Virtual Boy Wario Land

Virtual Boy Wario Land[lower-alpha 1] is a platforming video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Virtual Boy game system in 1995. It stars Wario, a treasure hunter who must find treasure and fight enemies to progress. Wario can jump and charge with his shoulder as basic techniques, though he can also equip special hats to gain things such as fire breathing and bull horns. He has the ability to enter the background at certain points, a gimmick which works with the game's 3D gimmick. It was developed by Nintendo R&D1, containing a large portion of its staff, and features the red-and-black color scheme that is standard for Virtual Boy releases.

Virtual Boy Wario Land
North American cover art
Developer(s)Nintendo R&D1
Publisher(s)Nintendo
Director(s)Hirofumi Matsuoka
Hiroji Kiyotake
Producer(s)Gunpei Yokoi
Designer(s)Masahiro Mashimo
Masani Ueda
Takashi Ono
Programmer(s)Kohta Fukui
Masahiro Kawano
Masaru Yamanaka
Artist(s)Norikatu Furuta
Noriyuki Sato
Yasuo Inoue
Composer(s)Kazumi Totaka
SeriesWario
Platform(s)Virtual Boy
Release
  • NA: November 27, 1995
  • JP: December 1, 1995
Genre(s)Platform
Mode(s)Single-player

It received generally positive reception, particularly among retrospectives. It is regarded as the best game on the Virtual Boy, with some critics wanting to see it re-released for other systems to allow more people to play. It served as an inspiration for multiple games due to its background gimmick, including Donkey Kong Country Returns and Mutant Mudds.

Gameplay
Gameplay screenshot.

Virtual Boy Wario Land stars Wario on a quest to find treasure in the Awazon. Gameplay involves techniques such as jumping, charging, and throwing enemies and objects. The levels he explores are viewed from a sidescrolling perspective. He has the ability to jump into the background at special blocks. Similarly to Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3, featuring the ability to equip hats to gain new powers, which he loses if he takes damage or dies. These hats include an eagle hat that allows Wario to charge horizontally in mid-air, a dragon hat that breathes fire, and a bull hat that increases his power and adds horns. He can obtain a hat with all three abilities called the King Dragon Hat. In each stage, Wario must collect treasure and find a key to unlock the elevator to the next stage. Players can find different treasures hidden around the stages to increase their overall score. There are also mini-games in between stages in which Wario can gamble with the loot he has collected so far. Players fight bosses on occasion, which make use of the game's background gimmick.

Development and release

Virtual Boy Wario Land was developed by Nintendo R&D1 and published by Nintendo. The game was originally named Wario Cruise, appearing with the name on the Virtual Boy system's box and in a Nintendo Power issue.[1] Its development had a large allocation of R&D1's staff involved.[2] The music and sound effects were composed by Kazumi Totaka, who ended his work with R&D1 with it.[3] Totaka includes a song called "Totaka's Song", which he hides in most video games he composes.[4] Like all other Virtual Boy games, Virtual Boy Wario Land uses a red-and-black color scheme and uses parallax, an optical trick used to simulate 3D.[5] It was released on November 27, 1995 in North America and December 1, 1995 in Japan.[6][7]

Reception and legacy

Virtual Boy Wario Land garnered mixed reviews upon release.[18] Los Angeles Times's Aaron Curtis found the game enjoyable, but did not like the Virtual Boy's visual style.[19] Rocky Mountain News's Joel Easley felt that its use of 3D demonstrated the Virtual Boy's possibilities.[20] GamePro's Wes Nihei praised it for its sound effects and character sprite quality, calling it the best of the platform.[9] Next Generation felt that while it had appeal to more "hardcore" Mario fans, it was not very advanced in comparison to older Mario games, particularly noting that the 3D mechanics did not affect gameplay much.[11] AllGame's Scott Alan Marriott felt that it was a good demonstration of the Virtual Boy's gimmicks and enjoyed its gameplay.[8] Nintendo World Report's Neal Ronaghan enjoyed the background gimmick but felt it did not do as well as it could to explore the concept.[14]

Retrospective criticism for Virtual Boy Wario Land has been more favorable. Play's Dave Halverson returned to play Virtual Boy Wario Land often, praising it for not getting tiresome to play.[21] It has been named as one of the best games on the Virtual Boy by GamesRadar+, Nintendo Power and Retronauts, the latter of which noted that it should be remade for a different platform.[2][22][23][24] Retro Gamer felt that the background gimmick helped enhance an otherwise "traditional" platformer.[25] ABC's Good Game also felt that it could have done more with its visuals, nonetheless calling it the best Virtual Boy game.[5] Destructoid and IGN hoped that it would be re-released on the Nintendo 3DS,[26][27] while Kotaku felt that it was unappreciated back when it was released due to its platform.[28] 1UP.com's Neal Ronaghan felt that it served as a demonstration of what a "traditional" game could look like with the 3D gimmicks.[29] GameZone felt that its cavernous setting helped the Virtual Boy emphasize subtle visual details, considering it worth buying a Virtual Boy for this game.[30]

