Wario: Shaken, Not Stirred
Wario has come a long way from being a main Mario villain on the Game Boy. The Wario Land series had a slow start, as the first couple were just sluggish, enemy-tossing versions of the classic Mario Formula. It wasn't until Wario Land 4 on the Game Boy Advance that the series really found itself, both in personality and in play. The attitude that became the bizarre micro-game fest that is the Wario Ware Inc. series started here. (Even the sound effects, which were just recycled). The game still retained much of it's shoulder-dashing and platforming, but at least introduced an interesting mechanic exiting a level the way you came in before time runs out. After the bad taste left in our mouth with Wario: Master of Disguise on DS, Nintendo returned to the Wario Land 4 formula for the game you're here for, Wario Land: Shake It!
The poor (yet appreciated) anime opening for Shake It quickly states the plot; the evil Shake King (not to be confused with Master Shake) has kidnapped some random princess and her elf-looking friends in another dimension in a globe found by Captain Syrup. On top of that, the brute has stolen the Bottomless Coin Sack, which belts out treasure with every shake. Captain Syrup and Melful ask Wario to lend a hand, promising untold treasures for his services. Wario agrees to help, once treasure is mentioned, of course, and is whisked away into this new world. The story is serviceable, but if you've ever played a Nintendo game, you never expect something very compelling. What you are guaranteed is marvelous gameplay, and Shake It! delivers.
Gameplay is just like every other Wario Land title, with a few new Wii-riffic bells and whistles. You hold the Wii-mote sideways, and control the title just like you did it's Game Boy predecessors: 1 to do a power-dash, 2 to jump. However, giving the Wii-mote a good down-shake will cause Wario to slam his fist and shake everything on the ground, which actually comes off more gratifying than it sounds. When you stun an enemy, typically by jumping on it's head, you can proceed to walk up and grab it. If you hold down B, Wario will start aiming to throw his foe, similar to Yoshi's Island. However, instead of waiting for an auto-reticule to tell you where you're throwing, you aim by tilting the Wii-mote up. It's kind of crazy, but actually more accurate than either the D-Pad or waiting for for the cursor to aim for you. One last bit of waggle, every large bag of money you come across and every enemy you grab can be throttled violently by shaking the Wii-mote up and down really fast. Yes, it's goofy, but it's Wario so it's expected to be. Plus, it's rather gratifying to shake those baddies like a British nanny. In the end, it's a far least offensive waggle set of controls in a Wii game (by Nintendo), so there's no reason to be down on it.
This game, like Braid, isn't just about getting from level to level, but about collecting treasure along the way. While there are many puzzles and challenges to get from point A to B, there's also deeper puzzles to get treasures 1, 2, and 3 in between. You don't need to collect them to finish the game, you just need to collect money to buy the maps to get to new continents. However, the treasures are, like Braid, the bulk of the experience, and failing to get them is missing out. Once you make it to save the little elf thing in each level, you then have to run back to the start of the level before time runs out (often taking a different route, like in Wario Land 4). Each level also has a set number of missions that work like Achievements, such as escaping before a certain time or completing a stage without taking damage. Unlike Achievements, these aren't entirely useless! Once you complete all the missions in a given stage (not necessarily on one playthrough, mind you), you unlock the song for that stage...
...which is totally worth it because Wario's new title comes stocked with a fantastic soundtrack. Hamano Minako (who has helped on many Metroid OST's, among others) has done a wonderful job bringing a unique vibe to Shake It!. Every level has a very distinct sound to it, ranging from a nice salsa tune, to something that sounds like a 90's pop hit, to some funkadelic jazz. The music is an absolute plus, and works well to help this stylish title find itself.
So you like visual style? Good, because this game is stuffed to the rafters. All of the characters are hand drawn, and the environments are incredibly lush and detailed. The animations of Wario and his villains are a treat to watch, especially the bosses. In this day of HD graphics and super-detailed 3D environments, I think that Wario Land proves that good ol' fashioned 2-D platformer can still have an absolutely wonderful aesthetic appeal. A lot of people complain about Wii's "jaggies" in most 3D games, so let me say that this game looks simply flawless on an LCD screen. While I hate to continue the comparison, I think this game looks better than Braid in every respect. My only lament is the lack of wide-screen, instead they treat you to some "nice" side bars with a little user interface display on them. I guess it's better than just letting the game stretch-out, but I can't understand why they couldn't just widen the camera. Perhaps something about the puzzle design they wanted to keep? I don't know... It just seems lazy.
In the end, the game isn't long, probably only 7-10 hours, not counting going back through and trying to collect everything. If you only want to brush through this game and are happy with getting what you grab and moving along, than I highly recommend you just rent this. If you want a game with a lot of replayability, trying to solve all the puzzles and collecting everything will add tons of value to this title. I can't recommend you pick this up any more. Wario Land: Shake It! is a must-have for any puzzle/platformer fans, and fans of Wario alike.
