Gaming Target - Game Boy: Wario Land 2

Written by Paul Jankura on June 22, 2000

Review: WARio is WAR

The Game Boy has traditionally been a graphically simple game system. As such, it has been flooded with platform games. If you don't know, in a platform game you control a character, which you see from the side, and he or she walks forward across various structures, known as platforms. Super Mario Brothers is a good example of a platformer. The Game Boy has been deluged with such games, and the genre has gotten pretty stale. Warioland 2 Color introduces an exciting new feature to platfomers. You can't die. Instead, you solve puzzles, and attempt exciting physical feats. This innovation is the first step in creating a game that is ESSENTIAL to any Game Boy Color collection.

The visuals are amazing! Look on Game Boy Color boxes at the store and you see pictures from this game on the box. You know when Nintendo is showing off a system with a particular game, that the graphics are good. Every color is deep and bold and perfectly blended to create a wonderful cartoonish atmosphere. A castle looks like a cartoon castle; a ship looks like a cartoon ship. Wario himself is highly detailed, and exquisitely colored. The scrolling is smooth as silk, with no blurring on the GBC. The color truly adds to the experience of playing this game. Warioland 2 Color has some of the best graphics ever seen on the Game Boy or Game Boy Color.

The controls are very good in my opinion. However, those who grew up with the slippery controls of Super Mario Brothers may not like the solid control of Warioland 2. If you jump on a platform, you stay on the platform; you don't slide off. As with most other platformers, the controls are relatively simple, with up, down, left, right, jump, and attack/dash.

The audio is excellent. The sounds are consistent with the graphics, in that they are very funny and cartoon-like. The music is good, and presents an eerie, yet humorous feel.

I was quite satisfied with this game. For a long time I had wished there was a platformer, where you couldn't die, and now I have it. The graphics are the best I've seen on GBC, the control is good, and this game is innovative. However, I have two, related nit-picks. I was disappointed that this game only had one save slot. After Super Mario Land 2 and the first Wario Land having 3 save slots, I expected to have more save slots. For families where more than one person uses the Color Game Boy, having only one save slot could be a problem. The other nit-pick is that, if you save a game while playing on a Game Boy Color, you can't play it on a Game Boy Pocket or an original Game Boy. This can be a pain for those who want to compare the two systems with a single game.

Wario Land 2 has a tremendous amount of replay value contained in it. There are 6 or more endings, and dozens of treasures, plus a number of secret levels. If you ever totally finish this game, consider yourself a very lucky person.

Wario Land II

Review: WARio is WAR