Virtual Boy Wario Land's background gimmick served as inspiration for multiple developers, including Retro Studios in the 2010 Wii game Donkey Kong Country Returns and Jool Watsham in the 2011 3DS game Mutant Mudds.[31][32]

Notes
  1. Known in Japan as Virtual Boy Wario Land: Hidden Treasures of Awazon (Japanese: バーチャルボーイワリオランド アワゾンの秘宝, Hepburn: Bācharu Bōi Wario Rando: Awazon no Hihō)

References
  1. Staff (September 1995). "Release Forecast". Nintendo Power (76): 113.
  2. Parish, Jeremy (February 27, 2019). "Virtual Boy Works finally reaches the only game anyone cares about". Retronauts. USgamer. Archived from the original on 2019-06-07. Retrieved 2019-09-12.
  3. "Kazumi Totaka Profile". Video Game Music Online. Archived from the original on September 19, 2019. Retrieved September 12, 2019.
  4. Orland, Kyle (December 14, 2006). "Totaka's song: The search is on". Engadget. Archived from the original on August 18, 2017. Retrieved September 12, 2019.
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  6. "NEW GAMES CROSS REVIEW: バーチャルボーイワリオランドアワゾンの秘宝". Famitsu (in Japanese). No. 364. ASCII Corporation. December 8, 1995. p. 32. Archived from the original on September 2, 2020. Retrieved September 2, 2020.
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  9. Nihei, Wes (March 1996). "ProReview: Portable Systems - Wario Land (Virtual Boy)". GamePro. IDG. p. 69.
  10. Moore, Jason (August 1997). "Planet 64 News: Retroworld - Wario Land (Virtual Boy)" (PDF). N64 Magazine. No. 5. Future Publishing. p. 17.
  11. "Finals - Virtual Boy - Wario Land". Next Generation. No. 19. Imagine Media. July 1996. p. 83.
  12. Frear, Dave (May 5, 2009). "Virtual Boy Wario Land Review (VB) - The Virtual Boy's best game?". Nintendo Life. Nlife Media. Archived from the original on 2020-07-27. Retrieved 2020-09-02.
  13. "Now Playing - Wario Land (Virtual Boy)". Nintendo Power. No. 79. Nintendo of America. December 1995. p. 106.
  14. Ronaghan, Neal (August 13, 2015). "Virtual Boy Wario Land Review Mini". Nintendo World Report. NINWR, LLC. Archived from the original on 2016-05-03. Retrieved 2019-09-12.
  15. R.I.P. (1996). "The Final Word game review - Virtual Boy: Wario Land -- Nintendo". Game Zero Magazine. Game Zero. Archived from the original on 2019-12-27. Retrieved 2020-09-02.
  16. Upchurch, Dave; Clays, Simon (March 1996). "Review: Virtual Boy Wario Land". Nintendo Magazine System. No. 42. EMAP. pp. 40–43.
  17. Yann (March 1, 2003). "Virtual Boy Wario Land (US) (par PVG24)". Pockett Videogames (in French). ACBM. Archived from the original on 2020-09-02. Retrieved 2020-09-02.
  18. ワリオランド. Virtual Boy 追悼記念ガイドブック - 改訂第ニ版 (in Japanese). Toyo Baphomet Council. 24 January 1998. p. 6.
  19. Curtis, Aaron (February 8, 1996). "Valley Weekend: Wario Good for a Hoot and a Headache - The Virtual Boy adventure has some fun features, but the 3-D, red and black display can be a pain". Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times Communications LLC.
  20. Easley, Joel (March 1, 1996). "Book A Trip To 'Wario Land'". Rocky Mountain News. E. W. Scripps Company. Archived from the original on 2012-10-23. Retrieved 2010-10-23.
  21. Halverson, Dave (May 2005). "Wario Land - Big Red". Play. No. 41. Fusion Publishing. Archived from the original on 2011-07-15. Retrieved 2010-10-23.
  22. Reparaz, Mikel (February 23, 2008). "The 10 worst consoles ever - Think the 360/PS3/Wii sucks? These overpriced failures will teach you the true meaning of awful". GamesRadar+. Future US. Archived from the original on 2011-06-15. Retrieved 2010-10-23.
  23. "Best of the Best: Virtual Boy Wario Land". Nintendo Power. No. 231. Future US. August 2008. p. 72.
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