One of if not the best games on the GameBoy. Short but sweet slow-paced platform with big, attractive sprites, fun power-ups, and a catchy soundtrack.
Such a good twist of Mario's classic formula, and a great start for one of Nintendo's most defining series.
I have beaten this game several times before but recently revisited this cartridge on my Analogue Pocket. I had forgotten how awesome this game was and the amount of polish that went into making it. It’s a leap above Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins in terms of graphics, music, and controls. Hunting down treasures and defeating a whole new set of baddies is a great time. There are a few spots in the later levels that could be considered “cheap” but overall these 40 levels pack a punch and should not be missed!
I like this goof and glad he got his own series. This game is a solid start of it - pretty short and easy, yet fun platformer. Loved the multiple endings.
(DISCLAIMER: the Mario & Luigi games will be put on hold for now due to my 2DS breaking. I'm hoping to get a new one in a couple months)
You guys remember Wario Land? Incredible, incredible! Unlike a stupid poopy game like New Super Mario Bros 2, Wario Land actually INSENTIVIEZES you to collect as many coins as possible, and it's really fun to do so. I love controlling this knuckledragging bozo so much, Wario is a really fun character to play as and I wish the Wario Land series would come back. As far as GameBoy Mario platformers go, I think I still prefer Super Mario Land 2, since I feel that one is a more streamlined and fun experience, but this one is still pretty damn good. I heard this series only gets better as the games go on so I'm pretty excited to try them out! ^^
You guys remember Wario Land? Incredible, incredible! Unlike a stupid poopy game like New Super Mario Bros 2, Wario Land actually INSENTIVIEZES you to collect as many coins as possible, and it's really fun to do so. I love controlling this knuckledragging bozo so much, Wario is a really fun character to play as and I wish the Wario Land series would come back. As far as GameBoy Mario platformers go, I think I still prefer Super Mario Land 2, since I feel that one is a more streamlined and fun experience, but this one is still pretty damn good. I heard this series only gets better as the games go on so I'm pretty excited to try them out! ^^
The best of the trilogy, they made the right choice ditching the mario land association
it's my first time playing a gameboy game and i can't say for sure why but i had way too many fun. something about the slow pace and especially the slow movement when jumping pleased me a lot. gameplay seemed extremely tight, the level design was creative and some boss fights were challenging and exciting (screw that final boss) although the power ups were not diverse at all. the monochromatic graphics bring a lovely charm and the soundtrack has a way more grime vibe than in mario games. it was very worth playing, i had a lot more fun than playing any other 2d mario.
Obviously still heavily indebted to the Mario series—it hasn't quite developed the personality of gameplay distinctionst hat would set apart Wario Land starting with 2—nonetheless a promising debut. Beautiful sprite work, great music, even if it's just a basic riff on Mario, it's one full of personality. A fun diversion.
Legendary
Peguei todas as tesouros do jogo. Ótimo jogo para início de franquia!
Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 or just Wario Land, stars our thick yellow plumber, Wario. Unlike Mario, Wario cannot run in this game with the "B" button. Instead, he smashes through enemies and blocks with the appropriate power-up, scorches enemies with fire like a dragon, glide through the air, and butt stomps while pressing down on the D-pad. Wario can even grab enemies and throw them.
Wario's power-ups are neat (not so much the dragon one), but I do not like how slow he is. As Small Wario, you are going to wait a while; I think a snail is faster than him in his small form. I constantly find myself dashing to go faster. It is like the backwards dash in Symphony of the Night or side stepping in Ocarina of Time.
The rest of the game is good. My Mario muscle memory messed me at first when I did not get an extra life from getting 100 coins, but I got used to the heart system quickly. 100 hearts equals an extra life. The coins are needed to exit a stage and you are giving plenty of them throughout the levels. It is only 10 coins to exit the stage, so do not worry.
The bosses are standard. Not particularly easy or hard. That ghost boss did give me some trouble at first.
For Wario's first game as a playable character, Wario Land is a good first entry.
