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Wario Land: Shake It!
Wii
Back in the Hunt (for Treasure)
4.5/5 stars
"Wario Land: Shake It!" is a much-needed return to the classic Wario formula that made the character famous. After a glut of recent "WarioWare" games that distilled the modern obsession with 'minigames' down to concentrated 'microgames' that last a few seconds and an uninspired showing in both "Wario Land 4" and "Wario: Master of Disguise," I had lost hope that Nintendo would ever make another Wario game with the same appeal as "Wario Land 2-3" and "Wario World." Of course, Nintendo still hasn't, as "Wario Land: Shake It!" was farmed-out to an unknown company called Good-Feel. They certainly lived up to their name, because playing "Wario Land: Shake It!" made me feel good.
Presentation
"Wario Land: Shake It!" looks absolutely phenomenal. From the very first moments, "Shake It!" oozes artistic appeal. The game starts with an incredibly well-animated opening movie by anime studio Production I.G., the same studio behind the animations of "Xenogears" (PS1) and various animes such as "Ghost in the Shell." Once past the animated sequence, the in-game graphics engine continues to impress with beautiful and detailed hand-drawn sprites for everything. The backgrounds, the enemies, and Wario all move very fluidly and are entirely devoid of pixilation, slowdown, or any other technical difficulties. The animation of the sprites is loaded with character, such as when Wario sticks a dismount from a high-bar and his gut jiggles from the momentum. This is what modern games were meant to look like. Wario's design has been slightly tweaked to make him look more like he does in in "WarioWare" and "Super Smash Bros. Brawl" than in his previous adventure outings, which is an improvement, as he looked quite deformed before with his overly-large head.
The audio in "Wario Land: Shake It!" is likewise a huge improvement from its immediate predecessors. While the soundtrack of "Wario Land 4" was an abomination of poorly-sampled sound effects and spazzy music, "Shake It!'s" soundtrack is full of incredibly catchy tunes that are actually pleasant to listen to, which makes unlocking the tracks an actual reward, as opposed to the punishment of watching a badly-cosplaying Japanese person pretend to be Wario while a fly buzzes or a dog barks in "Wario Land 4." The sound effects in "Shake It!" are likewise well done, with enemies emitting pathetic whimpers after Wario has shaken the snot out of them. Wario's moves sound appropriate, with high-quality sounds for shoulder slams, butt-stomps, and a variety of transformations. Charles Martinet returns to provide the voice for Wario, and proves definitively that he is capable of doing a non-annoying character. Martinet's voicework for Mario has annoyed me since "Mario 64," but simply by lowering his voice a couple octaves and sounding more gruff, he makes a perfect Wario. The grunts, mad chuckling, and occasional catch-phrase (“Rrrock and rrrroll!”) give Wario tons of personality. The only downside to the audio is that the anime cutscenes are unvoiced, with subtitles explaining the gist of the 'dialog.'
Story
The story of "Wario Land: Shake It!" is the game's main weak point, but it is rather irrelevant, as platformers are almost never about the story. But unlike many other platformers, there is at least some story, and it sets the stage nicely for an old-school treasure hunt for Wario. Wario's rival (and potential love interest?!) Captain Syrup of the S.S. Sweet Stuff, has broken into a museum and lifted a rather large antique globe. She mails the globe to Wario with a note saying there's treasure inside. Wario wastes no time in grabbing a sledgehammer to crack open the globe, but in mid-swing he's interrupted by a large telescope appearing from within the globe in a cloud of smoke (upon which he immediately cracks his head). From within the telescope, a Merfle appears and tells Wario that he's an inhabitant of another dimension that is being terrorized by the Shake King (hur hur hur, terrible pun). Wario expresses no interest whatsoever in helping the Merfles or their beautiful young queen… until he hears about the Legendary Treasure: a magical coin sack that is never empty. Wario dives right into the telescope and starts his hunt for the missing Merfles, picking up treasure along the way. Aside from the OP and ED movies, there is little story exposition, aside from Wario's comments on each of the treasures he finds throughout the game. It is obvious that a lot of care went into these witty remarks (and their translations). Many of them are hilarious.
Gameplay
The gameplay, of course, is the core of a platforming game. With bad gameplay, no matter how great the game looks or how interesting the story is, it will not be fun. "Wario Land: Shake It!" has no cause for concern, as the gameplay is rock-solid. The vast majority of the gameplay involves controlling the fat man himself, Wario, as he waddles through a variety of 2D stages looking for coins, treasure, and, ultimately, a captive Merfle. Unfortunately, the Indestructible Wario from "Wario Land 2-3" appears to be gone forever, as Wario has a heart gauge in "Shake It!" similar to the one he had in "Wario Land 4" and "Wario World." Of course, dying is rarely a concern, as the only things that can hurt Wario are spikes, poison, and certain types of fire.
