Vikings, dragons, and jets! Oh my!
Recently, I reacquired a Game Boy Pocket and dusted off all of my old Game Boy games. While rummaging through Monster Rancher Battle Card GB, Pac-Man, and The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, I found one of the first video games I ever owned - Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3. This gem from 1993 was the first game to ever feature Wario as a playable character. The immediate follow up to Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, this game was the first (at least in my memory) that had nothing to do with being a good guy. There was no princess or land to save. There was no ship to reassemble and no bounty to collect on. It was you, and a whole bunch of money just waiting to be collected. This game is a game of greed, a theme that has been featured in all the following Wario games.
Look at those coins. You know you want them.
Despite being created and distributed in 1993, the game holds well over time. It plays as you would expect most platformers to from the time. With the classic “A is jump and B is attack” dynamic, the simplistic controls make the game easy to re-pick up and play. The game also has one other element that stands out and acts similarly to power-ups in the other Mario games: Wario’s different hats. There are five different Warios in the game. There is regular safari-hat wearing Wario, tiny just-got-hit-by-an-enemy Wario, viking hat Wario, jet hat Wario, and dragon hat wario. Each of these incarnations holds a different power that helps Wario collected his much needed booty.
The only time
Wario wears his signature hat. You can also see Wario's crazy eyes.
Although this is, technically, part of the Super Mario Land, Wario’s basic movements are almost opposite of the classic plumber’s. While Mario’s jumps are graceful and precise, Wario’s are blunt and strong. He also has a move called “The Butt Smash”. When Wario dons the viking hat he is able to jump in the air and come crashing down to break blocks and shock enemies.
Those enemies
have no idea what's about to happen to
them.I have to give Wario Land some credit, the game withstands the test of time. I played through the first set of levels and beat the first boss within an hour and continued on to the second level, all the while smiling and anticipating what kind of level I would encounter next. Although the first level is excruciatingly easy, the difficulty curve is steady and challenging. The enemies get harder, the boss battles get more interesting and you get to fight against pirate ducks. You read that right, there are pirate ducks in the game. But I digress, the game plays really well. It’s very much its own game as well as another installment of the Super Mario Land franchise. I can see how this game spawned seven or eight sequels. Nintendo took a lesser-known character, fleshed him out a little and gave him his own style and gameplay. A little part of me wishes that Nintendo did this with some other villains. Who knows? Maybe one day I’ll be reviewing “Super Waluigi Land”.
