Out of all the Wario Land games, II upsets me the least and honestly that's what I love about it. See Wario games tend to have a habit of not actually giving Wario lives, but rather puzzles, power ups, or other types of obstacle blocking to push you back to where you started and try again. A lot of the Wario games require to try and try and try again otherwise you can't unlock certain areas or power ups. Wario Land II however, opts to make each choice you make in this something that can affect the ending and route you take throughout the game. Instead of having to solve where to go, you simply find an exit and go to the next level, there are plenty of treasures to find throughout as well as earn at the end of a level, and the game makes it very aware that it should be played over and over again.

While I certainly understand that Wario Land 3 and 4 warped the series into the treasure hunting, puzzle solving, grind fest that we know Wario Land today, II still had a lot of ground work to make and honestly I prefer this compared to the frustration the other style gets me. Being able to simply go through a level without worrying about a path to take or explore is honestly very soothing to me, and then adding the complexity of different routes and story endings makes for a rather ambitious title.

In the end though, Wario Land II is the odd ball in the series, but something you can tell laid the ground work on what the rest of the series was going to be.