Wario games

[Prowler]

Any fans of Wario games here?

I loved Wario Land II as a kid. It's one of the best Game Boy/Game Boy Color games of all time. All of the Wario Land games are pretty fun, though.

The WarioWare series is also pretty fun. The original GBA game, Touched! on the DS and Gold on the 3DS are all great. I haven't played the Wii and Switch ones, though.

I miss Wario platformers. There was one on the Wii, I think. And before that you had Wario World on the GameCube. I guess Nintendo just finds WW easier to make and more profitable.

[Mad Dog McMutt]

I love the platformers and I own all of them except for the Virtual Boy game. The only Warioware game that I have is Gold for the 3ds. My favorite game is definitely Wario World for the GameCube. It is almost a perfect platformer, but it is kind of short. I also really like Warioland 2 and 3 for the gameboy color. Those games are really unique and have their own vibe. The only Wario game that I don't like is Master of Disguise. I wanted to like it, but it just isn't fun. It gets confusing how each level is basically 2 metroidvania style levels where you're going back and forth and it just doesn't work well unlike Castlevania Harmony of Dissonance.

[neatoman]

I too am saddened by the fact that Nintendo seems to neglect Wario Land in favor of Wario Ware...

[CyberCubed]

Wario Land: Shake it on Wii (which was basically Wario Land 5), is amazing and the best 2D platformer of that gen. Shame most people never played it. It was the last game in the Wario Land series and its console debut.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by neatoman

I too am saddened by the fact that Nintendo seems to neglect Wario Land in favor of Wario Ware...

Unfortunately, Nintendo already has a lot of platformers:

Mario (obviously)

Donkey Kong

Kirby

Metroid (the 2D ones are platformers, even if they're more of action/adventure kind of games overall)

Yoshi

So, i guess, they felt like one had to "go". And it turned out to be Wario, since the WarioWare series and concept is pretty original and gives Wario a distinct identity. He was originally Mario's "evil cousin" or something. Notice how Luigi's games are also a Ghostbusters parody kind of game series instead of just another platformer series?

Also, the studio that used to make the Wario Land games is no longer around, I think. So I guess Nintendo needs to find a new studio, whether inside or outside, if they want to make another Wario platformer.

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

Wario Land: Shake it on Wii (which was basically Wario Land 5), is amazing and the best 2D platformer of that gen. Shame most people never played it. It was the last game in the Wario Land series and its console debut.

Especially odd since the Wii was a very high-selling system. In theory, any Nintendo IP game should have sold very well on the Wii.

[Powder]

The original Wario Land is one of my all time favorite games, that I still somewhat often re-visit. A few of the songs from random stages are among the most infectious loops of melody ever composed, I can't tell you how often I get those hammering the inside of my head on repeat while doing random tasks. I did play the game a f*ck-ton as a kid, so it may be my own fault. For real, though, the gameplay & designs alike were just so damn fun, I think there was a real special magic to that era in particular.

The follow-up Wario platformer titles are all great in their own right, well worth playing, but I don't feel that they even REMOTELY compare to the first game vibe-wise. Sure, they're more complex, more colorful, they offer all these different transformations & gimmicks, but to me, Wario never needed any of that extra flare. I suppose the idea was to set his universe more apart from Mario's, but for me, their deviating too much from the subtle simplicity of the first, which made it great, did a disservice to the entire series moving forward. All I ever needed was his little dash move & the hat powerups.

I think there's definitely something to be said as far as the team's lack of direction, given the tons of weird new things they'd try over the years, ultimately re-booting altogether & settling into the Wario Ware thing. That's a whole 'nother thing entirely, but honestly, as much as those games ARE fun, they shouldn't have anything to do with Wario. Deserved to be it's own IP, but they must've had cold feet about that, just like how Prince Fluff became Kirby's Epic Yarn. Simple solution there, IMO, would've been to have the Wario Ware series be Game & Watch related instead. Makes so much more sense.

