Wario's Woods

"A great, if limited, puzzle-game"

Wario's Woods on the virtual console is a "pixel-perfect" port of the original NES game. The only difference is that if you turn of the game in the middle, it generates a 'save-state' so that you can return to your playing in the exact position you left it. This save state is not meant to be archivable or transferable, however, which prevents it from being abused like in an emulator. Other than that, it plays the exact same and can be easily played using the Wii-mote without any other add-ons like the Classic Controller.

For those of you who have never played Wario's Woods...

Gameplay: 8

The gameplay of Wario's Woods has one of the core elements of any successful puzzle-game, deceptive simplicity. The screen starts filled with some number of enemies. These enemies can be any one of about six colors. Different colored bombs fall from the ceiling, and you have to use Toad (from the Mario series, he acts as a 'cursor' in this game) to reposition the blocks on the ground or the bombs that have added to the stack such that three or more blocks form a line that contains at least one bomb. If you do this, then all those blocks are destroyed. The ultimate goal is to destroy all of the monster blocks.

Of course, if it was that easy, it wouldn't be interesting at all. There are three varieties of monsters, the normal kind that can be defeated by bombing them either horizontally, diagonally, or vertically, the shape-shifter kind that change colors when bombed such that they need to be bombed twice. And the flashy kind that need to be bombed once, and then bombed again while they're still flashing. As if *THAT* wasn't enough, every 30 seconds Birdo will stop dropping those bomb blocks from the ceiling and Wario will come in and start dropping *NEW* monsters for you to get rid of.

As great as this mechanic is, it can be excessively frustrating. Particularly when the game speeds up, producing 3x, or even 2x chains is nigh-impossible, and making combos takes longer than it's worth. I've never played a puzzle game in which making combos or chains was so poorly rewarded as in this game. In the SNES version of Wario's Woods, there was a 'combat' mode that used them well, but in this version there's just the clear-a-stage mode. Throw in the incredible frustration of having your 'carefully cleared' stack ruined by one round with Wario and the gameplay drops down a tick for frustrating randomness. Still, it's a solid and well-executed concept on the whole, and that merits its score of '8'.

Music/Graphics: 4

While I SELDOM factor these kinds of aesthetics into the score (this 4 will not affect the score), be forewarned that this music is very much reminiscent of the average NES game's music...tinny and painful to the ear. There are two often-repeated themes and considering how addictive this game is, you're likely to hear them for quite a while....an aggravating and headache-inducing long while. Just be warned.

Difficulty: 8

Difficulty is poorly implemented. Once you get the hang of blazing through a round, you can effectively get through the first 50 rounds without much difficulty...probably without losing a life. The next 30 rounds take a bit more 'speed and intuition', but they aren't too tough either. The last 10-20 rounds, however, are a pain because they're *unfairly* difficult. As in, if you don't get a lucky drop of a few right-colored bombs at the start, then 30 seconds in Wario will come and fill your screen up so fast you can't stop him. Dying this way is almost certainly the most frustrating thing about playing.

But I still rated the difficulty well, because for all that the round-mode of the game doesn't offer much challenge, the time-trial mode, where you try and break your old records for clearing a given set (or set-of-sets) of blocks. Here you can hone your skills and try to outdo yourself, allowing for a decent amount more 'fair' difficulty.

Longevity/Replayability: 7

It's a toss-up, honestly. Like most puzzle games (think 'Tetris'), you can play it, enjoy it, and then play it again some time later. But if you've been playing a round of tetris and you die, then you kinda feel like it's a downer and since there's no "alternate-mode" to play it on, you just stop playing. This is the way Wario's Woods feels. You can play the 'main game' for 10minutes to an hour and thoroughly enjoy it, after that you can switch to time-trial mode for maybe an additional 10-20minutes. But once you've done that, your gaming session is basically over for Wario's Woods. The lack of extras and alternative modes or competitive play against the computer like in the SNES version hurts the score here.

Bottom Line:

I loved this game. It was the second VC game I downloaded, and I had logged over 30 hours in my first week...about triple what I played Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess that same week. This game is addictive, none-too-challenging, and provides an engine that's good for a solid half hour no matter *when* you decide to pick it up again. That said the graphics are poor, the music painful, and the lack of optional extras limiting. There's no mode but the main game-mode, and if you end up hating that....well it's like buying "Tetris Worlds" and then realizing that you can't stand "Tetris"

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 03/26/07