Yikes!!! Get ready for a devious treasure hunt with the infamous scheming Wario. Capture the shining gold and vast treasures locked deep inside a hidden cave. But, beware of poison ponds, perilous prisons, endless walls and creepy woods! Make a quick change into Sea Dragon Wario, Eagle Wario or Bull Wario and utilize their mighty strengths. Blow away enemy cave defenders with body attacks and power actions. Succeed in this greedy plot to seize the riches of this underground world and find this key to freedom!
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Virtual Boy Complete - Game #19
If you know anything about the Virtual Boy, you know that this is the The One. I played this many years ago and fell head over heels for it. It's no surprise that this is my #1 VB game, I knew it would be going in, no matter how good the other games are, and boy are some of 'em good! This might be hard to talk about because it's so good.
VB Wario Land is very much a direct sequel to Wario Land 1 - all of the Wario Lands have a very different formula from one another, but VB Wario Land just plays it safe, which works well for it, because the original Wario Land is also a very well-designed game, and this improves upon it. The thing that sets these two games apart from the other Wario games is their more conventional Mario structure, with power-ups in blocks, except you're a big burly bully who can destroy things and throw enemies around into one another.
Wario feels the heaviest he's ever been, yet also feels agile enough to freely navigate levels, even without his dash from WL4. This is really what makes the game so great, Wario just feels so good to control - even underwater - and despite the significantly slower pace than later WL games, Wario feels unstoppable if you're good enough at the game, the ground pound especially has a strong weight to it. The power-ups are the same as in WL1, but the jet is rethemed to an eagle, and you can combine the eagle and dragon. The dragon is kinda lame just like in WL1, a flame thrower that isn't terrible practically but isn't as fun as bull or eagle, but just like the jet, the eagle is extremely fun. The enemies are all super fun to plow through, though there are some invulnerable ones, which to me kinda defeats the point. One thing Wario could do in WL1 if memory serves correct, that he cannot do here, is throw enemies upwards. This isn't too big a deal, but it does make some situations a little less fun than they could be.
The levels are quite cleverly designed for Wario to plow through, they hit that classic Mario sweet spot of being direct and linear while also having secrets to find, and have some clever placements (like a particularly hard vertical segment where you can hit a box before going into it that summons an item at the end). The game uses background and foreground layers - as I've said a few times, "because Virtual Boy" - which doesn't add or take much really
This game has an interesting collectable system - there are hearts which give you extra lives, and coins you can collect for different endings, it doesn't change the gameplay much but it's a cool idea. There are similar end-level minigames to WL1 you can spend coins on, but the chance of getting something out of them is pretty low so best to just go past them.
I struggle to think of major flaws with this game, everything I've mentioned so far is a nitpick or minor gripe, but there is one glaring issue: keys. This games falls into the unfortunate trap of "linear levels with a tacked on key collection objective". Think Crash 2 and 3. Yuck yuck yuck. At the very least, they keys do actually gate you from completing the level, so you don't have to restart should you forget a key.
If you know anything about the Virtual Boy, you know that this is the The One. I played this many years ago and fell head over heels for it. It's no surprise that this is my #1 VB game, I knew it would be going in, no matter how good the other games are, and boy are some of 'em good! This might be hard to talk about because it's so good.
VB Wario Land is very much a direct sequel to Wario Land 1 - all of the Wario Lands have a very different formula from one another, but VB Wario Land just plays it safe, which works well for it, because the original Wario Land is also a very well-designed game, and this improves upon it. The thing that sets these two games apart from the other Wario games is their more conventional Mario structure, with power-ups in blocks, except you're a big burly bully who can destroy things and throw enemies around into one another.
Wario feels the heaviest he's ever been, yet also feels agile enough to freely navigate levels, even without his dash from WL4. This is really what makes the game so great, Wario just feels so good to control - even underwater - and despite the significantly slower pace than later WL games, Wario feels unstoppable if you're good enough at the game, the ground pound especially has a strong weight to it. The power-ups are the same as in WL1, but the jet is rethemed to an eagle, and you can combine the eagle and dragon. The dragon is kinda lame just like in WL1, a flame thrower that isn't terrible practically but isn't as fun as bull or eagle, but just like the jet, the eagle is extremely fun. The enemies are all super fun to plow through, though there are some invulnerable ones, which to me kinda defeats the point. One thing Wario could do in WL1 if memory serves correct, that he cannot do here, is throw enemies upwards. This isn't too big a deal, but it does make some situations a little less fun than they could be.
The levels are quite cleverly designed for Wario to plow through, they hit that classic Mario sweet spot of being direct and linear while also having secrets to find, and have some clever placements (like a particularly hard vertical segment where you can hit a box before going into it that summons an item at the end). The game uses background and foreground layers - as I've said a few times, "because Virtual Boy" - which doesn't add or take much really
This game has an interesting collectable system - there are hearts which give you extra lives, and coins you can collect for different endings, it doesn't change the gameplay much but it's a cool idea. There are similar end-level minigames to WL1 you can spend coins on, but the chance of getting something out of them is pretty low so best to just go past them.
