Wario Land: Shake It!

"Get ready to shake it!!!"

Wario Land: Shake It!, one of my favorite wii games of all time. Why? Well, there are many reasons!

On Christmas 2008, I asked my mom for one of 3 games. Animal Crossing: City Folk, Wario Land: Shake It!, and some other game. I didn't really care for getting Wario Land, for Wario was and still is one of my least favorite Mario Characters. Even though I wanted Animal Crossing more, I got Wario Land.

I couldn't play it for like 2 or 3 months, I lost my Wii Remote at the time, but when I played it after, I found it extremely fun and addicting!

The story, which is only really at the beginning, is that the Shake King has captured the princess of some kingdom inhabited by little colorful floating elves called Merfles. He stands in front of his minions, holding the treasure of the Shake Demension. He explains that it will always spit out money, no matter how much you shake it. Not only has he captured the princess, whose name I don't remember, the Shake King has caged all the Merfles around this one world. Then, we cut to Captain Honey (was that her name?) who is trying to steal either a map, or jewelry or something. (Rogue relationship?) She finds some telescope and figures out it is like a portal to another world or something like that (Sorry, haven't saw the beginning story in a while). Now, we cut to Wario, the Mr. Krabs of Nintendo, in his garage with his sweet car! (Better than the Mario Kart ones) Like I said, I haven't seen the beginning in a while, he's either sleeping or fixing it. All of a sudden, a present appears in his garage. He opens it, finding the telescope (same one from earlier), as well as a Green Merfle that escaped from the Shake King. The Merfle explains that the Shake King has captured the princess. Wario, greedy as he is, doesn't give a crap about that. Then, the Merfle tells Wario about the treasure, the neverending money bag. Wario gets interested all of a sudden, he grabs the Merfle, and he starts explaining about it. I forget the rest, but you figure out you need to get each Merfle in each map (as in beat each boss in each map) before battling the Shake King.

Now to get on with the actual game,

The game has many many good qualities. Each level is really well made, and it uses many different gimmicks. Shaking can be used for many purposes. Shaking money bags, opening Merfle Cages, Earthquake Punching. Other commands, like tilting, can be used for things like steering your vehicles, aiming in cannons, aiming enemies or balls to be thrown.

Vehicles, as mentioned above, are controlled by tilting. All of the different types are very unique. There are the Unibucket, the Rocketbarrel, and the Subwarine. The Unibucket can ride on rails, and is pretty hard to control. Although it's hard, that adds towards the uniqueness. It's like riding on ice, in a way. The Rocketbarrel, in sky levels, is really cool. You tilt the remote to control the boosters, which is how you turn. A boosts it. It is really fun to just quickly boost in one direction! The Subwarine, not the best vehicle, suits for the underwater levels. In all underwater levels, you ride the Subwarine, for Wario's fat makes him float to the top! The Subwarine shoots missiles (out of its nostrils, I think), and they are aimed by tilting the remote.

There are some good gimmicks used for each level. For example, some levels use the gimmick that you throw a ball at a switch block and it activates it, turning some blocks on, and some off. In the 2 casino levels, it uses a gimmick that when you Earthquake Punch in front of a roulette machine, whatever it lands on will appear from the top of it afterwards. In one of the 2 mansion levels, in the treasure chests where you get the treasures, instead of just running into it like every other level, if you do that, the chest eats you, and you have to shake to get out. This scared the crap out of me when this first happened. To get it, you have to throw a bomb in the chest's mouth. I found this very creative. To get a few treasure chests, you have to hit certain color blocks to let an enemy walk by and keep going without falling in the spikes. It's not that long of a part though, unlike Kaizo-like Mario hacks.

The music in the game is outstanding! A lot of it sounds like it belongs in something else, but it is all really good. The first level of the game, I honestly thought that the music was from Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games. In the train levels, I thought the music belonged in Indiana Jones. Either way, all of the music in the game is very good as well as pretty catchy.

The difficulty in the game is just perfect, not too hard, not to easy. Levels are even marked on the map by difficulty! Secret maps, however, if you are not using GameFaqs, etc., are almost impossible to find until you beat the game, when they are then marked. That would be a complaint, but it is easily marked (I call the marks Mr. Shinies) once you beat the game, so it isn't a complaint. Underwater levels are pretty hard, but it's okay.

There are 8 bosses in the game. 2 mini-bosses found at the end of the underwater levels, there not best, nor are they really "bosses", but they fit. Each map has one world boss, and there is the final boss of the game. Each boss is really really fun and very creative! In the first world, you fight a rock monster. He has a button on the side of his head, and after a few hits, it changes to being on the top of his head. This boss has 3-D graphics, for a good amount of him is in the background. It is very fun, and sets the mood for the rest of them. The second one, is a roadster, who shoots wheels and screws at you, and you ride your Unibucket and use a punching-hand that comes out to shoot it back at it (VERY creative). Third, you have a clown robot. It doesn't fit for the world, but is fun, none the less. Fourth, you have the Bloomsday Plant (Get it?). Like other things you used earlier in its map, you have to throw enemies back at the plant. One thing that I was REALLY confused about was that the cannon enemies, you can shake them and they turn into Bandoneroos. They appeared in other levels, but I didn't really know that, since I never considered shaking the enemy when I grabbed it. Either way it was very fitting for the map, and creative as well. Last world boss, the Iron Fry (? name) is one of the most creative. He is a big flying chef ball, as it looks like. It will spit out enemies, and you have to shoot them back at it. During the fight, instead of just enemies, you have to throw bombs. This is kinda similar to the previous boss, but it is still completely different.

The final boss, the Shake King, is very hard, but is very well made. You have to find a way to grab him, and then throw him at a wall. The funny thing is, you can shake HIM, and he spurts out money! Although, he can grab you as well, and do the same thing. He is a long boss, and is very entertaining for the final boss of the game.

Then there is the end, which the credits roll, and they show a montage of Wario having a good time with his money. Then, at the end of the credits, a really funny thing happens that I don't really want to spoil, so play the game for yourself to find out.

Ohh, and something funny I want to point out, not a complaint, just something weird, but it would seem that Captain Honey loves Wario, and she owns the shop. So, why isn't everything free? It isn't a bad thing, for it is good for a game that has a shop, but if she is in love with Wario, she should just give him anything he needed. My guess is that she must just be almost as greedy as Wario already is.

So, to conclude, Wario Land might be one of the best, if the not THE best, platformers I have ever played. Although it's not completely perfect, I only know of 2 flaws. Underwater Levels, and finding secret levels before beating the game. Although I see those 2 errors, I still find that this game deserves more than just a 9. And note that Wario Land: Shake It! is the first game I have reviewed, so this review may not be a good review, compared to other reviews of people.
So, finally, Wario Land: Shake It! gets a 10/10!
And I bet Wario would agree as well.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 10/26/09

Game Release: Wario Land: Shake It! (US, 09/22/08)