Wario Land 4
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| Wario Land 4 | |
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| Developer(s) | Nintendo R&D1 |
| Publisher(s) | Nintendo |
| Engine | Highly advanced Wario Land engine. |
| Platform(s) | Game Boy Advance |
| Release date | JPN August 21, 2001 USA November 18, 2001 PAL November 16, 2001 CHN June 8, 2004 |
| Genre(s) | Platformer |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: E (Everyone) |
| Media | 64-megabit cartridge |
Wario Land 4 (known as Wario Land Advance in Japan) is a video game released for the Game Boy Advance system in 2001. In this game, Wario has to gather four treasures to unlock a pyramid and save Princess Shokora from The Golden Diva.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
The manual describes how Wario is reading the newspaper when he notices an article about a mysterious pyramid found deep in the jungle. The legend related to the pyramid is that of Princess Shokora, ruler of the pyramid, who was cursed by the money-crazed Golden Diva.
Without wasting time, Wario jumps into his Wario Car (as shown in the opening animation) and speeds toward the pyramid. As he enters it, he finds a black cat and chases it. Doing so, he falls down a precipice and is stuck inside the pyramid.
After fighting his way through the entry passage and an early boss battle against Spoiled Rotten, Wario discovers four new passages. After completing these passages, Wario gains access to the innermost part of the pyramid which ends up being the stronghold of Golden Diva. Wario meets the cat again who turns out to be Princess Shokora.
Wario defeats Golden Diva and exits the pyramid with all his treasure and Shokora who gives Wario a kiss on the cheek and disappears. Wario leaves the pyramid triumphantly.
[edit] Gameplay
The gameplay of Wario Land 4 allows for some open-endedness as well as some order of difficulty. There are four main passages in addition to the Entry Passage and "Final" Golden Pyramid: the Emerald, Ruby, Topaz, and Sapphire Passages, in order of difficulty. The Emerald Passage is themed around nature. The Ruby Passage is themed around mechanics and technology. The Topaz Passage is themed around toys, games, and other "playtime" ideas. The Sapphire Passage is themed around horror and danger, prominently involving ghosts and the like.
There are four levels in a passage. To progress to the next level in a passage, a player has to find the Keyzer in the previous level (a Keyzer is a floating key-nosed creature that promptly disappears after the player uses it). After the four levels comes a Mini-game Shop and the Boss Room. To enter the Boss Room, the player must find the four pieces of the passage's namesake gem in each level (a total of four gems and 16 pieces). Also, a player can find a CD in each level, which unlocks a song in the CD Room.
Upon entering a level, one has all the time in the world they want to find treasure, beat up enemies, and such. Enemies, when defeated, give coins and health orbs. After collecting a full bar of health orbs, the player receives one extra heart (out of 8). However, the player can't return to the pyramid (and thus have all of their treasure saved) until they open the portal again via a Frog Switch. Upon hitting the switch, a time limit (which varies depending on the game's difficulty setting and level itself) is placed, and many blocks in the level appear or disappear. For some levels, this results in a rush back to the portal the same way the player came. In others, totally new areas are exposed. If a player fails to reach the portal within the time limit, he begins to lose coins. Once all of his coins are gone, he is kicked out of the level (as if he had lost all of his health) and is left with no treasure.
[edit] Boss rooms
At the end of each passage, Wario encounters a boss room. He must destroy a boss within a set time limit to win the treasure within the boss rooms (if Wario takes too long but manages to win before the limit is up, some treasure may be withheld).
Before each battle, Wario will enter a hall way consisting of two doors. One is a shop which uses mini-game coins as currency. In the shop you can buy various power-ups which deal damage to the Boss right before the battle.
[edit] Difficulty levels
There are three difficulty levels.
- Normal: The original difficulty. Players start each boss level with 8 hearts, and there are a lot less enemies.
- Hard: The other original option for difficulty. Players start each boss stage with four hearts, but time limits are lowered, along with boss health increasing and different locations for treasure.
- Super Hard: Only available after completing the game on hard mode, Super Hard mode starts each stage with only one heart in the player's health bar. The time limits, enemy placement, and treasure locations become increasingly difficult, along with two minigames becoming harder and the prices for items being higher.
[edit] Stages
The passsages and stages are as followed:
| Area | Level 1 | Level 2 | Level 3 | Level 4 | Boss |
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| Entry Passage | Hall of Hieroglyphics | N/A | N/A | N/A | Spoiled Rotten |
| Emerald Passage | Palm Tree Paradise | Wildflower Field | Mystic Lake | Monsoon Jungle | Cractus |
| Ruby Passage | Curious Factory | Toxic Landfill | 40 Below Fridge | Pinball Zone | Cuckoo Condor |
| Topaz Passage | Toy Block Tower | The Big Board | Doodle Woods | Domino Row | Aerodent |
| Sapphire Passage | Crescent Moon Village | Arabian Night | Fiery Cavern | Hotel Horror | Catbat |
| Golden Pyramid | Golden Passage | N/A | N/A | N/A | Golden Diva |
[edit] Wario's Abilities
Fat Wario - When Wario eats an apple he becomes very fat. Fat Wario moves slowly but he can defeat enemies easily just by touching them. He can also break through strong blocks on the floor by jumping on them.
