Ahh, Wario Land. Me have many good memories from this series. Wario Land 2 was the first full-color game I ever got for my Game Boy Color...and not only was it pretty, the level design and "invincible" gameplay blew me away. Wario Land 3 wasn't a giant leap forward, but it made you earn your abilities, added an awesome overworld map, and brought even more creative ideas to the no-death gameplay theme. Plus, the graphics were and are some of the best available on GBC, and the level design was still amazing.

Now the inevitable Wario Land 4 is out, this time for Game Boy Advance. And what does it do for the series? Ummm...continues it, that's for sure.

The level designs are once again on par with Miyamoto's Zelda dungeons or just about any other impressive example you could conjure up. Wario himself is no longer invincible, but he starts out with a pretty long health meter, and only about half the enemies can actually hurt him. The other half transform him just like in the earlier games...I think it's a bit inconvenient that the two types aren't graphically differentiated. You just have to jump into each new enemy you meet to see if it's deadly or transforming.

Wario's control is exactly the same as before, save for a new running attack done by holding R and having lots of flat ground to work with. It's nice but rarely used so far as I can tell. Speed actually does matter now though, because you have to escape each level after you "beat" it by jumping on a little frog statue. The time given to escape seems rather generous to me, but at least the music gets ultra-panicky. The developers have also tossed in a lot of goodies on the escape route, and you'll have to decide if it's worth the risk to stop and grab them.

It's not. Not really. The money is used to play mini-games. The mini-games are absolutely, positively boring. Wario Land 3 had frigging awesome mini-golf...why is Wario Land 4 making me do these ultra-simple, one-button reflex-a-thons? I've played more complex (and entertaining) mini-games in Pokemon Stadium, and that's sad.

Well, at least the graphics are pretty good. The art style is exactly like you'd expect from the series, but WL4 is pushing several layers of parallax, plus the sprites and animation are a bit better. There are some very gratuitous scaling and rotation effects thrown in for good measure too. The music is the best part so far...it ranges from quirky Mario remixes to brand new, addictive songs, and the panic music during level escapes does its job perfectly. You can also listen to the songs after you find each one's hidden CD in the levels. Is it worth the trouble? Not really, but I dig the challenge of finding the CDs in the first place...listening to them is just extra.

Is there anything particularly wrong with Wario Land 4? Not that I can tell after about three hours of playing, other than a worrisome lack of innovation. Adding a new dash move and this escape stuff doesn't really affect the formula very much. Think about the incredible gameplay progression in the first four Mario games (counting Doki Doki Panic as the second one). Wario Land 2 was massively different (and better) than the first, but since then we're just getting new levels. It's a bit hard for me to complain about that when the levels are so good --they are definitely the selling point of the series-- but I have to draw the line at some point. Maybe I'll discover some concrete innovation as I get further into the title, but I rather doubt it.