"Wario Land II might just be the absolute best Game Boy platformer to date."

When Wario Land II first came out, I was a litttleee skeptical. What I heard about the game didn't exactly make me thrilled.

Replacing the land/island maps we know and love from Super Mario Land II and Wario Land, Wario Land II is broken up into twelve worlds, or "chapters", as there are a total of fifty-two levels in the game, called "stories".

according to the "Calculator" accessory on my computer, the story:chapter ratio comes out as a repeating decimal, so each chapter must have a different amount of stories. k? k.

Ehr... anyway, Wario can't die. Yes, that's right. Much like how Jim Carrey can't lie in the movie "Liar Liar", Wario can't die. ... However, don't bother thinking that this game is a pushover. it's not. You see, Wario can become a certain type of "Wario" (Remember Bull Wario, Jet Wario, and Dragon Warrior from the first one?)if he is hit by varied monsters. For example, if Wario gets tapped on the head by an eeeeeevil bear with a hammer, he becomes springyyyyy, and can jump higher. If Wario is stung by a bee, his head gets "puffy", and he floats to higher places until he hits the ceiling. However, if he gets hit by a monster that doesn't give a special ability, he'll lose coins that he has collected in the level thus far and bounces back (or, if no coins are yet collected, he simply bounces back). Abilities can also be used to break special blocks throughout each level.

... And yes, of course, coins are in this game for you to jump for and collect. This is a Mario/Wario Land game, yah know...

Yeah, those funky treasures are back for you to enjoy. If you find certain hidden doorways (which are unmarked, no different than other doorways), you'll be able to access a mini-game to win the treasure of that level... this is a matching puzzle, and you'll be allowed a certain number of seconds to find a picture matching the one given. The amount of seconds is based on difficulty levels... easy, normal, and hard. easy is, well, the easiest, but it costs you a decent 200 coins. Normal costs 100 coins, and Hard costs 50. If you lose the mini-game, you can always re-enter the passageway and try again, if you have the cool cash.

At the end of each level, you can play a number matching game. it costs coins that you collected to turn over a panel of the number, and when you think you know it, you can guess what the number is. winning gives you a fragment of a picture. collect 'em all, and you get something funky. yay!

Sure, Wario Land II breaks a couple traditions, but who cares? This game rocks, in my opinion. If you have fifteen bucks and nothing to spend it on, or maybe even twenty if you're a fan of gameboy platformers, you can make a purchase of this game and definitely get your money's worth. Heck, I have a Gameboy Color and not the color game cartridge, so I may consider buying it, even though I already discovered all of the secret levels and treasures the game has to offer.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 01/21/00, Updated 01/21/00