Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3

Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 is a game released for the Game Boy in 1994. It is set apart from the first two Super Mario Land games in that it does not star Mario but instead stars Mario's rival, Wario. This is the third and final installment in the Super Mario Land series and the first installment in the Wario Land series. Mario does make a cameo at the end of this game by stealing a statue of Princess Toadstool from Wario.

Plot
Desiring to replace or restore the castle he lost to his rival in Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, Wario sets out to steal a golden statue of Princess Toadstool from the Brown Sugar Pirates and Captain Syrup, which he then intends to ransom for the money to buy his own castle. Along the way, he collects or steals any other coins and treasures he finds or knocks out of enemies. The game is spent by navigating a number of levels to reclaim his lost treasures, and has a significant level of re-playability due to the branched path that many of the levels take. In the end, Captain Syrup (revealed to be female, which was hidden in the instruction manual) is defeated while Wario ultimately gets anything from a birdhouse to an actual planet or moon for himself based on the amount of treasure collected.

Endings
Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 introduces a new mechanic where the ending is determined by the amount of coins that Wario has collected in the game. The more coins and Treasures he collects, the better his new home will be.

Gameplay
Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 is a 2D platforming game. It is divided into seven worlds, which each are divided into multiple courses. In most courses Wario has to trade in ten of his coins for one big coin to open the door to the next course. Once the player completes a course, the next course will become available, and so on. The game also allows players to revisit levels that have already been completed.

It has several mechanics that are similar to the Super Mario games such as the transformation system. Wario can also touch enemies as long as they don't have any hazards equipped, so he can stun or defeat them by performing a body slam, ground pound, touching soft-spots, or tossing at others.

Wario starts out on Rice Beach, a small area of Kitchen Island. On the map screen, the player will notice that Kitchen Island is shaped like a skull, and a skull theme is present throughout the game. The save points are skulls, as are the level exits, secret doors, etc.

Transformations
One of the main features in Wario Land is the various transformations that Wario can go through by collecting a Power Up Pot. These special powers can at times help Wario overcome obstacles and defeat tough enemies; however, if Wario takes damage when in any of the first three transformations, he will transform into Small Wario, who dies instantly upon taking damage.

Worlds

 * Rice Beach
 * Mt. Teapot
 * Sherbet Land
 * Stove Canyon
 * SS Tea Cup
 * Parsley Woods
 * Syrup Castle

Bosses
Each world has a boss that Wario must defeat at the end. Here is a listing of the bosses in order, and which world they correspond to.

Reviews
Although it didn't sell as well as its Mario Land predecessors, the game received mostly favorable reviews. The game placed 71st in the 100th issue of Nintendo Power's "100 best Nintendo games of all time" in 1997.

Sequels
The game spawned five sequels, Virtual Boy Wario Land, Wario Land II, Wario Land 3, Wario Land 4 and Wario Land: Shake It!. The Wario franchise also received Wario World and Wario: Master of Disguise which were similar games. A spin-off series was also made, the popular WarioWare series of games.

References to earlier games

 * Mario franchise - The game's first boss is variously considered a variety of Koopa Troopa or Hammer Bro. A statue of Princess Toadstool serves as the game's MacGuffin, and Mario himself makes a surprise appearance during the ending.
 * Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins - Bē from this game's Tree Zone make an appearance on the SS Tea Cup, one of the few aspects from the original Super Mario Land duology to carry over into Wario Land.

References in later games

 * WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$! : The microgame Grow Wario Grow features the Tiny Wario and regular Wario sprites.
 * WarioWare: Smooth Moves: A microgame called Wario Land is one of 9-Volt and 18-Volt's microgames.
 * Super Smash Bros. Brawl: Masahiro Sakurai stated on the website that the WarioWare section of All-Star mode was put to match the time Wario was the main character in this game.
 * Mario Kart 7: Part of the music that plays on Wario Shipyard is an arrangement of the music of the first stage of Rice Beach and a painting of Bull Wario can be seen on a billboard.
 * Mario Party 10: Wario's hard hat is seen in the background of his own personalized amiibo-exclusive board.

Trivia

 * The game was tentatively titled Super Mario Land 3: Kairiki Wario (スーパーマリオランド3 怪力ワリオ), kairiki meaning "super-strong". The name was used on a Japanese promotional flyer from 1993. The logo depicted on the flyer differs drastically from any of the Wario Land logos.
 * This game borrows some sound effects used in Metroid II: Return of Samus, another Nintendo game, also for the Game Boy. One example is when a boss is hit; the noise is the same one made when a Metroid gets hit. Other borrowed sound effects are when the player pauses the game and the sound of triggering mines which is the same as Samus going into morph ball. Both games were developed by Nintendo R&D1.
 * The manual states that the Select button is "Not used." However, the player can enter a cheat mode by pressing that button sixteen times on the pause screen. Holding down the and  button simultaneously will allow them to alter the numbers on the status bar as well as power up Wario.
 * The Japanese title refers to the game as being the third installment in the Super Mario Land series, however the name was reversed in the Western versions as this is rather the first game in the Wario Land series.