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Wario World Review - Gamecube

As I popped Wario World into my Game Cube I pondered, who the hell is Wario?? Is he an evil cousin of Mario and Luigi?? He does have a somewhat sinister look about him. So I decided to do a bit of research and get to the bottom of this intriguing character. After searching a researchers best friend, the Internet, I came up with the following info. Wario is indeed an "evil cousin" of the Mario Brothers, one who is jealous at the success of Mario and yearning for his own fortune. In fact, treasure seems to be Wario's main passion. So there you have it, armed with a better understanding of our stocky, mustached "hero", I begin Wario World.

Gameplay

As with all Nintendo platformers, Wario World comes armed with cheesy plot and all. Wario has fulfilled his life's mission, he has finally constructed his castle in order to house his various treasures and jewels he's obtained. But unbeknown to him, one of those treasures is an ancient black jewel that almost wiped out civilization long ago. A red moon signals the awakening of the jewel and Wario's treasures have now been turned into monsters! Yes, that is the premises, my friends.

Wario World finds Wario wondering from area to area stomping, spinning, bashing and jumping anything that gets in his way. Pretty stock standard platforming affair. The game centers on the collection of red diamonds. There are 8 in each level and these are discovered by jumping through various trapdoor scattered through levels. Jumping through a trapdoor warps you to another area where you'll have to solve a simple puzzle in order to gain the diamond. Each level has a Stone Doohickey for which a certain amount of diamonds needs to be placed to open up a warp to the stages boss battle. There are 2 stages per world and when they are completed another boss battle is opened up. Taking care of the world boss rewards you with a treasure box key- collect the 4 keys from the 4 worlds to challenge the black jewel. Simple enough.

There really isn't anything in WW that we haven't seen in a Mario game before but that doesn't mean it's not fun. The puzzle solving found is limited to the activating of switches or manipulation of enemies with the environment. Wario is a lot more aggressive than his cousin and has a variety of moves at his disposal. For instance, picking up a stunned enemy and spinning him around is not only a sure fire way of clearing a room but needs to be used to manipulate wheels that unlock gates and spin platforms to higher levels. It is something WW does well; most of the moves need to be implemented in order to progress. Wario's pile driver is needed to unlock concrete door trap doors while his stomp can shoot projectiles in the air at unreachable targets.
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