Wario Land 4

" Wario Land 4 is a great, innovative, 2D platformer that anyone who is familiar with the genre will enjoy immensely."

Wario Land 4 is the first original 2D platformer to come out of Nintendo for the Gameboy Advance handheld system. It is, as you probably know the fourth in the series, but the only one I have ever played. It was also the second game I received for my GBA. This game however is a surprisingly fun platformer and can even give the Mario platformers a challenge in sheer quality, gameplay and overall presentation.

Story:
Pretty much everyone knows that story's for 2D platformers are usually pretty basic, but Wario Land 4, has quite the little story. Wario is casually reading the newspaper one day when he sees a story about a recently discovered Pyramid. This Pyramid apparently has some sort of ancient treasure. And so our adventure begins as the greedy Wario speeds off in his car to obtain the treasure for himself. Wario Land 4 has a lot of comic relief, since you are playing as Wario, they tried to make the game humorous at almost every opportunity. It is actually quite funny and amusing and the ending will give you a good chuckle.

Gameplay:
You start out as Wario inside the pyramid, where you appeared to be trapped. You only have one option, and that is to play the first level. The first level is a tutorial level that is meant to explain the gameplay to you, and all the basic moves that Wario can do. After you get through this level you must play against your first boss. The first boss is really easy, and is basically just a tutorial boss, so you can get an idea about how you're supposed to beat them.

Once you beat this first level and boss 4 different "worlds" open up to you. You can access each area at anytime, and you don't need to beat them in any particular order. The levels are all really fun, and provide interesting challenges. This game is really made for "thinkers" you will sometimes actually have to sit and experiment with the level numerous times in order to figure out what you're supposed to do next, and it really adds to the experience of the game. For each area you must complete 4 levels, and 1 boss for each area, after these areas are completed you gain access to the final level and boss.

Before you go to a boss you have the option to play 3 different mini games. The mini games are a refreshing change of pace from the regular game, but they aren't all that spectacular. They consist of a game where you have to jump over objects while progressively moving faster, swinging a bat at baseballs trying to get homeruns, and a face match up game. Each game is pretty fun, the face match up game is where you look at a picture of a face, then have to copy that face exactly from memory, which is pretty amusing. The main point of the mini games is once you get a certain score you are awarded medals, and you can use the medals to buy mega weapons in the shop to use against the boss. These weapons are used against the boss before you fight him and can greatly reduce their HP.

One of the coolest aspects of Wario Land 4 is the ability to change into a variety of bizarre forms and creatures to help you complete the levels. This adds for a lot of variety to the gameplay and makes completing each level even that more challenging and fun.

Graphics:
The graphics in Wario Land 4 are very good. Wario is drawn very well and the art design for all of the characters is very well done. Wario Land 4 is very much like the Mario games in appearance, but is also noticeably different. There is a large amount of different kinds of worlds and a large amount of different looking areas so to speak, which naturally match up with the current world your playing in. Because the level have so much variation in gameplay and appearance it is hard to get bored of the game.

Sound:
Even though the music is very weird, it fits the game perfectly and is very well done. The music is very weird, consisting of a lot of weird kind of relaxed techno and electronic sounds, with headphones or on a GBA player the music, naturally sounds a lot better with the addition of the louder base. You can even find the CD's in the levels so you can listen to the music in the sound room, but the music is really weird, so I don't think you would spend a lot of time listening to it by yourself, although there are a few tracks worth listening to. But the weirdest thing is that all of the music tracks are accompanied by these weird picture music videos, that show you some really weird images, and it's in some ways kind of creepy.

Value:
This is where the game falls short. Once you beat the game, you really won't spend a lot of time on it afterwards. But the main part of the game is long enough to keep you interested that you can gain quite the lengthy 2D platformer experience out of it. There are several things you can collect, and you will return to play it again, but probably not for a while. I would say this is the type of platformer that once you complete it you will not play it for a while, but you will most likely return to it later when you need to satisfy that old school 2D platforming craving that you just can't get from Mario games. Wario Land 4 is a bizarre platformer but that is what makes it so good. The sound room where you can collect CD's and listen to the music from the game is also a nice feature to have.

Score:
Gameplay: 9
Graphics: 9
Sound: 10
Value: 7
Tilt: 9

Overall: 8.8
If you are looking for an original platformer for your Gameboy Advance than Wario Land 4 is definitely highly recommended. Or, if you are a fan of the series than definitely check this one out, I don't think you will be disappointed.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/19/05