The one Virtual Boy game published by Nintendo that people ever really talk about. The second title in the Wario Land series, Virtual Boy Wario Land offers it's own take on the formula the original game developed.

In a rare turn for games on the Virtual Boy, this is actually a proper, in depth game. Yes it may be a short experience, beatable in under an hour if you know what you're doing but this doesn't feel compromised by the hardware, this feels like a proper Wario Land game and my gosh I have been hoping to find a Virtual Boy game like this.

This is Wario Land at it's core. Wario has his dash attack and through a few power ups he can gain a glide ability, breathe fire, or make himself stronger to break certain blocks and do a screen shaking ground pound, stunning all enemies. Wario becomes tiny upon taking damage in any form and will die if hit in his tiny form. You've got that fun and unique Wario moveset but not quite developed to the point stuff like Wario Land II and beyond would take it.

A platforming title with exploration at it's core, VB Wario Land sees you exploring it's well crafted levels to find a key to unlock the exit and progress. Each level also contains a hidden treasure which will change your ending depending on the amount you've collected. It's fun to explore these levels with Wario's unique moveset, barging through enemies and discovering secrets but this is a VB game and so it needs to make use of the 3D somehow right?
Well in VB Wario Land, levels are designed with a background and a foreground and you can hop between them using certain platforms you can find. Now these days, background/foreground hopping in a 2D platformer isn't that crazy. In 1995 and in 3D where you can see an actual depth to it all? Excellent stuff, fantastic use of the hardware and done in a way that fits the Wario Land gameplay naturally. A lot of VB games like to change the viewing angles of games to make the 3D effect more pronounced but Wario Land is a 2D platformer at heart and they keep it like that. You probably won't appreciate the 3D effect layering as you're playing but as soon as you try and play this in 2D you'll see just how much clearer the game looks in 3D with everything at different depths. It's great stuff and is worked into the level design well, often making you search for a way to get to the background because you see something interesting in it.

Throughout it's 14 levels there are 4 boss fights, each making decent use of the background/foreground mechanic for you to dodge attacks and find an opening to hit them. The final boss can be a bit of a pain to hit at times but otherwise, these are pretty good fights and help break up the main levels.

Every level has a 20 minute timer for some reason, probably more to do with them not wanting people spending hours in a single level on the Virtual Boy. 20 minutes is more than generous for these levels, so don't worry, you'll have plenty time to explore thoroughly and find the treasure and exit.

Virtual Boy Wario Land is the peak of Nintendo's library they put out on Virtual Boy. Despite being relatively short, it's one of the few titles that feels like a game with depth to it, that feels like it fits within its series, and it's something I wish the VB had more of. It's a fantastic Wario Land title that finds a way to work well with the 3D effect and not compromise on its core gameplay to do so

A vertical scrolling shooter game and it's simplicity works well for the platform.

You know the drill here - move and dodge incoming enemies and bullets while fighting back with your own weapons to defeat the enemies. You've got your usual power ups that can power up your laser by splitting it into 3 directions or gain an AI ship partner and it delivers a solid shooter experience.
It does have a trick up it's sleeve though - you can hop down to a lower layer by pressing A which is a pretty unique and cool way to make use of the 3D effect.
Hopping between layers, blasting enemies and picking up power ups - it's a solid and satisfying experience through it's 5 levels. Bosses make good use of the layer hopping, chasing you down as you dodge attacks.

There's not much else to say about this one, it's a good scrolling shooter with a fun gimmick and sometimes that's all you need for a fun experience

Teleroboxer asks the question we were all thinking: what if Punch-Out was robots instead? It's a cool concept leading to some pretty out there character designs that can be animated in exaggerated ways and throw punches that feel like they're coming out of the screen thanks to the 3D effect.

Where I struggle with this one though is it's control scheme. It's a little bit like Arms where you control each arm independently. The left d-pad and trigger control the left arm while the right d-pad and trigger control the right arm. Holding a direction and pushing the trigger will throw a different type of punch, like holding down will give you uppercut shots for example. Holding the d-pads in different directions will also give you different guards. I'm not sure if it was because I was playing on 3DS but my brain struggled with trying to dodge and throw punches together. Part of me feels like I was struggling with having full control of movement over both arms using each side of the controller where typically in something like Punch-Out, you can quickly dodge left and right with the d-pad and throw punches with A and B which is very simple for quick reactive play. Here things are maybe a little bit too complex for it's own good. It might be something that when you get the hang of it, it becomes really satisfying (like I found with StarFox Zero) but unfortunately it wasn't clicking with my brain.

Outside of it's unique control scheme, this is a boxing game at heart. You face a multitude of out there opponents and whittle away their health by punching them in order to become the champion.

I can appreciate what Teleroboxer was going for, it's an impressive over the top robot boxing game but unfortunately I just couldn't vibe with the control scheme well enough to truly enjoy it

So this is a pretty cool title. It's pretty similar to StarFox where you're piloting a ship through a pretty on rails level (though your ship can be stopped and reversed if you want). You blast through enemies in these linear levels and they can drop upgrades that heal your ship or unlock a boost and it's all pretty fun.

Control wise this makes full use of the Virtual Boy controller. Movement is on the left d-pad while you can dash in a direction with the right d-pad. The left trigger allows for tighter movement to be made while the right trigger is the blaster. A and B will increase and lower your speed respectively and Select changes the viewpoint. It's a pretty fleshed out moveset which is nice to see in a Virtual Boy game.

You'll be making full use of your moveset with the bosses at the end of every stage. These fights are like StarFox all range boss battles where you fight in an open arena allowing for free feeling battles as you move all over the arena, trying to position yourself in a good position to shoot the boss. I think some loop options or something would be nice to shake off homing missiles in these fights but otherwise, these are surprisingly well fleshed out.

Graphically they've gone for a wire frame look which allows for pretty fleshed out level designs without hurting the eyes with the red and black colours but it does mean the 3D effect isn't the most impressive thing here.

Overall, Red Alarm is a pretty solid StarFox like game. There's an impressive amount of depth to it compared to other Virtual Boy titles and it makes good use of the unique controller.