Wario World

The game received mixed reception from critics, who praised the game's gameplay while criticizing its short length. It was a commercial success, selling over 142,000 copies in Japan and over 256,000 copies in the United States. In 2004, it was re-released as a Player's Choice title, and on the Nintendo Switch 2 via the Nintendo Classics service in December 2025.

• Developer — Treasure • Publisher — Nintendo • Series — Wario • Platforms — GameCube • Genre — Platform, beat 'em up • Modes — Single-player • Director — Kouichi Kimura Hitoshi Yamagami • Producer — Takehiro Izushi Masato Maegawa • Programmer — Yoshiyuki Matsumoto Kanta Watanabe Yuji Yamanaka Tahei Katagai Yusuke Asai • Composer — Norio Hanzawa Minako Hamano

• Illustration — Wario about to throw an enemy at a group of foes. He can also spin the enemy around him or piledrive them. Wario World is a 3D platformer with an emphasis on exaggerated combat. The player, controlling Wario, attempts to reclaim his treasure trove and newly built castle from an evil sentient gem named Black Jewel. To accomplish this, Wario traverses linear levels containing enemies and obstacles alongside collectibles, such as Spritelings, and coins which can be collected to help further progression. Each level also holds trapdoors which, when found, lead to either a platforming or puzzle-oriented challenge. These challenges help in obtaining more treasures, a type of collectible that when all obtained unlock minigames from the Game Boy Advance title WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgames! which can be played by using the GameCube – Game Boy Advance link cable. Wario can attack enemies in a variety of ways. Alongside basic punches, Wario can grab enemies and either spin them around, throw them, or piledrive them into the ground. Wario can also grab certain items from the environment, allowing him to deal more damage and have a wider range in his attacks. If Wario is hit by an enemy, he loses a heart from his health bar. When all of Wario's hearts are depleted the player loses coins; when all coins are lost the game is over. Wario can obtain more hearts by collecting pieces of golden statues resembling himself.

The game begins with Wario enjoying his newly built castle, which is filled with treasures that he has collected from earlier adventures. An evil, sentient gem called Black Jewel, hidden amongst Wario's treasure collection, suddenly awakens and takes over the castle. Black Jewel turns Wario's treasure into monsters, and transforms the castle into four worlds. Wario proceeds through the worlds controlled by Black Jewel, recovering his treasure and rescuing Spritelings (the creatures that had sealed Black Jewel away in the past), then engages Black Jewel in a battle to destroy it. Wario's subsequent victory allows him to regain control of his castle.

Wario World was shown at E3 2002 as a technical demo. At the next E3 in 2003, it was shown with levels of gameplay polish and tweaking, which the previous E3 demo was lacking. On August 22, 2002, at Nintendo's Gamer's Summit, Wario Worlds North American release date was set to November 11, 2002. The game's release date was pushed back to May 26, 2003, but was further delayed again by one month until June 23, 2003. The game was released in Europe on June 20, in Australia on July 10, and in Japan the following year on May 27, 2004. It was uncertain who was developing Wario World, until April 22, 2003, when Nintendo of America revealed that Treasure was developing the game. After the successful development collaboration Treasure and Nintendo shared with the Nintendo 64 title, Sin and Punishment, the two companies wanted to work together again. The R&D1 team wanted to continue their co-development juncture with a 3D installment of the Wario franchise. Wario Worlds music was composed by Norio Hanzawa and Minako Hamano. Wario was voiced by Charles Martinet, who also voices Mario and Luigi in the Mario series.