Tag: wario land

Wario Land: Shake It!

As a consequence of that characteristic, Wario Land: Shake It puts itself in a somewhat tough position. Its quest is undeniably fun; its visuals are unquestionably beautiful; and its smart level design is true to the high quality of the saga. Still, the fact a good deal of its extra content can be the source of some frustration is disappointing because a great portion of the game’s value lies in exploring its levels looking for its treasure chests and trying to achieve perfect runs as a way to clear its challenging missions. Therefore, while to newcomers looking for a solid platformer Wario Land: Shake It is recommended with the caveat that its quest may be a bit too short for those who simply want to go through it, to gamers going after full completion it is a great package as long as they are able to tolerate the frustrating edges that its additional corners can sometimes display. In both cases, though, there is fun and smartness to be found in yet another sidescroller that shows the Nintendo Wii was the perfect home for the reemergence of the genre.

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by Matt

Wario Land 4

With that in mind, those who are not attracted by the measures it uses to generate replay value will most certainly find Wario Land 4 to be excessively on the short side. During the time it lasts, the game is an absolute delight, as its mesmerizing visuals, excellent level design, branching paths filled with secrets, and Wario’s incredible – and occasionally funny – deck of skills keep it all entertaining, creative, and fresh through the entirety of the journey. But it is all so enjoyable and so brief that it is hard not to get to the end without wishing there were a handful of extra levels. Regardless of that issue, the maturity, greatness, and confidence displayed in Wario Land 4 are more than sufficient to prove to anyone who gives it a shot that the series to which it belongs is not merely a platforming detour born out of the Super Mario games, but a saga strong and distinctive enough to stand tall on its own. And even if Wario Land 4 is not its unquestionable peak, it is still a highlight of the Nintendo canon.

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by Matt

Wario Land 3

Simply put, the scope, ambition, content, and wild creativity of Wario Land 3 cannot be denied. Its status as an improvement over its predecessor may be questionable. After all, not only does such an assessment heavily depends on how one perceives the very different gameplay styles they employ, but it is also hard to clearly surpass one of the greatest sidescrollers of all time. Its position as a masterful platformer is, however, forever written in stone, for rarely has a game combined two seemingly heterogeneous genres so finely while remaining true to the essence of both. And although Nintendo has gone on to produce many other handheld systems and games since Wario Land 3, seldom will one come across a portable adventure that is as large, bold, and constantly clever. The title infuses the relatively simple bones of a sidescrolling platformer with the complex meat of a Metroidvania quest, and what comes out of it is an experience that, though not for all, will certainly awe anyone with a love for intricate design and challenge.

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by Matt

Wario Land II

Wario Land II is, therefore, a tremendous success. And with its abundance of quality and originality, there is simply no reason why it should not rank among the best sidescrollers of all time. Its many levels are creative and intricate; its mechanics, inherited from its predecessor, are expanded and polished; its secrets are so numerous they will support at least a dozen hours of gameplay; its visual and musical presentation is still solid; the importance it gives to the collection of coins makes its wide stages be a joy to explore; and the way it organizes its content is so smart and unique it is somewhat shocking it has not been copied frequently. While some games struggle to strike a thread of identity, Wario Land II finds at least a handful of them, and it implements every single one of those quite well. The fact it stands miles apart from all Mario sidescrolling efforts and that it carries an experience that is handheld-exclusive, hence running away from any sort of unfavorable comparison to home-console counterparts, is the cherry on top of it all. For it makes the game stand as an isolated entity; one where players will find an unforgettable treasure trove of gameplay.

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by Matt

Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3

Needless to say, absolutely none of those problems leave a considerable mark on the thick creative coat of Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3. Its release marks not just a moment of discovery, when Nintendo came across a gameplay format that would give birth to its most consistent handheld platforming saga; it is also the point when the Super Mario Land series gained a firm purpose. After all, while the two entries that preceded it felt like lesser products that were, for obvious reasons, having trouble to replicate what was being achieved on consoles; Wario Land drops those pretensions to the floor and proceeds to do its own thing. In a character that is the antithesis to Mario, the company uncovered a sidescrolling quest that was, simultaneously, similar to what the plumber was used to pulling off and also quite different in every way. As it turns out, that is exactly what the Game Boy needed: an adventure that could not be experienced anywhere else but on the small screen, and that only had to live up to the bar set by itself.

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by Matt