GB Wario titles

[kainemaxwell]

So how are these to play?

[Volcanon]

I recall the original GB Wario Land was rather fun. The ending depends on how rich you end up.

[joshnickerson]

They're pretty good. The first one is a fairly standard platformer, while 2 and 3 mix it up with puzzle based stages and Wario's ability not to die, just become transformed from enemy attacks.

[Jorpho]

They are quite excellent. Warioland 1 is a little rough around the edges. Warioland 2 has some of the best music on the original GB, and Warioland 3 is probably the closest thing we will ever see to a 2D version of SM64. (The lack of multiple endings was perhaps the only thing that hurt Warioland 3.)

As I said before, Nintendo really ought to re-release all of them in a nicely dressed-up combo pack.

[sidnotcrazy]

I know the title of this thread just mentions Wario Game Boy games, but Wario Land 4 for the Game Boy Advance is really amazing.

[kainemaxwell]

As I said before, Nintendo really ought to re-release all of them in a nicely dressed-up combo pack.

Agreed. Playing Wario Land now, it is a bit rough and tough, but amusing. :)

[BocoDragon]

And don't forget about Virtual Boy Wario Land. I haven't actually played it, but I've heard it is a full on Wario game. I have a Virtual Boy and people are always telling me to pick it up, as one of the best games on the system.

[InsaneDavid]

And don't forget about Virtual Boy Wario Land. I haven't actually played it, but I've heard it is a full on Wario game. I have a Virtual Boy and people are always telling me to pick it up, as one of the best games on the system.

An excellent game without a doubt. The only thing I don't like about the Wario Land series is that it brought an end to the Mario Land Series.

[Jorpho]

And don't forget about Virtual Boy Wario Land. I haven't actually played it, but I've heard it is a full on Wario game. I have a Virtual Boy and people are always telling me to pick it up, as one of the best games on the system.

Last time I checked it was playable on an emulator, but only slowly and without sound; has that changed?

I've heard the latest Wario game (Master of Disguise, which might as well be Warioland 5 from the looks of it) is pretty poor.

I'm sure we can all agree that Wario's sensible yellow togs are considerably superior to his freakishly-colored Warioware outfit?

[InsaneDavid]

Last time I checked it was playable on an emulator, but only slowly and without sound; has that changed?

In my opinion VB emulation is a total waste - the key component that makes the games worthwhile is missing.

[JSoup]

If you need to buy a good GB/GBC game, you can't go wrong with the Wario Land series. The fact that Wario can't die adds much more challenge to the game than one would think.

Master of Disguise, like all the other reinventions (Super Princess Peach, Yoshi's Island DS, Kirby Squeak Squad, etc.), is only a brief distraction.

[spoon]

I would have to agree that all the Wario Land games are pretty damn good. With the exception of the DS title.

The stylus detection is awful. The player has to try and draw these different shapes next to Wario's head. Usually ends up just making whatever it wants. Becomes hard when you have to draw to different shapes quickly back to back to solve a puzzle or defeat a boss. The mini-games to open the chests are a joke as well. I became pretty good at it after much practice.I agree with a review I read somewhere that the game feels/looks like a weird euro platformer. I tried to make myself like it.

The first title is my favorite with all the hidden treasures and the ending that depend on the cash collected.

[Jorpho]

The first title is my favorite with all the hidden treasures and the ending that depend on the cash collected.

My memories of the game are sadly tained by the horrible tedium that is trying to amass 9999 coins to get the best ending. At an average of about 30 coins per level, it takes a long time indeed, even if you use the little tricks. (And of course the double-your-money minigame is a waste of time.)

Most useful of these tricks is chucking enemies at the birds with baskets on their heads. (I never quite figured out what was going on there until I happened to take a close look at the box art.) There's one level where one of these birds shows up in an area with a bunch of enemies and it's possible to get about 250 coins each time you pass through, but it's still pretty tricky.

Did I mention we need more Captain Syrup? Perhaps Nintendo should have gone with her in the recent Mario-based sports games rather than trying to introduce Waluigi.

[joshnickerson]

My memories of the game are sadly tained by the horrible tedium that is trying to amass 9999 coins to get the best ending. At an average of about 30 coins per level, it takes a long time indeed, even if you use the little tricks. (And of course the double-your-money minigame is a waste of time.)

Well, the treasures you collect go a long way in adding to your end game total.

Plus, there's always the 16 SELECT cheat if you don't want to spend a lot of time on it...

[Jorpho]

Well, the treasures you collect go a long way in adding to your end game total.

But of course. To be precise, they add 990000 to your end game total. ;)

[PresidentLeever]

Wario Land 1 is excellent, though very similar to the Mario games except for the treasure hunting.. WL2 was more of a transitional title (Brought some new ideas but they lacked polish, pretty disappointing title imho) to WL3, which is a lot of fun and very unique for a platformer.

[kainemaxwell]

Beat Wario Land today. Got the best ending with the "Wario Planet".

Started playing around with Wario Land 2. Fun, though the controls and gameplay take some getting used to. Is it ok that I started with the 1st Secret Chapter and going from there?

[kainemaxwell]

Question with WL2: Are the secret levels harder then the normal ones?

