Wario Land: Shake It!

Wario tries to shakes things up on the Wii!

Posted 4 years ago By - Nelson Hum

With all the recent success of first-person shooters and open sand box games, has the day of the traditional platformer gone the way of the dodo? Whatever happened to the side-scrolling platformer, where the protagonist would have to rely on his quick feet rather than a plasma rifle or a +2 broadsword in his hands.

Surprisingly, it’s Wario -- not Mario -- that is taking us on a trip that is equal parts old school with some added depth, albeit those elements are borrowed from the past. Prepare yourself for Wario Land: Shake It!

Gameplay

Make no mistake about it – Warioland: Shake It is a platformer through and through. Wario jumps, butt crushes, and shoulder crashes with the best of them. He can also shake his enemies for health items, which is a novel idea at first but can get a little bothersome as you actually shake the Wiimote to perform the move. Speaking of the motion controllers, they’re gimmicky at best. You shake the Wiimote to do Wario’s earthquake special or tilt the controller to aim a fastball special. All of these moves can easily be replicated on a standard controller so the actual Wiimote doesn’t offer anything special (annoyingly, you can’t use the Classic controller or a GameCube controller to play the game.) However, the controls themselves are precise and handling Wario is a breeze.

The game itself has plenty to offer, as each stage has secondary and tertiary objectives (like stomp on X amount of a particular enemy or finish the level under a certain time.) You can also collect three hidden treasures hidden throughout each level. The game also has the “race back” feature found in Wario Land 4 – once you get to the end of the stage, you need to rush back (usually with the help of a giant canon that launches you) within a certain time limit in order to keep you treasures. Also, some of the secrets and hidden treasures can only be snagged on the way back. This adds some nice depth as you need to search high and low for the treasures. Along with the time crunch, things can get pretty intense. The bosses are fun to fight against but as far as boss battles go it isn’t anything you haven’t seen before.

 

Graphics and Sound

The game is stunning. Pure eye candy that will give your retina’s cavities. Wario Land: Shake It! is truly a feast for the eyes: rich, deeply detailed hand drawn graphics with a cell-shaded/anime look. The graphics are as vivid as anything I’ve seen in Guilty Gear or Odin Sphere. The whole screen simply pops at you, which accentuates the bizarre fantasy world the game takes place in. You’ll traverse deserts, jungles, under the sea. Sure, it may be the stock platform-game world tour but it’s just so dang beautiful you will simple revel in it and maybe ask it out to dinner. There is also an anime intro to the game that is very cool – it reminded me of watching a Saturday morning cartoon. Not that I still do that….

The in-game sounds are great as well – Wario makes his usual groans and gripes while the soundtrack is equal parts goofy and whimsical. However, I do have an issue with the lack of voice acting in the game. The game already looks like a top notch anime – a stellar voice cast would have added a nice topping to our delicious cell-shaded cake. Maybe it was an artistic choice but I’m more than willing to bet that the voices were left out because of the Wii’s weak memory. I guess the gibberish and non-language can be cute but it makes the whole experience feel a bit less next-gen.

 

Value

The game is fun then first time around as you’ll be really compelled to find all of the treasures. Given that some can only be found under a strict time limit, things can get pretty intense. However, once you’ve fulfilled your inner Indiana Jones, there’s really no reason to play through the game again.

 

Conclusion

Wario is a fun game that will take you down a familiar road: solid platforming with some nice added depth. While the game is a graphical treat, the under-utilized Wiimote and ultimately straight forward gameplay makes this a solid but unspectacular game.

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