Wario World was an alright attempt at making the property move with the times, but it just felt so empty, & again, not like Wario. Shake It! was pretty great, loved the hand-drawn animation & more classic visual style, but the gimmicks & timed challenges still put me off. Funny, the Virtual Boy Wario title is the actual nearest relative to the OG, & is great, but obviously it's still difficult to play. I didn't buy that ugly red failure in the 90's, & I'm not going to now, either.

They need to go back to square one, as far as I'm concerned. Should use Rayman Legends/Origins as inspiration. A nice hand-drawn art direction, but with that classic Comic Bom Bom/gag manga style of his inception. He used to be such an ugly little curmudgeon, especially when he was bald & tiny!

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by Powder

The original Wario Land is one of my all time favorite games, that I still somewhat often re-visit. A few of the songs from random stages are among the most infectious loops of melody ever composed, I can't tell you how often I get those hammering the inside of my head on repeat while doing random tasks. I did play the game a f*ck-ton as a kid, so it may be my own fault. For real, though, the gameplay & designs alike were just so damn fun, I think there was a real special magic to that era in particular.

The follow-up Wario platformer titles are all great in their own right, well worth playing, but I don't feel that they even REMOTELY compare to the first game vibe-wise. Sure, they're more complex, more colorful, they offer all these different transformations & gimmicks, but to me, Wario never needed any of that extra flare. I suppose the idea was to set his universe more apart from Mario's, but for me, their deviating too much from the subtle simplicity of the first, which made it great, did a disservice to the entire series moving forward. All I ever needed was his little dash move & the hat powerups.

I think there's definitely something to be said as far as the team's lack of direction, given the tons of weird new things they'd try over the years, ultimately re-booting altogether & settling into the Wario Ware thing. That's a whole 'nother thing entirely, but honestly, as much as those games ARE fun, they shouldn't have anything to do with Wario. Deserved to be it's own IP, but they must've had cold feet about that, just like how Prince Fluff became Kirby's Epic Yarn. Simple solution there, IMO, would've been to have the Wario Ware series be Game & Watch related instead. Makes so much more sense.

Wario World was an alright attempt at making the property move with the times, but it just felt so empty, & again, not like Wario. Shake It! was pretty great, loved the hand-drawn animation & more classic visual style, but the gimmicks & timed challenges still put me off. Funny, the Virtual Boy Wario title is the actual nearest relative to the OG, & is great, but obviously it's still difficult to play. I didn't buy that ugly red failure in the 90's, & I'm not going to now, either.

They need to go back to square one, as far as I'm concerned. Should use Rayman Legends/Origins as inspiration. A nice hand-drawn art direction, but with that classic Comic Bom Bom/gag manga style of his inception. He used to be such an ugly little curmudgeon, especially when he was bald & tiny!

Unfortunately, Nintendo probably felt like they had an over saturation of platformer series and decided they had to scrap one... with Wario drawing the shortest straw. Even if all of the series I mentioned, including Wario Land, were unique enough and definitely not Mario clones in terms of gameplay.

I don't doubt the WarioWare series sells very well, but I seriously doubt the 4 Wario Land games on the Game Boy/GBC/GBA sold poorly either. I was a kid during the Game Boys era. Were Wario Land games EVERY kid had like Tetris and Pokémon? No. But I definitely knew some kids in school who had Wario Land II. I even asked them for tips on how to beat one of the bosses back in 5th grade or so.

I hadn't thought of that, but a concept like WarioWare would indeed fit Mr. Game & Watch more. I do strongly agree with you that Wario deserves to be its own IP. And it's not like I have a problem with the WW series, and I actually do like it a lot and the characters it introduced. But I think Wario should have BOTH WW and a platformer series. I'd be perfectly happy with that.

To their credit, though, they did come up with a very good canon reason for the in-game explanation of WarioWare. Wario figured those mini-games were a good way to make a ton of money. But I also do remember media articles at the time asking questions like "Wario has friends?!".

