Wario Land 4 was Wario's first adventure on the Gameboy Advance. Basically, there's some treasure in a pyramid and Wario, the treasure-lover that he is, goes to try to get it.

Basically, the layout is like this: There are four "Passages" (not counting the first and last). Each has four
levels in it and one boss. Each level has a "Keyzer" and four Gem Pieces. You need all four Gem Pieces from each of the four levels to be able to fight the boss. You need the Keyzer to be able to access the next level in the passage. Additionally, each level has CD hidden in it. You can listen to them afterward in the Sound Room. Just so you know: The first passage only has one level and has no CD. Once you complete that, you can access the other four. Once you beat those four, you can access the Golden Pyramid (which also has no CD). Get the Keyzer and four Gem Pieces in that to fight the final boss. Anyway...

Somewhere in each level there's this weird "Frog Switch". When you jump on it, a timer will start. If you're still in the level when time runs out, you lose (note that there are no lives in this game; you just get thrown out of the level and have to restart it). Of course, you may be wondering "Why hit the Frog Switch at all?" Answer: You have to. Hitting it re-opens the warp that lets you get out. Frog Switches also often change parts of the level, so you have to take a different route back to the beginning. Oh, one last thing... you can get coins from the levels. You can spend them on these mini-games. The longer you last in them, the more tokens you get. You can use the tokens to buy weapons to use against bosses.

Just so you know: There is a "Hard Mode" and a "Super Hard Mode", which you can get to after beating the game. I shall be reviewing the normal game in this Review. I'm not even going to discuss my rating scale this time. (Read another of my Reviews to find out, lazy bones!)

Graphics: ** 1/2

Well, they're not that much better than the previous Wario Land games. It's basically just a bit more detailed. Not really much more. And the graphics certainly didn't "wow" me either.

Sound and Music: This I will divide into two categories.

Levels Music: ****

The music in the levels is very good. Certainly some of them is not the best, but some is very, very good. I really liked the music of Hotel Horror. But many other levels had good music. The only music I really didn't like was the boss music.

CD Music: 1/2

Are you kidding me? Only three of these (Mr. Ether & Planaria, Soft Shell, and Beyond the Headbrush) are
even remotely worth listening to. The rest of them you'll get tired of after ten seconds. In fact, even Beyond the Headbrush gets old pretty quickly. The only one that's really good at all is Soft Shell. I'm surprised the Sound Room didn't just have music from the levels, other than Soft Shell, and that was only in a few parts of the levels, not the main music of the levels.

Difficulty: Easy-Medium

This game is quite easy except for the harder modes, which aren't even that hard; the hardest part of them is just finding where the Gem Pieces are--they're sometimes moved. There are more enemies, but it still isn't that hard. This game would've gotten an "Easy" if not for the fact that some of the Gem Pieces are sometimes tricky to find.

Controls: *****

No problems here. Almost exactly the same as previous Wario games, except now Wario can use a cool super-dash thing if you hold down L or R. You need to super-dash to break some of the blocks, and it will also break multiple normal blocks in one go.

Levels: *****

The levels in this game are really, really good. They're diverse and creative. Domino Row, for example, has a cool feature. If you hit one of the dominos, they'll all start to fall on each other. If you can make it to the flag
before them, you'll get some kind of benefit. Doodle Woods has this weird pig follow you around in the background and draw enemies on his paper and throw them at you. Pinball Zone has a pinball theme in it (though it would've been nice to see some flippers). Fiery Cavern was a weird one... it's fiery until you hit the Frog Switch, afterwards it turns into a winter wonderland! The point is, they put some real creativity into these levels. They're really cool. It's nice that they all have different "themes", if you know what I mean.

Bosses: ***

The bosses are fairly interesting. But what I like is that you can purchase these weapons to help you on the boss. The more the weapons cost, the more effective they are. What happens is you buy it, then use it on the boss at the beginning, and it'll deal some damage to the boss, easing your task. Anyway, as to the bosses, they're pretty interesting and cool. Problem is, there's a time limit, and if you take too long you won't get as much treasure. Not that the treasure really matters, but the more treasure you get the better the ending. Unfortunately, I didn't like the boss music too much, which brought the score down slightly.

Replayability: *

Hmm. You can try to get the CDs, and there's the Hard and Super Hard mode. But they really aren't much. There really isn't that much of a difference between Hard/Super Hard and Normal mode. Yeah, you almost essentially need the weapons against the bosses if you want to have any hope of defeating them quickly enough, and they are harder, but they still don't take too much time to go through. I guess you can try to get higher scores in the mini-games, but that also gets old quickly.

