Weiss
Unwise
- Pronouns
- He/They
This week I completed a sequential playthrough of the four Game Boy Wario Land titles (affectionately dubbed the Warathon), and came away with an important discovery: Wario Land 3 is so dang good, y'all.
I mean, I knew that already and so did you, but y'know. Can't hurt to remind myself.
The more important discovery is that, by playing its predecessors in quick order before diving back into Wario Land 3, I finally figured out why this game works so well; Wario Land 3 is built almost entirely out of organic challenge, sending a character who cannot die through levels with no ticking clock where the only thing preventing him from reaching his goal is the player themself.
To display a more typical platformer, let's go with Sonic the Hedgehog 2.
If you're at all familiar with the genre, you probably have an idea of what's up here. You've got a timer, you've got lives, and you've got a health system. The platforms on either side of Tails have the capacity to dump him into the water, giving you only so much time to resurface before drowning if not dumping you into a bottomless pit. Die in any of the ways you can even just in this one screenshot, you lose a life and are returned to your last checkpoint.
Wario Land 3 has none of this. Let me tell you why it's great.
Introduced in Wario Land 2 were the series' most defining gimmicks: Wario is entirely immortal, and any interaction with an enemy will either push Wario back or cause a transformation used to progress. Wario will lose a few coins every time he's attacked by an enemy with a sharp object, but there is otherwise no consequence to getting bopped. In addition to these, and what tends to be commented upon less in my experience, was an emphasis on exploration. Wario Land 1 had some of this for its optional treasures, but Wario Land 2 exists in two states as almost two separate games: do you want to jump and shoulder bash to all the endings? Here's 50(!) linear levels entirely at your disposal. Go nuts, because there's nothing that can do much more than slow you down. But if you really want to knuckle down and see all that Wario Land 2 has to offer you'll smash every wall for every stash of coins you can nab on your way to finding the secret treasure in each level, using that big hoard of coins you've collected to pay for rounds of two separate minigames that each reward you with another item that, when fully collected across the game's five branching story paths, will unlock the game's ultimate level.
And while Wario's immortality and powers of shapeshifting through slapstick violence remain in effect, it's really the third thing that matters most to Wario Land 3. Gone is the entirely start-to-finish platforming that defined the rest of the series looking backwards and ahead, with 25 explorative Metroidvana-lite levels that gradually expand through the adventure. Finding all the knick-knacks and doodads is no longer in the realm of 100% completion, it's the main thrust of the game where linear platforming challenges are meted out in larger hub maps that shift and adapt over time, both through the treasures you collect and in upgrading Wario's abilities.
(Hey wait, couldn't you swim in Wario Land 2?)
A game, something that is meant to be at least nominally challenging, starring a character who cannot die sounds like a losing prospect. The trick is that instead of impeding your progress through lives, health, and timers, Wario Land 3 costs you your own time. Running into an open flame won't shrink Wario or cost him his rings, he'll launch into an uncontrollable dash that either begins its own challenge of finding walls that are broken down through Wario's burning form or has to be carefully maneuvered so you don't helplessly run back the way you came. Descending into a volcano with floating jellyfish whose stingers inflate Wario will only hinder your progress for as long as it takes you to successfully bop them in the head with the immediately available and endlessly respawning barrels you'll then use to break a wall and progress further downward. Even boss battles get in on this philosophy, acting as lightning-fast puzzle/platform challenges where one hit will knock you out of their arena until you learn how to quickly stomp them and move forward.
Wario's been at the microgame thing long before WarioWare; every screen in Wario Land 3 is a tiny challenge that exists as part of a greater whole, setting you up against obstacles that are all cleanly, visually defined as you approach them. The frozen bear enemy will always try to freeze you on sight, birds will always charge at you, and the most they can do is knock you back to the beginning of the latest slice of platforming. Any fan of 2D platformers will tell you the most annoying part of these games is missing a jump because of a charging enemy, but let me put it like this: being knocked down and having to redo some tricky playforming takes way, way less time without a death jingle, a prompt showing your remaining lives, and finally a return to your latest checkpoint before you can actually go back and fail in the exact way.
(Besides this guy, anyway. It's a special final boss privilege)
Wario Land 3 is, fundamentally, a game where every piece of progress you earn is hard-saved. You cannot fail in Wario Land 3, you can barely even be stopped, and all of this is displayed in one seamless flow of gameplay with zero UI, which always has a special effect on me. One of the most powerful immersive factors in a game is when it's designed with such clear visual feedback where no UI is needed, like Donkey Kong Country using your two Kongs as an extra hit, or classic Resident Evil only letting you know you're low on health when you begin to feebly limp away from ravenous zombies.
Now, in the interest of full disclosure, Wario Land 3 does implement two brands of gatekeeping unrelated to the above. First is the Day/Night cycle which subtly alters certain levels depending on the time of day. It's simply rectified (leave the stage and reenter) but pops up so infrequently I question why it was even included. The second level of the game is first introduced at nighttime and you can only progress during the day, which does serve the purpose of teaching the player that you can only do certain things at certain times, but it's teaching me to avoid something that maybe shouldn't have been there to begin with.
Second is the golf game, which is the only thing you're collecting money for and it increases in cost as the game continues. If you're out of money then you're out of luck too, and it sticks out as the only part of the game that is insurmountable in the immediate moment. It's bad design, to be sure, but only in that the rest of the game nails it so perfectly and bashing this little fella into a hole never stopped being funny to me.
