We've talked about this many times before.
In Wario Land 2, one of the awesome things, in terms of Level Design, is the SS Tea Cup.
You enter it, and explore the story "Drop The Anchor!!". And you can eather do what the title says...
... or you can flood the ship.
And what happens when you flood the ship?
Well, the ship sinks to the bottom of the sea, Wario escapes it, and explores the Ruins At The Bottom At The Sea.
But before Wario gets there, he needs to... "Escape From The Tea Cup!".
And that's where the awesomeness comes in. Escape From The Tea Cup is a remake of Drop The Anchor. The level has the same layout, exsept that it's flooded, and some walls are destroyed, and such.
We've always talked about how these 2 levels have the same layout.
Well, today, I am going to compare them, analyze how accurate the flooded remake is, see what changed and what stayed the same.
I am going to compare "Drop The Anchor!!" and "Escape From The Tea Cup!", room by room.
So without further delay, let's get to the analysis
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Drop The Anchor!! VS Escape From The Tea Cup! - Room By Room Analysis
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Part 1:
One more thing before I start: in order to create this article, I'm using level maps from Mario Universe.
Unfortunatly, there are no maps of Wario Land 2 with enemyes marked. So, in all these maps, only the level layout will be shown. You'll just have to imagine the enemies being there.
In all comparasions, Drop The Anchor!! will be on the left/top, and Escape From The Tea Cup! will be on the right/bottom.
Room 1: Ship Entrance
This is the room that Wario enters the Ship in Drop The Anchor!! throgutht the door in the upper left corner. Due to being very high up (or for what other reason?), this room did not get flooded.
Amazingly, these 2 versions are exact copies of each other. In fact, both of them have a not broken pillar in the middle of the room, coins in the exact same locations, Fat Blocks, and the Cooks that make Wario fat. The only slight difference is the darker color pallete.
It is unknown how this room stayed exactly the same after Wario flooded the ship, since he clearly passed throught this room, and must have broken the pillar (and most likely he broke the Fat Blocks as well, and gotten all the coins in at the bottom of the room.
Let's go throguht Door A.
Room 2: The Ladder
The darker pallets will continue throught all the rooms in the flooded version of the tea Cup.
The vertical wizzy lines in the water are the same as the vertical straight lines above water. Essentially, the background got flooded, but stayed the same.
But let's look at the layout.
This room did get flooded, all the way to the top of the Ladder, leaving only the top ledges un-flooded. That would explain why the 2 rooms inside those 2 doors didn't get flooded. The ladder got completly destroeyd by the water. The little wooden boxes at the top of the room are clearly gone because Wario destoryed them, and also Wario must have grabbed all the coins on the ladder.
But let's take a closer look in the water.
Firstly, thought this is less importhant, there are new coins in the water. Where did they come from? Well, they could have come from anywhere, such as wooden boxes found all over the level. Let's not question that.
There are 3 much more noticable things in the water. Firstly, the pillars on bottom right are partly destroeyd.
Did Wario destory them when he went throguth the level, or did the water destroy them? Normally, I wouldn't question it. But the weird thing is, in the normal version of the tea Cup, the pillars were clearly cracked and fragile. But in the flooded version of the Tea Cup, these pillars look like they are strong, undestroyable pillars, that can only be destoryed if it's a secret. And yet they are destroeyd. Why did they change from cracked pillars to cracked to strong if they ended up being destoryed?
That doesn't make much sense, in terms of design. And the level clearly has graphics for cracked pillars. But they only appear in 2 rooms, neather of which are flooded. I'm going to make an assumption that, due to limitations of the level tileset, they couldn't have both water and cracked pillars in the same room.
The other 2 things to note is the big current in the bottom of the floor, and the lower left corner. The cracked pillar is completly gone, destoryed by Wario. As for the other pillars... These pillars look strong, but they can be broken by an enemy. Which, as a reminder, there are enemies in rooms, even thoght they are not shown on the maps. There is a Boomerang Duck at the top of the room. Did Wario uses it to break the pillar? Of course he did, but, looking at how the pillar is broken, it does not look like it's broken by Wario, as the way it's broken does not look like a throw trajectory from the right to left side.
