Wario World (GCN) Retro Review

We have a new review for this Fourth of July weekend. Game & Wario released for the Wii U just over a week ago, and to celebrate Mario's plump rival, we have a retro review of Wario's GameCube platforming romp, Wario World.

It's Wario's World-- 

We Just Play In It.

Ever since his debut on the Game Boy with Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, Wario has been a favorite among many Nintendo enthusiasts. His gross behavior, such as mining for nose treasure, passing gas, and chomping on copious amounts of garlic cloves, is just one interesting facet of this lovable lug. In 2003, Nintendo and Treasure gave Wario his own platforming game. Not content to have his own land anymore, Wario went and got himself a world to conquer with Wario World.

After taking treasure from lands near and far, Wario has just finished construction on his colossal castle, where his round rump rests on his gold throne. However, his greed has once again gotten the best of him. In his pilfering adventures he nabbed a black jewel. This black jewel awakens and begins taking Wario's treasure and turning it alive. The entire castle is transformed and Wario is booted out. With garlic on his breath and a strong will, Wario decides to teach the black jewel a lesson by heading to four themed worlds to collect the key pieces needed to open the treasure where the jewel has taken up residence.

Laugh it up while you can, Wario!

Wario World is a side-scrolling 3D platformer featuring four worlds of three levels each. The first two levels are fully explorable, complete with treasure, hint-giving Spritelings, pieces of gold statue, and red diamonds to collect. The latter is used to open the boss hatch at the end of each level. These red diamonds are located in trapdoors that must be found and ground pounded through either by Wario himself or with an enemy in hand for the steel trapdoors. The areas are either simple puzzle/platforming rooms or special platforming challenges that occur in another dimension. Unlike the main levels of the game, these special rooms and dimensions allow you to rotate the camera a full 360 degrees.

Clear out areas of enemies with
Wario's spin attack.

The garlic-chomping Wario wants nothing more than to get his greedy mitts on anything and everything golden. There are eight treasures in every level, but before they can appear, buttons marked with a "W" must be hit to spawn them. A treasure will appear on the tile the same color as the button hit. In addition to treasure, there are multiple pieces of gold. Not only do these create a stunning gold statue of Wario, impressive all to itself, but collecting them all in a given level bestows Wario with a boost to his health in the form of half of a heart.

Enemies and boxes drop coins, and these are as valuable as the treasures Wario covets so much. You see, when Wario loses hearts from damage, he can go to a garlic-dispenser to pay for a clove of the helpful garnish. This will revive one heart, as long as Wario has got the coins. If Wario loses all of his health, you can opt to pay an amount of coins to avoid a game over. Otherwise... it's game over. Wario can also lose coins by falling into a hole within a level, entering a lair of the Unithorn creatures. These purple heads will chomp at Wario, taking away his coins, as he scrambles to find the exit spring, hidden underneath one of many boxes.

Even Wario's jaw drops at all those coins!

Every level and world ends with a boss battle of some sort. These generally have Wario dodging the attacks of the boss or bosses in question and waiting for an opportunity to strike. For instance, one boss has Wario needing to run to its rear to leap onto its tail, which will then rise into the air over its backside, allowing Wario to perform a ground pound on its weak point.

This boss may be large, but
Wario's greed is larger!

In normal levels, Wario is still a much more brute force kind of plumber than his rival Mario, and he assuredly shows it in Wario World. Wario talks with his fists, able to pummel foes into a dazed state. Then he can pick up an enemy and choose to chuck them, spin them around like crazy or pile drive their face into the ground. For a plumber so... plump, Wario can get around. He can dash and jump to cross large chasms or to just make up a great distance across the fairly linear levels.

Wario gives his brute strength a spin.

As for the levels, there are but eight in the game, not including boss levels. This might seem like a low number, but if you're trying to collect everything, they can take you upwards of an hour each to complete. With no way to save during a level, I think the developer could have split up levels into more manageable bits. That way there would be more levels, there would be less getting burnt out on a particular level-- what, with being stuck in a level for almost an hour, and the player could save more often without worry of losing a good portion's worth of progress.

