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.