Great game, unsure what to say that isn’t just a straightforward statement about what the game is really.

At some point Nintendo realised Mario just can’t be played on Game Boy, the guy is too nimble.

Wario on the other hand, let’s make him a slow beefy guy, with simple movement throw in a tackle, butt stomp, fire mouth and flight. That’s all he needs.

Make the levels more exploratory hide additional hidden levels with secret treasures to collect and have some of them change between plays.

It’s cool seeing the ideas move gradually between Mario to more exploratory, we’re not at Metroidvania yet and the levels aren’t episodic in nature. But it’s definitely Wario that’s for sure.

I only had experience with the wario ware series so experiencing the first wario game was really cool. The game immediately shows that it's not a run of the mill Mario game by introducing different mechanics that are pretty fun. I love the way wario plays as a heavy tank but the game is built around it so it's Fun. The soundtrack is like the opposite of a Mario soundtrack by having midi farts playing instead of catchy beats which I love. How ever because of the controls I can see why people might not like it since it's a very slow game to get through but I 100% it so that says enough for me.

I could tell this was made by the same team as Mario Land 2, but it didn't quite win me over like that game did. The controls are so slow and awkward and the jump is really stiff for some reason. That's not just because of Wario's size; based on the little bit I've played of VB Wario Land, that game controls much better. I do think this game does a lot of cool things to differentiate itself from the Mario series though, like having to pay 10 coins to use a checkpoint or beat the level, the longer and more open level design, and how taking damage and turning small disables some of your moves. And of course, this game had a focus on coin collecting two decades before NSMB2 did. And even though I dislike the controls, I do like Wario's moveset; the dash and crawl both feel ahead of their time. The level design is alright too. I had a pretty good time with this, though it's pretty obvious that this game suffers from "first game syndrome". Short but sweet, pretty basic and could use more polish. I'm excited to see how the later games improve on this one.

playing every mainline wario game - 1
the list

wario is awesomesauce. being a classic gameboy game is rough but just as you get a little bit bored the game picks up the pace. i thought i would get bored and just rush it but i found myself getting out of my way to find the secrets and shit. i found every treasure and played every secret level (im not sure about this). im happy i did cuz the iceberg world was my favorite. the controls are really rough though. sprite work is nice (wario is ugly as fuck) but the lack of color makes me unhappy. i also got really mad that i couldnt get the wario planet, i was so close... a castle is cool too i guess.