Puffy Wario - When Wario gets stung by a bee or hit by arrows his face swells up. He can fly around and can reach areas he couldn't normally reach.
Vampire Bat Wario - When Wario gets bitten by a bat, he becomes a bat himself. He can fly around and reach new areas.
Flat Wario - When Wario gets smashed by something heavy, he becomes very flat. Flat Wario can float and go through small passageways.
Bouncy Wario - When Wario gets hit by a mallet/hammer, his body becomes spring-like. He can jump very high and break through columns of blocks easily.
Zombie Wario - When Wario gets hit by sludge or an undead enemy he becomes a Zombie. Zombie Wario shambles extremely slowly and can defeat enemies simply by touching them, in addition to being impervious to spike traps. However, if he jumps while on a one-way floor, he will fall straight through it and any one-way floors subsequently underneath it.
Snowman Wario - When Wario is hit with snow he becomes a living snowman. Snowman Wario will walk around slowly until he steps onto a slope, at which point he will start rolling down it at high speed and eliminating any object in his path.
Bubble Wario - When Wario is underwater he can become trapped in bubbles that emerge from crevasses in the wall. This form allows him to go up waterfalls.
Flaming Wario - When Wario gets hit by a flame he catches on fire, and will run forward indefinitely until he hits a wall, at which point he runs in the other direction. The flames on his body get larger with each wall he hits, until, after hitting three walls, he is completely immolated and moves around slowly for a few seconds, then turns to ash and recovers. This does not detract from Wario's health points, however.
Frozen Wario - Wario becomes frozen. He starts moving down a path until he hits something.
[edit] Characters
Princess Shokora
Princess Shokora is a mythical princess who assists Wario in his journey. During his plundering, Wario inadvertently frees her from a curse placed upon her by the Golden Diva that forced her to live in the body of a black cat. The only foreknowledge Wario had of her at all was a brief mention of her in the newspaper article he read; in his greedy lust for gold he didn't know that he was going to be rescuing her as well.
Throughout the game she helps Wario by selling him items prior to boss battles used to create pre-emptive damage to the bosses and make them easier for him. In these shops she exhibits an ability to transform herself into a black humanoid shape (resembling Mr. Game and Watch but with eyes). She takes her payment for the items in gold medals that can be received by achieving high scores in the mini game shops prior to the boss rooms.
After defeating the Golden Diva at the end of the game, the curse placed upon her is broken and she takes her true form, which varies depending on how many treasures Wario managed to obtain from the bosses. She has four different appearances, and regardless of her appearance, Wario receives a kiss from her in the ending scene.
Pyramid Detective
The Pyramid Detective is a minor character, but he makes many appearances in the game. His picture was seen on the article Wario read at the beginning. He is apparently a detective or archaeologist put on the job of investigating the pyramid. He appears in the purple bonus pipes (in which you can attack him, but he is invincible in order to solve puzzles), the Wario hop minigame, the main map screen, and the final cinema sequence.
Keyzer
A character in his own right. Wario must find him in each level to open the next door in the passage.
The Golden Diva The Golden Diva is the final boss in Wario Land 4. She is a ghost who wears a fur coat, white makeup, a mask that changes faces each time you damage her as well as all the jewelry from all the previous bosses. Initially she covers her mask with a folding fan and makes four masks appear that are identical to hers. One of these masks bounces slowly around the room. After all of these ghostly masks, her folding fan, and her 'real' mask are destroyed her true face is revealed, which looks like that of a deformed clown. She then starts destroying parts of the floor, revealing sharp metal spikes. After four attacks her body is destroyed, leaving only her lips scurrying across the floor.
[edit] Reception
IGN gave Wario Land a 9 out of 10, or "Outstanding", citing its well thought out level design and replayability, though the game does not significantly push the performance power of the Game Boy Advance.[1]
[edit] Novel
A "choose your own adventure" novel based on the game was written by Craig Wessel and published by Scholastic Inc.
[edit] Notes
- Many sounds from the game were used in the WarioWare series. Pieces of music were also used; for example, the Crescent Moon Village theme was used in the ending sequence of WarioWare Inc.: Mega Microgame$.
- Several pieces of music in the game feature voice samples and lyrics. Most notably, the Japanese lyrics in the Palm Tree Paradise theme, Medamayaki, and the English, funk-based lyrics in the game's title theme.
- In an episode of Grounded For Life, Jimmy is seen playing a Game Boy Advance and yells out "YOU MADE ME LOSE A WARIO", implying that he is playing Wario Land 4.
- The shopkeeper whom you can buy items from before a boss and the Minigames you must play to get shop medals resembles Mr. Game and Watch, of Game & Watch and Super Smash Bros. fame.
- The old man seen exploring the pyramid in the main room and in some levels looks identical to a character from another Nintendo title, Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru.
- The engine for this game was also used as the engine for Metroid Fusion and Metroid: Zero Mission.
[edit] References
- ^ Harris, Craig (November 20th, 2004). Wario Land 4 Review. ign.com. Retrieved on 2006-06-05.
[edit] External links
- Wario Land 4 Official Site
- Warioland 4 at GameSpot
- Warioland 4 at Gamestats
- Warioland 4 at IGN
- Information on Wario Land 4 novel by Craig Wessel at Damiens Gamebook Web Page
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