Topic: Wario Land: Shake It!

[Tanookisuit]

That ad is crazy awesome.  Sadly, I don't think I can spend $50 on this game.  I'm very excited for it, but I can't do it.  Maybe I'll trade something in to get some $$$ off.

[Dasmos]

Back on the subject of the actual game itself, here's THE BEST AD EVER! ='D

Jesus christ, that is awesome.

[UltimatePartyBear]

Flashblock partially ruined the surprise for me, but that was still really great.

[NWR_Lindy]

Thankfully I saw it on a non-Flashblocked browser, and that is BRILLIANT.

[Nick DiMola]

Yeah that ad was fantastic.

I especially loved tossing the remaining pieces left on the screen around after the ad finished up

[Luigi Dude]

Well after playing the game for a few hours I can indeed say it rocks.  Even though I've only played through the first worlds levels and some of the second worlds, the gameplay is top notch.  The levels are nicely designed with Treasure to discover, some of it cleverly hidden.  Plus the soundtrack is F*CKING AMAZING.

Which brings up my next point, the missions for each level really make the the game shine.  Even in the first few levels, your required to really learn about the level before being able to complete some of the missions, and will for sure play some of them several times before you accomplish them.

Any reviewer that calls this game too short and easy, is a f*cking failure as a gamer.  Every level is filled with Treasures to discover and missions to complete, with some of these missions quite challenging.  I'm already close to 3 hours in and I still haven't completed all the missions in the first worlds levels yet.  The way things are going I easily see this game taking somewhere over 20 hours to complete everything 100%. 

Now the normal levels themselves have been easy if you just rush through them without doing any of the missions.  It's obvious that this is what the reviewers have been doing because yes, I'm sure it's possible to get to the final boss in about 5-6 hours if you play like this.  But the depth from the gameplay comes from finding the hidden Treasures and completing the Missions.  Anyone that plays through the game without doing any of them isn't playing the game the way it's meant to be played and as a result is a failure.

From the looks of things this game looks like it'll end up the Wii's Jungle Beat.  A top notch 2d platformer with tons of value and depth to it, that gets low reviews because the reviewers were complete idiots that didn't bother to play the game the way it's meant to be played.

For everyone else though, that actually plays through the game the right way by trying to find all the Treasure and completing all the Missions 100%, you'll have a blast.

[Bill Aurion]

From the looks of things this game looks like it'll end up the Wii's Jungle Beat.  A top notch 2d platformer with tons of value and depth to it, that gets low reviews because the reviewers were complete idiots that didn't bother to play the game the way it's meant to be played.

Jungle Beat comparison...

Thanks for the impressions, looking forward to getting the game later this week...

[Ian Sane]

For everyone else though, that actually plays through the game the right way by trying to find all the Treasure and completing all the Missions 100%, you'll have a blast.

Is getting all the missions 100% worthwhile or is it just completist busy work?  To me that makes a big difference.  I don't care if I get a magic 100% next to my save.  Finding all the little secrets and such has to have value.

In Super Mario World getting everything means accessing all the levels.  There is a clear reward for going the extra mile - more content!  Is Warioland Shake like that or is it just completing everything to feel good about yourself?  That's the difference between true value and just busy work.  Busy work isn't gameplay, it's FILLER.  If I can see everything there is in the game in 5-6 hours then the critics are right, though their criticism is probably less thought out and more "ugh, 2D sucks".

How does the game control?  Do I have to fight against forced waggle or is it all logical and intuitive?

[Bill Aurion]

If I can see everything there is in the game in 5-6 hours then the critics are right, though their criticism is probably less thought out and more "ugh, 2D sucks".

No, it just means it's not their type of game, and they should specify that if that's the case...

Have you played a Wario Land game before?  It sounds pretty similar to the GameBoy games...

[Caliban]

Holy crap was that was awesome.
I've got the game, and it shouldn't be long before I start playing it hehehehehehehehe.

[blackfootsteps]

That was the coolest ad I've ever seen and the footage looked fantastic.

[Luigi Dude]

Is getting all the missions 100% worthwhile or is it just completist busy work?  To me that makes a big difference.  I don't care if I get a magic 100% next to my save.  Finding all the little secrets and such has to have value.

Completing the missions does have value though.  When you complete all the missions in a level, you unlock the music for that level in the soundtest.  And since this game has a great soundtrack there's even more reason to want to complete the missions to unlock all the songs.

In Super Mario World getting everything means accessing all the levels.  There is a clear reward for going the extra mile - more content!  Is Warioland Shake like that or is it just completing everything to feel good about yourself?

Well there are hidden levels to unlock in the game.  I unlocked one so far by finding a hidden map in one of the regular stages.  I think there's suppose to be 12 hidden stages total.  Plus the hidden stages have twice as many missions as normal ones and the Treasure in hidden stages is much harder to find and requires way more skill to get.  So the hardcore audience has every reason to try and unlock the hidden stages.

How does the game control?  Do I have to fight against forced waggle or is it all logical and intuitive?

Well for the most part the game controls fine, and the motion controls are minor when playing as normal Wario.  Of course considering your view on motion controls, you'll probably be annoyed with having to keep shaking the Wiimote to shake the money out of bags when you grab them.

