wario’s virtual land

another gaming first, i finished my first virtual boy game, wario land. i’d gotten a virtual boy a while back b/c it’s just way too cool and b/c i’m a nintendo fanboy, even though there wasn’t much i was itching to play on it. but i’d played and enjoyed the first wario land game (on the game boy) last year, so i was interested in delving deeper into the series. although the VB wario land is the second game in the series, the “wario land 2” moniker was actually given to the game that followed VB wario land, when the series returned to the game boy.

VB wario land is an enjoyable game, despite being extremely similar to the previous game and including virtually the exact same powerups. the game generally makes good use of the 3D perspective, and the treasures are hidden well enough that you’ll be scratching your head more than once as you search for them. another plus is that there’s a harder version of the game unlocked after you beat the game, which apparently includes more spikes and other hazards. and although i haven’t found anywhere else that mentions it, the second quest also gives you different treasures, e.g. instead of a lucky cat statue as the treasure for the first level it’s a raccoon statue.

all in all this is a solid platformer, and despite some weak boss battles overall this one’s as entertaining as the first wario land game. prob. not worth going out of your way to get a VB to play this game unless you’re a hard-core nintendo fanboy like me, although it remains to be seen how far the next games in the series evolve.

wario’s virtual links:
– there are some great VB fan sites, including virtual-boy.org and www.vr32.de which has a nice page on wario land VB including scans of the instruction manual
– TV commercial and a video of some gameplay (no sound), on youtube
– entry at wikipedia
– IGN AU had a nice VB retrospective earlier this year, including mini-reviews of some of the best games
– a FAQ at gamefaqs and one from IGN
– endings FAQ for all the mario games, inc. the wario land games
– general VB FAQ

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