Wario Land 4

"A great game that doesn't live up to it's predeccessor"

After getting my hands on and playing the excellent Wario Land 3 until my hands were sore, and finally beating the game with 100% 5 times, I was naturally wanting a sequel. A sequel was released, and it was in my hands before you could say "HERE WE GO!". Naturally, I was hoping this one would be better-looking, better-sounding and better than Wario Land 3, which was saying something, considering how incredible Wario Land 3 was. I turned on the game, and prepared to find out...

Graphics:
Years before the DS, 64 quality visuals reach handhelds.

Wario Land 3 had SNES quality visuals on a GBC system. Naturally, I was expecting something awesome, but the PS POWER GRAPHICS stunned me anyways. The anime style intro cutscene blew me away with it's brilliant artwork and animations, and simply made Wario Land 3 look like crap.

But that was just the appetizer, just the icing on the cake.

In-game, the graphics are unbelievable, with amazing backdrops, fluent animations, and tons of special effects. Bosses look both silly and intimidating at the same time, and the warping colors effect when you hit the switch to the warp just looks amazing. I especially like how it gets more intense as time begins to run out.

Only thing I can find wrong is that the enemies aren't as varied, which means the enemies may get boring after a while.

The forms have taken a graphical overhaul too, and the animations are exactly the same as in the last game, which is just plain nostalgic. The pants on fire animation still makes me laugh. : )

Wario is graphically improved by a lot, and is one of the best-looking characters on any Nintendo system to date. I really mean it when I say that you have to see this game to believe this game. 9/10

Gameplay:

Great gameplay hurt by it's difficulty and length.

Take Wario Land 3, make Wario invincible and make the game far, far too short. You get Wario Land 4's gameplay. While Wario Land 3 had 80 (!!!) missions, Wario Land 4 has 18, not counting the bosses, which there are only 6 of. That's what hurts this game, it's length.

Did I mention Wario is vincible? The fun puzzle element of Wario Land III is thrown halfway out the window, as the puzzles are still there, but are much easier, unfortunately. It's replaced by Wario being vincible, and your enemies, the only things that can damage you, pose little to no threat. The bosses are the only reason the vincibility is worth anything in this game, as the bosses are the only things that put up any actual fight.

The bosses are a blast and will actually put up quite a fight, especially the final one, which will truly prove a challenge to Wario novices and veterans alike. The bosses cause you to think too, but considering you have a small amount of time, you don't have too much time to come up with a strategy.

Then there are the music CDs. Likely the reason they shortened the length of the game was because they could only fit so many, but it doesn't make up for it. In every level, hidden somewhere or on the other side of a tricky puzzle, is a treasure chest containing a CD. The CDs are sent to a room on the world...err..pyramid map and if you go to this room, you can listen to these CDs.

Also, your objective in the levels is to find 4 treasure chests (unlike Wario Land 3, these do not require keys and you can get them all in one sitting), each one containing a piece of a large daimond. You must find all of these chests in a single game, and you must find all 4 on all 4 levels for each of the 4 worlds. Once you do, you can access the boss. But there's more! Once you enter the level, the portal closes and you must reopen it. Which means after you have collected all 4 daimonds, you must find the switch at the end of the level and jump on it. Once you do, the portal at the entrance opens and you have to find it or else... BOOM! Yup, BOOM! If you don't make it in time, you die, and lose all 4 jewels, all your gold, and everything else you collected in that level. Frustrating, isn't it?

Luckily, the minigames are pretty damn fun, simple to learn, yet difficult to win at. In a room before each boss is a minigame room containing 3 minigames.

One of them is Wario Hop, where you must guide Wario, who is running on a tire, past miscellaneous objects from the game by jumping over them. Eventually, the tire will speed up and once you get far enough, speed up again, and so on and so on until the point where it is going so fast that is not humanally possible to continue.

The next one is baseball, Wario style. In this one, an 8-bit pitcher will toss balls at you and you must hit them with your bat and get a home run, and doing so shows off the nicest graphical effect within the entire game. The only flaw is that for some reason, the screen is ROTATED to fit on the GBA screen. To see it the way it's supposed to be seen, you must turn your GBA SIDEWAYS!

The last one is Wario's Roulette. In this one, you have to look carefully at Wario's face, which will have a random combination of eyes, nose, and mouth. A roulette will appear and you will have to choose the same combination of eyes, nose and mouth in that order.

Reaching certain milestones in these games will give you medals, which you can trade in for weapons at a shop that you can use against the bosses.

Overall, Wario Land 4's gameplay is awesome alone, but too short and too easy compared to Wario Land 3s. 8/10.

