2001 Nintendo
Nintendo's resident bad boy is back in his latest adventure for the GBA, Wario Land 4. Wario made his introduction as the arch-nemesis of your favourite hero, Mario, in Super Mario World 2. After that, he took off on his own, starring in Wario Blast for the Game Boy, as well as Wario Land 2 and Wario Land 3 for the Game Boy Color. Both of his appearances on the GBC turned out to be great games, and Wario Land 4 on the GBA only builds on that greatness.
Features
- Over 20 stages
- Collect money to play in 3 minigames
- Two difficulty settings
- Unlockable Sound Room
- Battery save (three slots)
- Only for GameBoy Advance
The story's pretty simple. Wario finds himself sitting down for breakfast, and getting his daily dose of "The Nintendo News". The headline reads "Pyramid Discovered". Apparently, an ancient treasure, had almost been discovered, but numerous accidents had prevented anyone from even coming close to finding it.. so what's a greedy villain to do? Wario hops in his car and tears off for the jungle in search of treasure. Once he gets into the pyramid, he finds himself trapped and must enter a stage to collect keys to unlock the door to next stage. Not only that, Wario must find a switch that reopens the entrance and once he's jumped on that switch, it's a race against time to get back. If you run out of time, you start losing you're hard earned money. Once you've run out of that, you're forced to start the stage over completely broke.
As well as the key, Wario is also looking for 4 corner pieces. These 4 corner pieces join to form a 4 sided item that fits into one of 4 slots on the boss door. Since there are 4 stages in each area, you must collect one of these in each stage to unlock the boss door. As an added bonus, a CD item can be found in each stage. This CD item unlocks the sound effects of that stage, which can be listened to in the Sound Room.
The beginning level is a wonderful introduction to the game, allowing players to learn the basic moves of the game without even having to pick up the manual. The controls take advantage of the GBA layout very nicely, allowing for charging, jumping while charging, etc. The first level may seem ridiculously simple, but that's because it's meant to be. Believe me, you'll be using the skills learned in this level later on.
Wario may not be invincible like he used to be in previous games, but he can still be changed into other forms by certain creatures. For instance, if Wario is turned into a zombie by a ghoul, he can slip through floors. Or if he's turned into a snowman by a clump of falling snow, he can roll off of a ledge, turn into a speeding snowball and slam through a certain type of brick. There are roughly around 7 other different forms Wario can take on, including a puffed up Wario, a bat Wario and a bubble Wario. These varying forms really do add great variety to the gameplay, and are reminiscient of the context buttons in Conker's Bad Fur Day for the N64.
Another addition to the gameplay are the 3 minigames found at the end of each area. They include a baseball batting game, where you have to hit home runs. An obstacle course, where Wario rides a tire jumping over objects in a desert. And finally, a face matching game where you look at a face and have to match up various parts of a face (eyes, nose, etc.) to recreate the original one. Although the minigames aren't graphically stunning or overly challenging in any way, they are a nice diversion from the regular game. Unfortunately, they wont distract you for too long. Of course though, they do serve an actual purpose. The money that you collect in the stages of the game is used to enter these minigames, where you can win coins. These coins can be used to buy various weapons to use against an upcoming boss. The minigames are only a small chunk of the replay value. As mentioned before, a CD can be found in each stage, but they are not necessary to complete the game. Going back to find them can be quite difficult at times, as sometimes you can only access them once you've jumped on the switch that reopens the entrance. So not only are you looking for the CD, but you're also trying to make it out of the level on time.
The graphics in Wario Land 4 don't stand out as much as say, Golden Sun, but they do hold their own on a more subtle level. The backrounds are nicely detailed, with good looking sprites. The only real problem is that it's not really all that could be done, but truth be told, it's not that big of deal. It looks nice and gets the job done. The music in the game is surprising to say the least. For the most part, it included your standard platformer tunes, but some of them actually boasted voices. Even after the GBA being out this long (about six months), I'm still a little shocked every time I hear a clear voice escaping from the speakers.
Overall, Wario's your standard Nintendo platformer, great. While not perfect in every department, it's a well rounded game that deserves to get extensive play from gamers. Now let's delve into the thoughts of some of those gamers and see what the N-Council had to say about Wario Land 4.