I mean, I knew that already and so did you, but y'know. Can't hurt to remind myself.
The more important discovery is that, by playing its predecessors in quick order before diving back into Wario Land 3, I finally figured out why this game works so well; Wario Land 3 is built almost entirely out of organic challenge, sending a character who cannot die through levels with no ticking clock where the only thing preventing him from reaching his goal is the player themself.
To display a more typical platformer, let's go with Sonic the Hedgehog 2.
If you're at all familiar with the genre, you probably have an idea of what's up here. You've got a timer, you've got lives, and you've got a health system. The platforms on either side of Tails have the capacity to dump him into the water, giving you only so much time to resurface before drowning if not dumping you into a bottomless pit. Die in any of the ways you can even just in this one screenshot, you lose a life and are returned to your last checkpoint.
Wario Land 3 has none of this. Let me tell you why it's great.
Introduced in Wario Land 2 were the series' most defining gimmicks: Wario is entirely immortal, and any interaction with an enemy will either push Wario back or cause a transformation used to progress. Wario will lose a few coins every time he's attacked by an enemy with a sharp object, but there is otherwise no consequence to getting bopped. In addition to these, and what tends to be commented upon less in my experience, was an emphasis on exploration. Wario Land 1 had some of this for its optional treasures, but Wario Land 2 exists in two states as almost two separate games: do you want to jump and shoulder bash to all the endings? Here's 50(!) linear levels entirely at your disposal. Go nuts, because there's nothing that can do much more than slow you down. But if you really want to knuckle down and see all that Wario Land 2 has to offer you'll smash every wall for every stash of coins you can nab on your way to finding the secret treasure in each level, using that big hoard of coins you've collected to pay for rounds of two separate minigames that each reward you with another item that, when fully collected across the game's five branching story paths, will unlock the game's ultimate level.
And while Wario's immortality and powers of shapeshifting through slapstick violence remain in effect, it's really the third thing that matters most to Wario Land 3. Gone is the entirely start-to-finish platforming that defined the rest of the series looking backwards and ahead, with 25 explorative Metroidvana-lite levels that gradually expand through the adventure. Finding all the knick-knacks and doodads is no longer in the realm of 100% completion, it's the main thrust of the game where linear platforming challenges are meted out in larger hub maps that shift and adapt over time, both through the treasures you collect and in upgrading Wario's abilities.
(Hey wait, couldn't you swim in Wario Land 2?)
A game, something that is meant to be at least nominally challenging, starring a character who cannot die sounds like a losing prospect. The trick is that instead of impeding your progress through lives, health, and timers, Wario Land 3 costs you your own time. Running into an open flame won't shrink Wario or cost him his rings, he'll launch into an uncontrollable dash that either begins its own challenge of finding walls that are broken down through Wario's burning form or has to be carefully maneuvered so you don't helplessly run back the way you came. Descending into a volcano with floating jellyfish whose stingers inflate Wario will only hinder your progress for as long as it takes you to successfully bop them in the head with the immediately available and endlessly respawning barrels you'll then use to break a wall and progress further downward. Even boss battles get in on this philosophy, acting as lightning-fast puzzle/platform challenges where one hit will knock you out of their arena until you learn how to quickly stomp them and move forward.
Wario's been at the microgame thing long before WarioWare; every screen in Wario Land 3 is a tiny challenge that exists as part of a greater whole, setting you up against obstacles that are all cleanly, visually defined as you approach them. The frozen bear enemy will always try to freeze you on sight, birds will always charge at you, and the most they can do is knock you back to the beginning of the latest slice of platforming. Any fan of 2D platformers will tell you the most annoying part of these games is missing a jump because of a charging enemy, but let me put it like this: being knocked down and having to redo some tricky playforming takes way, way less time without a death jingle, a prompt showing your remaining lives, and finally a return to your latest checkpoint before you can actually go back and fail in the exact way.
(Besides this guy, anyway. It's a special final boss privilege)
Wario Land 3 is, fundamentally, a game where every piece of progress you earn is hard-saved. You cannot fail in Wario Land 3, you can barely even be stopped, and all of this is displayed in one seamless flow of gameplay with zero UI, which always has a special effect on me. One of the most powerful immersive factors in a game is when it's designed with such clear visual feedback where no UI is needed, like Donkey Kong Country using your two Kongs as an extra hit, or classic Resident Evil only letting you know you're low on health when you begin to feebly limp away from ravenous zombies.
Now, in the interest of full disclosure, Wario Land 3 does implement two brands of gatekeeping unrelated to the above. First is the Day/Night cycle which subtly alters certain levels depending on the time of day. It's simply rectified (leave the stage and reenter) but pops up so infrequently I question why it was even included. The second level of the game is first introduced at nighttime and you can only progress during the day, which does serve the purpose of teaching the player that you can only do certain things at certain times, but it's teaching me to avoid something that maybe shouldn't have been there to begin with.
Second is the golf game, which is the only thing you're collecting money for and it increases in cost as the game continues. If you're out of money then you're out of luck too, and it sticks out as the only part of the game that is insurmountable in the immediate moment. It's bad design, to be sure, but only in that the rest of the game nails it so perfectly and bashing this little fella into a hole never stopped being funny to me.
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