Wario's power-ups are neat (not so much the dragon one), but I do not like how slow he is. As Small Wario, you are going to wait a while; I think a snail is faster than him in his small form. I constantly find myself dashing to go faster. It is like the backwards dash in Symphony of the Night or side stepping in Ocarina of Time.
The rest of the game is good. My Mario muscle memory messed me at first when I did not get an extra life from getting 100 coins, but I got used to the heart system quickly. 100 hearts equals an extra life. The coins are needed to exit a stage and you are giving plenty of them throughout the levels. It is only 10 coins to exit the stage, so do not worry.
The bosses are standard. Not particularly easy or hard. That ghost boss did give me some trouble at first.
For Wario's first game as a playable character, Wario Land is a good first entry.
It's funny that they felt the need to put a number on this and insert it into the MARIO LAND continuity. A reminder that there was a time when that weird little pervert Wario couldn't sell a game on his own!
It is somewhat fitting, though, because this kind of feels like a weird romhack of 6 GOLDEN COINS. They took that game, made it even slower, made the characters even bigger, and made the gameplay more focused on physical combat and a bunch of powerups that kind of all do the same thing. I found it playable, but dull, clunky and way too long. They certainly succeeded in making Wario seem very distinct from Mario in how he plays, but for me, at least, not for the better.
It's fun to learn that the variable how-big-is-your-mansion endings from LUIGI'S MANSION are kind of a callback to this, of all things. Or do they do this thing in every Wario game?
It is somewhat fitting, though, because this kind of feels like a weird romhack of 6 GOLDEN COINS. They took that game, made it even slower, made the characters even bigger, and made the gameplay more focused on physical combat and a bunch of powerups that kind of all do the same thing. I found it playable, but dull, clunky and way too long. They certainly succeeded in making Wario seem very distinct from Mario in how he plays, but for me, at least, not for the better.
It's fun to learn that the variable how-big-is-your-mansion endings from LUIGI'S MANSION are kind of a callback to this, of all things. Or do they do this thing in every Wario game?
This was one of my favorite games growing up. Super fun.
What a fantastic Game Boy game. I wish I had had the chance to play this when I was young. Excellent level design, great exploration with levels that change after the first time you complete them. Treasures never felt unfair to collect, and grinding coins was not a chore. The power-ups were fun to use, albeit limited in scope. Bosses could be frustrating, but nothing unfair. Definitely makes me excited to play the rest of the series.
For a mid-life Game Boy game, this is pretty impressively robust. The dynamic levels that develop over the course of the game and the secret world are both pretty neat things, even if they are pretty simple. This also sits as a neat midpoint between Super Mario Land 2's "Mario World-lite" design versus Wario Land 2's very unique design; you can feel Wario starting to figure itself out as a series with its slower, more puzzle-like and combat-oriented gameplay.
I don't think this game could ever really win me over in full. What's here is solid, but it doesn't feel uniquely itself the way Wario does starting with WL2, nor is it a neat technical showcase that makes the most of its console the way Virtual Boy Wario Land does. This game is just itself. Nothing bad.
I don't think this game could ever really win me over in full. What's here is solid, but it doesn't feel uniquely itself the way Wario does starting with WL2, nor is it a neat technical showcase that makes the most of its console the way Virtual Boy Wario Land does. This game is just itself. Nothing bad.
Who the fuck wanted a Wario game back in 1994? That's my immediate question. Granted, this choice would eventually pay off as Wario became a beloved character in our dollar sign-shaped hearts, alongside some great games coming out in his future (Wario Land 4, Wario World, the WarioWare series...). So my point isn't to disparage Wario's popularity. I'm just incredulous that back when Wario wasn't the known figure he is now, this dev team was given permission to make a Mario game in which Mario is barely existent, in his place being this newcoming greedy goblin creature, and it WORKED. It got him several sequels and two seperate franchises, it worked like a fucking charm, and though I'm happy it happened, it boggles the mind how it did.
