Wario Land 4

Wario Land 4, known in Japan as Wario Land Advance: Yōki no Otakara (meaning Wario Land Advance: The Treasure of the Golden Diva), is a Game Boy Advance platform game released in 2001. It was later re-released for the 3DS system on December 16, 2011 via the Nintendo 3DS Ambassadors program. It is the fifth game in the Wario Land series, which is a spin-off of the Super Mario Land series. Wario travels to the Golden Pyramid after reading a newspaper article about a rumor of a Legendary Treasure hidden inside. His intention is to rob the Pyramid, but he unintentionally saves the legendary Princess Shokora from the money-crazed Golden Diva, evil ruler of the Golden Pyramid. It features 2-D graphics with linear transformations (similar to Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island).

Story
The story begins in the ancient Golden Pyramid. The legendary Princess Shokora and her loyal subjects rule the Pyramid. After her thousand year reign, the evil, power-hungry, money crazed Golden Diva was jealous of Shokora's power and beauty. So she defeated her in a magical duel and ascended to the throne. With her ancient powers, she transformed Princess Shokora into a being that lacked great beauty or power-an ordinary Black Cat-and banished her from the Pyramid forever. With nowhere to go, the Black Cat walked until she came across a city inhabited by modern humans. There, she lived on the streets with a group of stray animals and soon forgot about her exile. Many months later, the Pyramid was discovered by a group of archaeologists, but many strange occurrences, and even the disappearance of a group member, caused all future investigations of the Pyramid to be cancelled, and a Newspaper Article was published.

On a dark and quiet night when everybody else is asleep, Wario starts the engine of his Wario Car, and speeds through the city. The Black Cat is crossing the road but Wario makes no attempt to slow down, and he gains speed. Frightened, she covers her eyes with her paws, and the Car's wheels narrowly miss the her. A newspaper flies into the Cat's face. It reads; "Pyramid discovered deep in jungle. Legendary Treasure nearly found, but accidents hindered findings." The Princess in her feline form remembers the once beautiful Pyramid that she once ruled in the hands of evil, and decides to try to steal it back.

Meanwhile, Wario speeds out of the city and enters the desert. With his mind on the ancient treasure, he speeds full throttle toward the Legendary Pyramid mentioned in the newspaper article. After some time, he reaches the jungle, and Wario is forced to abandon his vehicle once it gets too thick. After much trekking through the jungle, he finally reaches the Pyramid. Unable to contain his excitement, he climbs it and without hesitation and finds an entrance. Inside the pyramid, he descends a set of stairs and comes across the Black Cat, which runs into the next room after catching sight of Wario. Curious, Wario follows. He and the Cat come across a precipice in the ground. The Cat jumps in and Wario, worried that he will be beaten to the treasure, jumps in after her.

He lands in a strange room somewhere near the center of The Pyramid. Here, Wario must clear the Pyramid's five Passages. A Boss challenges Wario to a battle at the end of each passage. When Wario clears all five passages, the Inner Pyramid is revealed. Inside lurks the Golden Diva, final Boss and ruler of the Pyramid.

At the beginning of the battle, The Black Cat attacks the Golden Diva by scratching her face. The Golden Diva is unaffected, and she casually swallows the Cat. Wario then battles the Golden Diva. When defeated, the Cat is set free, the treasure is recovered, and Wario flexes his muscles in a not-at-all-modest way. At that moment, the Pyramid begins to shake and crumble. Scared, Wario gathers as much treasure as he can and escapes the Pyramid with the Black Cat leading the way out.

On the edge of the forest, Wario and the Black Cat watch the Pyramid crumble to the ground. They both laugh. The Golden Diva's Jewelry flies out of the treasure sack, and The Black Cat absorbs them. Suddenly, she undergoes a transformation and turns into the legendary Princess Shokora, true ruler of the Pyramid. She was defeated and transformed into a cat by the Golden Diva. The Princess gives Wario a kiss and says, "Thank you, Wario." Wario cannot believe his eyes, and he doesn't say a word as she is surrounded by four angels and flies up to heaven. Wario sits there for a while still making sense of it all. He dismisses it, grabs the remaining treasure and gets back into his Wario Car. With the treasure in the boot, he drives through the desert, back the way he came, and the staff credits roll.

A few days later... the ending cut scene shows Wario speeding through the city once again. Like the beginning, Wario narrowly misses another cat, a White Cat this time. After Wario drives off, a newspaper flies into the White Cat's face. It reads; "STEAKS! EAT AS MUCH AS YOU CAN!!" The game ends with gold bars forming the words THE END.

Game play
The game begins in the Entry Passage which includes one level and a boss, Spoiled Rotten. When completed, the next part of the game consists of four more Passages, each with a different theme and boss. They are called the Emerald Passage, Ruby Passage, Topaz Passage and Sapphire Passage. These four passages can be completed in any order. Each has four levels and a Boss. When each Boss of the five passages have been cleared, an inner pyramid (The Golden Pyramid, is revealed on the main map. This includes one last level, (called Golden Passage) and the final boss Golden Diva.

