I’ve never really played much of the Wario Land games on Game Boy systems, until I finally played Wario Land 4 while hanging with TYP. Still, I’ve always loved this evil little Mario doppelganger. I don’t know if it’s the yellow outfits, his sinister cackle or the fact he’s such a wacky character, but Wario is usually my top choice in any Mario sports outing. Not only that, I’ve been pining for Wario to take center stage in a console game of his own for awhile. Now we’re getting it with Wario World, and it’s absolutely great!

The game play involves Wario traveling through various areas, collecting treasure and beating up any and all baddies who get in his way. Maybe “beating up” isn’t quite the right way to put it; “completely annihilating” might work much better. Wario lays his foes flat and then some. It also seems like there’s some sort of icons you need to collect. I asked the booth attendant what they were, but he didn’t know—though he pointed out that they were actually little “ghost” Links!

The level I played was a haunted mansion, where skeletal dinosaur men (somewhat similar to ones that roamed Hyrule fields in Ocarina of Time at night) popped out of the ground. There were also skeletal Triceratops men and bony pterodactyls that tried to pick up Wario. There were several yellow balloons, found throughout the level, stuck up in trees, attached to the backs of ghosts and other places. Wario can jump on these and maneuver himself around. There were some trap doors that Wario could butt-stomp down into, landing in mine shaft-like areas, though these were currently empty.

Using B to charge up, Wario can do a mighty dash. Otherwise, B punches and hitting it repeatedly executes combos. Wario can do a buttstomp, by jumping with A and hitting B. Wario can also pick up items, including downed enemies and throw them. For bigger items, like stone pillars, (or large enemies) you can rotate the control stick, which causes Wario to swing the item round and round, eliminating any foes unfortunate enough to be nearby. It’s very cool and quite fun, though a bit tricky at first. I’m sure there are more advanced moves too, a couple times I was able to execute some wrestling moves on my skeletal foes, including a spectacular pile-driver. Wow!

The graphics are really good, the 3D areas are large, open and fairly detailed. One bystander compared the graphics to Luigi’s Mansion due to the spooky level setting, and scary setting aside, the comparison in graphic quality is fairly accurate. However, all the graphics seem a little blurry and could definitely benefit from some work.

The game’s music was atmospheric and really nice. I didn’t hear too much of Wario cackling or yelling much, or maybe I should say I didn’t hear as much as Wario Land 4, where Wario is yelling all kinds of stuff.

There’s no word on when Wario World will be released. It definitely could use a little work visually, but the gameplay is rock solid and lots of fun. I may update these impressions (time permitting) after exploring some of the other areas. I really can’t wait to play again; Wario World is just so much fun!