Change of heart

Wario first appeared in Super Mario Land 2 on the original Game Boy as the villain who stole Mario's castle. I didn't like Wario at first. I thought that he was a cheap attempt to give Mario yet another reason to save the princess, or whatever. Since his debut, Wario has had five of his own starring roles on the Game Boy and GBA. Four of those games were Wario Lands, and the latest is the absolutely insane Wario Ware Inc., Mega Microgame$. Wario has also appeared in other Mario games such as Mario Kart and Mario Party.

All of Wario's major outings were limited to the Game Boy, that is, until the release of Wario World for GameCube -- the game that changed my perception of Wario. I now think that Wario is the best original Nintendo character in years. Even though he's really just an evil twin version of Mario, this fat bastard oozes far more personality than the original plumber brother.

Truth to be told, I didn't have much interest in Wario World when I first heard about it. It looked like just another platformer, coupled with the fact that it was with a character that I then was not too interested in. What did piqued my interest in this game was when the developer behind Wario World was revealed: Treasure.

Treasure? Yes, Treasure!

Treasure's history stretches back to the mid-to-late eighties. There wasn't a Treasure back then, but there was a Konami. Many of the designers at Treasure started off with making classic Konami games such as the Contra, Super C, Castlevania, Castlevania IV, Contra III: Alien Wars, and Axelay. Then Treasure was formed and created amazing games such as Gunstar Heroes, Dynamite Headdy, Guardian Heroes, Radiant Silvergun, Silhouette Mirage, Bangai-O, and Ikaruga.

Clearly, those guys at Treasure know how to make a great action game -- especially if it's a shooter. So just exactly what were they doing messing around with an action/adventure/platform game starring one of Nintendo's characters? That's what we wanted to know; and today we will find out how they did.