Wario is given a health meter, which contains a total of eight hearts. Wario can gain a heart by collecting health that are scattered randomly throughout a level. Wario can lose a heart by touching a threatening part of an enemy (eg. horns, teeth), or by touching spikes. He can also fully replenish health by opening a Heart Box.

Each of the eighteen levels has four Jewel Pieces that need to be collected. When four Jewel Pieces are joined, they make a Pyramid Jewel. The color of the Jewels varies on the Passage they are collected in. The player must collect all Jewel Pieces in a Passage to gain access to the boss. A Keyzer (or Key Bird) must be collected to unlock the next level. Without the Keyzer, the four Jewel Pieces in that level can still be collected, but the next level will remain locked.

When Wario enters a level, he enters through a Vortex, which closes behind him. The only way to open it again is to find the Frog Switch that is somewhere in the level to open it once again to return to the map screen. A time limit is given to return to the portal. The player should focus on finding the four Jewel Pieces and the Keyzer before hitting the Frog Switch. However, there are some areas that can only be accessed by hitting the switch. This is done by the Frog Switch Blocks. The Frog Block can be seen solid or transparent. When the Frog Switch is hit, all transparent Blocks will become solid, while all the solid Blocks will become transparent. In some levels like Golden Passage, the Frog Switch is placed at the beginning of the level directly under the portal, so Wario lands on it when entering a level. This makes the level more difficult because he must recover all four Jewel Pieces and the Keyzer within a time limit.

This opens up new areas that can only be accessed when the Frog Switch is hit, so there may be some other Jewel Pieces or maybe even the Keyzer to find in that new area, but the player is limited by time, and once you are out of time, the player's score will start to decrease. Once the score reaches zero, Wario is sent back to the passage, and must start the level again. Each level has a different set amount of time to get back to the Frog Switch.

There are two Puzzle Rooms in each level (excluding Entry Passage and Golden Passage). Each one is found in a Purple Pipe, and each contain either a Giant Diamond worth 1000pts., or a bunch of coins that are worth 1000 points when combined. Wario must solve some kind of puzzle to get to these points, usually using Dr. Arewo Stein as an object to throw. Completing these rooms is optional, and is not needed to complete the game, but rather if the player wants a few extra points. Likewise, the player will never see a Jewel Piece or a Keyzer is a Puzzle Room, but a Heart Box can be seen from time to time.

There is also an optional bonus challenge to complete. In every level except for the Entry Passage and the Golden Pyramid, there is a hidden CD that can be collected and played in the Sound Room, each containing a different sound. There is a total of 16 CDs to collect. A Karaoke can also be unlocked, a full song. It can be unlocked by getting 10,000pts. or more in each of the eighteen levels.

There are a total of sixteen Treasure Chests in Wario Land 4. Four of them found in each of the four main Boss Rooms, embedded into the wall in the background. They cannot be touched by Wario. During the Boss Battle, when time starts to run low (usually under a minute) the Treasure Chests in the background will begin to disappear, one by one. Once Wario defeats the Boss, the Treasure Chests that are left over are collected and stored in the Golden Pyramid, for the final boss against the Golden Diva. The amount of Treasure Chests collected do not affect the main game, but the ending. The more Treasure Chests Wario has on the game's completion, the more beautiful Princess Shokora will appear in the game's ending cut scene.

Before the boss, there is a Mini-Game Shop where Wario can play one of three Mini-Games. If Wario gets a certain amount of points in each of the mini-games, then he can earn Frog Medals, which he can then spend at the item shop for items to assist him to defeat the boss of that passage. Each minigame costs 5000 points to play (not including the Entry Passage, which is discounted to 2000.) Points are earned during normal gameplay.

There are three minigames included:
 * The Wario Hop
 * Wario's Homerun Derby
 * Wario's Roulette

Item Shop
The Item Shop in Wario Land 4 is a place where Wario can spend his Frog Medals in exchange for items to assist him in defeating the Boss of that passage by doing pre-damage at the battle's start. The shopkeeper is Mr. Game and Watch. It is said that this is his first ever appearance, hovever, this early version of Mr. Game & Watch has eyes. They were removed for his first official appearance in Super Smash Bros. Melee.

The more effective the item has on damaging a boss, the more Frog Medals it is likely to cost. The price of the items also varies on the game mode, e.g. an item in "Hard" mode would be more expensive than the same item in "Normal" mode. The Smile is the only thing in the Item Shop that is free. It is a joke item, because selecting it will just play a sound effect.

All items and prices are as follows:

Each item deals a fixed amount of damage to each Boss. All damage totals are shown below.

Game Modes
Upon creating a file, the game will ask what game mode the player prefers to play as. The game modes are as follows:
 * Normal
 * Hard
 * S-Hard (unlockable, by completing Hard mode)

The game mode affects the location of the Jewel Pieces, the amount of enemies in the levels, the health the player begins with upon entering the level, and the time given to get back to the Portal after the player hits the Frog Switch. In a few levels on some difficulties, the Frog Switch even changes its location. Purchasing items will cost more Frog Medals. The difficulty of Mini-Games are generally unchanged across difficulty levels. However, on Super Hard, the baseball mini-game has pitches thrown by a cheerleader who throws more hard pitches and has different tells from the normal pitcher.

