Title: Warioland: Shake It! aka Warioland: The Shake Dimension
Platform: Wii
Platform Reviewed: Wii
Developer: Good-Feel
Publisher: Nintendo
MSRP: $49.99, £34.99, €49.99
Writer: Martin '
lost' Perry
Warioland: Shake it! Review
The latest title in the long running “Warioland” series comes to us not long after it was announced. Only a few weeks ago
Evil Avnovice showed us scans from Famitsu and now it's whirring around in my Wii. Perhaps we should be worried that the title was rushed out to fill the void of first-party Nintendo titles? Prepare to have your fears alleviated.
“Warioland”, as it shall be known from here in, is a 2D platform game that has Wario chasing after his favourite thing. When the games villain “Shake King” steals the Shake Dimension's greatest treasure, a bottomless coin bag, and a non-peachy queen our anti-hero is called upon to save the day by her subjects the “Merfles” and grab the treasure.
The story is outlined in the titles first stand out moment. The game opens with a cartoon, not a sprite-based movie, but a fully animated scene. The animation is excellent and it gets you excited about whats to come. The quality of that opening scene extends throughout the games visuals. Each sprite is high resolution and looks beautiful in motion. The levels break away from traditional tile sets with every inch looking hand-drawn with the utmost care.
These levels take place across five main areas, each with a familiar theme. These are accessed by the games suggested hub world. Wario looks through his telescope into this magical land and chooses his destination and there are plenty for him to choose from. Each area has four levels and a boss battle area. Completing the levels allows you access to the boss, who in turn rewards you with a gem upon defeat. This culminates in a final boss battle which is tricky to say the least.
Long standing Wario fans will have been at best unimpressed in recent DS outing “Wario: Master of Disguise” and you should feel safe in the knowledge that every single concept from that game is abandoned. These are linear levels, with no going round in circles. The easiest way to describe it to fans is a new “Warioland 4”. What this means for new players is satisfying platforming with light puzzle aspects all rounded off with a mad sprint back through the level once you save the “Merfle” at the end.
Whilst this gameplay remains as interesting and fun as it has in previous titles you may be wondering how this fits in with the Wii's motion controller. Holding the Wii remote on it's side the primary controls are found on the face buttons. The only time you are called upon to use the motion sensitivity is to shake coin bags and enemies, to pick a direction to throw them in or move certain level items. I found shaking the remote whilst holding it in this position to be particularly uncomfortable. As such it wasn't until later in the game that I actually found out you could shake your enemies for health items.
Keen readers may see this as a sign that the game is not particularly difficult and they are right. Although the different levels are given individual difficulty ratings none are particularly taxing. You'll find yourself breezing through levels within minutes. The only difficulty in doing so is that you will quickly find yourself limited to that area.
New areas are opened by purchasing maps from female pirate “Captain Maple Syrup”. She doesn't exactly do discount maps with each one costing fifty thousand more coins that it's predecessor. For this reason and this reason alone you'll find yourself scouring the levels for every coin, treasure and diamond. This doesn't annoy until the later levels where you will more than likely be forced to re-tread through levels. Although they are enjoyable some house far more coinage than others. The lure of the next area will no doubt have you picking these high scoring levels.
The truly unfortunate outcome of this is that less attention is given to the best levels. You'll find interesting takes on old platforming classics like a mine-cart level. I found myself groaning as these cliches appeared but Good-Feel have actually done something quite interesting with most of these old concepts. The mine carts are not the only similarity you will find to Rare masterpeice “Donkey Kong Country” with a familiar feeling enemy jumping mechanic used to limited success here. Hopping from one enemy head to another is as satisfying as it always has been.
So amongst traditional gameplay, revitalised concepts and excellent graphics do we find ourselves with a value for money title? The truth is that “Warioland” falls just short of having enough content to break even for your purchase. Each level has missions that can be completed during play and extra missions are added upon the games completion. These missions are fairly uninspired and struggle to add any value to a game that harks back to a time when “Game Over” really meant “Game Over”. The upside is that the game never outstays it's welcome.
In the end “Warioland” has enough going for it to warrant the purchase. The game is fantastic proof that the era of 2D games need not be over. The platforming is joyous and well paced, graphically the game is outstanding, the ideas fresh and the implementation tight. I'd recommend the title to any Nintendo fan and most definitely to any Wii owner struggling to justify their purchase. Whichever title is on the box this is a shining gem in a rusty crown. Just how “Wario” would want it.
Score: 4.5 out of 5
The Good- Truly beautiful 2D art.
- Refined platforming.
- Some genuinely funny moments.
The Bad- Not quite enough content to justify the full purchase price.
- Uncomfortable Wii remote shaking.
- Map system can feel obstructive.
The Ugly- No HD on the Wii.
- Spoiler: Wario doesn't get the treasure in the end.
