The 'Shroom:Issue XXIII/Classic Review

Classic Review by

Coin Hell — A Review of Wario Land 2
Yes, coin hell. I'll explain that later.

So, I'm Bloc Partier. Previously known as InfectedShroom. And I'm BACK! Yay!

I've been obsessed with the Wario games lately. So I went out and bought WL2. Here is my review. However... Let us review (pun intended) my style of reviewing:
 * Story - Duh.
 * Gameplay - Duh.
 * Graphics - Also duh. However, on older games like SMB I will not use the graphics to take away from the score of games.
 * Replayability - Only if applicable.
 * Level Design - Only if applicable.
 * Music - Duh.
 * Other - Other random stuff I want to say.
 * Overall Score - My score for the game. I will not average up the sections used, but give my score based on the game in its entirety.

So... Here we go on the wild and changing ride that is... WARIO LAND 2!

Review
This game is probably one of the most original games made around its time. It's genre is difficult to classify; I guess it was one of the very first puzzle-platformers. It incorporates controls and designs from games before it (Super Mario Bros., Wario Land], etc.) and introduces a whole new puzzle aspect. Its levels are very challenging, its music interesting, and its graphics interesting as well. And the whole game is coin hell.

Story
For a Game Boy Color game, it's a pretty advanced story. Captain Syrup and her (three) Black Sugar Pirates steal the (three) treasures from the pudgy Wario's castle. There are even little cutscenes that show the story unfolding.

It's not very advanced according to today's standards, though. The most exciting part is when Wario stops chasing the pirates to help a hen that they attacked. It's actually rather comical, because since when does Wario help chickens?

Overall: 7/10 there's nothing really wrong with the story, but it's not that good.

Gameplay
The most important characteristic of the gameplay is the fact that Wario is totally and completely invincible. He cannot be defeated. Ever. He can be squashed, stabbed, shrunken, blown up, or drunk, and the annoying little (OK, big) fellow simply will not be killed. If he does happen to get hit by an "attacking" enemy, he will simply lose up to six coins. The other enemies (the squashing, shrinking, etc ones) will morph Wario into one of his many forms. (You can learn more about these forms here.) These transformations allow the antihero to get more coins and even treasures.

The invulnerability of the protagonist makes the game very easy. However, to truly complete the game, Wario must get the many treasures that are strewn about the land and the panels to complete some sort of mural. To collect these collectibles, Wario must have coins; if he loses these coins by being attacked, he will be unable to get the treasures. Moreover, he can often be juggled for a bit by two enemies or even spikes, losing far more than six coins. Getting the in-level treasures requires wario to play a small minigame: there will be eight cards with enemies' faces on them. these cards will be flipped over and you must remember where the specified enemy's face was. It's a little hard to describe. There are three speeds in the minigame, and each easier speeds require more coins: it takes 50 coins if you want to have no chance at getting the treasure, 100 if you want to have a tiny chance, and 200 if you want to get it every time. The mural-panels also require a minigame, but it is very hard to describe and I'd rather not do it.

As for the controls, Wario can side-tackle enemies, as usual. He is a very good jumper, however, and I'm pretty sure this game wins the "Wario's highest jumping award." He can also do Ground Pounds very easily, which is quite useful.

The puzzle part of the game is very fun. You will find yourself trying to get to that one platform, only to skip it and retry again later. It's amazingly innovative.

My score for the gameplay? 7/10 - Very fun, but far too easy.

Graphics
The eBay seller that I bought this game from said that the copy I was getting was the Color version; it was not. So I would be bad judge of graphics. From what I've seen, though, the color version is terribly colored. It's like they felt like they were forced to use every color possible in every darn room. As I don't truly know, though, I won't give it a score.

Replayability
The levels are kinda boring the second time through. But that's OK, because you can play them again and find that one little hidden room that you couldn't see before, which was very fun. I really have nothing else to say about replaying... I'm not a big fan of it at all, personally.

Overall: 7/10 - Boring sometimes, fun sometimes.

Level Design
The levels are decent. They aren't particularly amazing, but they are quite fun. It's usually very obvious when there's a little puzzle in the area, but its still exciting to see how it all will pan out.

One thing that I hated about the levels was the fact that you could break through walls in almost every level just to get more coins. In the very first level, there are at least 25 breakable walls. I suppose it's to show you how to progress through other levels, but still. It's very annoying. Every once in a while, though, particularly in the second-to-last level, the breakable walls add a very fun puzzle challenge to the level. So I guess it all evens itself out.

Overall: 8/10 - Very good design most of the time.

Music
The music is mostly re(mixes? makes?) of the music from Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land. This is either a good thing or a bad thing; if you like that music, you will most likely like this music, and if you hated that music, you'll really hate this music. It is highly repetitive.

One problem with the music is that it stops every time you go into a new room/area and resumes when you actually get through. It gets annoying sometimes.

Overall: 6/10 - Rather unimaginative and repetitive.

Coin Hell
This game's subtitle could have been "Coin Hell." There are so many freaking coins that it is totally ridiculous. In the first level alone there are around 700 coins up for grabs. When you break through a wall, you will most likely get at least 10 new coins.

Now, this wouldn't be a problem if I weren't such an avid collectionist. I feel the need to collect every little coin in sight. In fact, I tried like ten times one time to get like three coins. It's very ridiculous.

Overall Score
7/10

It is a very fun game. It gets old sometimes, and after all, it is coin hell. :P However, I would highly recommend it to any gamer who loved the other Wario games!

Thanks! Hope you enjoyed it! I'm out.