Nerd Mentality

Warioland Shake It! impressions

Posted July 26th 2008 by kino.

I absolutely loved Warioland 4 and consider it to be one of the best games in the prolific handheld-exclusive series. After spending a little over one hour of playtime on Warioland Shake It! for the Wii, I am pleased to say it's more of the same, really.

This full-length disc-based (not WiiWare) high-resolution 2D platformer shares its basic mechanics with Nintendo R&D1's GBA opus: Wario is tipped by old rival Syrup on the existence within the Shake Dimension of the Bottomless Sack, which as its name implies provides endless supplies of coins to its owner. Wario then goes exploring the five worlds that compose this dimension, to claim back five major treasures and save the local queen from the evil Shake King.

Each world is divided into four stages (with at least one more hidden) plus a boss fight. The progression is linear, but Wario can buy maps from Syrup to access new worlds if his financial situation allows it. I only got to beat the first world, but each stage so far has been refreshingly different from both a graphical and gameplay perspective. Similarly to Warioland 4, after reaching the goal of the level, here a cage imprisoning a Merfle, (a sort of tiny flying creature that apparently inhabits the land) the player has to backtrack to the beginning of the stage within a strict time limit.

The gameplay consists of traditional platforming, exploration and puzzle solving. In addition to his old dash and butt-stomp moves, Wario can now shake grabbed items and enemies for coins and items to loot, or just throw them away in a mechanic reminiscent of Yoshi's egg tossing. He can also pound the ground and cause an impressive earthquake to various effects. The player holds the Wii Remote sideways and navigates the level using the D-Pad and face buttons. The Wii's accelerometers control Wario's new shake abilities, as well as various environmental puzzles like mine carts and moving cannons.

The 2D graphics are extremely impressive. Warioland Shake It! probably boasts the best high resolution sprites I have ever seen in any game to date. Wario and the other characters all move with perfect fluidity thanks to the animators at Production IG. The backdrops are colorful and well detailed, with very little impression of repeating tiles, and some subtle lighting effects help the sprites blend into the environments (sprites get darker in dark corridors and lighter in the sun).

My impressions after this quick session are mostly favorable. Developer Good Feel has got the recipe down for a quality traditional platformer. I am not loving the level design and gameplay as much as Warioland 4's so far, and I found the audio side, while competently composed, not sounding as good either (and that's compared to a Gameboy Advance game!). Fans of Wario and puzzle/exploration oriented platformers should love this title, and just like its handheld predecessor the replay value seems quite good, with tons of secrets and hidden treasures to go back to gather. Overall I would advise any self-respecting so-called hardcore gamer to give this title an honest try come September 29th (26th if you live in Europe). After all this is exactly the kind of meaty experience fans have been clamoring for Nintendo to go back to making.

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