Wario World

Hello again, readers! If you couldn't already tell by the image above, I'll be observing the story and game structure of Wario World. In this game, you play as Wario, a greedy, selfish, treasure-hunter in search for nothing else but more treasure. The story starts with Wario sitting in his castle, the room filled with piles, over hoards, over hills of gold, gems, and royal items. Wario is sitting on his throne, laughing in victory, and having a grand old time. But deep in the catacombs of his royal keep lies an evil black jewel. It awakens and begins to destroy his castle from the inside out, and transform his whole treasure load into monsters! The jewel changes his castle into four different worlds and hides Wario's treasure in each one. Wario, angry and bent on revenge, springs into action to save his stolen loot.

In Wario World, you traverse through each level with an onslaught of powerful, and simple to use, abilities. You navigate around by running, jumping, and dashing, and you defeat enemies in close combat with strong fighting moves. The game requires you to platform around to get through the linear areas and every so often there are trap doors. These lead to special puzzle-based rooms that give you treasure as a reward.

Wario World's story leaves much to be desired, as it doesn't explain much at all. In a GameSpot review, he says "You won't find a lot of story sequences driving Wario's adventure. The game gives you a brief text explanation at the outset, claiming that Wario stole an evil black jewel that transformed his treasure horde into monsters." It doesn't say where he gets the evil black jewel, or how it came to be, or any other important clues as to how Wario found himself in that mess. But that doesn't stop it from being a fun game. Taken from a Game Revolution review, "Wario World rises above those past foibles with a simple but fun trek through weird worlds, plenty of bosses and old-school fighting action. A mesh of beat-em up button-mashing and typical action-adventure gameplay, Wario World is a decent if short jaunt through the anti-Mario's wacky life." Wario World is a short game, but big surprises come in small packages. Given its length, Wario World contains more fun in it than most games have to offer, regardless if the plot isn't as deep as it could be. With quirky charm, and memorable phrases like "Have a rotten day", Wario World takes a place in my game shelf for years to come.