Wario Land 4
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Wario Land 4 is a video game made for Game Boy Advance in 2001. In this game Wario has to gather four treasures to unlock a pyramid and save Princess Shokora from The Golden Diva.
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Story
Wario is drawn to a pyramid in the desert. When he arrives he sees a small black cat that lures him deeper into the pyramid. Then he begins his adventure. He fights 5 bosses and receives their treasures. Then he fights the Golden Diva who stole the treasures you recovered. After the Golden Diva is beaten then pyramid begins to shake and slowly falls. You quickly run out of the pyramid with the black cat and a bag full of treasure. After the pyramid has totally collapsed the treasures the Golden Diva had stolen return. Except they go to the black cat who forms the shape of a princess (Princess Shokora to be certain). Then she kisses Wario and says Thank You. Finally a few angles fly from the sky and take the princess. Another happy ending.
Gameplay Elements
The gameplay of Wario Land 4 allows for some open-endedness as well as some order of difficulty. There are 4 main passages (in addition to the Entry Passage and "Final" Golden Pyramid). The 4 main passages are the Emerald, Ruby, Topaz, and Sapphire Passage, in order of difficulty. The Emerald Passage is themed around nature. The Ruby Passage is themed around mechanics and technology. The Topaz Passage is themed around toys, games, and other "playtime" ideas. The Sapphire Passage is themed around horror and danger, prominently involving ghosts and the like.
There are four levels in a passage. To progress to the next level in a passage, a player has to find the Keyzer in the previous level (A Keyzer is a floating, key-nosed creature that promptly disappears after you use it). After the four levels comes a Mini-game Shop and the Boss Room. To enter the Boss Room, the player must find the four pieces of the passage's namesake gem in each level (a total of four gems and 16 pieces). Also, a player can find a CD in each level, which unlocks a song in the CD Room.
Upon entering a level, one has all the time in the world they want to find treasure, beat up enemies, and such. Enemies, when defeated, give coins and health orbs. After collecting a full bar of health orbs, the player receives one extra heart (out of 8). However, the player can't return to the pyramid (and thus have all of their treasure saved) until they open the portal again via a Frog Switch. Upon hitting the switch, a time limit (which varies depending on the game's difficulty setting and level itself) is placed, and many blocks in the level appear or disappear. For some levels, this results in a rush back to the portal the same way the player came. In others, totally new areas are exposed. If a player fails to reach the portal within the time limit, he begins to lose coins. Once all of his coins are gone, he is kicked out of the level (as if he had lost all of his health) and is left with no treasure.
Level and Boss List
Entry Passage
- Hall of Hieroglyphs
Boss: Spoiled Rotten
Emerald Passage
- Palm Tree Paradise
- Wildflower Fields
- Mystic Lake
- Monsoon Jungle
Boss: Cractus
Ruby Passage
- The Curious Factory
- The Toxic Landfill
- 40 Below Fridge
- Pinball Zone
Boss: Cuckoo Condor
Topaz Passage
- Toy Block Tower
- The Big Board
- Doodle Woods
- Domino Row
Boss: Aerodent
Sapphire Passage
- Crescent Moon Village
- Arabian Night
- Fiery Cavern
- Hotel Horror
Boss: Catbat
Golden Pyramid
- Golden Passage
Boss: Golden Diva
Boss Rooms
At the end of each passage, Wario encounters a boss room. He must destroy a boss within a set time limit to win the treasure within the boss rooms (if Wario takes too long but manages to win before the limit is up, some treasure may be withheld).
The bosses can be made easier by the purchase of items from a shop near the boss's door. The shop does not accept normal cash from levels. Instead, one must play games in the Mini-game Shop to win medals to use.
Each of the items on the bottom row of the shop's listing are "super effective" against a certain boss. For instance, the Black Dragon's flames will burn Cractus better than any other attack.
Difficulty Levels
There are three difficulty levels.
- Normal: The original difficulty. You start each stage with four out of eight hearts of health.
- Hard: The other original option for difficulty. You start each stage with four hearts, but time limits are lowered, along with boss health increasing and different locations for treasure.
- Super Hard: Only available after completing the game on hard mode, Super Hard mode starts each stage with only one heart in your health bar. The time limits, enemy placement, and treasure locations become increasingly difficult, along with two minigames becoming harder and the prices for items being higher.
The Sound Room
After completing The Hall of Heiroglyphics, a room called the sound rooms opens. This is where you can listen to CDs of 16 different songs, which are unlocked throughout the game. A special feature called "Wario Karaoke" is unlocked by entering the sound room and pressing a special combination of buttons in the sound room. This allows to you see the lyrics to the song Medamayaki, a song found in the level "Palm Tree Paradise."
Wario Land to Wario Ware
Wario's GBA debut marked the change from the Wario Land platforming series to the humor-based Wario Ware microgame series. Many of the voice samples and sound effects, not to mention a few music tracks are found in Wario Ware, Inc.. Wario's greed and power hunger was the main focus of his first three Wario Land games, but Wario Land 4 took a different turn. Wario became the greedy, disgusting guy who would do anything for money.
Some Wario Land references included in Wario Ware are:
- Many of the voice samples Wario makes (such as "E-e-e Excellent!" and "Yahoooooo!")
- The song Medamayaki in a certain microgame
- The Toy Block Tower background music in the microgame "Wario Whirled".
- Similar Pause Sound Effects
- A microgame that involves running and using Wario's attack from the Wario Land Series