Intro
There were few surprises for the Nintendo fan at E3-- perhaps the only surprise, aside from 4 player GBA Zelda, was the announcement of Wario World, which was unfortunately leaked via the infamous scanned brochure broadcast over the ‘net days before the expo. For a company that almost always delivers AAA-quality in its 1st party ventures, this surprise should have been kept under wraps longer.
Impressions
Wario was ubiquitous at Nintendo’s E3 ’02 booth, whether his image appeared on flat screen “movie posters†leading into the booth, or on enormous banners hanging around the perimeter. People wanting to play this game were not near as omnipresent, and the reason why is simple: Wario World is clearly early, unpolished, and unfinished. The gentlemen running the demo theatre for the game even joked with each other about having “another light day†on account of no one coming in to ask or talk about the title. The first question from most showgoers who saw this title was whether or not the game were an unfinished N64 game that was abruptly shifted over to GameCube, and apparently it isn’t.
In a nutshell, imagine Luigi’s Mansion as a 3D beat-em-up, like Double Dragon with jumping, and a couple puzzle elements thrown in. Now, remove the incredible graphics, lighting, and appealing gameplay of Luigi’s Mansion: there you have Wario World.
To elaborate, Wario World’s action takes place in adequate, if uninspired, game worlds in which the camera moves from left to right and back, as in Luigi’s Mansion. While everything is rendered in 3D, and Wario can move from foreground to background freely, this is essentially a 2 ½-3D platformer, in the vein of Tarzan: Untamed or Yoshi’s Story.
Void of any special transformations that existed in previous Wario Game Boy titles, Wario was left only with punching combos to defeat his foes. He was also able to lift most objects on the game field, such as trees, pillars, statuary, and enemies, to use as weapons against cronies. A couple other moves—spinning and releasing objects and enemies a la Mario 64, or pile driving enemies from midair—were thrown in for variety. Many Wario fans were remiss over the lack of power-up transformations, but since a Wario game wouldn’t be a Wario game without them, feel safe to expect such upgrades in the final version of this title.
Three worlds-- graveyard, circus, and pyramid-- were playable at E3. A few mini-bosses and one interesting boss from the circus world were present, and while these challenges were fun to engage, the pedantic “punch-punch-punch†through throngs of endlessly respawning enemies proved entirely too long and unengaging. Since all of said enemies are resultant of Wario’s treasure hoard being transformed into monsters by a magical gem, coins, and an occasional question-mark labeled cube, popped up upon defeat of the monsters. At this point, the cubes had no purpose. Also throughout each level were what appeared to be six of PC Gamer’s Coconut Monkeys (seriously) to locate, as well as six small pieces of a golden Wario statuette to assemble.
The other gameplay detail worth noting is, unfortunately, also incomplete: trapdoors leading to subterranean rooms were generously sprinkled throughout the levels. Access to these rooms required the famous butt-stomp, but every room was identical and contained nothing. Apparently, a springboard that enabled Wario to return back to the real action above ground was only added right before E3 so that game players wouldn’t get stuck.
Visually, Wario does contain the famous Disney-style character and world design that Nintendo perfected with its Mario franchise. Disappointingly, Wario’s model had poor animation (particularly climbing ladders) and seemed to not even have dynamic lighting. The enemy models were attractive if simple, yet once you saw the 40th iteration of an enemy 1/3rd into a level, they became tiresome. Textures were simple and appropriate for each world, yet some very blurry and pixelated textures, such as foreground trees in the graveyard level, seemed straight from the N64.
Wario voice samples were missing but will be added in the final build of the game. Music was serviceable, but when going through the entirely too long circus level, even the mysterious and darkly French-flavored circus melody became weary.
Nintendo is well known for withholding titles from E3 and Space World on the grounds that the titles are unfinished or unpolished-- Metroid Prime’s absence from E3 ’01 is a great example of this. What motivated Nintendo to show such an incomplete title, and furthermore saturate the Nintendo booth promoting it, remains a mystery.
Word on the Street
Game Boy aficionados love Wario, and his appearance on a console is long overdue. Unfortunately, Wario fans, or fans of anti-heroes in general, should withhold their enthusiasm for this title until it gets the Nintendo polish it’s missing.
From the Horse’s Mouth
He's the good, the bad and the ugly all rolled into one. Mario's archenemy, Wario, has previously starred in a string of hit Game Boy games-- most recently, Wario Land 4 for GBA-- and the gold-grubbin' villain finally gets to be the hero in his first 3D console adventure.
Conclusion
Wario World is slated for release this November, and this incredibly close release date is the source of such a concerned appraisal. For once, this is one game I actually hope gets the familiar string of Nintendo delays, as it has a long way to go. Otherwise, if this is all that Wario has to offer on the GCN, he should stay on the GBA.
