E3 2002Wario World impressions

Nintendo showed the latest build of Wario World for the GameCube at its E3 press conference today. The object of the game is to retrieve a set of treasures that have been stolen from Mario's alter ego. Wario will be able to run, jump, and grab nearly every object in the game. He also has the ability to grab enemies and spin around while holding them to take out other enemies, and he can hurl enemies at doors to break them down and open new areas. Scenes were also shown of Wario adhering to white spheres and jumping from one to another. There will also be areas where Wario will be able to use zip lines for travel. Wario's health will again be governed by heart containers, and there will be four different jewels to collect throughout the game.

While the game features polygonal graphics, it often plays from a fixed camera angle that shows a great deal of each level at a time. The texturing shown in the game so far looks fairly basic, and the game doesn't seem to be pushing a great deal of polygons, despite the fact that up to 10 enemies were shown onscreen at a time. Enemies will come up out of the ground, and the early footage we were shown included mummies and crabs with large guns mounted on their shells.

While it's not one of the more visually impressive GameCube games, Wario World looks like it places a priority on interesting gameplay mechanics. Look for our hands-on report on Wario World from the E3 show floor later this week.