With all that said, I feel like the first Wario Land is... an acquired taste. The music, being just one example of that. The controls, being a bigger one. You kinda move into this game expecting Wario to have the same amount of fluidity as Mario Land 2 did, and that's just simply not the case. This is a heavier, stiffer character, and it took me at least half the game to adjust to it. Once you figure out that holding up makes you jump further though, you start abusing that as your main form of movement, and I think that's when things really start clicking.
I still like the nostalgicness of the world map found here, and I appreciate that secret exits may directly alter the world map itself, which in turn may also alter the levels found inside them. I believe the later Wario Lands would make even further extensive use of this idea, while here, it's a neat prototype for what could be done later.
The name of the game is collecting as many coins as you can. It's a similar principle to Luigi's Mansion, the more coins you amass, the better a house you get for your ending. Alternatively, you can spend these coins to earn 1-ups, activate checkpoints, or gamble all those shits away on a double-or-nothing minigame, and let the world watch your face droop in real-time as you once again lose every coin you've amassed over the course of a stage.
That last option isn't exactly fun when it happens, and that minigame is the only real way to get some of those better endings. But, seeing as the endings serve about 5 seconds worth of difference between each one, I think it'd be in your best interest to just completely ignore this aspect of the game, and use the coins on 1-ups instead. The whole gambling thing is stressful, punishing, and completely based on luck. It's not worth the hassle, certainly not worth a waste of your hard-earned coins. Unless you save state your way through it, you dirty scamp you.
Anyway, while I consider this as a good handheld title for its time, is Mario Land 3 worth your time now? Once. Just once. It doesn't feel right to play, but is possible to adjust yourself to, and what you get with that is some pretty alright level design, and a respectable amount of variety that'll carry you through. If you don't care about chronology however, most people will tell you to start with Wario Land 4, and they'd be right. The first Wario Land here, still has some kinks it needs to desperately iron out.
With all that said, I feel like the first Wario Land is... an acquired taste. The music, being just one example of that. The controls, being a bigger one. You kinda move into this game expecting Wario to have the same amount of fluidity as Mario Land 2 did, and that's just simply not the case. This is a heavier, stiffer character, and it took me at least half the game to adjust to it. Once you figure out that holding up makes you jump further though, you start abusing that as your main form of movement, and I think that's when things really start clicking.
I still like the nostalgicness of the world map found here, and I appreciate that secret exits may directly alter the world map itself, which in turn may also alter the levels found inside them. I believe the later Wario Lands would make even further extensive use of this idea, while here, it's a neat prototype for what could be done later.
The name of the game is collecting as many coins as you can. It's a similar principle to Luigi's Mansion, the more coins you amass, the better a house you get for your ending. Alternatively, you can spend these coins to earn 1-ups, activate checkpoints, or gamble all those shits away on a double-or-nothing minigame, and let the world watch your face droop in real-time as you once again lose every coin you've amassed over the course of a stage.
That last option isn't exactly fun when it happens, and that minigame is the only real way to get some of those better endings. But, seeing as the endings serve about 5 seconds worth of difference between each one, I think it'd be in your best interest to just completely ignore this aspect of the game, and use the coins on 1-ups instead. The whole gambling thing is stressful, punishing, and completely based on luck. It's not worth the hassle, certainly not worth a waste of your hard-earned coins. Unless you save state your way through it, you dirty scamp you.
Anyway, while I consider this as a good handheld title for its time, is Mario Land 3 worth your time now? Once. Just once. It doesn't feel right to play, but is possible to adjust yourself to, and what you get with that is some pretty alright level design, and a respectable amount of variety that'll carry you through. If you don't care about chronology however, most people will tell you to start with Wario Land 4, and they'd be right. The first Wario Land here, still has some kinks it needs to desperately iron out.
Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 is the thinking man's Mario. One of the better platformers I've played on the Gameboy due to the deliberately slow movement with more of a focus on discovery than getting to the end of the level. The game has some crusty controls but great level design and an implementation of RNG in certain areas that ties the theme of 'a game about Wario' impressively well into its mechanics. This game really makes you feel like a Wario - misgivings, crust, and all.
