I want to like this game. I SEE why people like it, I see what they enjoy about it. The story is decently charming, I like the creepy mysterious entity that is Rudy, It's cool watching the world map evolve, there's a decent sense of a coherent little world, and you get a nice sense of progression as you gain abilities. But I just can't being myself to say that I like it, the game just goes out of it's way to ensure sure you don't have a good time. And I'm going to try and even out the discourse surrounding this thing a bit.
On PAPER the idea of a wario-vania is enticing, but the execution is so problematic that it fails to function as intended. It's a shame too, because most of the issue lives within the level design, which from a philosophy standpoint is so inherently flawed that it would ruin any game, not just a Wario Land. But on top of that, this philosophy impressively manages to run counter to what makes a backtracking metroidvania with unlockable abilities work, and shits on the potential it had. If you're an aspiring level designer, take notes. Because this game wrote the book on how not to do it.
Let's start by addressing the way individual rooms and chunks of content work in Wario Land 3. In almost any area in this game, you are presented with a small gauntlet of tricky platforming navigation impeded by frequent enemy spawns. Sounds normal, but in this game the levels are crafted in a very intentional way to ensure that if any singular enemy nicks you, it is basically guaranteed that you will bounce, float, roll, teleport, or melt your way back to square one, at the start of the gauntlet. This is Wario Land 3's solution to having a character that does not die. You don't pay in health or money, you pay with progression and time. They are so committal to this idea that often the level designers have carefully placed enemies and platforms in just such a fashion as to ensure that this happens.
Ok, sounds like it could be a bit annoying. But what's wrong with a challenge? Plenty of areas in Wario Land 2 share this prospect, even many of the areas in 4. Well what's wrong is that every OTHER aspect of the games design does not support this part of the design philosophy.
So let's break this down, due to being a Wario-Vania, you often enter stages lacking crucial skills and powers that you need to fully explore the level. Now, in a metroid-vania, you probe the map for what you can currently do, eventually stumbling into difficult content and challenges that you can tackle with your available toolkit. All the while, the game foreshadows new abilities that you'll attain later by placing enticing detours out of your reach. Now, Wario Land 3 often does this as well, but there's a catch. A sin other games usually avoid. In other games, normally if your toolkit allows you to access a difficult chunk of content, there is a really strong degree of trust and understanding that completing it will reward you with something, whether it be a progression item or powerup.
But not in this game. No no no, in Wario Land 3, progression gates are often placed at the END of difficult gauntlets, instead of before them. Can you extrapolate why this is an issue? In this game you suffer through a frustrating room only to be greeted by a big middle finger informing you that you'll have to come back later and do it AGAIN. There's a reason most metroidvanias place their progression checks at crossroads or detours, and that's because it prevents THIS scenario.
And it gets WORSE, on top of the possibility that you don't have the ability required to proceed, there's a second level of obfuscation. You may not have the KEY, since every reward is locked in a chest. Meaning that more often than not in this game, you will complete a challenge and be rewarded with NOTHING. And when you're exploring a level for the first time and run across a difficult room, there's really no way to know if completing the room will reward you with a CHEST or a KEY, or if you'll have the ability needed to finish it. Doing anything in this game, ( a game where most challenges are inherently frustrating or annoying by design ) is essentially just rolling a dice with a 2/3'rds chance that you wasted your time.
And just to add needless insult to injury, KEYS ARE NOT KEPT WHEN YOU LEAVE A STAGE. I can't comprehend why this is, but nothing stung worse then completing a hard room, getting a key, and then later opening a different chest, only to realize you'll have to re-collect that other key later. WHY!?
It's such an inherent failing to capitalize on the strengths of a metroid-vania progression structure that it's pretty hard to believe that nobody identified the problem while making it. This is the primary issue with Wario Land 3, but I can nitpick more. Frankly Wario Land 2 is just so superior that it makes my job a simple act of comparison.
In Wario Land 2, the design of rooms and enemy placement is actually pretty reserved. Most enemies are placed such that you can see the threat coming and adequately respond, and generally most exist not to merely obstruct you, but serve as a mechanical key to a puzzle or challenge, they are there because you need them, or as a navigational test. Seeing an enemy enlists the thought "hmm, wonder what I need to do with this guy?"
