Wario Land Shake It! (Wii)

This game is actually the first from my Let's Play Honestly series on YouTube. I've done the series since I launched the channel, but starting this year I've begun using a Mystery Box feature : I have a box filled with games I've never played before, I pick one at random, play it for a bit, and decide if I want to keep playing it and review it here on the blog. If you'd like to watch the episode which this game came from, just click here.

Now, at the end of the episode, I was undecided on this game. There was some things that I didn't like at a first glance, but there were other things that I did like. So I decided to give it a chance and play it out with the intent of reviewing it, and here we are.

The Story

In a museum resides an ancient globe which contains inside of it, an alternate realm called the Shake Dimension. Captain Syrup is in the museum and notices there is a conflict going on inside the dimension. The Shake King has imprisoned Queen Merelda and all of the Merfle, and has laid claim to the famed Bottomless Coin Sack, a legendary sack which, when shaken, releases an infinite supply of gold. One of the Merfle is able to break free from the Shake Dimension, just as our pal Wario is standing over it with a sledgehammer, ready to swing. He pleads with Wario for his help, but Wario just ignores him at first until he catches word about the famed sack. Will Wario help out the inhabitants of the Shake Dimension, or will he just focus on his sole quest for personal greed?

The Controls

This game throws it back to the good old Nintendo days of side-scrolling platformers. And to help with the feeling, you get to use the WiiMote flipped on it's side, like a stretched out original Nintendo Controller. The 1 button is your charge move, and also acts as your throw button when you're holding an item or enemy, and 2 is your jump button. You use the D-Pad to move left and right, or if you've already jumped into the air, you can press down for a butt-slamming move, and the + and - buttons pause the game or bring up your list of in-level missions.

Of course, there's also a couple motion-controls thrown into this one because, let's face it, it's the Wii. While holding a back of treasure, you can shake the WiiMote to release the coins from within, or you can also do this while holding some enemies and they may release treasure. Lastly, if you lift up WiiMote and quickly bring it down, it will make Wario do a ground punch that sends out a shockwave.

The Gameplay

The main story is set in the realm of the Shake Dimension. To reach the Shake King and the Bottomless Coin Sack, Wario needs to travel to five areas within the dimension. Each of these area contains five stages : four normal stages and one boss stage.

In order to travel to each area, you'll need to obtain a map for each one respectively. Obtaining the map is as simple as going to the Pirate Shop in the training area of the game, and purchasing the map for whichever area you need to reach next, and your currency comes from the coins you collect in each level you play.

The normal levels all follow the same formula. There is a Merfle you need to rescue, which is trapped in a container at the end of the level. Wario must work his way through to the end, having all the time in the world to do so, collecting whatever treasure you wish. Each level is pretty linear, but there are optional alternate routes that will generally net you some extra coins. Once you reach the end and rescue the Merfle, a timer will start, and you must race back to the start point of the level before the timer runs out. 

Wario has a few moves available to him which can be used to either combat enemies, or solve the puzzle elements of some of the platforming. His charge move can either break through certain bricks, or can defeat an enemy. The shockwave that is sent out from ground-punch can stun enemies that are hit by the wave, or it can lift certain pedestals so you can reach higher areas.

To reach the end of the game and face off against the Shake King, you must travel to all five of the areas and defeat each boss in each area. Doing so rewards you with a boss emblem, and you need all five before you can complete the game. 

The last thing that's available for you to complete while you're playing Shake It, is each stage comes with a handful of optional missions. Each stage has two of these that are pretty consistent : a challenge for making the return-dash after saving the Merfle before the timer hits a certain point, and collecting a certain number of coins while in the stage. The remaining challenges cover a few other things such as finding and defeating a specific golden enemy, not taking any damage, or not touching any water within the stage. 

This one's pretty fun, not a ton of substance to it, but it comes off pretty well. But first, let's see how challenging this one will be for you.

The Challenge (or lack thereof?)

Wario Land Shake It has it's fair share of areas that are worth noting for their varying levels of difficulty. Theres the enemies and bosses, collecting the coins, completing the side missions, and even the puzzle aspect of the platforming. 

Collecting the coins varies from level to level, but it lands somewhere between easy and moderate. Even if you're not going for the mission goal of collecting coins, there are some levels where it seems the coins just fall in front of you, and others that will have you feeling like you've overturned every corner and traveled every path only to find next to nothing. And you'll need to find these coins to at least be able to purchase each of the area maps. However that part is easy as you can replay levels and you'll still keep all the coins you find on your second and third visits. 