Another issue with Wario World is that the camera is always at a fixed position. This makes some jumps near impossible to judge, causing Wario to fall down into Unithorn's Lair, or have to redo whole sections of level all over again. The camera's abhorrent behavior shines particularly true in some boss levels, where it tries to keep up with Wario but cannot, or it can't decide if it wants to spin around or not.

Sloppy seconds? No thank you!

Wario World looks rough around the edges graphically, but Wario's animations are absolutely top notch, especially his facial reactions. Lighting is quite good in levels, particularly special effects like lightning, and most level geometry comes across as competent in looks. Enemies might be the same archetypes each and every level for the most part, but they, too, look competent and occasionally foreboding. Unfortunately, Wario World doesn't run the greatest, with severe frame-rate chugging when a lot of enemies or moving environmental objects are on the screen at the same time. For the audiophiles out there, Wario World's music is a mix of truly catchy tracks and forgettable background noise. Hearing Wario's quips like "good luck" and "have a rotten day" seldom get old, even after the hundredth time.

Wario World is far from a perfect game, and like his rival's GameCube platforming installment, it has a fair amount of issues that prevent it from being truly terrific. If you have that need for greed, Wario World is a title you can get for cheap and play through it for about 8-10 hours and then forget about it afterwards. Seeing how Wario World was developed by Treasure, the minds behind Gunstar Heroes and Ikaruga, it's disappointing to see how unspectacular Wario's GameCube debut really was.

[SPC Says: 7.0/10]

Astro Boy: Omega Factor (GBA) Retro Review

I was recently in the market to sell complete copies of some of my Game Boy Advance library, and I came across a certain title I only touched once. Rather than stupidly sell off a game I hadn't fully played, I placed the cartridge into my Nintendo DS Lite's GBA slot, and powered that sucker on. The game that I didn't sell (and am glad I didn't!) is none other than Astro Boy: Omega Factor. Here is my retro review.

The eternal conflict between man and machine 

finds its way onto the Game Boy Advance.

What is essentially the grand-daddy of modern anime, Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy manga and following cartoons have greatly shaped Japanese animation and culture. The character of Astro is a charming and endearing one, and the stories presented can range from lighthearted and cheery to dark and somber. Like any excellent material, the Astro Boy franchise needed a video game to represent itself well, and unlike Sonic Team's PlayStation 2 Astro Boy project, legendary developer Treasure's attempt to bring Astro and the gang into the realm of video games is a successful one. The end result is 2D beat 'em up known as Astro Boy: Omega Factor for the Game Boy Advance.

Astro Boy: Omega Factor's plot is based off of various versions of Astro Boy, such as the 1952 manga, the original 1963 animated program, the 1980s remake, and the 2003 episodic series. There are plots regarding the robotic metropolis in Antarctica, the mysterious land of Mu, the time traveling exploits of the Marine Express, the increasingly dire conflict between humans and robots, and the all-powerful Death Mask.

Astro unleashes a large laser wave on this boss.

Omega Factor's gameplay in typical levels is 90% action-packed beat 'em up and 10% platforming. Of the latter, there is little in the way of complication. In the beat 'em up sections, Astro moves along one of seven linear levels, defeating foes with a variety of attacks such as punches, kicks, laser beams, and machine gun fire. The last two are special attacks which require energy to use. This energy is easily acquired through dishing out damage to enemies. The fighting can become a bit repetitive when you're faced with the same battle strategies time and time again. This is compounded by the fact that the level design is truly nothing to champion. It seems rather sloppily put together.

An observant player will notice that the laser is
a terrific attack for clearing battles.

As Astro meets various non-playable characters, he gets the ability to upgrade one of his stats. He can increase the amount of health he has, the damage and length of his laser attack, the capabilities of his turbo jet, the power of his punches, the longevity of his machine gun special attack, and his sensor abilities. A lot of the NPCs in Astro Boy: Omega Factor are optional, but it's to the player's benefit to find as many as possible to boost Astro's stats and make an already challenging game all the easier. In addition to helping out Astro and the player, all met characters will get an encyclopedia entry in the titular Omega Factor. This gives players in-depth info on all characters of the Astro Boy universe, including where they appeared in the various canon of Osamu Tezuka's workings.

