What would you change in WL Shake It?

[Hotel Horror]

As beautiful as the game looks, I always found it to be the weakest Wario Land game of the bunch.

It was slow, and the gameplay just wasn't that fun. It also felt a little too clean for a Wario game. Especially compared to how crass and crude WL4 and Wario World were.


I think I would've had the gameplay lean close to 4 and VB, while having a hub world similar to 3 that changes as you progress.

And I would've brought back old Transformations while also having new ones too. Pretty sure Shake It only had 4, and they were pretty basic.

I would've also brought back more characters and enemies from past games. One of the things I can praise Shake It for doing, was bringing back Captain Syrup, which was awesome!



The bosses also didn't really vibe with Wario Land. They felt more like anime villains than Wario ones. They needed to be uglier. I would've leaned heavy into WL4's style with Cractus, Spoiled Rotten and CatBat.

And I would've had different endings depending on how much treasure and gold you got. With the best ending unlocking Hard Mode.
Similar to unlocking Hard Mode in VB WL and S-Hard in WL4.


I don't hate Shake It, but I find it missing a lot of things to make a great Wario Land game.
But hey, this is just my opinion. What would you do differently?

 

[Yellow Pyoro]

• Make Wario more fun to control/move. (I don't know how to specifically fix).
• Make Wario able to run without needing to use that red pipe machine thing at the end of the level.
• Make motion controls optional.

 

[Hotel Horror]

Make Wario able to run without needing to use that red pipe machine thing at the end of the level.

Agreed. And make it faster too. He had more speed in WL4 and controlled better too.

 

[CM30]

More transformations is the big one. I recall fiery Wario, frozen Wario and snowman Wario, and that's all I can remember. That's kinda sad compared to the earlier games.

Probably more interesting level themes as well. I like some of the level themes here (the casino levels feel very unique, and I feel the train and asia style levels might just about be unique enough to fit a new Wario Land game), but a lot of them kinda blend together. How many levels are basically set in caves, plains, jungles and mountainous regions again? About 60% of them?

Definitely make motion controls optional. Feel like that's a given for most games with them to be honest.

Add more of his moves/physics from Wario Land 4, since he feels a bit stripped back here.

Make the soundtrack more interesting (I like the music here for the most part, but it definitely feels very safe for a Wario soundtrack).

And probably change a few bosses. I'm mostly fine with Hot Roderick, Chortlebot and Large Fry, and I kinda feel Rollenratl may just about be unique enough for a Wario Land game, but Bloomsday/Scumflower feels kinda bland by comparison to the rest. I would say make them more menacing/scary, but to be honest, making Chortlebot scarier might kinda push it into "this ain't getting an E rating" territory lol.

 

[Hotel Horror]

More transformations is the big one. I recall fiery Wario, frozen Wario and snowman Wario, and that's all I can remember. That's kinda sad compared to the earlier games.

This. They didn't even have Wario's iconic ball rolling form when he's on a slope. He just slides backwards on his belly.

Make the soundtrack more interesting (I like the music here for the most part, but it definitely feels very safe for a Wario soundtrack).

Yeah the soundtrack felt was pretty bland. The only song that really stuck with me was the one in Captain Syrup's shop.

And probably change a few bosses. I'm mostly fine with Hot Roderick, Chortlebot and Large Fry, and I kinda feel Rollenratl may just about be unique enough for a Wario Land game, but Bloomsday/Scumflower feels kinda bland by comparison to the rest. I would say make them more menacing/scary, but to be honest, making Chortlebot scarier might kinda push it into "this ain't getting an E rating" territory lol.

Honestly, if Wario and Captain Syrup weren't in it, you could convince people this was a cozy anime platform game instead of Wario one.

Good-Feel definitely hit there stride with Kirby's Epic Yarn, that game was beautiful! But they just weren't a great fit for Wario.

 

[CM30]

Eh, I'm gonna be honest, I feel like Good-Feel shouldn't have got pigeonholed into becoming the 'cozy' game studio. The 'games with basically zero difficulty aimed at complete beginners and 6 year olds' one.

Were they a great fit for Wario? Maybe not, but literally every game after has been a cozy platformer aimed at people who've never touched a video game before, and the ones after Woolly World have been so simplistic that their themes and ideas are just wasted. Heck, Yoshi in general feels kinda pigeonholed into the 'very young kids game' market. The original Yoshi's Island was a pretty tough platformer with a cute style but a fair amount of menace, while every game since has just been really cutified, extremely easy or both.