Side missions are one of the more challenging areas of this game, ranging from moderate to hard. The challenges of racing against the clock require extreme precision as you return to the starting point, as will avoiding damage and trying to not fall into water on the stages where it's applicable. However, these aren't necessary to complete the game, it's only there for those that want to go that extra few steps. So if you want to get the challenge out of this game, this is where you'll find your niche. 

The puzzle area of the platforming is at worst moderate, but for the most part fairly easy. All of it is laid out before you, and you can generally see a hint of where you need to go. The bit of a challenge in this area comes from the fact that when your special moves are required to progress, you won't receive any pop-up hints of what to do, so as long as you can remember the short list of moves you're able to do, you'll be good to go. 

Your enemies are pretty easy. They all take a single hit to eliminate, so charging them down is all you need to do. The worst "challenge" of this is timing it once in a while, as there are some enemies that can electrify themselves or are wearing/holding sharp objects that you need to be wary of. 

Lastly, the bosses are slightly above a moderate challenge. They all have very obvious points where your attacks are intended to be aimed. However, just as I mentioned with the puzzle area just above, it's up to you to remember what moves you have, what they do, and use the proper one when the time comes. Yet they're still pretty fun too despite the little bit of difficulty they bring to the table.

So, it's not the hardest game you'll come across, but it's definitely not the easiest either. Before we slap a decision on this one, let's see what was good and bad about it.

PROS

- Animation Style In Cutscenes. The art style of the cutscenes is really cool, because it's all hand-drawn like an old cartoon. It's done very well, it adds to the old-school retro feel that they were trying to pull off, and honestly the only negative point about it is the fact that there's no voice acting in any of it. Everyone speaks in the Sims gibberish and it's overlaid with subtitles of who's saying what (but what else would you expect from Nintendo?)

- Excellent Controls. I touched on this a little bit in the LPH episode, the controls for this game are a lot of fun. You get to use the WiiMote like an old NES or SNES controller, which is cool in and of itself. But they still manage to work in the Wii Motion controls, and do it in a way that doesn't take away from the old gamepad feel. Everything is really responsive and there's no hesitation on anything that you try to do in the game.

CONS

- Small Screens. This isn't necessarily a game-ruining point, but it's honestly more confusing than anything. While you travel through the levels, you'll make your way through various screens, meaning you get from point A to point B on the first screen, and then it loads up the next screen and you continue from point B on to point C, and so on until you reach the Merfle and must do everything in reverse. The reason this is confusing is simply...why? If it was due to a limit they had on space because of hand-drawing everything in the game, that makes a little sense, but still. The fact that they were trying to give it an old-school platforming feel...this takes away from it a bit because I can throw in the original Super Mario Bros and getting from the start of the first stage to the end of it doesn't have any mid-level loadings.

- Purchasing Levels. Again, this ones more of a why was this done point. I could see if you were purchasing maps for something specific, like the locations of the big treasures within each area and it's levels. But having to collect coins just to be able to by the next area of the game? I don't get it. You want people to play the game that you've made, but for them to do so they must go crazy collecting coins in the levels, just to be able to continue? It helps that you can just replay levels to keep collecting coins, but still. All you should need to progress is the boss emblem from Area 1 to get to Area 2.

 Final Verdict

Wario Land Shake It has a few minor flaws. But, speaking honestly (I am The Honest Gamer after all), it doesn't completely take away from the game itself. This Wii game sets out to take you back to the original 8- and 16-bit days, and it more than successfully pulls that aspect off. It also incorporates the then current-age gaming into it by giving you some motion controls as well. So this one manages to combine the old days with the present, and it's pretty fun. While I hated the constant loading of various screens in each level, I loved the idea of lurking through the level to find the Merfle and then racing back to the starting point. 

You can find this game for around $10, either loose or CIB, and despite the few annoyances in this one, you'll easily get your moneys worth out of it. It's a fun throwback to the original platforming days, and come on, it's Wario! Who doesn't love a game that's centralized on one of the "bad guys" of Nintendo?

This is one that I'll finish eventually once I get a gap in the projects I'm currently working on. It's fun, but for me it wasn't fun enough to push other things out of the way to give myself room to play this one. If it wasn't a Wario game, I'd feel less of a pull from this one, but he's always been one of my favorite characters.