If you collect every gem in the level, you’ll be awarded with a heart shard that increases your overall health by half a heart upon exit of the level.
The second key collectible are sprites. These sprites are locked in small cages similar to what you would see in a Rayman game. There are 5 sprites per level and each represents a colour of the rainbow. The system is very similar to that of Banjo Kazooie, but the difference here is that each sprite will give you a hint. Another big difference is that the more sprites you collect, the better your ending picture will be (how good of a castle will you get when you beat the game). Get all 40 sprites to get the best possible castle in the game.
The third collectible are gold trophies. Some of these trophies are found in the levels themselves, but others are found at the end of the mini extra stages as well. Each trophy will give you a piece of the level’s Wario statue. Complete the statue and it will appear on the entrance of the level.
The final key collectible are treasures. In all, there are 8 treasures to be found. Each treasure requires you to hit a “W” switch. After that, you have to go to the “W” square where a treasure chest appears. Break the treasure chest and collect the item inside. Sometimes, switches are located a couple of treasures ahead, so collecting treasures out of order in a level can be fairly standard in regular gameplay in later levels.
In all, there are four worlds. Each world contains two levels and a boss fight. The boss fight is just you and a boss with the prize being a key piece if you win. Drain the health of the boss to zero (typically with grabbing them while stunned and ground pounding them). All four boss fights will give you the key to the final boss fight in the game.
Now, you do have a small set of moves you can perform as you go along. You have the standard punch which is generally useful for defeating smaller opponents and damaging larger standard opponents. There is also the ground pound which not only can damage opponents, but allow you to pass through breakable objects below you and activate those trap doors as well. There is also the charge attack. To execute, hold down attack and you’ll be able to charge forward, damaging many opponents or destroying breakables along the way. The hardest move to master is the long jump. To execute, you need to jump while in the midst of a charge attack. This will allow you to jump over larger gaps and collect otherwise unreachable items. Mandatory in the later parts of the game.
Over top of this are attacks that involve grappling larger enemies. After stunning an enemy, you can use attack to pick that enemy up. From there, you can perform a small select number of moves.
The easiest move is to throw them with another press of the attack move. A second move is to perform a charge throw move. To do this, hold down attack until Wario stops leaning further back. This can cause more damage than a standard throw. A third move is to ground pound enemies. Jump up in the air while holding onto a stunned enemy and perform a ground pound. The higher you start, the harder the hit. Necessary for heavier trap doors. Finally, you have the whirling attack. While holding an enemy, rotate the control stick in circles and Wario will start swinging enemies around. This move can be annoying to perform, but you can hit multiple other enemies for many large coins and clear out arena’s quickly in the process. Necessary for some switches.
Along the way, there are a number of points of interest. The most common point of interest are the golden globes. These can be found in mid air or embedded in walls. You just touch them and you’ll immediately stick to them. Move around to adjust your position. From there, you can jump to move even higher in the air and reach higher up platforms or traverse huge gaps.
A second point of interest are switches. These red switches are commonly found in extra area’s. They can move platforms, flash hints, and do a number of other things. Simply punch them to activate.
A third area of interest are moving breakable blocks. These blocks smash down when Wario is near the impact zone. While they can do damage if you are underneath these, they can also help Wario as well. If you dodge them, you can jump on top of these to travel higher up. Very useful for reaching higher ledges. Like other breakable blocks, the face with the “X” on it denotes its weakness. Hit it on the weakness side to bust open for three small coins.
Another point of interest is the miniature trampoline. When you complete a mini-level, you often can just move over to the small grey circle. This will launch you back out of the mini-level and back into the main level.
An additional interest are the whirling switches and whirling platforms. Both require performing a spinning move with an enemy. The switches are wheels with arrows on them. Hit them with an enemy with the spinning attack move and you’ll spin this wheel. Note that these are frequently timed switches, so you probably want to go through the gate before the switch closes it again. The whirling platforms (sometimes hidden by a breakable object) are denoted by a swirl logo. You take a stunned enemy, jump onto the platform, then perform the spinning move while on it to raise the platform. Note that you have a maximum of 25 rotations. After letting go of your enemy, you’ll be able to access higher platforms.
Another point of interest is also the most confusing initially. These are the moving red arrow blocks. You can hit them and they will travel in the opposite direction of you until it hits a wall. If it hits another moving block, then it will bounce back in the opposite direction. This goes for both horizontal and vertical movement. Ground pound will make those blocks move downwards. These are useful for getting to higher platforms, though note that going too high will cause you to go out of bounds and forces you to restart at your location. Typically found in the mini-level areas.
A final point of interest are arena’s. Arena’s are found throughout the game. The game will seal you into an area of the level and drop enemies into the arena. you have one minute to defeat as many enemies as possible. The more enemies you defeat before time expires, the bigger the coin prize at the end of the match.
A final thing to note on areas of interests are the movable platforms. This game has small amounts of physics built in. So, if a platform is moving in a certain direction, you can jump while moving in that direction for an extra boost in speed mid-flight. Note that while you can reach otherwise unreachable platforms with this technique, you can also very easily overshoot the landing. So, care is needed at times while using this function in the game.
Enemies are fairly straight forward in this game. Small enemies simply walk to you and slowly attack you. A single punch will take them out, though.