Wario Land 1 is a good collectathon, although quite short and easy. The game is a lot of fun, and it's great that they decided to create a whole series of platform games with Wario.
Yeah! First Wario platformer!
I liked the power-up system where each power-up has it's pro's and cons. I think it's a good system. Although it's kinda off-putting if you get hit once, you go back to small Wario even you have a special power-up.
Levels were fun, although some levels felt uninspired with it's enemy placements.
I like you have secrets in this game, going to speedrun this game doesn't give you the full game. Also there's secret treasures which if i hadn't completed the game i might have tried to collect them all.
Compared to Mario, some collisions have different consequences like you don't go little if you bump into an enemy. If it has a weapon, it will. Also throwing or jumping from below the enemy doesn't make you hurt as well.
I also liked that the credits scene reflects how much treasure you've collected like in Wario Land 4.
So yeah, you like Wario Land games? You can't go wrong with this one.
I liked the power-up system where each power-up has it's pro's and cons. I think it's a good system. Although it's kinda off-putting if you get hit once, you go back to small Wario even you have a special power-up.
Levels were fun, although some levels felt uninspired with it's enemy placements.
I like you have secrets in this game, going to speedrun this game doesn't give you the full game. Also there's secret treasures which if i hadn't completed the game i might have tried to collect them all.
Compared to Mario, some collisions have different consequences like you don't go little if you bump into an enemy. If it has a weapon, it will. Also throwing or jumping from below the enemy doesn't make you hurt as well.
I also liked that the credits scene reflects how much treasure you've collected like in Wario Land 4.
So yeah, you like Wario Land games? You can't go wrong with this one.
solid little platformer, not much else to say about it other than that i had fun with it
(This is the 90th game in my challenge to go through many known games in chronological order starting in 1990. The spreadsheet/blog is in my bio.)
Mario felt so bad after kicking Wario's butt in Super Mario Land 2 that he decided to gift him his Game Boy series. So in his first adventure as the protagonist, Wario figures out a path to obtaining enough money to buy a castle for himself in Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3, which initially released on January 21st, 1994 as a first-party Nintendo title exclusively for the Game Boy.
It went on to sell over 5 million units to date and released to mostly positive reviews at the time. Wario would go on to start in plenty more games after this, including Wario Land 2 to 4, as well as Wario World and Wario Land: Shake It! among others. Wario was still a very new Nintendo creation at the time of this game's release, having debuted just a little over a year prior to this as the final boss of Super Mario Land 2. All players knew about him at the time was that he was a bad guy who stole Mario's appearance and castle (he would be called the "wicked imposter" in commercials for that game), and with the release of this game, the manual would go on to describe him as "mean and ugly". You would also quickly come to understand that Wario is quite a greedy individual. You'd think that doesn't sound like the ideal protagonist, but 1) the sales numbers tell a different story and 2) I can appreciate a unique personality for a protagonist in the video game medium, where "Protagonist saves the world" stories are all you have at this point in time.
STORYTELLING/CHARACTERS | 3/10
Wario lost his chance at his own castle when Mario took his own castle back from the thieving hands of Wario. Wario remains steadfast in his desire to find his own castle howevere, and one day, he hears of a rumor that the giant golden statue of Princess Peach got stolen by the pirates of Kitchen Island. "Mario is looking for it but, if I find it first, I could cash it in for a princess' ransom." Wario is looking to get enough money to buy a castle that is even bigger than the one Mario has.
This little summary of what you find in the manual is pretty much all you get here, apart from the endings, which I think add a lot here. Depending on how many coins you collect through your playthrough, you can get one of five different endings in this game. The thresholds are not known to me, but if you don't reach the first threshold, a cutscene plays where Wario hands a genie one bag of coins and gets ... a tiny birdhouse. Wario looks to the floor in disappointment and as a player, you can't help but feel sorry for him. Get more coins and you can get Wario a ... treehouse, which he also doesn't like. Keep going and you can finally get him his castle at one point. Reach the 99,999 limit of coins and a surprising gift awaits Wario. I thought these were well done and add nice incentive to do well during your playthrough.