In 3, most rooms are lousy with more enemies then need be. Not only that, but often they cheekily attack the moment they come on screen. There's the ceiling guys who fire a bullet the frame they spawn, the zombies who simply jump scare the player by spawning with a delay ( and often right next to Wario ) , and plenty of guys placed in just such a fashion that when you jump to a platform off screen they will greet you as you land, etc, etc. And may I remind you that the punishment for being so much as nicked by any one of these cheekily placed bastards will be almost guaranteed to reset your progress on the room. Hell, why stop there? Often times not just that room! But the previous room too! And perhaps even the one before that if the designers are feeling saucy! You'll fall to your dismay in some sort of masochistic nightmare dreamed up by Bennett Foddy. The act of getting reset is often times long and obnoxious to boot, and running around on fire, bouncing uncontrollably, or toddling around slowly while fat or a zombie gets incredibly old the 100th time. And don't you dare forget that actually suffering through the experience might present you with nothing to show for your anguish.
This gung-ho enemy distribution also has the knock-on effect of often obscuring that some of those enemies might ACTUALLY be important for solving a puzzle or progressing, making it easy to overlook. Whereas in 2 it was so consistently assumed to be the case simply through the diligent consistency of minimal design.
Levels in 2 are also full of fun secrets, tunnels, coins, and even alternate routes and exits, such that exploring and prodding the bounds of the level is fun and rewarding. Somehow 3, despite being billed as a metroidvania which should be about exploring while recalling cool hidden routes you should backtrack too, manages to feel less open and satisfying.
2 also rewards you for finding those secrets with bonus levels, alternate routes, more bosses, more versions of the story, additional cutscenes and endings, AND makes going for 100% of the treasures a natural joy that I felt compelled to do. And to top it off the game rewarded me for THAT as well, with an ultimate level and final ending to really provide a sense of closure. 3 rewards you for suffering through it's schlock with a single screen saying "perfect!" and nothing else of note.
Wario Land 3 also has no top down convenient way to track your collection progress across the entire game, without having to check every level individually. ( Unlike... 2, surprise! )
The game also inherits one of the few misses in the design of Wario Land 2, that being the bosses, which in having a 1 strike you're out philosophy were always a slight pain. The same goes here, but I find it forgivable in both games at the end of the day.
The day-night mechanic was a missed opportunity. A few cute changes in a few stages but largely left me wondering why they bothered. At it's worst it's yet another vector by which the game could say "oh sorry you did this room, you wasted your time! come back later!".
I feel like people complain about the Golf Mini-Game all the time, but it's not awful in a vacuum and I think the reason people dislike it is the often overlooked weirdest part about it. It's randomized. I don't get why they did this. It'd be nice to fail and master a set golf challenge that is tied to the location, but you have no opportunity here to do so since as soon as you think "ok I know what swings to do to beat this stage next time", you remember that when you go back down that pipe it will be different. But also, why golf? It's so thematically dissonant and weird.
Also what's the point of money in this game??? There's no end game ranking really, and I guess golf is the only money sink? But I always had 999 coins by halfway through and there isn't THAT MUCH golf? Sure makes exploring even more boring since why should I even be excited to find coins??? In 2 I was DEFINITELY glad to find coins, making every small secret a treat. Did I miss something????
I also didn't find the game to have much of a thematic through-line. I prefer the enemies in 2 which all have a bit of a pirate theming to tie in with Captain Syrup, as do some of the levels. 3 lacks a bit in having any kind of identity. I will say I like Rudy, he's creepy and fun, but isn't really in the game much, and none of the enemies even foreshadow his clowniness in any sort of way.
If I'll give Wario Land 3 anything, it's that it's problems start to sting less as you round out your ability list, since you'll find yourself unequipped to complete a challenge less frequently... although this does nothing to address the key situation. But I can admit that I was enjoying myself a smidge more towards the end of the game. So pour one out for WL3.
To start wrapping this review up, I'll say that at time of writing, there is currently a resurging discourse surrounding this game heralding it as brilliant, and a lost treasure in the Nintendo catalogue. I don't really understand it. I can only chalk it up to it's recent release on the switch virtual console subscription service, coinciding with a current Wario backed revitalized interest in puzzle platformers sparked by the success of indie darling Pizza Tower.
But I can't see it as any more than a combination of rose-tinted nostalgia from the veteran fans, and a bias of omission by new players for whom this is the only currently available Wario Land on the switch... Playing anything else in this series paints it in a very bad light, I would argue that of even Wario Land 1, as there's nothing wrong with a simple and well executed romp that lacks major flaws. Whereas by comparison I found 3 to mostly be defined by those flaws.