The game is played by holding the Wiimote sideways, as though it was an NES controller. There are no other control options, but the game doesn't need any other control scheme. Wario has all of his old moves back from the classic "Wario Land" games on Game Boy Color. He can shoulder-bash by pressing 1, jump by pressing 2, butt-stomp by pressing down on the d-pad while in the air, and throw enemies he has picked up by holding, then releasing, the 1 button. In addition to these old moves, the Wiimote provides a few new ones. Wario can now shake the snot out of anything he is holding (money bags and enemies) to make them drop items (coins and garlic), his aim when throwing things is controlled by tilting the Wiimote at the correct angle, and he can perform an earthquake-causing ground smash by shaking the Wiimote when the 'W Meter' at the top of the screen is full. These aspects of gameplay are flawless. The only flaws in the gameplay creep in with the motion-controlled vehicles that Wario pilots during some of the stages.
The most common vehicle in "Wario Land: Shake It!" is the Subwarine (hur hur hur, bad pun again). The Sub's attitude is controlled by tilting the Wiimote, it moves by itself via auto-scrolling (but the speed can be adjusted with the d-pad), and torpedoes are fired with 1. The Subwarine levels aren't really terrible, as the Sub controls well, and they are fairly short. However, I don't exactly love the idea of "Gradius"-clone mini-game levels when I'm playing a platformer.
The other vehicle, and the one that will make many gamers grind their teeth with frustration, is the Rocket Bucket. It is what it sounds like: a bucket that Wario sits in (with a retractable roof) that has a pair of motion-controlled rockets on the side. The rockets are powered by the 2 button and tilted with the Wiimote. This control scheme, again, works fairly well, but the imprecision of the motion-controls really hurts in Rocket Bucket levels because of the Giant Spiky Wheels of Death that Wario must navigate around. A single touch breaks the Rocket Bucket and sends Wario plummeting to the ground where he can grab another Bucket and try again. And again, and again, and again.
As mentioned above, the goal of each level is a captive Merfle that must be shaken out of its cage. Once Wario touches the cage, however, an alarm sound that alerts the Shake King to the fact that someone is trying to free a Merfle. Wario and the Merfle then have a set amount of time to return to the level's entrance and escape before the Shake King ruins their day. In most levels, Wario won't be able to return via the same route he took into the level due to red and blue blocks that switch off and on (respectively) when the alarm sounds. The blue blocks make old routes impassable while the red blocks disappear and open new routes. Wario's return to the entrance frequently involves the use of devices that allow him to run incredibly fast until he hits an unbreakable object. This gameplay mechanic gives the game a bit of a "Sonic the Hedgehog" feel, except that it is much more fun with Wario than with Sonic. A great feature that makes this escape mechanic much more fun than the one in "Wario Land 4" is that there is now a Checkpoint box that Wario can punch right before the Merfle cage in each level. After activating a Checkpoint, by pressing + and selecting 'Retry,' the player can restart the level from the Checkpoint instead of the beginning (with all collected treasure and coins intact), which leads to much less tedious replaying when trying to learn the level layouts.
The final gameplay aspect that bears mentioning is level missions. I don't particularly care for this aspect, as it smacks of the useless and annoying “Achievements” and “Trophies” systems of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. By completing some arbitrary task within a level (collect X coins, return to the entrance within a certain margin of time on the clock, eat X heads of garlic, etc.), the player gets a little star on that level's icon on the map. By filling in all of the stars on a level (which range from 3-7), the player can unlock that level's background music for listening in the Media Room. While the soundtrack is good, as previously mentioned, it would have made more sense to unlock the BGM by collecting all three treasures within each level, instead of tacking on annoying and arbitrary tasks.
I have read that quite a few people consider "Wario Land: Shake It!" to be a short game. I disagree, as finding all of the hidden levels and all three treasures within each level provides plenty of good, classic Wario fun, even if the player completely ignores the missions.
Overall
I really liked "Wario Land: Shake It!" The excellent presentation and flawless platforming combine to make a great gaming experience that is unfortunately rare in this 7th Generation of console games. I recommend "Wario Land: Shake It!" to anyone who likes 2D platformers, Mario games, Wario games, treasure hunts, and humor.
Presentation: 5/5
Story: 3/5
Gameplay: 4.5/5
Overall (not an average): 4.5/5
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