I struggle to think of major flaws with this game, everything I've mentioned so far is a nitpick or minor gripe, but there is one glaring issue: keys. This games falls into the unfortunate trap of "linear levels with a tacked on key collection objective". Think Crash 2 and 3. Yuck yuck yuck. At the very least, they keys do actually gate you from completing the level, so you don't have to restart should you forget a key.
This game rocked. The true sequel to Wario land 1 i've always wanted! A little short, but can't complain too much. It was all just so solid.
This game is kinda BASED actually??
Let me start off by saying I actually really like the red and black Virtual Boy look. Sure it can be grating when staring at it a long time, but I think it’s a cool look.
This is my second Wario Land game, and honestly, I enjoyed it a lot. More than the first one even! Something fun about having to make your way back to the top floor of the Awazon cave. Perfect middle ground of not too hard and not too easy. I loved that each floor of the cave was a different theme and it wasn’t just “cave level” for each one. Great designs for the bosses.
It was just a fun, pleasant time. Loved it!
Let me start off by saying I actually really like the red and black Virtual Boy look. Sure it can be grating when staring at it a long time, but I think it’s a cool look.
This is my second Wario Land game, and honestly, I enjoyed it a lot. More than the first one even! Something fun about having to make your way back to the top floor of the Awazon cave. Perfect middle ground of not too hard and not too easy. I loved that each floor of the cave was a different theme and it wasn’t just “cave level” for each one. Great designs for the bosses.
It was just a fun, pleasant time. Loved it!
I was surprised how good this was, despite it being released on a relatively hated system (luckily the emulator I was using allowed you to play it in black and white instead of the eye-bleeding red and black). I really loved how this game uses the Virtual Boy's gimmick to actually add to the game without it feeling tacked on. The game is a bit short, but damn it was a lot of fun!
Downloaded onto my modded Wii in order to test the WiiMednafen emulator, and played for a little while. When it comes time to play through the entire Wario Land series, I will return to this game.
Someone else wanted to use the television I use for Yakuza, so I took the down time, instead of doing something productive, to finish the Virtual Boy game I bought special. It's not too long, especially compared to Wario Land on Gameboy, as it took me 2.5 hours with a fair bit of faffing around looking for secrets.
It's Wario Land! It's great, of course! An action game all about finding treasure, punching baddies, and looking for secrets to get more treasure! The controls take a little getting used to, as Wario walks by default and runs when you hold a shoulder button, but other than that it's standard Wario. Another odd difference is that pressing B doesn't make you punch-dash. Instead, it makes you enter a kind of punch-mode, and then by pressing right or left you will initiate a punch-dash in that direction. Again, not bad, just different.
The level design in this one is a little strange, almost like they expect you to lose really, in a kind of Dead Rising-style (although I never ran out of lives to confirm this). The game has several stages, but no stage select. Instead, the game is essentially one looooong stage, where you can actually run back to the elevator at the beginning of a stage if for some reason you want to go back to a previous one: You just gotta run all the way back to it. Useful if you wanna run back for treasure you missed (and you're gonna want all of the special treasures (like they have in the Game Boy game) if you want the best ending!). There's also the Virtual Boy 3D-gimmick of this game, where you can hop into the background of a stage for more stage but with the same paralax scrolling.
Verdict: Very Recommended. It's Wario Land, so of course it's great. The only real fault I can say is the old problem that IT'S ON VIRTUAL BOY. If it were on anything else, it'd be an absolute classic, but just getting a Virtual Boy and then using it for any period of time are just both such awful pains that it's still a fairly serious complain XP
It's Wario Land! It's great, of course! An action game all about finding treasure, punching baddies, and looking for secrets to get more treasure! The controls take a little getting used to, as Wario walks by default and runs when you hold a shoulder button, but other than that it's standard Wario. Another odd difference is that pressing B doesn't make you punch-dash. Instead, it makes you enter a kind of punch-mode, and then by pressing right or left you will initiate a punch-dash in that direction. Again, not bad, just different.
The level design in this one is a little strange, almost like they expect you to lose really, in a kind of Dead Rising-style (although I never ran out of lives to confirm this). The game has several stages, but no stage select. Instead, the game is essentially one looooong stage, where you can actually run back to the elevator at the beginning of a stage if for some reason you want to go back to a previous one: You just gotta run all the way back to it. Useful if you wanna run back for treasure you missed (and you're gonna want all of the special treasures (like they have in the Game Boy game) if you want the best ending!). There's also the Virtual Boy 3D-gimmick of this game, where you can hop into the background of a stage for more stage but with the same paralax scrolling.
Verdict: Very Recommended. It's Wario Land, so of course it's great. The only real fault I can say is the old problem that IT'S ON VIRTUAL BOY. If it were on anything else, it'd be an absolute classic, but just getting a Virtual Boy and then using it for any period of time are just both such awful pains that it's still a fairly serious complain XP