Wario Land: Shake It! Review

When Wario first debuted in the late 80’s platformers were the premiere genre in gaming. Mario got it all started then his evil counterpart was introduced. There have been a number of games in the Wario Land franchise. Wario Land: Shake It! is the latest in that series and brings a wonderful game with it.

The game opens up with a brilliantly animated scene by Production I.G. The brief anime style cartoon sets up the story where the evil Shake King has invaded the Shake Dimension and taken over as ruler. He’s kidnapped Queen Merelda and stolen the legendary “Bottomless Coin Sack”. Captain Maple Syrup, a recurring character in the series observes this and wants that treasure for herself, but does not want to get her hands dirty, so instead she enlists Wario’s help, and he’s all too willing to do it if treasure is involved. You are then transported to the Shake Dimension where Captain Syrup shows you the ropes. It’s here you learn the most important element to the gameplay; shaking everything is the key to rescuing the Queen. You obtain money in the world by shaking sacks of coins. Shaking enemies rewards you with more treasure or garlic to replenish your health. Shaking the controller will cause Wario to pound the ground to raise platforms and stun enemies. If you haven’t guessed by now, you’ll do a lot of shaking in the game. While that sounds like it would get tedious and boring, I can assure you it doesn’t. Shaking things is usually a matter of a quick flick of the remote and not an exaggerated shaking motion.

The Wii Remote is held on its side in traditional NES fashion. The D-pad controls Wario’s movement. You press the “2” button to jump and the “1” button to do a shoulder charge. Pressing down in mid air will cause Wario to do a butt stomp that can be used to dispatch enemies and break rocks below you. Enemies in the game have very little offensive abilities, though there are a few that can inflict damage. You’ll learn very quickly if part of them has a spike they can hurt you, if not you’re relatively safe. This creates the perfect balance between traditional platforming elements and a more laid back casual approach to the genre.

The game is presented in a gorgeous hand drawn style that looks very much like you’re watching a Saturday morning cartoon. The opening cut scene is, as mentioned before, done by Production I.G. and sets the tone for the amazing art style that you’ll come to love in the game. Every inch of the world is handled with amazing care and looks brilliant and vivid. You’ll find you want to see more games done in this style, as it fits perfectly with the Wii audience. The animation is fluid; everything flows together quite nicely and some of the things Wario does will have you laugh out loud.

The music in the game is what you would expect from this type of game. The musical scores for the different levels are all themed to what is going on on screen. Wild West levels are accompanied by acoustic guitar western themes. The areas modeled after Japanese villages all have a more laid back a serene feel to them. This is followed closely by a level set around a casino that is loud and in your face. You’ll find yourself lost in the music and it won’t get in the way. You’ll remember some of the tunes after playing. It all fits perfectly with the game. Each of the levels background music can also be unlocked and played on a virtual juke box when you just want to hear some of the music without all the accompanying sound effects.

There’s not a lot new in Wario Land: Shake It that hasn’t been seen in platformers before. The only real new mechanic is the shaking element. You can still torture Wario in all the ways you know and love. Set him on fire to break down areas of the levels. Crush him with snow and roll him down a hill to bust open frozen areas. Blow him up, drown him; you can do it all and he takes it all for love of the treasure. The only other element that has been added to make this game feel different is the run back. Once you get to the end of a level and rescue the Merfle that has been trapped you turn around and run back through the level as fast as you can. There are places that launch you out at a very fast speed to help this process as you’re on a time limit to reach the beginning of the level. If you don’t make it back you have to restart from the last checkpoint, if you touched it, and run all the way back again. It feels almost like this was tacked on to add some length to the game, but there are achievement tied to these run backs to give players an incentive to do their best with them.

There are five worlds with four main levels each. There are 3-4 bonus levels per world that can be unlocked by finding the appropriate shiny spot in different areas. Each of these bonus levels has achievements that are harder to gain than the normal worlds and this is where the difficulty of the game ramps up. The main levels are not very difficult and experienced gamers will find they can finish the main quest of the game in about 4-5 hours. The bonus levels add another 3 hours to the game and the achievements will add even more play time and replayability to the game.

Wario Land: Shake It! is a welcome addition to the 2-D genre that many gamers long for. If you’re looking for a solid platform game that you’ll come back to over and over you will probably find that in this title if you haven’t already picked it up.

Final Score: 4/5