GAMEPLAY | 9/20
Wario Land plays like the uglier version of Mario Land, which fits the two characters and therefore, if this was intended, should be seen as a compliment. In reality though, I just couldn't enjoy my time playing this game as much as I would have liked.
The game is functional and overall well made, as is typical for a first-party Nintendo title. The end product does not equate fun to me however. Similarly to many Mario adventures, you see Wario on an overworld and start in World #1 Stage #1. With each stage or 'course' that you beat, you get closer to the boss stage. Beat the boss, and the next world opens up.
Each world is themed differently and each course has its own challenges for the player to overcome through platforming. You have to watch out for enemies, spikes, gravity and something that looks like water but actually isn't and will kill you.
What makes or breaks platformers though is how you engage with these challenges, and in that regard, I think Wario Land falls short in what makes a platformer enjoyable to me. First off, Wario Land's gameplay is really slow and repetitive. Through the first two worlds, most of what I experienced felt pretty much the same, looked mostly the same and played exactly the same. Few enemy types (there are a total of 10 in this game with little variety), low difficulty (apart from many cheap deaths like the aforementioned "water" and jumps having to be a lot more precise than one can comfortably do) and bland power-up choices.
Wario can have a normal size and a shrunk-down version of himself just like Mario. When he is at his normal size, finding a "pot" allows him to become Jet Wario (which lets him fly for a short period of time), Bull Wario (attach Wario to the ceiling with the horns) and Dragon Wario (fire breathing skill). Wario has no speed to speak of and the challenges are just way too one-dimensional to ever really get a fun gameplay loop going in this game.
As far as items to collect go, there are only three. A star like in the Mario games, which I found just once. Hearts, which you find regularly and which give you 10 points to your heart counter (when you get 100, you get 1 extra life) and a key, which you are meant to carry while you search for a treasure room, which you need to find to get better (and the best) endings.
It's all competently made but it just plays like one of the less inspired Nintendo games of its time.
MUSIC/SOUND/VOICE | 3/10
No voice acting. For sounds and the soundtrack, I've played plenty of Game Boy games by now and I understand its limited sound capabilities. That said, Wario Land is one of the worst sounding games I've played during this challenge and has among the worst soundtracks of games I have played that were professionally made. I assume it's supposed to be a somewhat uglier soundtrack to tell us that we're playing a Wario game, not a Mario game, but man, I feel the need to apologize to my ears for having exposed them to this. None of the tracks I heard in this game ever felt like they had any cohesion in their composition and just sounded like an odd mix of horrible sounds. Usually when I play these monotonous platformers, I have the soundtrack to lean back on and to at least bop my heads to some of the tracks. Here, I wouldn't even know when to bop because way too often there is seemingly no rhythm in these tracks. If this is supposed to be intentional and there truly is that hidden meaning of "Wario is just an uglier version of Mario, so the soundtrack is supposed to show that", than that's fine, but doesn't make the soundtrack less bad sounding.
GRAPHICS/ART DESIGN | 5/10
The limitations of the Game Boy are excusable to a point, but we are closing in on the 32 bit gen of video games and from the perspective of anyone not tied down to a handheld system, the games on the Game Boy look pretty bad for the most part. What devs can mainly do visually is to be creative in their visual design of levels and keeping things varied. While Wario Land has some of that variety I'm talking about, it doesn't have a lot of it and whenever things visually do look somewhat different, the gameplay still feels the same. Sprites are also really big here, so they cover for more of the screen than I'd personally like. It negatively impacted gameplay as well, especially during sections with spikes at the ceiling.
ATMOSPHERE/IMMERSION | 5/10
The game kind of does a good job of presenting us with the 'uglier' version of Mario, as they described Wario at the time, by making a lot about the game ugly as well. Whether it's by design at times and not by design at others, whether the atmosphere the game presents is on purpose or isn't, it's just not something I would consider very pleasant in how it is presented.
