Handheld Adventures Part 1: Wario Land Super Mario Land 3





Wario has been around for quite some time, and you have to give him credit. He has had some pretty amazing games since his departure as the villain from Super Mario Land 2 as the villain. One of the best-known ways to find Wario is on his own plat forming franchise, Wario Land. This review will be for one of the Wario games I got recently, and was Wario’s first ever solo game, Wario Land Super Mario Land 3.
The plot of this game is that an evil pirate named Captain Syrup and her pirate gang has stolen a huge statue of Princess Peach made of pure gold. This caught Wario’s attention and he sets out to find the statue first from Captain Syrup. Now, this is where the series becomes more innovative with side-scrolling plat formers, like Kirby and Super Mario. Instead of saving a princess or beating an evil king, you have to collect as much money as possible throughout the whole game to get the best ending. Still, by no means is Wario Land a boring game. Wario happens to have one of the best side-scrolling franchises ever made. I even named his series of games one of the best franchises ever on my top 10 franchises list.

The game play is where the Wario series shines. Unlike Mario, who can only jump on enemies or shoot fireballs at them, Wario has a multitude of ways to give his enemies a smack down. The first thing to start off the list is Wario’s trademark shoulder- ramming attack. He can run into enemies by pressing B, sending them flying across the world. The next things I’ll add to his list of handy attacks are his special caps he can get throughout the game. These act as Wario’s power-ups, like Mario and his mushroom and fire flower. Wario can wear a bull hat where he has more strength, dragon cap where he gets to shoot flames, and a jet cap where he can go super fast with a better ramming attack and can fly over small distances. This adds to the strange world of Wario, since I think Wario himself is rather odd. The names of the stages in this game have pretty silly names like Rice Beach and Mt. Teapot, which I just love in a game.

The graphics are pretty good for Gameboy standards, so there isn’t much to comment on. I will say that Wario looks a little squatty, but I think that is because of the screen size and cartridge limitations. The music is pretty fun to listen to, and it totally fits Wario’s personality. The music for Wario’s games has always had some kind of odd or crazy beat to it, which fits whichever level you are on.

Now, lets put on our dragon caps and blow fire at the bad parts. The first thing I can say is old school or new school gamers who like side scrollers will have to get used to the way the Wario Land series has been set up, since it’s not as much of a straight path as the other games like Contra or Super Mario Brothers. This game can be pretty tricky and difficult at times, like some enemies can kill you with one hit, and you only get two strikes if you have on a hat of some sort. I am proud to have this in my collection of Gameboy games, and I highly recommend buying it along with the other Wario Land games.

All and all, this is a really good game. Who knew that Wario would be such a success story? I didn’t really see it at first, but then, when I found out how good the games were, I was shocked. At least he’s been going strong, unlike Sonic or Rayman.

This game gets a 9 out of 10.

Comments