New Adventures in an Old Dimension
+ Great visual
+ Large variety of scenarios
+ High level of challenge for those seeking full completion
Cons
- Main quest is way too easy and straightforward
It is not such a hard thing to find someone who will tell you they prefer side-scrollers to current gen games. 3-D games have absolutely brought many benefits to games and as a consequence to gamers but some genres struggled to make a smooth transition from their side-scrolling origins to a completely new perspective. Super Mario 64 obviously set the bar pretty high as one of the first platformers to make the leap, but truth is the amount of good platformers produced after the gaming world became 3-D reduced a lot. Some characters, including Wario himself, who were successful in the 2-D realm, have yet to appear on a quality 3-D platformer.
When it comes to gameplay Wario Land: Shake It plays it safe and delivers everything you would expect from an incredible Wario Land title but it may suffer some prejudice due to the fact that it is a 2-D platformer on a current gen system. In this new installment of the series a strange being who disturbingly wears the same outfit as Tingle appears and tells Wario about the evil deeds of the Shake King who has takes the Shake Dimension and imprisoned its princess. While Wario doesn't care much about damsels in distress he promptly goes after the Shake King once he hears about his famous bottomless bag of money.
Shake It plays very well mainly because of the Wiimote which is obviously a control that perfectly suit side-scrolling games. The game brings all jumping, running and pounding abilities you encounter on a platformer and also makes great use of the motion controls. The Wiimotes's capabilities are used for a wide variety of actions such as hitting the ground to create some sort of earthquake that will stun enemies, control different vehicles, aim and throw enemies or simply shake bags of coins. None of the motion controls seem forced or irresponsive which is an incredible feat accomplished only by a few companies on the system's lifespan.
The amount of moves Wario is able to perform is already enough to impress but Wario Land is also packed with a seemingly endless variety of scenarios. While most 2-D games have an entire world based on a certain theme (such as Lava or Ice), Wario Land savannas, jungles, swamps, volcanoes, icy mountains, trains, Japanese landscapes and much more. Eventually you will stumble on a repeated scenario but such a thing doesn't happen too often.
Not only is the quantity of scenarios great but their visuals are just astonishing. The stages' backgrounds have different layers of drawings and are one of the finest works of art the system has seen so far. When it comes to technical graphics Wario Land can be easily compared and surpass the Donkey Kong Country games, obviously considering the difference in the hardware power of each system, and as far as art is concerned it is as good as the hand-drawn Super Mario World 2.
Wario Land has incredible animations and whether you are playing through one of its stages or simply watching one of the anime-like cutscenes you will feel like you have purchased a cartoon, not a game. Wario and his enemies move with such a beautiful flow that chances are you will find yourself doing certain actions just to admire the wonderful work done by the graphics team of this game.
The soundtrack doesn't deserve as many compliments as the graphics but by no means it is a bad one. I fell like the game could have used one or two more remarkable tunes, those that stick to your head after playing the game for a couple of minutes. Nevertheless the songs are all excellent and very relaxing, as it is a characteristic of the Wario Land series. Some claim it could have used more of the Wii's sound engine for a more epic orchestrated soundtrack, but doing that would be a mistake since the game in question is a 2-D platformer and those thrive on simplicity.
There is something that really hurts this game though. Its main quest is way too easy and straightforward. Some of the last stages of the game may actually be challenging but on the first stages of the game there are barely any enemies that will harm you and they lack traps that could cost some of your health bar. Such a thing makes the game last less than six hours to those who won't look for every single hidden item on the various stages.
Aside from six boss battles that are visually impressive and full of creativity the game has 33 stages which is a very good number but you only need to go through twenty of them if your goal is to simply reach the end, the others are secret stages unlocked by locating secret maps. The game really starts to shine once you start going after full completion. Each stage has three well hidden treasure chests and some challenges that need to be performed.
Finding all the chests takes a lot of thinking since you will face some very interesting puzzles that will truly show you how good the level creation of this game is, and performing all challenges will take patience, skill and some luck. The variety of the challenges is very good, each stage has a money challenge, which involves collecting a certain amount of cash, and a timed run that requires you to leave the stage with a certain amount of time left on the clock. Besides those there are also some very interesting ones like the usual "Beat the Stage Without Taking Damage" or "Don't defeat any enemies".
There are so many different types of challenges I could actually write a full paragraph listing all of them which goes to show the care developers had with the game for those who are "hardcore" and will absolutely go after all of them. I just wish they could have used some of those challenges or puzzles during the regular quest, instead of only presenting that when you truly explore the stage after its secrets.
As expected Wario Land: Shake It doesn't deeply revolutionize the 2-D platforming but aided by the Wiimote and the Wii's hardware it undeniably brings a couple of fresh features to the table. Is the game worth its full price? Yes it is, especially if you are a gamer that is always going after full completion, which will probably lead you to more than 15 hours of gameplay, and have always loved 2-D platformers.
Actual Score: 8.9