Games Beaten in 2025 #2: Wario Land 4 (2001)

Wario Land 4 may offer the most polished Wario Land experience available.

When Nintendo brought Game Boy titles to their Nintendo Switch Online service I spoiled myself with a playthrough of the Mario and Wario series of games or what is available in any case.

I have Super Mario Land in my collection - this is a diminuative take on Super Mario Bros. and sorta exists as a proof of concept for the Game Boy.

Super Mario Land 2: 6 Pea Green Coins plays much more like Super Mario Bros 3. or Super Mario World, with the overworld design, power-ups and larger character sprites favouring a faster-paced approach. It avoids the pitfalls of NES-to-Game Boy conversions, but just barely. The spritework may be a little too big; while I don't recall any blind jumps or major design concessions, the larger sprites do limit the speed at which you can move. Nobody wants to run into an unexpected enemy because of the smaller screen and reduced reaction time

Most importantly, Super Mario Land 2: 2 Golden Coins introduces a new foil for Mario, the anti-hero Wario. While he could have easily just been a one note villain like Wart or Tatanga, instead Nintendo R&D1 saw the potential for Wario as a playable character. Unlike Mario’s do-gooder persona, Wario is driven purely by greed.

With this in mind, Wario does have larger spritework which slows the action down to a slow and methodical pace. He charges and buttstomps foes and in Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3, Wario has a series of power-ups like Mario. The Bull Horns, Jet which enables flight, faster walking and lastly Dragon blows fire directly from Wario's Hat. The levels follow a Mario World style progression, however changes in stages do get incorporated into stages. Letting the water release from a peak floods an earlier beach level opening an alternate path. The challenge existing in the collection of a series of treasures.

I've not played Wario Land 2, it is not on Nintendo Switch Online and I do not own it. A sick part of my brain says to play it on original Game Boy hardware and to do away with the Game Boy Color experience. It's on the backlog.

Wario Land 3 is probably the most complex Wario game and introduced many ideas that carries over to the actual topic of this blog Wario Land 4, it begged the question - what if enemies couldn't harm you outright but exist to grant you powers which can be used at a benefit of Wario - struck with a hammer? Springy Wario can jump great heights. On the other hand, this could also be a great hinderance. Suddenly Wario needs to renavigate a series of platforms decending in hopes of avoiding being hit in future. Wario is invicible in 3, however enemies can significantly hinder your progress as a result. This meant sections of levels had to be replayed which is a real pain in the ass.

While I could talk further about how Wario Land 3 may be the most divisive in the series, I'll take a moment to acknowledge Virtual Boy Wario Land before moving onto the real deal.

At long last and after much exposition; Wario Land 4

As stated upfront, I consider Wario Land 4 to be the most polished Wario Land experience, however it differs somewhat from earlier titles.

The level progression stands on it's own, much like in the Mega Man series you can choose your order of levels. Wario Land 4 is broken up into four passages, Emerald, Ruby, Topaz and Sapphire passages.

Every level has four jewel pieces, a hidden CD and Keyzer the Ghost Key. The jewel pieces are necessary to access the boss chamber in each passage, the Ghost Key allows access to the next level in the passage. The CDs go to the library and these are fully lengthed albiet experimental pieces.

Firstly, the Game Boy Advance has a larger sized screen which allows faster paced gameplay. Wario literally has a sprint button, can roll and uses powers such as fire and snowball to speed along at great speeds. In Wario Land 3 this can be difficult to follow, it's much easier with the wider Game Boy Advance screen.

Level progression is an open choice of four paths to follow, with four levels each followed by a boss fight. The early levels on each path feel a little introductory, but the later ones are inspired by playful themes, ideas and gimmicks that are best left unspoiled.

Each level has a Super Metroid-y escape timer, when playing you consciously consider exit strategies and some levels have conscious bum-steers or intentionally different routes. Harder difficulties have shorter timers, which encourages speed running routes

Power-ups do make a return from Wario Land 3 and are essential to progressing through levels, and some hinder progress. Notably Wario is no longer invincible and some enemies and stage elements hurt Wario.

Each level has hi-scores, which are based on how much health you have, finding hidden jewels, defeating enemy mooks. Which is good, Wario Land 4 is a tidy 6 hour game. There is replayability through difficulty levels (shortens the exit timer, limits your health and remixes chest locations).

For a Game Boy Advance game, or hell Metroidvania in general. It's a must play IMO - inspired the likes of Antonblast and Pizza Tower, pulls from Super Metroid, is the engine used for GBA Metroid titles yet more accessible. Also, a boring take I always hear is the GBA has no traditional Mario titles, bro just play this... and the e-Reader levels on Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros 3 lol.

I forgot to mention this, some levels play out honest to god like Gunstar Heroes - think of the level selection, gimmick levels, both chuck out the rules and chuck in a genre flip because why not?