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« on: August 27, 2012, 03:48:22 PM »
I'm listening to the podcast now, and my post got called out -- now playing through four Wario Land games in a row is all worth it.
Admittedly, Wario Land has clearly changed a lot throughout the series -- particularly if, like me, you skip WL2 and 3. Wario Land 4 is vastly different from the earliest games in the series. But despite that, I do think that the first game and the VB game at the very least helped put my expectations in check. I said recently that I appreciated Wario Land 1 more than the Super Mario Land games because it really tries to break out of the mold of those games -- that is, of trying to emulate the console games. Wario Land really is a whole different beast from Mario. With the dash, the butt stomp, and the various hats, even in a very basic sense, Wario has a whole different feel to him. Beyond that, the games have more slow-paced levels with a focus on exploration, which I think is pretty consistent throughout the series. I mean, you won't find yourself crouching down and crawling in tiny spaces or crashing through bricks in most traditional Mario games.
That's mostly what I was referring to when I said that playing older games in the series prepared me. While there are a lot of changes throughout the series, with its increased focus on exploration, the completely different abilities and power-ups, I still think there's enough consistency that playing the older games helped me get into the series.
...
Going a little off topic here, I mentioned in my last post that I was going to give Wario Land 3 another shot, and I am -- and I'm really enjoying it. Much like Wario Land 4, I think a better understanding of the series really helped. I think that Wario Land 3 in particular can be overwhelming to a series newcomer. I really like the variety of abilities, and the lack of death makes me not hesitate to run right into an enemy to see what will happen. I do like the exploration aspect, but I still think it could be handled better. I wish there were more indications of where to use my new treasures. I think it's great that stages are highlighted right after you get a treasure -- unless I'm not paying attention or if I forget the others after going to one of them. Obviously there's the temple too, but that seems to be purely about progressing forward, not necessarily about exploring for optional treasures.
But there is a lot to love about the game, and I do think it's superior to Wario Land 4. I hope that one day you guys do a RetroActive for Wario Land 3, as I'm really enjoying it, but I don't know if I'd put it quite on the pedestal that some people do. It definitely feels like the most ambitious title in the series, but it's not without a few flaws as a result of that.
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