Backlog Game Reviews 2: Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3

Hey there, and welcome to Backlog Game Reviews. The next game I'll be knocking off of the backlog is Wario Land for the Gameboy. Released on January 21st, 1994 in Japan, March 13th, 1994 in North America, and May 13th, 1994 in Europe. It's the third installment in the Mario Land series. Wario is the star of this game replacing Mario as the main character. The game was very well received, selling 5.19 million copies worldwide. It was praised as one of the best games on the Gameboy, and the best game in the Mario Land series. The game was a huge hit when it came out, but does it still hold up today? Let's find out!

                                                                                         

                                                                   


     As with Majora's Mask let's start out with the story. Wario Land doesn't have that deep of a story so this won't be as long as last time. In Mario Land 2 Wario fought with Mario after trying to take over Mario's castle. After losing Wario set off to build his own castle. One bigger and better than Mario's. In order to build his own castle, he goes to Kitchen Island, home to the Brown Sugar Pirates. The pirates are in possession of a gold statue of Princess Peach. Wario plans to steal the statue and sell it back to the Mushroom Kingdom to get enough money to buy his own castle. He'll also steal as much treasure from the pirates as he can. Wario will eventually make it to the Brown Sugar Pirates castle. He fights Captain Syrup at the top of the castle. Captain Syrup summons a genie and commands it to fight Wario. After defeating the genie Captain Syrup blows up her castle with a bomb and escapes. Wario grabs the genie's lamp and escapes as well. Wario now outside rubs the lamp and wishes for a castle. The genie says he can make him a castle but he'll need money. Depending on how many coins and treasure you've collected you'll get one of six endings. I won't spoil the endings just in case you want to play the game yourself. After getting your castle the credits roll putting an end to Wario's first adventure.

    For a Wario game, it's a good story. It's short, simple, and different from what you usually find in Mario games. In Mario games, you're always saving a kingdom or a person. But in Wario's game, you're not saving anyone. You're stealing treasure from pirates to build a castle for yourself. It's the complete opposite of a Mario game. While the story isn't all that important in a game like this. It's a nice change of pace.


                                                   

   So the story is good but how does the game play? Despite the story being the opposite of a Mario game, the gameplay is kind of similar. You move along an overworld map similar to Mario 3 or Mario Land 2 and select stages from here. Your main goal like a Mario game is to make it to the end of the level. Like Mario, Wario can take two hits before he dies. Again like Mario, Wario will shrink in size when he takes damage. Get hit again and you lose a life. You'll always start a stage normal sized. When you reach a goal door as small Wario he'll go back to his normal size before entering the door. As normal Wario, you can do a shoulder tackle by pressing B. The A button is used to jump. You can flip enemies over by jumping on them. While an enemy is flipped over you can pick them up, carry them around and throw them. Throwing enemies into other enemies is one way to take them out. Some boss fights will require you to throw something at the boss.

  

   Wario has 4 different transformations in this game. The weakest one is the before mentioned small Wario. Small Wario can't do much of anything but run, jump, and pick up enemies. The only way to go back to normal is to find a Garlic Pot. Garlic Pots will turn small Wario back to normal, and if you find one as normal Wario you'll turn into Bull Wario.

Bull Wario and a Garlic Pot

                                  
   

    Bull Pots will also turn you into Bull Wario. As Bull Wario, his hat will change into a Viking hat. He can use the horns on his hat to stick to ceilings. He can break blocks that would normally take 2 hits to break in just one hit. He can also do a ground pound by jumping and pressing down on the D-pad. The ground pound will kill just about any enemy. Bull Wario is basically a powered-up version of Wario. The ability to hang onto ceilings is handy but isn't utilized that often. It's a good power up but nothing more than that.

  

Another power-up Wario has in this game is Jet Wario.

Jet Wario

                                             
 

   Just like the other transformations, you turn into Jet Wario by finding a Jet Pot. Jet Wario has the fastest walking speed and the highest jump. His attack power doesn't increase though. What sets this power-up apart from the others is that it allows Wario to fly for a short amount of time. When you do a body tackle the jet on his hat will propel him forward in a straight line for a couple of seconds. It's not necessary to complete any of the stages, but it is a helpful power up. It makes platforming and boss fights easier. It's also used to help reach hidden areas. This was my favorite power up to use.

 

   The last power-up Wario has is Dragon Wario.