Secrets: 1/2

Other than the hidden CDs and harder modes, there is absolutely nothing whatsoever secret in this game. Nothing. And the CDs and harder modes aren't even that "secret" themselves anyway. CDs are a cinch to get if you know where they are and how to get them. There just isn't that much that's "secret" about this game.

Mini-games: ***

There are three mini-games: Wario Roulette, Wario's Homerun Derby, and the Wario Hop. They're kind of like the Game & Watch Gallery games, but not quite as good. Here's how they work:

Wario Hop: Basically, Wario is running on a tire, but there are a lot of obstacles in your way. The only button you use in this mode is A. Press A to jump over the obstacles. If you hit one (either because you didn't jump in time or you jumped too early and hit it when you were coming down), you lose. Of course, losing is inevitable in these mini-games, just like the Game & Watch Gallery games. This is my personal favorite mini-game.

Wario Homerun Derby: Again, A is all you press. A pitcher will throw balls at you, and you need to hit them. Of
course, the balls sometimes are tricky... sometimes the ball will even vanish for a few moments, making it hard to hit. Another frustrating element is that sometimes the ball will suddenly stop, then keep going, meaning that it's likely you'll swing too early and miss it. Fortunately, the pitcher will also make some kind of sign, and if you remember them you'll know what he'll throw. Here's how it works: As in baseball, if you get three strikes, you're out. If you hit the ball but it doesn't really go forward, you get a Foul. A Foul is the same as a strike, except if you have two strikes/fouls and get a foul, you won't lose. For example, if you had two strikes then four fouls, you wouldn't lose, but if you had four fouls then one strike, you would.

Wario Roulette: Worst one, in my opinion. You see someone's face, then have to remember it and recreate it. It's called the "Roulette" because the different parts of the face kind of spin around.

Addictiveness: ** 1/2

Well, the game isn't super-addictive, but it kind of draws you back. It's better than some games I've played in
this, but certainly had room for improvement. I didn't feel much of a calling for it after I turned the GBA off, and I could easily turn it off anyway. Also, once you win, the "calling" declines even futher. You'll probably never look back after you've cleared Hard and Super Hard modes.

Gameplay: *****

Here's where the game starts to shine. The gameplay is amazing. Just as good as the previous Wario games. Wario's various transformations are also neat. For example, Wario can transform into Bat Wario if he's bitten by a bat, which allows him to fly though he can't walk (if he's on the ground, the only way he can go is up, but he has complete freedom of flight). However, if he lands in water or goes into a light, he goes back to normal Wario. Every transformation is cancelled out somehow, and many times you need the transformations to get items or continue through the level. Sometimes the transformations are a disadvantage, however, and you'll want to avoid them. Anyway, the point is that all of Wario's various attacks and transformations are spectacular, and fun. But the gameplay is good even without them, although they certainly enhance it.

Fun Factor!: *****

Okay, this game is just plain fun. You'll enjoy it. There's something about stomping and whacking enemies that is somehow fun. The mini-games are also enjoyable (at least the Wario Hop and Wario Home Run Derby are... I hated the Wario Roulette). Anyway, Gameplay and Fun Factor often coincide, so you can understand why both got such high scores.

Of course, the hardest thing to often to explain is Fun Factor... how can you explain how a game is fun? This is one of those games. It's intense fun, but hard to describe. You might as well try to explain why people like things that are funny.

OVERALL: * 1/2

Ok, ok. You're wondering "After such high scores in Levels, Gameplay, and Fun Factor, why such a low overfall score?" Answer: The game is too short. It has fewer levels than the original Wario Land, for crying out loud! All three previous Wario Lands were longer than this, and the Gameboy Advance has more memory potential than both the Gameboy and Gameboy Color! They utilized some of the GBA's graphic potential, true, but where's the replayability I expect? Where's the length I expect? In short, Wario Land 4 is a really fun game... while it lasts.

Actually, does "Wario" now mean fun, yet way-too-short games? I haven't played either Wario World or Wario Ware, but from I hear both were really fun but also too short. Whatever happened to the days of the Gameboy and Gameboy Color, where Nintendo really used the memory they were given? Why couldn't this Wario Land at least be as long as the first? All three previous Wario Lands were longer and had more replayability than this. Compared to them, it's a real disappointment.

I don't know where or if you can even rent Gameboy Advance games, but if you can, this is a perfect game for that. But it's not worth $30 to buy. Maybe $10, at most.

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