Perhaps it's no surprise that the original MONEY MONEY MONEY (mo-ney) game just hit the American 3DS Virtual Console this week. Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 is especially notable as we await NSMB 2 in that no matter how you play the game, cash is always king (literally, as Wario will end up with a shiny new castle if you finish the game with enough cheddar).
I used to play this game quite a bit as a younger lad—my cousin had a copy and I quite fondly remember sitting on the cement patio stairs leading up to the front door of my grandfather's house on summer days to play it with the best possible direct sunlight on my big old OG Game Boy. One thing I remember being pretty revolutionary at the time was the branching exits and the "big secrets" in the form of the large special treasures. The game really encouraged me to stretch my exploratory muscles, and played no small part in training me for my upcoming years of digging through RPGs for hidden passages.
Anyway, while NSMB 2 angles for a considerable 1,000,000 coins, Wario Land is a bit more reserved in its ambitions, as the ultimate goal here is just over 100,000, for the best ending. Added to that are the ability to collect those twenty-six hidden treasures, which have a combined total value of just over 90,000 coins, meaning really the game can also be more about exploration than just grabbing every coin in sight, if you want to play it that way.
Speaking of grabbing all the coins though, it's interesting to note the very different stylistic choices made by the designers of Wario Land and those of NSMB 2, even in the face of some obvious similarities. Wario's speed and pace is exactingly deliberate, and he moves slowly—almost cumbersomely throughout the levels. He's got a huge vertical jump, but it doesn't carry you on its momentum—let go of the jump button and you are heading back down, immediately. There also aren't many surplus coins to be had in Wario Land. Play through the entire six-stage first world and if you're lucky you'll come out of it with about 500 coins in the bank, not exactly a princely sum in a modern era where you can easily net fifteen extra guys and wads of coins on a random level of the newer Mario games. In Wario Land you have to dispatch foes with your bull charge for a single measly coin, and if you know a few tricks you can get ten at a time. No special 50-coin bonuses or thousands-of-coins coin rush modes here.
An interesting similarity between the two is in the "coin doubling" mechanic, which I am almost positive the NSMB designers had to have cribbed from Wario Land. Finish a level in Wario Land and you'll be offered the chance to play a bonus game with your acquired coins. You can play it three times, with each attempt consisting of picking one of two buckets. You'll either double your money or cut it in half each time, meaning if you do it perfectly you could turn a respectable 50-coin finish into a handsome 400 coins. Fail miserably and you'll end up with more like six coins. NSMB 2 uses this system over three levels at a time in the coin rush mode, via the flagpole doubler—grab the top of the end-of-stage post to double your money, but if you miss it you're just stuck with what you had. They decreased the risk of going for double, while simultaneously decreasing the value of a single coin (by making them more plentiful and requiring a million instead of 100,000). But it makes the player feel massively successful, I assume, and it was probably a good move.
While we all (or at least most of us anyway) know what happens when you hit that massive coin threshold in Wario Land by now, the secrets of the million-coin goal in NSMB 2 seem to be yet shrouded in mystery (or at least spoiler-tagged on your discussion forum of choice). Though America has already gotten a little taste of gold via our Olympic athletes, we'll have to wait another three weeks for those coins. What better way to stave off the anticipation than with a download of the first money-grabbing Mario game?