For a bit Wario to me was just a guy who I'd see in Mario-related spinoffs like Mario Party and Mario Kart 64. I would always pick him for some reason, I couldn't quite pinpoint a particular reason other than that I liked the cut of his jib. My friends at elementary would be all "Wario Land 2 rules" or would complain about the Wario castle in Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins. I never got to play these games though until much later, so for a time Wario never got to reach that status of being "beloved" like Spyro, Sonic or even Robbit from Jumping Flash. He was just "that fat guy with the goofy grin" I liked to play as.
That is until I took a trip with my family to Toys R' Us with some meager allowance money I saved up for a month and took a gander at the Game Boy Color section. Thar she blowed. It was Wario Land 3. I had seen this game in gaming magazines and it looked pretty cool! That coupled with my classmates' word of mouth of how good prior games were made me curious. Suddenly, Pokemon Silver had competition! Shit just got fuckin' real! My Game Boy Color no longer had a Pokemon game of ANY kind in it, did these games finally meet their match?! Apparently so!
One day Wario decided to go on a trip in his airplane, but of course as you'd expect the dumb oaf forgets to fuel it and crashes in the middle of a forest. He stumbles upon a music box in a cave and then gets sucked into it! Suddenly Wario finds himself in a another world and in a predicament where he must help some very trustworthy face in a temple gain back their power, so Wario can be sent back to his own world (and keep the treasure he collects along the way of course). This world also really really REALLY loves golf, a specific more brutal version of it that requires using a little yellow guy as the ball.
Unfortunately Wario had been slacking off more than usual, so he has lost a few of his abilities and has been weakened a bit since the last game. He is however still strong enough to be completely invincible to ALMOST everything in the game. Enemies instead either stun you with huge knockback or make you change form, which is normally a detriment, but can also be helpful. Sometimes it's a good thing to be lit on fire, or be turned into a sliding ice statue that knocks out giant toads! My favorite visual is still Wario getting dizzied by a bird creature that flies past him, making him stumble walk like a drunkard, falling down a trap hole and straight into water that suddenly sobers him up. It's ridiculous, much like the game's concept in general honestly.
How else do you make a platforming game interesting when you can't die? With puzzles, interesting mechanics that are used to their fullest, and fun boss fights? Absolutely. When you begin this game you'll only have one stage to go to, but as you collect treasure more stages will be opened up and new sections of prior stages will be available/reachable. You see, Wario cannot travel to the The Peaceful Village next to the woods he started in, because he needs the Axe of Chopping! He cannot hope to get past that tree in his way without the Axe of Chopping! Once that tree is out of the way he can now travel to the Peaceful Village as well as The Vast Plain! In addition to treasures just plainly helping Wario in little cute cutscenes, these treasures can also help Wario get back in tip-top shape and gain back his old abilities or even have them upgraded. One of the treasures is just a literal bulb of garlic which gives him an upgraded shoulder tackle, another is also the high-jump boots from Metroid! Extended Nintendo universe? More likely than you think.
By the way, that village ain't peaceful, depending on the time of day it's either crawling with zombies or little baker guys throwing doughnuts at you (they make you fatter, literally).
Game is kooky as shit and so well-designed. It instantly made me fall in love with Wario as a character, and that love would only grow overtime as I played more of his games. It's a true mark of an amazing series when not one game is clearly above the rest, and Wario Land to me is a prime example of that. WL3 will always be my personal favorite, because aside from nostalgia and those music boxes always making me misty eyed like a fuckin' baby, it's the one that feels most like a treasure hunt. Exploring all over music box world for new items and watching as the overworld map changes constantly to indicate your progression, it's like crack to me. If I could commission someone to make a fully-functioning replica of the music box from this game I would, that's how much love I've got for this favorite from my childhood.
God, Wario fucking rules. My man, you're the best.
That is until I took a trip with my family to Toys R' Us with some meager allowance money I saved up for a month and took a gander at the Game Boy Color section. Thar she blowed. It was Wario Land 3. I had seen this game in gaming magazines and it looked pretty cool! That coupled with my classmates' word of mouth of how good prior games were made me curious. Suddenly, Pokemon Silver had competition! Shit just got fuckin' real! My Game Boy Color no longer had a Pokemon game of ANY kind in it, did these games finally meet their match?! Apparently so!
One day Wario decided to go on a trip in his airplane, but of course as you'd expect the dumb oaf forgets to fuel it and crashes in the middle of a forest. He stumbles upon a music box in a cave and then gets sucked into it! Suddenly Wario finds himself in a another world and in a predicament where he must help some very trustworthy face in a temple gain back their power, so Wario can be sent back to his own world (and keep the treasure he collects along the way of course). This world also really really REALLY loves golf, a specific more brutal version of it that requires using a little yellow guy as the ball.
Unfortunately Wario had been slacking off more than usual, so he has lost a few of his abilities and has been weakened a bit since the last game. He is however still strong enough to be completely invincible to ALMOST everything in the game. Enemies instead either stun you with huge knockback or make you change form, which is normally a detriment, but can also be helpful. Sometimes it's a good thing to be lit on fire, or be turned into a sliding ice statue that knocks out giant toads! My favorite visual is still Wario getting dizzied by a bird creature that flies past him, making him stumble walk like a drunkard, falling down a trap hole and straight into water that suddenly sobers him up. It's ridiculous, much like the game's concept in general honestly.
How else do you make a platforming game interesting when you can't die? With puzzles, interesting mechanics that are used to their fullest, and fun boss fights? Absolutely. When you begin this game you'll only have one stage to go to, but as you collect treasure more stages will be opened up and new sections of prior stages will be available/reachable. You see, Wario cannot travel to the The Peaceful Village next to the woods he started in, because he needs the Axe of Chopping! He cannot hope to get past that tree in his way without the Axe of Chopping! Once that tree is out of the way he can now travel to the Peaceful Village as well as The Vast Plain! In addition to treasures just plainly helping Wario in little cute cutscenes, these treasures can also help Wario get back in tip-top shape and gain back his old abilities or even have them upgraded. One of the treasures is just a literal bulb of garlic which gives him an upgraded shoulder tackle, another is also the high-jump boots from Metroid! Extended Nintendo universe? More likely than you think.
By the way, that village ain't peaceful, depending on the time of day it's either crawling with zombies or little baker guys throwing doughnuts at you (they make you fatter, literally).
Game is kooky as shit and so well-designed. It instantly made me fall in love with Wario as a character, and that love would only grow overtime as I played more of his games. It's a true mark of an amazing series when not one game is clearly above the rest, and Wario Land to me is a prime example of that. WL3 will always be my personal favorite, because aside from nostalgia and those music boxes always making me misty eyed like a fuckin' baby, it's the one that feels most like a treasure hunt. Exploring all over music box world for new items and watching as the overworld map changes constantly to indicate your progression, it's like crack to me. If I could commission someone to make a fully-functioning replica of the music box from this game I would, that's how much love I've got for this favorite from my childhood.
God, Wario fucking rules. My man, you're the best.
3 Comments
4 is amazing too, really I don't think you can go wrong with any game in the series sans Master of Disguise, but I have to revisit that one eventually to confirm if it's just as mediocre as I remember.
Hope y'all have fun with this on NSO, one of my favorites ever...
Lex
1 year ago