Written Review.
Super Mario Land and even more so with Super Mario Land 2 were games I played a fair whack as a kid. I really enjoyed them. Now Super Mario Land 3, which is Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3, is a game I over ever played briefly.
I decided to give this a bash after a few months back.. or longer I played through Super Mario Land 2 DX which is a fan-made version of the game which sees it upgraded to what it would be like on the GBC, kind of like Link’s Awakening to Link’s Awakening DX. On top of that, I more recently played through SML2 on the GRcade Twitch CHannel for Retro Monday. I thought I should put some time into Wario Land, I’ve heard good things about the series in general and with only brief experiences with a few I decided to start on the very first Wario Land.
Wario Land is a very good game. It plays a lot differently from the previous Mario Land games. Wario himself while having the basic moveset of running left and right and jumping, he can also charge and shoulder barge his enemies, and he can butt stomp. His butt stomp though can flip enemies on the ground onto their backs. You can then pick up the little critters and throw them around and take out other enemies. On top of that, you can have different hats. You can get one which is similar to the one you start with, but has horns, they seem to make your butt stomping and charges more powerful and give you the ability to stick into ceilings, though honestly, I didn’t see the use for that, myself. You also get a dragon Hat which breathes fire and can break certain blocks or take the bad guys at a slight distance. One more hat is like a rocket hat with wings, you can just jet about places, which makes exploring and getting about easier.
Now, we know Wario is all about the money, well, if you didn’t you do now. He’s not like Mario, he doesn’t do things to help people and in this, he’s trying to find treasure, well you can earn a fair whack of coins as you progress through the game and the ending you get, which I think there’s 5 or 6 will depend on how much money to collect through the game. On top of that during the levels there are treasures to collect which are hidden away in locked chests, you need to explore the level to find these hidden chests and also locate a key which will unlock them. They have also hidden away. It’s a good way to incentivise you to explore the levels more and if you fail to get them all add replayability along with the various ending. Infourtunalty I only managed to obtain one treasure and was so awful I game over and it went bye-bye. At the end of the levels, you get the chance to spend coins in a mini-game in which you throw bombs at enemies and if you hit them you earn money, there are varying levels of difficulty which also vary in cost. The more expensive the more difficult, but the higher the reward. There’s also another mini-game, which you can choose. In this you have can select one of to hanging chains up to 3 times, if you select the correct chain you get a bag of gold, which doubles your cash, but if you select the wrong chain you get a ton of wait land on your head and you lose half your money. It’s all risk and reward, but you need that money if you want the best ending.
One last thing I’ll say about money is that you use the money to access checkpoints. You’ll come across a skull with a slot about it, and if you hold up you’ll hold a coin and you then insert it into the slot and boom, that’s your checkpoint. I think it takes 10 coins. Now onto the sound. Again, it has the familiarity of Super Mario Bros or Land, but it’s a little off. I don’t mean it sounds bad or anything, but the music is more warped for want over a better word. It seems like the clean and clear music that’s normally in the Mario series has taken a turn for the more, not sinister, maybe unnatural and twisted feel, which, let’s face is what Wario is, a darker, more twisted version of Mario and we all love him for it. That being said, not every stage has that feel, there’s still some more fast-paced music with a more upbeat tone, but it feels like they’ve gone that extra step, along with the gameplay to differentiate Wario and Mario. You get it with the gameplay and the audio.
Having had little experience with the game before I’d struggle if asked if I’d recommend it to people unfamiliar with the Wario games, but, now, if that question was asked I’d flat out be saying yes. Play it, it’s worth your time to get to learn more and play more as Wario. He’s and this game is bloody great.