Wario Land 3 is a Metroidvania game for the Game Boy Color, the most dull of all of Nintendo's handhelds (sorry). I picked it up on an eShop sale on the 3DS a year or so ago, and decided to break it out, as I'd beaten Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright in the morning at work, and needed something to play in the afternoon. Unlike the Metroid games, which have the controls of an run and gun shooter, or the Castlevania games, which have the controls of an action platformer, Wario Land resembles a more pure platformer in control, while still maintaining the gradualist approach of a Metroidvania game, in which you must unlock new abilities to complete your adventure.
The big difference between this game and other platformers, or Metroidvania games, is the lack of dying in the game. Rather than being killed by getting hit by enemies, Wario's pudgy body will either be knocked back, or changed in some way. For example, if you get hit by an enemy with a flamethrower, you'll light on fire, sending Wario running at top speed and out of control, until he finally starts smoldering and goes out, returning to completely back to normal. The genius thing about this is that you'll use these status changes to unlock new parts of the level. So if Wario gets lit on fire, he can run into blocks that only break upon being touched by fire, and which are impassible without suffering this dastardly damage. The status changes, however, will also frequently send you all the way back to the beginning of a challenge, making it imperative for you to think carefully about the status changes you'll need, those you won't need, and acting accordingly.
There are dozens of status changes and new abilities for Wario to unlock in the game, making it so that each level gradually unpeels as Wario attains more and more capabilities. While the game only has 25 levels, each level contains 4 unique treasures, only one of which is typically available upon your first visit to a level. Each treasure chest is opened by the correspondingly colored key, and you can bet the far that they're going to be teasing you with the sight of these out of reach chests and keys early and often. As such, you'll end up revisiting each level several times throughout your adventure, experiencing new and creative parts of each level.
The graphical treatment of the game still looks wonderful today, with that typical Game Boy Color look, and lovely sprite work throughout. Wario is completely gross, as you'd expect, farting on his way up and down ladders, ballooning to embarrassing size upon eating donuts, and falling asleep with his mouth wide open when you have the audacity to not move him for a few seconds. There's a large cast of enemies that clearly communicate to you their effects through their visual design, and the stages themselves are huge, detailed, and lovingly animated.
The music is actually very good, and I spent more time than usual listening to it as I actually played it at home quite a bit. There are a bunch of nice tracks here, and you get plenty of musical bang for your buck.
The level designs are simply fantastic, and are the primary reason for playing the game. The teasing nature with which the developers allow you to glimpse treasures and keys that are out of reach will reinforce the core Metroidvania concept you know and (hopefully) love), allowing you the surpassing joy of finally bypassing those stupid solid blocks, bombs, or raging rivers that have been taunting you for hours. There was the occasional time that I felt that the path forward was unclear to me and the puzzles were slightly unfair, but more often than not the game did a pretty good job of displaying where to go next and what to do, without forcing you to pick any particular level up next. Usually I could figure out everything with some careful thought and further exploration, but I'll admit I did resort to using a guide a handful of times to bypass a particularly tricky situation.
*SLIGHT SPOILER ALERT BELOW*
My experience with this game was almost universally positive, save for getting occasionally frustrated by a puzzle I couldn't solve. But the end boss battle really irked me. The bosses, in general, were very creative and well-thought out, using the status effects to make it so that your invincibility didn't make the battle too simple, while also reinforcing the core concept that Wario can't die. But in the final boss battle, one of the boss' attacks can trigger a game over, and is the only thing in the game which can, which seems totally contrary to the messaging and theme the game had been ingeniously trying to develop since minute one. Additionally, the boss fight was exceedingly simple and seemed far to similar to the boss fight at the end of Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3.
*SPOILER ALERT CONCLUDED*
Wario Land 3 is an all-time classic, and an absolute joy to play, minus a few small warts here and there. Despite being more or less forced into playing it due to my lack of foresight to bring another game with me to work the day I finished my previous quest, I found myself totally sucked into Wario's third adventure, and would absolutely recommend it to anyone. It's a must-buy, particularly with its availability on the Virtual Console, and the fact that an actual cartridge isn't too much more expensive. I'll give it a 9.6/10.
-TRO
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