Wario's Transformations
One of the best features of Wario Land 4 is the many transformations that Wario can use. He has a total of 10 different transformations in the game, which all have some kind of purpose to help Wario get through the level, such as turning into a Bat to reach a high place, or catching fire to break certain blocks. All of the transformations have been re-used from previous games in the series, but the developers made more use of them in Wario Land 4. In all forms, Wario is invincible, but touching an enemy will not destroy it, but merely knock it aside.

The following is a table showing each form and explains its effect in detail.

Controls

 * Opens pause menu/confirm
 * Jump/swim/confirm
 * Ram (attack), throw (hold to build power)
 * Left/right to move. Up to look up.
 * + : Throw upwards
 * Ground Pound (break blocks below you or defeat enemies, ends when player releases the d-pad), roll on 45 degree slope, S-Ground Pound (break stronger blocks, hold d-pad down for more than a second while falling. Does not end if the player releases the d-pad.)
 * + : Slide down ladder
 * + : Crawl
 * /: S-Ram (ram with more power)

Wario's Moves
Wario has several different moves in Wario Land 4'. Mastering each one of them is essential for reaching the Golden Diva's stronghold.

Passages
The Passages are as follows:

Entry Passage
This passage only has one level: The Hall of Hieroglyphs, which, true to its name, uses hieroglyphics on the walls to teach Wario his basic moves. The boss of this passage is Spoiled Rotten.

Emerald Passage
This Passage is nature-themed. The four levels are:

The boss is Cractus, a possessed pot-plant with a huge head that can skewer Wario with its claws and drool a poisonous liquid on him, turning Wario into Zombie Wario.
 * Palm Tree Paradise
 * Wildflower Fields
 * Mystic Lake
 * Monsoon Jungle

Ruby Passage
This Passage is mechanical-themed. The four levels are:


 * The Curious Factory
 * The Toxic Landfill
 * 40 Below Fridge
 * Pinball Zone

The boss is Cuckoo Condor. He is what appears to be a giant cuckoo clock. He can grab Wario and shoot gears and electricity at him. After he takes enough damage, the cuckoo clock falls apart, revealing a giant bird, presumably a condor, underneath. In this form, Cuckoo Condor can lay eggs that hatch into self-destructing chicks to damage Wario.

Topaz Passage
This Passage is toy-themed. The four levels are:


 * Toy Block Tower
 * The Big Board
 * Doodle Woods
 * Domino Row

The boss is Aerodent, a rat that hides in a giant inflatable teddy bear. He throws down needles, which can be used to deflate the teddy bear, making Aerodent an easier target. Later in the fight, Aerodent will drop flames, which do not harm Wario, but instead turns him into Flaming Wario. Fiery Wario will run around the screen for a while, wasting valuable time.

Sapphire Passage
This passage is horror-themed. The four levels are:


 * Crescent Moon Village
 * Arabian Night
 * Fiery Cavern
 * Hotel Horror

The boss is Catbat. He is essentially a big cat with a statue of a bat on his head, which is his weak spot. He creates waves which must be jumped over, and can also spit out orange and purple spiked balls, which either damage Wario or turn him into Puffy Wario, respectively. The latter's purpose is to waste time.

Golden Pyramid
The final area in the game. It only has one level, the Golden Passage. Its boss is the Golden Diva, the last boss of the game.

Allies
Fortunately, within the Golden Pyramid, there are a few characters who are willing to help Wario. They may have different purposes, and their personalities and traits may differ, but they all have the same goal; to rid the Pyramid of the money crazed Golden Diva and to restore it to it's former glory.

Enemies
During his adventure, Wario encounters more than three dozen types of enemies. While a dozen of them is found in the levels of different passages, most enemy types are normally only found in a certain passage. They usually go in line with the passage's theme.

Golden Pyramid Enemies
The last part of the game doesn't introduce new enemies, aside from the final boss, the Golden Diva, and the creatures created by her (see table). However, some enemies that are otherwise exclusive to the Sapphire Passage reappear in the last level before the boss, the Golden Passage, including Skeleton Birds, Men'ono and Miniculas.

Reception
The game received generally positive reviews. IGN gave Wario Land a 9 out of 10, or "Outstanding", citing its well thought out level design and replayability, and how the game "puts a lot more emphasis on action". Attention was also given to how much attention the developers paid to the sounds and music (see Wario Land 4/Media). It was not given a full 10 because the game does not necessarily push the performance power of the Game Boy Advance in regards to graphics. The website quoted that "It's a little disappointing to see that Wario isn't much of a step beyond his GBC adventure in terms of art and animation...other than the sprite effects, it could have been done on the 8-bit handheld". The full review can be seen here. Global sales exceeded 2,000,000 copies.