The recently-released Zelda bonus disc held more recent footage of Wario World in action. Although its cleaner presentation suggests the game has progressed, the bonus disc reveals very little new information.

The basic gameplay remains the same: throw Wario’s weight around to clobber hordes of enemies in a pseudo side-scrolling world. The game still features the same enemy-throwing and pile-driving antics seen at E3 2002 -- no new attacks were shown. However, the coins your victims leave behind can now be harvested more easily with Wario’s newly-added ability to inhale coins, just like Luigi with his vacuum! Whether this is a power-up or not is unknown. The build shown also has various counters for attack combos and coins. One battle scene even had a time limit!

At least one brief clip takes place in what appears to be a new locale: a lush garden in the sky. Also, one of the mansion’s previously-empty “mine shaft” rooms now harbors a simple puzzle involving switches. Other enhancements include a simple targeting system for the floating yellow orb platforms and Charles Martinet’s voice as Wario. Just how much voice Wario World will include is unknown, though only a handful of different lines and grunts were heard throughout the video.

Developed by Treasure, Wario World currently has a May 26th date.

Last updated: 05/28/2002 by Max Lake

Having starred in many Game Boy titles, Wario finally has his own console game. As sweet as the news is, there was no denying that Wario World was incredibly early at E3. The graphics were far from optimized & areas were clearly unfinished, though the game certainly has promise. During the show, we were able to dig up a couple of additional details.

Michael "TYP" Cole spoke to one Nintendo representative who admitted he was surprised the game was shown as far along as it was, considering how early it is. For example, bonus “mine shaft” areas which were empty in the E3 demo had previously not had any springs at the bottom, which allowed Wario to bounce up to the game world. Therefore, while testing the game at NOA, any time Wario fell into such an area, testers would have to reset. Bosses were another addition made to the game just prior to the show. The levels shown at E3 (a mansion, a circus and a pyramid) were only 3 of 25 planned levels. The person we spoke with believed that Wario already had a full arsenal of moves, so it’s hard to say if anything will be added. Still, it’s hard to imagine Wario won’t have a few wacky transformations at his disposal.

Although it was a little hard to be sure with all the noise at E3, there was absolutely no Wario voice samples to be heard. On the E3 show floor, Billy had a surprise encounter with Charles Martinet, the voice of Mario, Luigi and Wario. Mr. Martinet assured Billy that Wario certainly would not be silent in his GameCube debut, meaning we can expect Wario to be as rowdy as ever.

Wario World is currently scheduled for release this fall. Whether it can make this date seems dubious, but perhaps we’ll know more around SpaceWorld.

Last updated: 05/22/2002

One of the greatest ideas in the Game Boy Color games was that Wario was unable to die, but lost coins if he was hit by an enemy. It looks like this won't be the case on GameCube as he has his very own heart meter.

After all the previous adventures Wario's treasure room is full of jewels and riches. One of the jewels he has managed to pick up is a black jewel with the power to transform gems into monsters. The treasure room in the basement of Wario's castle begins to fill with monsters enclosing a strange parallel universe. Wario wakes up the next day to find the monsters instead of treasure and has to enter this new world to reclaim his collection.

From the movies and screenshots the gameplay looks similar to the Game Boy games but this time everything is in 3D. Wario can pick up large items and swing or throw them at enemies and be swept up into whirlwinds or be picked up by flying creatures. There are colorful balls that are floating or attached to surfaces such as walls. These are sticky and allow Wario to climb by jumping on each ball to reach higher areas.