Ultimately the praise 3 gets is largely undeserved. Despite Wario Land 3 having some inspired but undelivered upon concepts, it's not awful by any means. Still better than most games, particularly on the Gameboy. But actually playing it is far to often a futile exercise in frustration.
On PAPER the idea of a wario-vania is enticing, but the execution is so problematic that it fails to function as intended. It's a shame too, because most of the issue lives within the level design, which from a philosophy standpoint is so inherently flawed that it would ruin any game, not just a Wario Land. But on top of that, this philosophy impressively manages to run counter to what makes a backtracking metroidvania with unlockable abilities work, and shits on the potential it had. If you're an aspiring level designer, take notes. Because this game wrote the book on how not to do it.
Let's start by addressing the way individual rooms and chunks of content work in Wario Land 3. In almost any area in this game, you are presented with a small gauntlet of tricky platforming navigation impeded by frequent enemy spawns. Sounds normal, but in this game the levels are crafted in a very intentional way to ensure that if any singular enemy nicks you, it is basically guaranteed that you will bounce, float, roll, teleport, or melt your way back to square one, at the start of the gauntlet. This is Wario Land 3's solution to having a character that does not die. You don't pay in health or money, you pay with progression and time. They are so committal to this idea that often the level designers have carefully placed enemies and platforms in just such a fashion as to ensure that this happens.
Ok, sounds like it could be a bit annoying. But what's wrong with a challenge? Plenty of areas in Wario Land 2 share this prospect, even many of the areas in 4. Well what's wrong is that every OTHER aspect of the games design does not support this part of the design philosophy.
So let's break this down, due to being a Wario-Vania, you often enter stages lacking crucial skills and powers that you need to fully explore the level. Now, in a metroid-vania, you probe the map for what you can currently do, eventually stumbling into difficult content and challenges that you can tackle with your available toolkit. All the while, the game foreshadows new abilities that you'll attain later by placing enticing detours out of your reach. Now, Wario Land 3 often does this as well, but there's a catch. A sin other games usually avoid. In other games, normally if your toolkit allows you to access a difficult chunk of content, there is a really strong degree of trust and understanding that completing it will reward you with something, whether it be a progression item or powerup.
But not in this game. No no no, in Wario Land 3, progression gates are often placed at the END of difficult gauntlets, instead of before them. Can you extrapolate why this is an issue? In this game you suffer through a frustrating room only to be greeted by a big middle finger informing you that you'll have to come back later and do it AGAIN. There's a reason most metroidvanias place their progression checks at crossroads or detours, and that's because it prevents THIS scenario.
And it gets WORSE, on top of the possibility that you don't have the ability required to proceed, there's a second level of obfuscation. You may not have the KEY, since every reward is locked in a chest. Meaning that more often than not in this game, you will complete a challenge and be rewarded with NOTHING. And when you're exploring a level for the first time and run across a difficult room, there's really no way to know if completing the room will reward you with a CHEST or a KEY, or if you'll have the ability needed to finish it. Doing anything in this game, ( a game where most challenges are inherently frustrating or annoying by design ) is essentially just rolling a dice with a 2/3'rds chance that you wasted your time.
And just to add needless insult to injury, KEYS ARE NOT KEPT WHEN YOU LEAVE A STAGE. I can't comprehend why this is, but nothing stung worse then completing a hard room, getting a key, and then later opening a different chest, only to realize you'll have to re-collect that other key later. WHY!?
It's such an inherent failing to capitalize on the strengths of a metroid-vania progression structure that it's pretty hard to believe that nobody identified the problem while making it. This is the primary issue with Wario Land 3, but I can nitpick more. Frankly Wario Land 2 is just so superior that it makes my job a simple act of comparison.
In Wario Land 2, the design of rooms and enemy placement is actually pretty reserved. Most enemies are placed such that you can see the threat coming and adequately respond, and generally most exist not to merely obstruct you, but serve as a mechanical key to a puzzle or challenge, they are there because you need them, or as a navigational test. Seeing an enemy enlists the thought "hmm, wonder what I need to do with this guy?"
