It is crazy how effortlessly they managed to capture the feel of Wario Land 4 here, hell it might even surpass it. Just an insanely varied and fun platformer with lavish animation and a banger soundtrack. It's crazy polished and pretty much the perfect length, and the final boss sequence in particular really cemented this as a new favorite 2D platformer.
Only things I can knock it on are that because the visual style is so evenly applied across the entire game it can become hard to read the environment, especially in some of the visually busier levels (parts of the gnome forest (?) in particular felt like the worst of this). I also think that while Gustavo and Brick add even more fun variety to an already insanely varied game, they somewhat lack that anxious manic energy that really gives the entire game its identity and feel a bit out of place as a result.
But man, this game rocked.
Only things I can knock it on are that because the visual style is so evenly applied across the entire game it can become hard to read the environment, especially in some of the visually busier levels (parts of the gnome forest (?) in particular felt like the worst of this). I also think that while Gustavo and Brick add even more fun variety to an already insanely varied game, they somewhat lack that anxious manic energy that really gives the entire game its identity and feel a bit out of place as a result.
But man, this game rocked.