Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land
Game by Nintendo
Reviewed by Philip "Pocket Squirrel" Wesley
Size: 4Megabits
Save: battery/3 slots
Released: 1993
Works with: Game Boy/Color/Advance/Advance SP
ESRB Rated: E
Rating Descriptions: No Description
Quick Opinion: Own

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Opening Snide Remarks: After the debut of Wario in Super Mario Land 2, it
was decided that Wario should become a more prominent part of the Super
Mario universe. Wario quickly appeared in Mario & Wario, where it was
discovered that putting a bucket on Mario's head was the best way to turn
him into a completely incompetent tool. Wario quickly got bored of doing
this and instead of selling this bucket technology to Bowser for a ton of
money, Wario decided he wanted to get his own castle. You know, because
Mario has a castle. Apparently, years ago, a golden statue of Princess
Peach Toadstool was stolen by the curvaceous Captain Syrup of the Brown
Sugar Pirates. Mario is out looking for the statue and Wario sees a "golden"
opportunity to find the statue first and then ransom/sell it for enough
money to get a huge castle of his own. Possibly a castle that makes all
other castle weep in shame! So, Wario dons his best explorers hat and heads
on out to the island where the Brown Sugar pirates reside. Will Wario find
the statue AND collect all sorts of treasure along the way? Probably.

Is Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land a good game? Maybe you should read the
rest of the review to find out!

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Gameplay Description: Wario will actually be donning a few hats through out
his adventure. Wario Land does not play like a traditional Mario game
because it is not a Mario game. Wario can jump on some enemies and he can
use a body slam to smack into other enemies. When you have ten or more coins,
Wario can produce a "Ten Coin" and use it as a weapon. There are three hats
that you can get in the game by collecting power ups like garlic. The three
hats are as follows.

VIKING HAT: This hat lets you stick to the ceiling, pound through the
ground, and it strengthens Wario's body slam move.

JET HAT: This allows Wario to fly short distances and move through water a
bit more quickly.

DRAGON HAT: This allows Wario to shoot a flame (or darts inside water) out
of his hat and through some blocks and obstacles.

Each of the levels has a checkpoint and an end goal. Some of the levels,
noted by a dot inside of a dot on the world map, contain multiple end goals.
Some of the levels also include a key that you can take to unlock a treasure
room. The levels are reasonably large and contain multiple doors, routes,
and hidden secrets. There is a reasonable amount of exploration as you find
the 40 goals and 15 hidden treasures while collecting coins and hearts.

The coins in Wario Land do not mean extra lives, instead you add the coins
to a larger cache of coins which makes up your savings. You use those coins
at the end of the game to determine what kind of ending you will get. The
coins can also be used to play two kinds of mini-games at the end of the
level. The mini-games allow you to collect hearts or coins.

Hearts lead to extra lives in this game. Collect 100 hearts and you get an
extra life. The mini-games you play at the end of the level are as follows.

BUCKET: In a bit of a throw back to Mario & Wario, you pay a few coins to
pull a bucket on a string. You either get more money or you get a weight
dropped on your head resulting in not winning money. This mini-game is one
of the weakest parts of Wario Land.

BOMBS: In this mini-game, you hit and hold the button to draw up power and
release the button to toss a bomb at unsuspecting "cute" enemies. This is
done via a behind the Wario view and I honestly could play an extended
version of this mini-game for a long, long time. It is just a fun diversion.
The amount of enemies you nail with the bombs determines the amount of
hearts you win at the end of the mini-game.

Each of the areas in the game is themed and the levels reflect the themes.
Lots of falling blocks, hidden traps, ice, fire, castle levels, and so
forth in this game. When you beat certain levels or find certain goals,
previous levels may change a bit. For example: Beating the first boss in
the game floods a few of the beach levels, allowing you to get to the
previously hidden areas in one of the levels. It is an attention to this
kind of exploration that makes Wario Land stand out as a clever and fun
platform game. Yes, the formula for the title is to get from point A to
point B with at least ten coins to unlock the goal. However, the levels
between point A and point B are fun and interesting.

Liked: Wario has a lot of different powers and the world he gets to use
them in is fun and interesting. I liked all of the hidden treasures and
the mini-games.

Hated: There are not a lot of hidden secrets in this game and -sadly- the
game uses the graphics to point out secrets in -sometimes- extremely obvious
ways. While the game has some wonderful mini-games and concepts, it is
ultimately not a very challenging game. It is also pretty easy to farm lives
and money by going through certain levels again.