CONTENT | 5/10
There are seven worlds with multiple courses each. After each course, you can gamble your money to try to double it or play a mini game to try to get an extra life. There are also 4 treasures you need to find to have a chance at the best ending. Overall, this game is on the longer side of platformers, but I feel like this is one of the few Nintendo first-party platformers that really shouldn't be anywhere near this long. A similar length to Kirby's Dream Land due to the lack of features would have suited this better.
LEVEL/MISSION DESIGN | 5/10
The length of most levels here is OK, however most of them lack fair and interesting challenge. While the game is generally too easy, whenever it does get difficult, it's more often than not because of the poor controls and big sprites that you have to combat than actually having to show off the skills you've learned while playing this game. That said, when you pass some worlds and come back to them, new areas open up, so there is some reason for players to explore and experiment in this game.
CONCEPT/INNOVATION | 3/10
This is, at its best, a platformer like you've seen hundreds of times already by the time this game was released. At its worst and, mostly at its normal state, it's the worse version of those platformers due to a lack of variation and slow gameplay.
REPLAYABILITY | 3/5
The endings add replay value to those who enjoy the game's gameplay, especially the best ending, which will require you to find and open all treasure chests.
PLAYABILITY | 5/5
Works well at all times.
OVERALL | 46/100
A good example of a competently made game that just isn't a lot of fun to play, even though it works as intended. Clearly, a lot of people disagree with me based on its sales numbers at the time and its score on a site like MobyGames, but I can't pretend to have enjoyed the very limited offering here just to go with the majority's opinion, at least critically at the time. On top of that, the game was not nice to listen to either, a rare occurence within gaming I feel, at least among known games.
Mario felt so bad after kicking Wario's butt in Super Mario Land 2 that he decided to gift him his Game Boy series. So in his first adventure as the protagonist, Wario figures out a path to obtaining enough money to buy a castle for himself in Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3, which initially released on January 21st, 1994 as a first-party Nintendo title exclusively for the Game Boy.
It went on to sell over 5 million units to date and released to mostly positive reviews at the time. Wario would go on to start in plenty more games after this, including Wario Land 2 to 4, as well as Wario World and Wario Land: Shake It! among others. Wario was still a very new Nintendo creation at the time of this game's release, having debuted just a little over a year prior to this as the final boss of Super Mario Land 2. All players knew about him at the time was that he was a bad guy who stole Mario's appearance and castle (he would be called the "wicked imposter" in commercials for that game), and with the release of this game, the manual would go on to describe him as "mean and ugly". You would also quickly come to understand that Wario is quite a greedy individual. You'd think that doesn't sound like the ideal protagonist, but 1) the sales numbers tell a different story and 2) I can appreciate a unique personality for a protagonist in the video game medium, where "Protagonist saves the world" stories are all you have at this point in time.
STORYTELLING/CHARACTERS | 3/10
Wario lost his chance at his own castle when Mario took his own castle back from the thieving hands of Wario. Wario remains steadfast in his desire to find his own castle howevere, and one day, he hears of a rumor that the giant golden statue of Princess Peach got stolen by the pirates of Kitchen Island. "Mario is looking for it but, if I find it first, I could cash it in for a princess' ransom." Wario is looking to get enough money to buy a castle that is even bigger than the one Mario has.
This little summary of what you find in the manual is pretty much all you get here, apart from the endings, which I think add a lot here. Depending on how many coins you collect through your playthrough, you can get one of five different endings in this game. The thresholds are not known to me, but if you don't reach the first threshold, a cutscene plays where Wario hands a genie one bag of coins and gets ... a tiny birdhouse. Wario looks to the floor in disappointment and as a player, you can't help but feel sorry for him. Get more coins and you can get Wario a ... treehouse, which he also doesn't like. Keep going and you can finally get him his castle at one point. Reach the 99,999 limit of coins and a surprising gift awaits Wario. I thought these were well done and add nice incentive to do well during your playthrough.
