Wario Land 4
Reviewed by James Wardle
The Gameboy Advance, what was so advanced about it
until a few months after its launch. When I come to
relise the facts about the newest Portable system to
enter our lives, I began thinking that the Gameboy
Advance is full of remakes, which I did deny long
ago. So why have I changed my mind, you ask? Well,
Super Mario brothers 2 and Rayman are both
Platforming games, and both of them are remakes,
along with Chu Chu Rocket, Doom and 30% of Mario
Kart. I do like those remakes which I have just
mentioned, but it would be nice to see a new,
original game to hit the shelves which was actually
great. Pinobi is not that good, but five months after
it's June release, Wario Land 4 came out, a sequel,
but a life saver for the handheld.
Yes, Wario, the angry, plump and rather yellow evil
clone of Mario is back, up to his greedy ways. There
is no long awaited confrontation between Mario and
Wario in this game, but it holds some great
surprises. Wario used to be an immortal character on
his past adventures, like Wario World 2 and 3, but
been invincible didn't mean the games was easy, they
because some of Nintendo's hardest games. Wario Land
4 has taken a dramatic turn from this immortality
matter and made Wariop a normal being, giving him a
Eight point health bar.
The game's story starts off very great. As the
hilarious instruction book and the game itself
explains the story, we find out this ; Wario is
reading the morning papers and finds out that a
no-threat-to-life-pyramid has recently being
discovered in the middle of a desert somewhere. Wario
gets very excited, because he is such a greedy bugger
and dashes to his car, which he most probaly stolen
from the mysterious world in Wario Land 3. Wario has
become so excited, infact he becomes so excited that
he almost runs over a cat! Upon entering the pyramid,
Wario is greeted by many doors, leading to worlds
leading to treasure!
Many changes occur in this Wario Land game from all
the others. This time, Wario CAN die, he has 8 Health
Points, which can easily be re-filled by small hearts
you get from defeating small bad guy's. Another is in
terms of levels, You only have to play each level
only once or twice. You need to get 4 jigsaw pieces
and a key, which can be gotten on your first go, plus
you can get a hidden C.D soundtrack, which can also
be found on your first go. Another thing to know in
terms of changes is the lifespan, the game is about
ten times as short as all the other Wario games.
Makes you think that the catridge used to make this
game can hold the same ammount of memory as The
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
Our Yellow Plumber is a very easy character to
controll. He jumps very easily, and has plenty moves
for us to learn, such as roll, elbow dash and a
massive STOMP! Unlike the latest Mario Games, there
is a large absence of Pipes, Wario Land 4 is full of
them, especially on the first set of levels. The
pipes just basically take you to the next screen, and
does not lead to confusing warps, like Super Mario
Brothers 3.
There is many puzzle elements in the game, most are
not actually brain taxing, but a fair couple will
make you fthink for a minute or two. Most of the
puzzles rely on transformations. Like the other
games, where Wario cannot die, Wario instead changed
in to many things, like Zombie's, fireballs or bats.
The same method works here, but it is very
in-frequant. Not only are transformations are rare,
there is not a huge selection, but listen to his, a
lot of them are hilarious, never mind very fun to
actually control.
Wario Land 4 has several bosses for Wario to take on,
each with a time limit. The bosses are nowhere near
push-overs, they are as tough as nails. Not only
that, but the very first boss has about ten attacks
to fight you with. Before each boss, there is a shop,
ran by the ne, the only, MR. GAME AND WATCH!,
possibly one of the best and important videogame
characters ever created. Mr. Game and Watch will
trade items for medals, won at mini games for weapons
which will take off big damage from the bosses at the
very start of the battle.
As for the mini games, There is three. The first one,
Home run is a slow baseball game, which you must tilt
your Gameboy Advance 90 Degree's and hit the Wario
Ball with A when Mr. Game and Watch throws it at you.
It is very hard to score though, the ball goes very
fast, and you will get more fouls then home runs. The
second, which is my favourite, involves Wario running
on a car tire and is rolling towards the left. There
are many obsticals, a pig, a detective, a band, a
bear, cowboy and more, and you must jump over them.
This is much harder then it looks, Wario gets much
faster, and the objects get very close together. The
final, is a very funny one, where you must remember a
Wario picture, and put on features, in the form of
Mr. Potatoe Head.
The graphics are oustanding for a Gameboy Advance
game. Wario has a lot of funny and brilliant
animations. The gorgeous backgrounds in the wildlife
levels make you want to come back for more gameplay.
As for the sound, what can I say? Brilliant? Nah, too
harsh! The sound and music is the best I have ever
heard on a Gameboy Advance game. There is even SONGS
in the game, full of cute voices singing along to
peaceful tunes in the game.
Overall, Every Gameboy Advancre owner has to get
their hands on this brilliant, yet short adventure.
Good
- The newest installment of Wario
- Brilliant in all terms but Lifespan
Bad
- Will take you less then 10 hours to beat
Alternatives : Super Mario Advance, Rayman, Mario Land 3
Graphics - 10/10
Sound - 10/10
Music - 10/10
Gameplay - 9/10
Story - 9/10
Challenge - 5/10
Fun Factor - 9/10
Lifespan - 6/10
Overall - 9/10