Outside of traditional beat 'em up style brawls and searching for new NPCs, Astro Boy: Omega Factor features horizontal auto-scrolling flight levels where Astro needs to dodge enemy attacks while showcasing his own offense. These levels do quite well in breaking up the monotony of the normal ground levels-- as do the challenging and entertaining boss battles intermixed throughout the game.

These flight levels are interspersed 
throughout Omega Factor.

Astro Boy: Omega Factor is essentially split into two parts. As stated, the game has seven levels. These seven levels are split up into several parts. Once the initial play-through is completed, the story makes it so Astro must go through the levels once more-- this time with different motivations and character appearances. The second time around players can use the stage select feature, not offered in the first go through the game. Between the three difficulties (easy, normal, and hard), all of the NPCs that can be discovered to fill out the in-game encyclopedia, the mass of upgrades for Astro, and the urge to go for higher scores per stage, Astro Boy on the Game Boy Advance possesses a fair deal of replay value and bang for one's buck.

Something about this boss just bugs Astro.

Perhaps the only other criticism I can make about Omega Factor is near the end of the game. Astro needs to revisit various stages to advance the story. However, if a player forgets where he or she met a given character, it can become a serious effort in frustration. I guess I cannot complain too much with the advent of online guides.

One of the most outstanding parts of Astro Boy: Omega Factor are the vibrant visuals. The game is fast-paced and looks the part of a serious graphical contender. Everything from the way the bosses animate to how intricate backgrounds are designed is particularly impressive. The only downside is the occasional bout of slowdown that happens when a lot of enemies or action is on the screen at the same time.

If you think the game is gorgeous now,
just wait until you see it in motion.

Astro Boy: Omega Factor is a piece of the Game Boy Advance library that should not go unplayed. Even if you do not have a firm grasp of the source material, it is a fast and fluid game that will delight you. Treasure has a mastery of these types of action-oriented games, and Astro Boy: Omega Factor can be proudly placed next to such titles as Gunstar Heroes, Radiant Silvergun, and Ikaruga. It is not perfect, but it certainly gets the job done.

[SuperPhillip Says: 8.0/10]

Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure (Wii) Review

Treasure Island Revisited

It's really difficult to recommend great third-party titles to a Wii owner. Mostly due to the fact that most third-party Wii games are crappy, rushed Playstation 2 ports or plain shovelware. And like a treasure chest buried under a desert of third-party mediocrity, you have a title like Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure.

This quest for booty stars a lovable duo of Zack, a chocolate bar-devouring young lad, and his trusty companion, the robotic monkey known as Wiki, who recently joined up with fellow treasure hunters, the Sea Rabbits. High in the sky and itching for some treasure, the crew's plane is attacked by a rival gang of booty-lovers led by the vivacious as well as beautiful Captain Rose. A tutorial mission follows which puts players into Capcom's world of seeking gold. This mission follows their exploits of abandoning the falling plane, safely reaching the ground, and coming across a mysterious treasure. The contents of this chest reveal the gold talking skull of the legendary Captain Barbaros who promises the pair his legendary pirate ship as long as Zack and Wiki retrieve all of his missing parts to make him whole again.

The plane! The plane!

Zack & Wiki plays as a point and click puzzle game. You guide Zack by pointing and clicking an area on the game screen, and Zack moves toward it. Each level has a treasure chest usually right out in the open, but there's always one or a series of clever obstacles standing in your way of grabbing your goodies. This is where your brainpower and a little ingenuity comes into play. Zack would be in trouble without his cheeky companion, Wiki, as Wiki can be used as a bell to itemize various enemies. Centipedes can be transformed into saws to cut down trees to create a bridge, snakes can be turned into grabbers to reach keys that would otherwise be unreachable, and frogs can made into bombs-- just a few of the examples that enemies can be morphed into. You won't be getting anywhere with that guard out in the open, so why not itemize a frog, put the bomb down a water chute, and have it explode-- knocking out the guard? Don't worry, the real solution wasn't spoiled. There's a wide array of items for Zack to come across and use, and utilizing them at the right time is the difference between completing a stage or needing to redo it all over again.