GAMEPLAY | 9/20
Wario Land plays like the uglier version of Mario Land, which fits the two characters and therefore, if this was intended, should be seen as a compliment. In reality though, I just couldn't enjoy my time playing this game as much as I would have liked.
The game is functional and overall well made, as is typical for a first-party Nintendo title. The end product does not equate fun to me however. Similarly to many Mario adventures, you see Wario on an overworld and start in World #1 Stage #1. With each stage or 'course' that you beat, you get closer to the boss stage. Beat the boss, and the next world opens up.
Each world is themed differently and each course has its own challenges for the player to overcome through platforming. You have to watch out for enemies, spikes, gravity and something that looks like water but actually isn't and will kill you.
What makes or breaks platformers though is how you engage with these challenges, and in that regard, I think Wario Land falls short in what makes a platformer enjoyable to me. First off, Wario Land's gameplay is really slow and repetitive. Through the first two worlds, most of what I experienced felt pretty much the same, looked mostly the same and played exactly the same. Few enemy types (there are a total of 10 in this game with little variety), low difficulty (apart from many cheap deaths like the aforementioned "water" and jumps having to be a lot more precise than one can comfortably do) and bland power-up choices.
Wario can have a normal size and a shrunk-down version of himself just like Mario. When he is at his normal size, finding a "pot" allows him to become Jet Wario (which lets him fly for a short period of time), Bull Wario (attach Wario to the ceiling with the horns) and Dragon Wario (fire breathing skill). Wario has no speed to speak of and the challenges are just way too one-dimensional to ever really get a fun gameplay loop going in this game.
As far as items to collect go, there are only three. A star like in the Mario games, which I found just once. Hearts, which you find regularly and which give you 10 points to your heart counter (when you get 100, you get 1 extra life) and a key, which you are meant to carry while you search for a treasure room, which you need to find to get better (and the best) endings.
It's all competently made but it just plays like one of the less inspired Nintendo games of its time.
MUSIC/SOUND/VOICE | 3/10
No voice acting. For sounds and the soundtrack, I've played plenty of Game Boy games by now and I understand its limited sound capabilities. That said, Wario Land is one of the worst sounding games I've played during this challenge and has among the worst soundtracks of games I have played that were professionally made. I assume it's supposed to be a somewhat uglier soundtrack to tell us that we're playing a Wario game, not a Mario game, but man, I feel the need to apologize to my ears for having exposed them to this. None of the tracks I heard in this game ever felt like they had any cohesion in their composition and just sounded like an odd mix of horrible sounds. Usually when I play these monotonous platformers, I have the soundtrack to lean back on and to at least bop my heads to some of the tracks. Here, I wouldn't even know when to bop because way too often there is seemingly no rhythm in these tracks. If this is supposed to be intentional and there truly is that hidden meaning of "Wario is just an uglier version of Mario, so the soundtrack is supposed to show that", than that's fine, but doesn't make the soundtrack less bad sounding.
GRAPHICS/ART DESIGN | 5/10
The limitations of the Game Boy are excusable to a point, but we are closing in on the 32 bit gen of video games and from the perspective of anyone not tied down to a handheld system, the games on the Game Boy look pretty bad for the most part. What devs can mainly do visually is to be creative in their visual design of levels and keeping things varied. While Wario Land has some of that variety I'm talking about, it doesn't have a lot of it and whenever things visually do look somewhat different, the gameplay still feels the same. Sprites are also really big here, so they cover for more of the screen than I'd personally like. It negatively impacted gameplay as well, especially during sections with spikes at the ceiling.
ATMOSPHERE/IMMERSION | 5/10
The game kind of does a good job of presenting us with the 'uglier' version of Mario, as they described Wario at the time, by making a lot about the game ugly as well. Whether it's by design at times and not by design at others, whether the atmosphere the game presents is on purpose or isn't, it's just not something I would consider very pleasant in how it is presented.