But there's some times when you use vechicles that require you to tilt the Wiimote to make them move.  Now I didn't mind them but I can imagine others might.  And I'm going to guess that you'll probably end up in the group that doesn't like them based on some of your previous comments reguarding motion control.

[Mario]

Oh god damn it, this was NOT just compared to Jungle Beat. Now I may have to get it straight away.

[Smash_Brother]

Wario wrecked Youtube's ****.

I only have two questions: does this game have any collectathon elements which get old and does the shaking get old/tiresome?

[Pale]

Man, this wasn't really on my radar, but now I'm tempted to pick it up on the way home today.  Damn, that's not the correct decision given my backlog!

[Ian Sane]

When you complete all the missions in a level, you unlock the music for that level in the soundtest.

Well there are hidden levels to unlock in the game.

Perfect.  That's real value.  And I'm a real sucker for a sound test.  Worked my ass off to unlock the one is SSB Melee.  Back in the day it was always a treat when a game came with a sound test in the options menu.  Nintendo never had that stuff and Capcom pretty much always did.

Of course considering your view on motion controls, you'll probably be annoyed with having to keep shaking the Wiimote to shake the money out of bags when you grab them.

That does sound annoying.  But Nintendo has this "brilliant" strategy to ensure I'll put this on my Christmas list.  It's called "releasing nothing else".  Guitar Hero is still the game I'm looking forward to the most but because of the high cost I'll probably buy it myself.  So looks like Wario wins by default.

But waggle is still evil.  In ten years they'll be re-releasing Wii games with "now with non-stupid controls" on the box.

[NWR_Lindy]

That's the one criticism I've heard for this game, is that the waggle to shake coins out of bags gets old pretty quickly.

[Luigi Dude]

That's the one criticism I've heard for this game, is that the waggle to shake coins out of bags gets old pretty quickly.

Yeah, after playing it more last night, it does get tiresome after awhile.  When your trying to get the missions that require you to get a lot of coins per level, having to shake every single bag makes you wish there was a quicker way to do it.

does this game have any collectathon elements which get old

Well every level has a mission that involves getting a certion amount of coins.  It's similar in a way in how in Wario Land 3 you'd have to explore the entire level to find the 8 big coins.  In this game you'll be exploring the entire levels to find big bags to shake and gold coins along with a diamond in some to grab in order to get enough for those missions.

Now I don't mind the mission themselves, but having to shake all the damn bags in them does get a little annoying like I said before.


But other the the shaking bag problem, I have no other critism of the game.  The levels are well designed with secrets to discover.  Most of the missions are fun with some quite challenging to try and complete, plus the gameplay itself is a blast, so I'd still strongly reccomend the game for all fans of 2d Platformers.

[vudu]

Does shaking the remote faster produce more coins or does any shake produce the same amount?  I don't think I'll mind "casual shaking" but I can see "frantic shaking" getting old pretty fast.

[Ian Sane]

The more I read about the shaking the less interested I am in the game.  I should stop reading about it because it's just souring me on it.

The game has "Shake It!" in the title and yet the general opinion is that the shaking is a pain in the ass.  So the element that makes the game unique is the one thing that sucks about it?  Ouch!  Who does Nintendo get to test this stuff?  Like do they honestly think people of normal intelligence will enjoy having to shake the remote every time they find a bag of coins when a simple button press could easily do the trick (or more specifically would be a BETTER way to do it)?  Wouldn't someone testing the game note that it gets tiresome?

Nintendo's use of the Wii remote so often relies on someone being so unfamiliar with games that the sheer thrill of controlling something on the screen is exciting.  Well, sorry, but most of us have played games for more than six months and need something more substancial than inaccurate novelty controls with no options for something practical.

This is the Wii user experience in a nutshell: fighting with stupid controls.  Just admit the "future controller standard" stuff was wrong and enable the classic controller as an option in all games where the remote is ill-suited as the default (ie: 90% of Wii games).  Giving us the option in SSB Brawl didn't spook away the non-gamers so let the rubes have their waggle and let the rest of use something that makes sense.

[UltimatePartyBear]

I'm curious if it's actually tiresome, or merely tiring.

In the old days, Nintendo would make us press the A button repeatedly as fast as possible to do the same thing.  That would not be better.  Not even if it were in Fairyland, where unicorns fart rainbows and all the girls will go out with you.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

what about blistering analog stick twirling

[EasyCure]

what about blistering analog stick twirling

lawsuits prevent such a thing w/o getting special gloves from nintendo first

[Luigi Dude]

In the old days, Nintendo would make us press the A button repeatedly as fast as possible to do the same thing.  That would not be better.

That's pretty much what it is.  You grab a bag and just shake it fast to get the coins out similar to how you would just rapidly hit A like back in the old days.

Now it can be annoying but it's not a gamebreaker.  Like I said it's only annoying when your going for the high coin mission in each level that require you to find most of the bags.  I'd reccomend doing the coin mission in a level first, to get that out of the way and then do all the other missions which are a lot more fun.  If you just put enough space between when you do each coin mission, you shouldn't have a big problem with that aspect of the game.

Because like I said the rest of the game is a total blast.  To ignore it just because of this one issue would be silly because people who do will end up missing out on a game that overall is a great platformer.

[Jonnyboy117]

So far I don't like the shaking, but it's not a major distraction from the gameplay.  The game is absolutely gorgeous, with great (funky!) music, and my eyes widened when I got my first achievement.