Zack will come in contact with many items to assist him.

Now the Wii remote isn't simply used to point Zack around. You'll be utilizing that a lot, too. There's a plethora of various uses for the Wii remote. You'll be pulling the remote towards you and back to saw down trees, you'll be holding the remote upright for it to function it like a lever, and you'll even be playing the remote like a flute in one stage. There's many creative uses for the Wii remote, and while I'd like to say they all work well-- many of them don't. The motion controls are just unresponsive, and it can get quite frustrating waggling the Wii remote around without having any useful output on the screen. Otherwise, using the Wii remote is seldom that large of annoyance, and you won't need precision motion controls at most occasions. The sound and rumble feedback from the controller makes it so sawing logs isn't as boring as watching someone figuratively saw some logs.

Think you know the solution? Think again.

Many stages follow one simple rule: there's one right way to solve the stage, and there's countless others that are just wrong. Sometimes, doing things the wrong way will just have Zack showing a display of dissatisfaction. Other times, you'll be treated with a game over. A lot of the game is trial and error. Don't be surprised if you think you've got the stage figured out only to find out your way isn't the way the game wants you to solve the puzzle. Additionally and especially in later levels, you'll mess up so bad that you won't even be able to advance without starting the stage all over again. Being forced to do a stage all over again won't be a foreign concept to you as you hammer hours into Zack & Wiki.

Then there's the awesome boss battles-- a part of the game I sincerely enjoyed. These range from outsmarting the village chief to aiming mirrors to shoot and reflect a laser into a gigantic snow lion. These battles will put your mental mettle to the test as there's seldom more than one way to tackle a foe.

There's no time to chill out; there's treasure to be had!

There's a wide array of themed locales to plunder from grassy jungles to erupting volcanoes. Completing levels unlocks new, tougher challenges. And you're ranked for every little excursion you have via HirameQ-- a pun on a Japanese term. HirameQ is basically how clever you're being in a level. Zack & Wiki lets you know if you're starting to solve the puzzle the right way by awarding you with HirameQ throughout a level. Itemize the right enemy? You'll probably get 1000/1000 HirameQ for that action. Use that item at the right time? You'll get 3000/3000 HirameQ on atop of the 1000 you've already earned. The level sum of all your HirameQ will give you a rank. Replaying levels to get the highest amount possible will give perfectionists the ability to go hog wild.

Not only are their high HirameQ scores to achieve, but after you've completed the game once, you'll receive cryptic clues as to hidden treasures in the stages you've completed. There's also very cool Capcom treasures to find which can be a pain in the rear to discover on your own, but once you do you'll be able to read up on a quick fact about your favorite classic Capcom stars from Mega Man to Arthur from Ghost 'N Goblins.

While you're not bursting your brain vessels in the game's numerous stages, you can chill at the Sea Rabbits' headquarters where you can check your status and game totals, send a flunky out to search for treasures, or purchase hint tickets and extra lives from an angelic puppet.

Maybe Zack could play for Mario's team?

What I would consider the game's most important treasure is the consistent visual as well as comedic charm that stems from the beginning of the game and goes with you till the very end. There's just so much personality in the characters and in the environments themselves. There's no voice acting, but you will hear grunts and other quick clips. The only downside here is the very annoying "Zaakkuuuuuuuu" cry from Wiki for when you retry a mission or for when Wiki calls Zack early on in the game. The music is fun to listen to, but for some stages that you'll be in for upwards of an hour, it will get repetitive.

Zack & Wiki is the type of niche game that the mainstream gamer will miss out on, and it's unfortunate. That's what happens when you don't market a game. However, for those that do pick up on Zack & Wiki, you will indeed come upon one gaming treasure that many third-parties on Wii can only hope to dig up. There's so much charm here, and so much fun. If you don't find doing over levels all over again and initiating times of trial and error, you'll want to look elsewhere. The rest of us, however, can enjoy this fantastic offering from Capcom. This is one type of booty that I will graciously hit over and over again.

[SuperPhillip Says: 8.0/10]