CONTENT | 5/10
There are seven worlds with multiple courses each. After each course, you can gamble your money to try to double it or play a mini game to try to get an extra life. There are also 4 treasures you need to find to have a chance at the best ending. Overall, this game is on the longer side of platformers, but I feel like this is one of the few Nintendo first-party platformers that really shouldn't be anywhere near this long. A similar length to Kirby's Dream Land due to the lack of features would have suited this better.
LEVEL/MISSION DESIGN | 5/10
The length of most levels here is OK, however most of them lack fair and interesting challenge. While the game is generally too easy, whenever it does get difficult, it's more often than not because of the poor controls and big sprites that you have to combat than actually having to show off the skills you've learned while playing this game. That said, when you pass some worlds and come back to them, new areas open up, so there is some reason for players to explore and experiment in this game.
CONCEPT/INNOVATION | 3/10
This is, at its best, a platformer like you've seen hundreds of times already by the time this game was released. At its worst and, mostly at its normal state, it's the worse version of those platformers due to a lack of variation and slow gameplay.
REPLAYABILITY | 3/5
The endings add replay value to those who enjoy the game's gameplay, especially the best ending, which will require you to find and open all treasure chests.
PLAYABILITY | 5/5
Works well at all times.
OVERALL | 46/100
A good example of a competently made game that just isn't a lot of fun to play, even though it works as intended. Clearly, a lot of people disagree with me based on its sales numbers at the time and its score on a site like MobyGames, but I can't pretend to have enjoyed the very limited offering here just to go with the majority's opinion, at least critically at the time. On top of that, the game was not nice to listen to either, a rare occurence within gaming I feel, at least among known games.
An above average platformer. Excited to see improvements in the sequels. Not much else to say.
So much old school fun packed into a great game.
REPLAY: 01. Só porque agora tá colorido.
I could see myself liking this a lot as a kid. As an adult it's just ok.
Finally sat down and finished this game after almost an entire month. It was an alright time, the three power-ups were fine but I found Jet Wario to clear the other two. I got all the treasures and it pretty cool, I got 99999 at the end at got a whole planet. I don't really have much to say, an alright time and if you like collecting it'll be a blast.
Não acredito em uma lei que impeça um homem de enriquecer; isso faria mais mal do que bem. Portanto, embora não proponhamos nenhuma guerra contra o capital, desejamos permitir ao homem mais humilde a mesma chance de enriquecer que todos os outros possuem.
-Abraham Lincoln
https://recantododragao.com.br/wario-land%e2%80%8a-%e2%80%8aos-mestres-do-capitalismo-analise/
-Abraham Lincoln
https://recantododragao.com.br/wario-land%e2%80%8a-%e2%80%8aos-mestres-do-capitalismo-analise/
Run of the mill platformer that lacks a lot of the charm other Nintendo releases had at the time.
From a philosophical point of view, Wario is essentially Daniel Plainview
Tengo sentimientos encontrados con este juego. Por un lado, supone el nacimiento de una saga muy querida y el desarrollo de un personaje muy divertido, carismático y popular como es el antihéroe Wario, contraparte del mítico héroe Mario. Pero, por otra parte, significó el fin de la saga Super Mario Land, tras dos grandes juegos en la primera portátil de Nintendo.
Como juego es notable, es un plataformas bastante correcto que destaca porque no solo hay que completar los niveles sino que, además, hay que encontrar objetos. Asimismo, el objetivo final no es derrotar a un enemigo sino acumular dinero, dando lugar a la rejugabilidad y al factor suerte. Wario tiene un buen set de movimientos y varios disfraces, sentando las bases de lo que sería el personaje en el futuro. Vale la pena jugarlo.
Jugado en consola Anbernic.
Como juego es notable, es un plataformas bastante correcto que destaca porque no solo hay que completar los niveles sino que, además, hay que encontrar objetos. Asimismo, el objetivo final no es derrotar a un enemigo sino acumular dinero, dando lugar a la rejugabilidad y al factor suerte. Wario tiene un buen set de movimientos y varios disfraces, sentando las bases de lo que sería el personaje en el futuro. Vale la pena jugarlo.
Jugado en consola Anbernic.