Review / Description: Wario has finally got his very own GameCube game, and Wario World, with its crazy beat-'em-up platform action, is just as manic as you'd expect. Seeing as he's thoroughly immoral, Wario isn't out to save the world or anything but to defeat the evil black jewel that has turned all his other treasure into monsters. He achieves this by running and jumping through a series of bizarrely themed levels, knocking seven bells out of any monster that comes his way. Although it does feature a number of Mario-esque platform elements (most notably a series of dungeon areas that work very much like the void levels from Super Mario Sunshine) Wario World is primarily a scrolling beat-'em-up. As with most such games Wario hasn't got many moves, though he's able to pick up bad guys and pieces of furniture and spin and throw them about in a very pleasing manner. Shallow as it may be Wario World is still entertaining, as you fight ever stranger looking enemies--the weird looking clowns in level two are particularly disturbing--and a particularly fine line in end-of-level bosses (not surprising considering the game has been developed by cult Japanese software company Treasure). But despite all that this is clearly not vintage Nintendo, being far too short and slight to be spoken of in the same breath as Mario and Zelda. --David Jenkins