[Jorpho]

I didn't know you could get to the first hidden chapter from a blank save file. Maybe they changed that between the GB and GBC releases?

The difficulty level is fairly constant throughout the game, with the possible exception of the ghost house (and of course the final secret level that is supposed to be ultra-challenging).

[MrSparkle]

if i remember correctly and its possible that i dont wario land 1 was supermario land 3 kind of like how jedi knight 1 was dark forces 2 and it ended the dark forces series hehe. only one ive played is 1 which i loved the treasure hunting and tons of secrets made it addicting to try to get the best ending with absolutely everything. on a seperate note though vb emulation is kinda flakey given the terribly short lifespan of the system its really the only way 99% of the population will ever experience one, unfortunatly i fall into that demographic with the exception of the demo one i played in toys r us for the month or so they were selling it lol.

[kainemaxwell]

Almost done with Wario Land 2 through the first run-through. I found the basketball rabbit boss pretty humorous to "fight" too. I went throught he secret level in 3, so when I go back through to find the missing Treasures, etc, that's one less secret level then.

[Aussie2B]

I really love what I've played of the Wario Land series. The first one blew me away because it's so unconventional (I have to disagree with the above comment that it plays like Mario) and it was so infinitely better than the previous two Mario Land titles (not that they're bad; they're just kinda so-so). A year or so ago I bought and played through Wario Land 2 (in black and white), and while it was a very satisfying, thoroughly Nintendo-style experience, I didn't enjoy the new style of gameplay quite as much. It was surely innovative and very interesting, but I guess I'm just a sucker for straight-up action. Figuring out the puzzle elements was definitely addictive, though.

But my absolute favorite Wario Land will always be the Virtual Boy version. It's easily THE reason to own a Virtual Boy, and it's sad that it gets so little love and attention because if it was on one of Nintendo's other systems it would surely be regarded as a classic and one of their very best platformers. But you know what? I would hate to see it NOT on Virtual Boy. To heck with colors, the graphics are already amazing as is, and leaping back and forth between the background and foreground is not only one of the most ingenious design ideas ever but it's also an absolutely amazing, briliantly pulled off effect and creates a gameplay experience you can't have on ANY other system.

[kainemaxwell]

Just beat Wario Land 2 tonight, 46%. Finishing the main Level 3 before I go and hit the other secret levels now. Now what I really like with this is the game doesn't let you get 100% on your first run, it's either one way or another way during the stages and if you take route A, you can come back after you beat the game to find route B and work towards completion.

Quick side question: With how WL3 is set up that the treasures you get as you complete stages sometimes help you get the later treasures and so forth, is that more or less a precursor to how games like Super Mario 64 or Donkey Kong 64 are set up whereas you have to go back through a level multiple times to score 100% completion?

[Jorpho]

Yeah, pretty much. Like I said, it's probably the closest thing we will ever see to a 2D version of SM64. Unlike the other two games, you have to unlock most of Wario's abilities (which of course opens up new areas), but there are still plenty of bits that only open up when you collect the right treasure from some other stage. And of course the whole day-and-night thing is thoroughly awesome.

It's a real shame that even with 100% completion, all Warioland 3 gives you is a thoroughly lame unlockable. Given how well the rest of the game is put together, I can only assume that the dev team ran out of space in the ROM and couldn't quite put in everything they wanted to. All the more reason to release a fabulous update!

[Kaine32]

the repetitive money collection in these games serves as good training for when global disaster forces you into a lifestyle of scavenge picking in the deserted streets of the coming years

i got so good at it i earned a reputation as the legendary rat boy in the neo urban slums

with a twitch of my nose and curl of my prehensile mutant tail i would nibble on empty soup cans and snatch careless children that ignored their parents warnings

later i decided to have the tail amputated for a job interview but sometimes i miss those days

[kainemaxwell]

So far I'm up to 66% stage clear/picture panel, 58% treasure. Gotten the 1st, 3rd and 4th ending also. I have to say the ending music is pretty catchy!

[Jorpho]

I finally got around to playing Warioland 4 recently; it's been a few years since the last time I had a chance to play it. I'm quite impressed! Even though there's really only fourteen stages, the big changes that come with the different difficulty modes appear to add substantial variety. (The other games were indeed sort of easy most of the time.) My criticism is that playing the bonus games over and over gets tiresome rather quickly.

[modest9797]

Wario games are, in my opinion, some of the best games on any of the Gameboy consoles.

[calthaer]

I liked the first Wario Land game a lot. The larger-than-life bad guy of SML2 returned, only this time, you got to BE him. It was fun to be a huge villain and just blow guys off the screen with your charge.

WL2 and WL3 really changed that formula quite a big, IMO. No longer was it about throwing your weight around - Wario's size on the screen was reduced to diminutive Mario-esque dimensions. The puzzle-platformer-ness of its gameplay was nowhere near as satisfying to me.

That's why I really enjoyed the GBA WarioLand 4. That game combines 2/3 stomping-romping with about 1/3 puzzle-platformer. Maybe a little more like 60/40. Loads of fun, and it even had some mini-games in there a la Wario Ware.