According to Tadanori Tsukawaki, the design director of the game, over 2,000 frames were drawn to animate over 200 actions for Wario alone. Over 6,000 frames were drawn for all of the enemy characters, including those that were removed from the final game.

The standard theme for the levels Glittertown and Neon City is a remix of the Greenhorn Ruins' theme from Wario World.

The game's backgrounds and animations were co-designed by Kusanagi Art Studio and Production I.G, the Japanese animation studio most famous for series such as Ghost in the Shell and Psycho-Pass.

Animations for several unused enemies are still present in the game's data. Among these is a wildebeest, which appears to charge at the screen. While the enemy was ultimately cut from the game, its design was reused for the Stuffed Wildebeest treasure.