Dragon Wario

                                                  

                    

   Same as the other two power-ups you become Dragon Wario by finding a Dragon Pot. Dragon Wario is unable to use his body tackle. In replace of that, he can shoot a continuous stream of fire from his hat. The fire will die out after a couple of seconds, but it has unlimited use. It makes running through stages easier. You won't have to worry too much about fighting enemies as long as you keep spamming fire. You can clear out blocks a lot faster. And because you won't have to get too close to bosses it makes them pretty easy.


    All of Wario's power-ups are useful in some way. There are a couple of times when you need a certain power up to reach a hidden treasure or find a secret exit. But most of the time you can just stick with the one you like the best. What hat you like the best will depend on your play style. For me, I used Jet Wario the most followed by Dragon Wario. I preferred the platforming advantages that Jet Wario provided. But if the stage wasn't that difficult then Dragon Wario would be my power-up of choice.

 

   Speaking of difficulty, this is a pretty easy game. All of the stages are pretty straight forward. You'll have to look around to find the hidden treasures and secret exits. But you'll be able to find them all with just a little bit of effort. It's really easy to get extra lives. Wario collects hearts to get extra lives. You need 100 hearts to get an extra life. Defeating enemies will get you one heart. Hearts can be found in "?" blocks. These hearts are worth 10 hearts. Stars are in this game as well. Like a normal Mario game, it will make you invincible. Any enemy defeated while invincible is worth 10 hearts. The game practically throws hearts at you. That combined with the fact that most stages are pretty easy you should never be hurting for extra lives. I played through the whole game without getting a single game over.

 

If you do get a game over you'll lose one treasure at random.

   The base game is a lot like a Mario game, but it has it's own personality. It would be hard to picture Mario being the main character of this game. If you're just trying to get the normal ending it's a fun game to play through. The game will get a little boring if you try to go for the best ending. What ending you get depends on how many treasures and coins you have. To get the best ending having all of the treasures won't be enough. All of the treasures together are worth 90,000 coins. You need 99,999 coins for the best ending. That means you'll have to grind out 9,999 coins. I felt that just having all of the treasures should have been enough. Getting enough coins is nothing more than a lot of repetitive and boring grinding. There is a mini-game you can play to get more coins. The only problem is that it's completely luck based and you have to pay coins to play it. I was never able to win and always ending up losing money so I never played it.   Next is the presentation. This game was released on the Gameboy, but it can be played on a Gameboy Color, Super Gameboy, or Gameboy Player. It'll be in black and white, but if played on anything other than a normal Gameboy it'll have some color added to it.

No color vs color

                                             

   

   With or without color the game looks good. The character sprites look nice. They're all pretty expressive for a Gameboy game. All of the enemies facial expressions change when they take damage. When this game came out Wario was usually depicted as being cross-eyed. His sprite in this game is cross-eyed as well. That and all the facial expressions are a nice touch. For a Gameboy game, it looks good. As for the music, it's not bad but nothing stands out. Expect for the song on the first stage all of the music is pretty forgettable.


    Kitchen Island is full of different locations to travel through. Each area has its own theme. Every stage in that area is based around that theme. You start out on Rice Beach. All of the stages here are beach themed with some caves. Another area Stove Canyon is full of caves with a fire theme. You'll even ransack the Brown Sugar Pirate's ship for treasure. Some areas share graphics, but none of it feels the same. It feels like you're traveling through the island and not just going from stage to stage.

                          

                           

                        

Japanese box art and North American box art.

                       
    There are not really any differences between the Japanese and English version. They're pretty much identical. All of the text is written in English, even for the Japanese version. The reason for this is that English letters take up less memory then Japanese characters. The only thing that changed was the title. Outside of Japan, it's called Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3. In Japan, it's called Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land. For whatever reason, it was reversed when it was released outside of Japan. That's the only difference. No matter what version you play you'll be playing the same game.


 

   That's all I've got to say about this game. It's a fun game that plays somewhat like a Mario game but has its own personality. You may notice the similarities but it doesn't feel like a Mario game. If you like 2D platformers I would recommend that you give this game a try. If you don't shoot for the best ending it's a good time from start to finish.


    That marks another game off of the backlog. Thank you for reading! Next time we'll be looking at a game on the Dreamcast. hope to see you again here at Backlog Game Reviews! 

Wario Land : Super Mario Land 3 Gameplay video