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Wario Land Game Review

Wario Land is a 1994 platform game developed by Nintendo for the Game Boy. It is one of the best games for this system and one of the most authentic platformers of its period.

Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 was released in 1994 with that very bad title that is simply confusing and unnecessary. Yes, ‘Super Mario Land 2’ ended with Mario beating Wario, which then leads to this game plotwise, but everything else is so different and superior to that game that I wouldn’t call it a Mario Land game at all. It’s its own thing. It received strong reviews, but is still quite underappreciated as it needs more attention, especially for what it meant for this console and the Mario spin-offs.

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The plot of this game is very enjoyable and quirky. Wario wants a new castle after losing one in the aforementioned game and he wants it bigger and better. He sets out to find it and beat a lot of guys in his quest to get there. Eventually, Mario ruins his plans in a hilarious turn of events, but he still gets his happy ending.

The character of Wario is completely different to Mario. First off, he is not good. He may not be truly evil in this game, but he is egotistical, selfish and power-hungry in a hilarious manner. He is also clumsy, fat and very ugly, which made for an unforgettable, different protagonist in a platform game, certainly unlike many other cutesy main characters. Nintendo needs to be given props for going in a totally different direction.

Wario Land consists of seven stages, each containing around six different levels that culminate with a boss fight. The gameplay mechanics here are so unique. First and foremost, Wario can jump, but he can also bump on enemies. When bumped, they need to also be thrown at other enemies or overboard to destroy them properly. This mechanic is a bit reminiscent to ‘Super Mario Bros. 2’, but only superficially.

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Wario can get larger and that is the biggest similarity that he shares with Mario. When he is bigger, he can charge toward enemies and destroy them with that one charge. He can also break blocks this way, important for finding hidden coins and power-ups. Personally, most of those power-ups felt too similar to me. As long as you get one of those big Warios, you will be fine.

Coins in the game actually have a purpose for once and I loved that about this game. They are used as currency. The best way to use the coins is to activate the mid-level checkpoint. This was highly important to my gaming experience as it made finishing larger and harder levels easier. The final checkpoint also requires ten coins and that skeleton door was truly a fantastic mechanic. The gambling at the end of each level was fun and the story having multiple endings depending on the number of coins you’ve collected previously was a very interesting element.

The water levels obviously did not appeal to me as they are just as hard as every other water level in a platform game, but for the most part I would classify Wario Land as having medium difficulty level, not too easy, and certainly not too hard. And I liked that about it as it led to a lot of replayability. The cart levels were terrific and those that required keys to open certain doors were especially vast and appealing. The best world is easily Stove Canyon with the most interesting platforming obstacles and excellent difficulty level. Rice Beach was also a lot of fun as this cute first world while Syrup Castle was fittingly eerie as the last and hardest world.

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The bosses are overly easy for the most part, especially the first two that are ridiculously easy. But they get progressively harder with the standouts being the bird boss that was so much fun and very well imagined and the final boss. A Princess and Her Genie was different than other bosses as it required you to throw the lamp, so that it can shoot a cloud that can take you to the heights from where you can jump on the head of a genie. This mechanic was amazing and it adapted so wonderfully the whole genie element. I wish that others were as strong.

Graphically speaking, Wario Land isn’t great obviously as it’s a Game Boy game after all. Still though, it remains one of the best-looking games on this inferior system. It is black-and-white, but it’s solidly designed in its protagonist and the enemies while the world building is also surprisingly solid with a couple of deftly designed, very intriguing levels. The levels are also quite large, which is another plus.

The sound is also pretty good and some of the musical pieces here are very interesting, especially for how different it is to other platformers in the more eerie feel to them. The controls are pretty good and the game plays stupendously well on the Android emulator. It is also not too short, not too long, but just the right length for a handheld game like this.

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