[Wii] Wario Land: Shake It!! Review

After about a five year absence due to running his WarioWare Corporation. Wario finally returns to his treasure hunting ways with this smash hit. This title was something that was announced out of no where, as it was announced four months before it was to be released in Japan. Many people were worried because of this, but rest assured, this game does deliver just like all the other Wario Land games.

The first thing I want to point out is how beautiful the graphics are. I was actually shocked with how good they looked. When I first turned the game on I had actually thought I was still in a cut scene and then realized that this is the game. The game feels like you’re actually playing through some sort of anime and that‘s a great feeling. This is one of the best looking Wii games out there so far and I hope to see more titles that look as good as this one. My only complaint that I have with the graphics would be that some of the sprites seem to stick out more than others.

The music is game does have it’s memorable tracks, especially the Egyptian like ones. The voice work for Wario is humorous to hear, especially when he is doing his power rush. The only thing I wish would be for there to be some voice overs during the cut scenes, but then again Nintendo seems to have something against putting voice overs in their games. At least if they aren’t going to do that, put something to identify who is speaking during the cut scenes this way you wouldn’t have to guess who is talking.

The Gameplay is similar to all the other Wario Land games. Wario has his classic shoulder charge and BUTT SMASH, as well as a few other new tricks up his sleeves. One of these being the “Shake” feature. This is one of the few features that require the use of motion control in the game (Which is kept to a minimum in the game, but that’s a good thing since this is a platform game). What this feature allows you to do is to grab treasure bags that you see and shake all the treasure out, a typical thing someone greedy like Wario would do and it‘s a cool little feature. Another thing you can do with this is shake the enemies that you have stunned to get health items (They give the Zelda series a nod with the health bar by having it as hearts).

There is one thing about the Gameplay that does hurt my experience however, and that is how you throw enemies in this game. Maybe it’s just me but I just have such a hard time trying to target my throws in this game because of how unresponsive the motion control for throwing is. You angle the controller one way and the game is reading you angling another way. This is especially annoying when you have to target a throw to hit a switch but you keep missing the switch because you can’t control the damn motion right due to how bad it is. It’s not a game breaking experience at all, but it is something that I wish was fixed due to how annoying it can be.

The Boss fights can also provide a challenge in the game if you don’t know what you are doing. The Level design is also well done. I’ve heard that some people have said the game is too easy, this may be if you are just playing with the game without doing any extras. But if you are trying to complete the game completely, then you’ll be in for some tough challenges ahead. Trying to complete the game completely by doing all the missions and collecting all the treasure in the game could easily put another ten hours of Gameplay into the game due to how well some of the treasure is hidden and how hard some of the missions may be.

It’s great to see that Wario is finally back to his old greedy ways after a long absence from them. I’m hoping to see more Wario Land games in the future and as well as more games that look as great as this one.

Here is the rundown of the game:

Visuals: 9.5 – Like I said, the graphics are just wonderful and I’m hoping to see more games to follow this graphical style. The only thing that actually stops me from giving it the perfect ten is due to the little problem with some of the sprites sticking out more than others.

Sound: 8 - There are some memorable tracks as I have mentioned and Wario’s little sounds are always quite humorous to hear. This would be higher had there been complete voice overs in the game rather than reading dialogue.

Presentation: 9 - The game just looks amazing and what’s there will keep you playing for a long time. The Levels look nice and Boss fights actually provide a challenge.

Gameplay: 8.5 – It’s just like the classic Wario Land games and those controls were perfect. I would honestly give this a perfect score had the motion control for throwing not been so damn difficult to deal with.

Lasting Appeal: 9 – The story isn‘t so long, but if you are going to complete every mission in the game and collect all the treasure that is in the game, then the length of the game is boosted about a good ten hours I would say

Final Score: 9/10 – Wario is back to his greedy ways, and he’s better than ever!