In 3, most rooms are lousy with more enemies then need be. Not only that, but often they cheekily attack the moment they come on screen. There's the ceiling guys who fire a bullet the frame they spawn, the zombies who simply jump scare the player by spawning with a delay ( and often right next to Wario ) , and plenty of guys placed in just such a fashion that when you jump to a platform off screen they will greet you as you land, etc, etc. And may I remind you that the punishment for being so much as nicked by any one of these cheekily placed bastards will be almost guaranteed to reset your progress on the room. Hell, why stop there? Often times not just that room! But the previous room too! And perhaps even the one before that if the designers are feeling saucy! You'll fall to your dismay in some sort of masochistic nightmare dreamed up by Bennett Foddy. The act of getting reset is often times long and obnoxious to boot, and running around on fire, bouncing uncontrollably, or toddling around slowly while fat or a zombie gets incredibly old the 100th time. And don't you dare forget that actually suffering through the experience might present you with nothing to show for your anguish.
This gung-ho enemy distribution also has the knock-on effect of often obscuring that some of those enemies might ACTUALLY be important for solving a puzzle or progressing, making it easy to overlook. Whereas in 2 it was so consistently assumed to be the case simply through the diligent consistency of minimal design.
Levels in 2 are also full of fun secrets, tunnels, coins, and even alternate routes and exits, such that exploring and prodding the bounds of the level is fun and rewarding. Somehow 3, despite being billed as a metroidvania which should be about exploring while recalling cool hidden routes you should backtrack too, manages to feel less open and satisfying.
2 also rewards you for finding those secrets with bonus levels, alternate routes, more bosses, more versions of the story, additional cutscenes and endings, AND makes going for 100% of the treasures a natural joy that I felt compelled to do. And to top it off the game rewarded me for THAT as well, with an ultimate level and final ending to really provide a sense of closure. 3 rewards you for suffering through it's schlock with a single screen saying "perfect!" and nothing else of note.
Wario Land 3 also has no top down convenient way to track your collection progress across the entire game, without having to check every level individually. ( Unlike... 2, surprise! )
The game also inherits one of the few misses in the design of Wario Land 2, that being the bosses, which in having a 1 strike you're out philosophy were always a slight pain. The same goes here, but I find it forgivable in both games at the end of the day.
The day-night mechanic was a missed opportunity. A few cute changes in a few stages but largely left me wondering why they bothered. At it's worst it's yet another vector by which the game could say "oh sorry you did this room, you wasted your time! come back later!".
I feel like people complain about the Golf Mini-Game all the time, but it's not awful in a vacuum and I think the reason people dislike it is the often overlooked weirdest part about it. It's randomized. I don't get why they did this. It'd be nice to fail and master a set golf challenge that is tied to the location, but you have no opportunity here to do so since as soon as you think "ok I know what swings to do to beat this stage next time", you remember that when you go back down that pipe it will be different. But also, why golf? It's so thematically dissonant and weird.
Also what's the point of money in this game??? There's no end game ranking really, and I guess golf is the only money sink? But I always had 999 coins by halfway through and there isn't THAT MUCH golf? Sure makes exploring even more boring since why should I even be excited to find coins??? In 2 I was DEFINITELY glad to find coins, making every small secret a treat. Did I miss something????
I also didn't find the game to have much of a thematic through-line. I prefer the enemies in 2 which all have a bit of a pirate theming to tie in with Captain Syrup, as do some of the levels. 3 lacks a bit in having any kind of identity. I will say I like Rudy, he's creepy and fun, but isn't really in the game much, and none of the enemies even foreshadow his clowniness in any sort of way.
If I'll give Wario Land 3 anything, it's that it's problems start to sting less as you round out your ability list, since you'll find yourself unequipped to complete a challenge less frequently... although this does nothing to address the key situation. But I can admit that I was enjoying myself a smidge more towards the end of the game. So pour one out for WL3.
To start wrapping this review up, I'll say that at time of writing, there is currently a resurging discourse surrounding this game heralding it as brilliant, and a lost treasure in the Nintendo catalogue. I don't really understand it. I can only chalk it up to it's recent release on the switch virtual console subscription service, coinciding with a current Wario backed revitalized interest in puzzle platformers sparked by the success of indie darling Pizza Tower.
But I can't see it as any more than a combination of rose-tinted nostalgia from the veteran fans, and a bias of omission by new players for whom this is the only currently available Wario Land on the switch... Playing anything else in this series paints it in a very bad light, I would argue that of even Wario Land 1, as there's nothing wrong with a simple and well executed romp that lacks major flaws. Whereas by comparison I found 3 to mostly be defined by those flaws.
Ultimately the praise 3 gets is largely undeserved. Despite Wario Land 3 having some inspired but undelivered upon concepts, it's not awful by any means. Still better than most games, particularly on the Gameboy. But actually playing it is far to often a futile exercise in frustration.
DJSCheddar
11 months ago