Wario Land - Super Mario Land 3 Review by: kabenon007 - 9/10
WarioLand- GreedWario Land was the first game I ever wanted to complete. I'm not talking about finish; I'm talking complete, like all you crazies out there who complete every Playstation game to unlock those silly trophies. I wanted to explore every inch of this game until I had discovered everything there was. Why did I want to do this? Because this game turned me into a greedy little child.
Wario, the game's protagonist and arch-nemesis of Mario, is a little sore from losing the castle to Mario in Super Mario Land 2, so what does he do? Does he play the stocks to amass a large sum of money to legitimately purchase a home for himself? Does he build one from scratch? No, in typical Wario fashion he decides to take the hard earned moolah from others and use it for his own nefarious purposes. Granted, the people he steals from are pirates, so the treasure never actually belonged to them anyway, but still. Stealing is stealing is repossessing.
You guide Wario through many colorful worlds on an island known as Kitchen Island, and the levels are all named accordingly, such as Rice Beach, SS Teacup, etc. The worlds are all wonderfully imaginative, never feeling like the aesthetic overstays its welcome, and the music that corresponds to the worlds is apt for each location as well.
Though the main gameplay element is platforming (which the game handles very well) boss fights form a large part of this game as well, as each world ends in a boss fight with some pretty unique bosses, each of which necessitate a different style to defeat them, as opposed to just the regular jump on its head approach. Wario is also given Marioesque powerups in the form of Pots, which transform him into a large Wario, a Dragon Wario, a Jet Wario, and a Bull Wario, the last of which is my personal favorite as it allows you to stick into the ceiling. Though not useful throughout the entirety of the game, it does manage to work its way into some interesting level designs. (Speaking of level designs, just wait til you get to the train level. I swear, I replayed that level over and over, just because it was such an awesome design and implementation!)
But what I really love about this game, what kept me coming back for more and eventually fully completing this game, was the ending. I won't spoil anything, but the ending changes based on how much coin you manage to rack up during your playthrough. Hence this game turning me into a greedy child when I first played it. I hoarded all the gold coins I could find, and I scoured the worlds for every piece of hidden treasure in the game, treasure which, at the end, is transformed into... coins! Its an all out theft-fest that culminates in a better ending depending on how much you were able to obtain. And there were so many possibilities! It seemed like everytime I got just a little bit more, the ending was different, and I could tell I was getting closer to the ever elusive perfect game.
Very few platforming games have managed to hold my attention like Wario Land, and as the sequel to Super Mario Land 2, it's no wonder it grabs hold of you. Like Wario and a clove of garlic. Yum.
Graphics
9 Sound
8 Addictive
10 Depth
10 Story
9
User Notice 
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