Sound:
So catchy, you'll be humming them at funerals.

The music and sounds are an enormous improvement over the original, and they sound great. You'll find yourself humming these tunes at the worst of times (keep hold of yourself during funerals, you don't want to be humming "Palm Tree Paradise" during them ^^;) because they are so damn catchy, and the sounds sound great.

The karaoke tune is really nice and the CDs..are...stupid. The CDs are annoying collages of sound effects with stupid titles. One example is one with Wario snoring to music. If you call 2 notes that sound almost exactly the same being played in loops music. The music CDs are not worth the immense effort.

Wario talks, by the way, and sounds great. His voice alone shows off the ability of the GBA's sound, and shows it off well. 7/10

Story:
Cliche and annoying, beaten by it's predecessor.

Borrowing something from Wario Land 3, the story you get at the beggining of the game sounds cliche, but the ending hides a plot twist. Unlike Wario Land 3, the ending DOES NOT leave you feeling satisfied. In fact, it does quite the opposite. In fact, it makes you want to break something. The ending has a cliche plot twist I won't tell you about and a message that just annoys you.

Here is the actual plot, straight from the manual, from Wario's sadly moronic point of view:

-MY SECRET DIARY-

November 16, 2001
On a peaceful morning filled with the chirps of cheery birds, I was reading the morning paper and doing a little nose-cleaning. "Wh-wh-what!?" I exclaimed in surprise. I was so surprised by one article in the paper, I accidentally jammed my finger straight up my nose! "Aaargh! I think I just poked my brain!" Anyway, enough 'bout that. The headline of the article said that a legendary pyramid had been discovered. Hmmmmm... When I read the article, I learned that the ruins held the buried pyramid where the princess Shokora, who once ruled this area, had been put into a cursed sleep by the arrogant, selfish, money-crazed Golden Diva. "Do I smell treasure again?" I thought. "Heh, heh, hehhhh!" As the wicked laugh floated through my mind, I was already thinking about the money and nothing else! Forgetting even to take my mid-morning nap, I hopped into my fantastic Wario car and headed for the Golden Pyramid. "All that treasure for me! Guhahaha!"

See? This "story" does not make me want to play this game. It makes me want to beat in Wario's face with a sledgehammer for being a nasty piggish greedy freak. I mean, c'mon, I like Wario for being a nasty piggish greedy pig, but making him sound like a complete and total moron...that's taking it too far.

And by the way, after the "plot twist" at the ending that I actually saw coming from a mile away, you get a message that just ruins the feel of the overall ending.

Wario Land 4's story is crap compared to Wario Land 3's story. Nintendo got lazy. 3/10

Controls
Still easy to learn, still responsive, and still good.

All the items from Wario Land 3 are already at your disposal. The control schemes are exactly the same. Which are...

Right and left is to walk, move through water, or if pressing B at the same time, jump off ladders. Up is to enter doorways or to grab ladders or fences while jumping. Down is to crouch, roll down hills, plus A to do a crouching jump, plus B to slide down ladders. Up or down also allows you to enter pipes or climb up or down ladders, and pressing any direction allows you to move along fences, make selections and move on the map screen. Start and select are to enter the save screen or view the map window, A button is to jump, do a rolling jump, jump and step on enemies, jump when holding something, confirm decisions, and scroll through text windows. B is to attack, plus A to do a jumping attack, plus down to do a crouching slide, or let go when holding something or cancel selections.

Oh yeah, and R is do a headbash, R and A is a running headbash...meh, figure it out. The controls are responsive, and the first level tells you them all anyways. 10/10

And, for those of you too lazy to read everything else, here is a summary:

Graphics (9/10):Years before the DS, 64 quality visuals reach handhelds.
Sound (7/10):So catchy, you'll be humming them at funerals.
Gameplay (7/10):Great gameplay hurt by it's difficulty and length.
Story (3/10):Cliche and annoying, beaten by it's predecessor.
Controls (10/10):Still easy to learn, still responsive, and still good.

Pros and Cons:
+++++Stunning visuals.
+++++ Catchy music.
+++ Perfect Controls.
+ Good sounds.
-- A cliche story.
-------- Far too easy and short.

FINAL VERDICT:
7.2/10 or 72/100

Buy, Rent or BUUURRRRRRNNNN:
If you like long games, avoid this one. If you like graphics, gameplay, and sounds, buy at all costs. If you're looking for a game better than Wario Land 3, look further, but consider a rent anyways. If you're just looking for a fun game, buy this.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 07/29/04