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Graphics Description: The game is pretty good looking actually, while the
backgrounds are fairly sparse, the foreground objects are humorous in their
detail. An example would be the "Ice" themed world where you see enemies
trapped in the ice. The enemies are nice distortions of Mario enemies and
the bosses are distinctly weird. You fight stand by creatures like a spiked
turtle to more unusual enemies like a giant floating head that shoots fire
boogers at you. Wario himself is reasonably well animated and looks great.
The world maps have a claustrophobic feel to them that matches the mood of
the game. The game pushes the boundaries of the Game Boy hardware and does
have a few slow down and flickering issues when there is a lot of moving
objects on the screen. An example of this would be a few of the "underwater"
levels. There is an area where you can hit a series of underwater blocks to
collect coins in a fairly rapid sequence. Doing this causes the game to
slow down very slightly. The game pays attention to detail though, for
example: The fire hat shoots darts underwater instead of fire. Also, Wario
gives you a thumbs up at the end of each level and has a few amusing
reactions in the game.

Liked: This game looks great! I love the little details!

Hated: Some of these levels have some slight slow down. There is also a
problem where some of the "secrets" in the game are pointed out by coins
or other background objects. That feels a bit like the graphics designer
felt that the game would be too difficult without hints like that. News
flash: The game is not too difficult and those hints feel more like an
insult than a help.

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Sound/Music Description: Some of the tracks from Super Mario Land 2: Six
Golden Coins return with some slight "Wario-ification" to them. Think of
"Wario-ification" as adding "wah" or kazoo noises to everything. The
original compositions are all a variation on a main theme that goes on
throughout the entire game. In a way, there really is only a half dozen
tracks of background music altered slightly for each level. The sound effects
are unique and add to the game, it sounds satisfying to bodyslam an enemy
into oblivion. The only real complaint I have in the sound department is the
counting noise when the game tallies the coins you earned in a level. You
can not skip through the tally and the noise that accompanies it is -at best-
annoying and -at worst- a painful type of headache inducing cacophony.

Liked: That main theme will get stuck in your head. The sound when you smash
an enemy out of a stage has some "weight" to it and is pretty satisfying.

Hated: That coin tally sound is horrible and obnoxious.

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Play Control/Game Design: Wario is pretty easy to control, you can push UP
while jumping to gain extra height, and using coins as weapons or to activate
checkpoints is easy to do. The powers wario has make sense and the levels
are tightly designed to challenge the player. Except that the game does not
really present anything too difficult. The levels well designed, although
some of them are pretty short. The bosses are interesting and there is just
enough to the game to differentiate it from the previous Super Mario Land
games. It plays well and the bosses are interesting. The only real criticism
of the game would be that the levels inside of each themed world feel very
much the same. An example would be: "Here are a few levels on a beach and
they are almost all the same in style." There are some levels that mix it up
a bit by making you be chased by things. I just feel that more could be done
in the style of the levels to mix it up a bit. There are a few areas where
the position of the level on the map dictates the over all feel of the level
but this does not happen nearly enough. The tricks to getting to the hidden
levels are a nice touch and reasonably well thought out. Having earlier
levels change due to your actions in later levels is a good concept that is
not nearly explored enough. The powers Wario has are fairly cosmetic in all
honesty. Being hit reverts Wario to small Wario and the powers are only
useful for breaking blocks. The Viking Hat helps you break blocks below you,
the Jet Hat makes it easier to break blocks under water, and the Dragon Hat
lets you break blocks behind unbreakable blocks. Sadly, the extra air time
given to you by the Jet Hat is not really needed in the game except to help
you find ONE of the treasures. The Dragon Hat invalidates it in usefulness.
This makes the powers in Wario Land a bit redundant. The Bomb mini-game is
amazing and fun. I think I could be pretty happy with a game that was just
a bunch of awesome (and funny) mini-games if they all had the quality that
the Bomb mini-game has.

Liked: Changing levels, easy play control, and fun secrets. The bomb
mini-game could stand on its own. The multiple endings and economy of the
title also works well.

Hated: Some of the powers are a bit redundant, some of the levels are too
short and too generic in setting.

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Improve: I would suggest adding more powers and better exploration puzzles
to the game. Wario Land could also use to be a bit harder.

RIYL: Exploration games and Wario.

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Final Words: Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land is a good game that offers a
fun experience with a reasonable difficulty level and fun hidden secret
treasures to find. Wario Land is a polished, and well executed game, even if
it does feel a bit generic at times. It is not a perfect game by any stretch
of the imagination, but it is well worth your time.

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Score
Gameplay: ****
Graphics: ****
Sound/Music: ****
Play Control/Game Design: ****
Value: *****

Star Total: 63%

Personal Opinion Merit: 20%

Final Score: 83%

Letter Grade: A

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