Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3

The Good
Nintendo adds another excellent platformer to their Mario franchize, only this time you are not playing Mario! Now you are Wario: Mario's evil doppleganger, and the change fixes everything that was wrong with the previous Mario titles, namely the old and boring premise of the heroic plumber out to save the princess or whatever from the evil bad dude.

In Wario Land, the evil Wario finds himself with no money to spare so he decides to forget about Mario and his stupid mushroom kingdom and sets out to steal the Golden Princess statue from the Kitchen Island pirates in order to be be rich and powerful for the rest of his life. This far from noble task injects the series with a much needed sense of humor as Wario kicks and bullies his way through the gameworld with his only driving force being money and greed! As in most Nintendo 8-bit platformer games there's no dialogue to move the story, but the cheerful and cartoony reactions of each character in the many cutscenes allow for the story and it's humor to get across without any problem, with the ending itself being among the best and funniest in any Mario game, easily surpassing the "order has been restored, thanks for playing!" standard issue Nintendo ending.

Gameplay-wise the game is your standard Super Mario Bros.3-like platformer with the same interface and general rules but with the added ability to shoulder-dash and hit enemies or bricks and with different Wario-themed powerups (onions instead of mushrooms). System-wise you have 3 savegame slots to make sure you don't lose your progress and the in-house development once again means that the game has impossibly tight controls and superb level design without any sort of glitches or problematic areas. In the game itself you go around clearing different zones accessible from an overhead world map (which often has branching routes that take you to secret locations) which divides the gameworld into different areas at the end of which you have to face a bossfight against a huge area-themed enemy following the standard rule of "do whatever makes him mad three times" in order to defeat him. Along the way you can also keep an eye out for bonus treasures and extra coins which build up your fortune, which is something you might be interested in doing if you consider that the endgame takes into consideration how much money you've got and rewards you accordingly. Now isn't that a nice touch that adds longevity and depth to the game?

The Bad
Not too much of a challenge, in fact one could go as far as saying that this one is extremely easy when compared to other Mario games, and regardless of Wario it's still a Nintendo platformer, so expect all the sickening cute enemies and situations the big N has us used to only with a slightly darker edge.

The Bottom Line
Wario kicks Mario's ass in my book. This is one of the best platformers available for the Gameboy and an excellent addition to the Super Mario Bros. library. A must for platformer fans or anyone with a GB.

The Good
Wario Land : Super Mario Land 3 is the game who started the Wario Land series. It is an action platformer similar to the Super Mario Bros series, but with additional features that makes it much funnier.

You take the control of Mario's evil rival, Wario, and you want to find treasures in order to become rich and build a castle. Ironically, playing as a bad guy makes the game funnier and more enjoyable, and add atmosphere to it. Wario's sprites with his large evil smile and his big nose are so fun that it becomes really nice to play him. As a plus, they managed to even get the music going PERFECTLY with this games, it feels somewhat evil and fun at the same time, which suits Wario perfectly. Some later levels have more scaring music tough.

Like in Super Mario Bros games, you start as small Wario, and can find coins and various upgrades that turn him into Super Wario, Dragon Wario, Jet Wario, Bull Wario, and maybe some other rare form I can't remember. All of these "warios" have different attacks, and some of them (like Jet) allow you to reach places you couldn't reach otherwise. If you get hit as them, you revert to small Wario, and if you get hit as small Wario you loose.

Unlike Super Mario Bros games however, Wario can be controlled very precisely as he don't accelerate and breaks slowly like Mario does. I know many people like how Mario was controlled, which is okay to run at really great speeds, but this game focuses more on exploration than running. I like the VERY wide variety of attacks available. Instead of "stomping" enemies, you can dash into enemies to confuse them, and then carry them and throw them to the next enemy, or dash in them again to defeat them.

The game features an overworld map in which you can walk from level to level. That way you can return to previously explored levels to collect items if you want to. It also features auto-battery saves which automatically saves your game when you beat a level.

In all levels you have to collect coins, and in some levels find a treasure. Your goal, is not only to beat the levels, but to find as many treasures as possible, in order to get a better castle at the end. To find a treasure you must first find a key, bring it to the treasure door while being alive, and use it to open the door that leads to the treasure. This triple challenge (find the key, stay alive, find the door) makes this game very interesting and almost addictive sometimes.

Each level has an exit which consist in a door, and you'll need to waste $10 to open it. Some levels also have an alternate door, that unlocks other levels. If you miss it, you'll miss levels, coins and treasures. This is another challenge that make the game very interesting.

Another thing I really liked is how the level are varied, despite the fact they are on the monochrome Gameboy. There is pirate ship levels, water levels, lava levels, ice levels, and more. All them are really inspired and fun to explore. The graphics are overall detailed while still being cartoonish, which suits well the game.

The Bad
I like the music of this game, but something that bothers me is that at least half of the songs seems to have the same theme for a melody. Not that it is a bad theme, but I would have liked to see more themes than just a generic Wario theme remixed in many forms.

Aside of that I can't possibly think of anything that could possibly be bad in this game.

The Bottom Line
Wario Land is without a doubt a classic. I like this games under all aspects of it. I find it ironic that the parody actually beats the original (that is the Super Mario series), but oh well. I recommend this game for anyone; without a doubt one of the best 2D platformers for the Gameboy. It also hasn't aged and is still as fun as it was back when it was released.