May 21, 2002 - The surprise GameCube title Wario World looks to live up to the standards set by the Gameboy franchise. Wario's leap to 3D was carried out exceptionally well, definitely maintaining the look and feel of a Wario game. From the brief footage, the game looks to be a platformer with plenty of treasure collecting.

The graphics are very pretty and Wario's model is round and detailed. Great lighting and shadows interact well with the backgrounds and the onscreen characters while being highlighted by nice particle and smoke effects. There's also some new, inventive ways to use both the environment and actual enemies to defeat foes. Wario can be seen grabbing stone columns and balls to throw and also wildly swinging mummies around by their feet. The transitions between outdoor settings and indoor environments is smooth and fast.

While there were no enemy based Wario transformations shown on the video, it's hard to think that Nintendo would leave that feature out of the new game. Look for more news on this title as the week progresses.