The larger enemies require multiple hits. Hit them enough times and they will become stunned. You can then pick them up and perform various moves. There are also light blue globes that generate enemies. They will continually generate enemies for you to take out. It’s possible to defeat them, but I never really figured out how with regularity. It was always faster to just walk past them and move on.
The larger common enemies are typically armed. They can defend themselves when you attack them with the weapon, so strategy may be required to take them out. You can stun them multiple times before defeating them. Initially, you can just disarm them after a certain amount of damage. They can still charge attack you, but their attacks will be stunted a bit compared to when they are armed.
In addition to that are flying enemies. These enemies will generally dive bomb you, pick you up and damage you, or drop bombs or spiked objects at you. Like larger enemies, you can stun them, pick them up and use them as weapons. A sub-set of these enemies are magnets and knives. Both have specific textured walls for you to throw them on to. They will stick to them and you can climb up on them to reach another platform. There is a limited time for you to use them, but generally, that time limit is fairly generous.
Another enemy you can encounter are tank-like enemies. They can hide in their shell and be impervious, but they cannot attack in this position. They can fire bombs at you as well. Like larger enemies, you can stun and use them after a certain amount of damage.
Additionally, there are mini-bosses that you must defeat. These mini-bosses lock you in a small area, making defeating them mandatory in order to move on. The most common are the gem enemies stuck in the ground. They can generate enemies to attack you. Whirl attacks are the only ways to damage these enemies initially. When low on health, you can pick them up and finish them off as you see fit.
Other mini-bosses include evil paintings, large hands, and spiked fruit trees. Each have their own characteristics that requires you to find a pattern to defeat. Most often, though, a sprite will offer hints on how to defeat them.
Generally speaking, that’s the game.
What is striking in this game is the very stripped down nature of this game. There are key items to collect to be sure, but you don’t have that range of extra abilities that accompanied Wario in previous hand-held instalments. In fact, you get a basic set of moves and get put in a sometimes pseudo-3D environment that is also very linear. It’s basically a highly stripped down version of the concept of an adventure game. Because of this, the game often comes off as repetitive. Even the worlds feel like re-skinned variations of the previous worlds with some slight design alterations. The fact that the game is also highly linear doesn’t help things either.
Compounding this problem is the fact that this game is quite short. Some say you can beat this game in an afternoon. For me, I’ll be generous and say you can beat it over the weekend. It’s still a bit on the short side for me. Part of the problem here is the fact that this game really has only 8 levels and 5 boss fights. While the mini-levels offers some slight diversions to the standard play, they do little to mask the short life span of this game.
Having said that, the learning curve, thanks to these flaws, is quite shallow. You can very easily pick up and play this game without too much of a hassle. Some complain that this game is too easy, but I’ll say it’s very easy for a majority of the game. Trying to 100% complete this game does take some level of skill thanks to the extra area’s in the last two levels. They are still doable, but they do frequently require you to think. Otherwise, the boss fights are generally quite easy and many of the levels can be breezed through quite easily.
While this game certainly has a host of flaws, I will say that there was enough variety of content to keep me interested all the way up to the very end. The different levels do offer some unique features that keeps things interesting. What’s more is the fast paced nature can very easily be something that some players gravitate towards. It’s not necessarily a button masher style game, but it does compel players to have good reflexes and anticipation skills. As a result, there is a nice level of action throughout the game.
Overall, this game certainly does have its flaws. This ranges from the short nature of the game and the simplicity of the game that makes it repetitive at times. What’s more is that the difficulty certainly is on the easier side of things. Experienced players might, at best, feel some challenge in the later extra levels if they choose to try and 100% complete the game. Still, the faster paced action in the game might be something some players will enjoy, so it’s not as though it’s a bad game with these flaws. Still, it does feel like the storyline was tacked on last minute. So, a decent game to play, but not something I would be motivated to repeatedly play.
Graphically, this game does have a fair bit going for it. The various characters and the overall environments work quite well. The game features a number of different features such as statues, large trees, snow covered mountains and a whole lot more. Even more are the number of different effects that adds to the action of the overall game. Making a particularly large ground pound can be quite satisfying with that impact indicator. The only thing really hampering this game on this front is the overall length of this game. So, while what is there is quite good, there isn’t a whole lot of it necessarily. So, a great job all around despite length holding this game back on this front.
The audio is pretty decent. The voice acting of Wario is, of course, quite well done. The personality really shines through with those lines being delivered. The music offers some nice upbeat and atmospherics to the overall game. Nothing I would consider particularly memorable, but good all around. The sound effects are also very solid and helps give this game some nice punch throughout (no pun intended). So, a good effort that almost makes it to the level of being great.
Overall, there is that nice Nintendo shine that comes through in this game that makes this one enjoyable. Unfortunately, that shine does wear off after a while, exposing the short and simplistic game that it is after a while. With only 8 main levels in this game along with 5 boss fights, you can very easily spend two afternoons rushing through this one. The repetition and hastily tacked on storyline doesn’t really help matters much in this one. Compounding the simplicity is the repetitive play. Still, the low difficulty curve makes this a very approachable title along with a very low learning curve. Also, the fast paced action can be welcoming for some players. Graphics are great and the audio is pretty good. So, an solid game all around, even if flawed.
Overall
100% completed the game with just over 20,000 coins.
General gameplay: 17/25
Replay value: 7/10
Graphics: 8/10
Audio: 3/5
Overall rating: 70%
Drew Wilson on Twitter: @icecube85 and Facebook.
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