Wario was originally a villain who then became an anti-hero sort of protagonist. WW softened his character a bit, even if he still is up to his old tricks with Waluigi in the Mario sports titles. Whenever I play Mario Kart, Mario Tennis or Golf games I feel like I'm dealing with classic Wario, as evidenced by his outfit. Not WarioWare Wario.

[CyberCubed]

The Wario platformers are as follows:

Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3
Wario Land 2 (Gameboy color)
Wario Land 3 (Gameboy color)
Wario Land 4 (Game boy Advance)
Wario Land: Shake it (Wii)
Wario Land Virtual Boy (now on Switch online)
Wario World (Gamecube)

That was basically it. Wario only had about 5-6 platformers, one being an obscure Virtual Boy game that no one ever played. Gamecube and Wii was the last time they made Wario platformers on a console, but seemingly they didn't sell all that well. Wario World is on Switch online right now if you want to check it out.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

The Wario platformers are as follows:

Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3
Wario Land 2 (Gameboy color)
Wario Land 3 (Gameboy color)
Wario Land 4 (Game boy Advance)
Wario Land: Shake it (Wii)
Wario Land Virtual Boy (now on Switch online)
Wario World (Gamecube)

That was basically it. Wario only had about 5-6 platformers, one being an obscure Virtual Boy game that no one ever played. Gamecube and Wii was the last time they made Wario platformers on a console, but seemingly they didn't sell all that well. Wario World is on Switch online right now if you want to check it out.

The Game Boys were very popular and there's 4 of those games on those systems. I'm sure they all sold well enough.

Shake it, a Wii title, not selling that well is the only surprising one. Since that was also a highly successful console.

The GC was not that popular of a system, so I'm not surprised Wario World didn't sell that well either. Not even the mainline Mario and Zelda games sold like hot cakes on that system. Let alone a more niche title.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3
Wario Land 2 (Gameboy color)
Wario Land 3 (Gameboy color)
Wario Land 4 (Game boy Advance)

It's a pretty weird numbering scheme where your Part 1 is ANOTHER game's Part 3.

I've only ever seen that elsewhere with Star Wars: Dark Forces. Anybody remember that series?

1) Star Wars: Dark Forces
2) Star Wars: Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight
3) Star Wars: Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast
4) Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy

What kind of crap is that?!

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

It's a pretty weird numbering scheme where your Part 1 is ANOTHER game's Part 3.

I've only ever seen that elsewhere with Star Wars: Dark Forces. Anybody remember that series?

1) Star Wars: Dark Forces
2) Star Wars: Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight
3) Star Wars: Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast
4) Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy

What kind of crap is that?!

I don't know. Maybe Nintendo feared that not including the first Wario Land game as part of the Super Mario Land series would make the game sell less copies? They might not have had enough confidence that Wario could sell the game alone as a protagonist and thus added "Mario" to the title in order to mislead people into thinking Mario was going to show up in the game and possibly play a big part in it?

[CyberCubed]

They did the same thing with the first Yoshi game. It's called Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, even though it's really the first Yoshi game.

I think Nintendo was worried it wouldn't sell, so calling it "Super Mario World 2" was pretty smart. That of course launched the Yoshi sub-series, which continued with Yoshi's Story on N64, then Yoshi Island games on GBA/DS, etc and Wooly World on Wii-U and Crafted World on Switch, and now The Mysterious Book upcoming on Switch 2.

[frank_one]

Wario Land: Shake it (Wii), also known as Wario Land: The Shake Dimension in Europe, is a masterpiece! Every platformers lover should try it.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

They did the same thing with the first Yoshi game. It's called Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, even though it's really the first Yoshi game.

I think Nintendo was worried it wouldn't sell, so calling it "Super Mario World 2" was pretty smart. That of course launched the Yoshi sub-series, which continued with Yoshi's Story on N64, then Yoshi Island games on GBA/DS, etc and Wooly World on Wii-U and Crafted World on Switch, and now The Mysterious Book upcoming on Switch 2.

True, I forgot about that. It's understandable to forget that detail, since no one calls the game anything more than Yoshi's Island.