There's also a door in the normal version of the level, Door I, which is blocked off by wooden boxes in the flooded version. Where does this door lead?
Room 2,5: The Path To The Plug
This room leads to the level's secret exit, The Plug, which Wario will use to flood the ship.
This is the only room that is avaible in only 1 version of the Tea Cup, the unflooded one. There's not much to talk about here, since there's nothing to compare it too. The only thing I have to note here is that there is a stove in this room. It's not an enemy, but it's still a sprite, and unfortunatly, sprites are not shown in these maps. Wario uses that stove to reach the coins, as well as Door J.
Let's go throught Door J.
Room 3: The Plug
Wario uses this plug to flood the ship. Doesn't Wario use the same exact plug to unflood his Castle?
After Wario floods the ship, the level ends, with the secret exit. And amazingly, the flooded version of the level starts in this exact room.
These 2 versions of the levels are so inter-connected, that one level starts exactly where the other level ends. I don't know any other game that ever does that.
In terms of the differences between the versions, the 3 boxes on the left of the room all float up, joining the 2 boxes that already were at the top of the room. Once again, cracked boxes became strong and uncracked.
However, unlike pillars, we will actually see cracked boxes in the same room as non-cracked boxes and water.
One box appared out of nowhere at the right of the room.
Coins got spilled out boxes.
And of course, there's a strong current upwards. After all, this is where all the water is coming from. Riding this current will bring Wario...
... back to The Ladder Room, the very bottom of the bottom.
So that is why The Path To The Plug is blocked. It's because Wario gets re-routed in order to get back The Ladder.
Ok, so now that we're back in The Ladder Room, we should continue with the level. But first, let's take a quick de-tour, and go throguth Door B.
Room 4: Coin Closet
Just like the Ship Entrance, there is absolutly no difference in this room, apart from the brighness. The coins are still there, the pillar (both cracked part and breakable-by-enemy part) are still unbroken. As a reminder, enemies are not shown on these maps. There's an enemy here that Wario can use fo fully break the pillar and reach the coins.
It seems that Wario didn't even enter this room. Which is a bit odd, since it's odd.
If we take another look at The Ladder Room, we can see that Wario enters it throught Door A. After entering, Door B is right next to him, so it might seem a bit odd that Wario went down the ladder without entering Door B first.
Aniway, enought of that. Let's leave this room, back to The Ladder Room, and enter Door C.
But wait... Come to think of it, why are the pillars on the path to Door C broken? If Wario flooded the ship, then he obviously went from The Ladder Room to The Path To The Plug. He shouldn't have went into Door C, and therefor shouldn't have broken the pillar leading to it. After all, flooding the Tea Cup is an alternate story, different from the main story, where Wario drops the anchor. A bit odd...
I'm guessing these pillars really were destoryed by the water. Well, it's a good thing they were, since Wario can only break blocks from below when he is underwater. So if they weren't broken, Wario would be stuck.
But we've distarcted ourselves. Let's stop wasting time in this one room and enter Door C already.
Things are about to get interesting. And we'll be paying a lot of attention to detail in the next rooms.
To be continued...
In Wario Land 2, one of the awesome things, in terms of Level Design, is the SS Tea Cup.
You enter it, and explore the story "Drop The Anchor!!". And you can eather do what the title says...
... or you can flood the ship.
And what happens when you flood the ship?
Well, the ship sinks to the bottom of the sea, Wario escapes it, and explores the Ruins At The Bottom At The Sea.
But before Wario gets there, he needs to... "Escape From The Tea Cup!".
And that's where the awesomeness comes in. Escape From The Tea Cup is a remake of Drop The Anchor. The level has the same layout, exsept that it's flooded, and some walls are destroyed, and such.
We've always talked about how these 2 levels have the same layout.
Well, today, I am going to compare them, analyze how accurate the flooded remake is, see what changed and what stayed the same.
I am going to compare "Drop The Anchor!!" and "Escape From The Tea Cup!", room by room.
So without further delay, let's get to the analysis
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Drop The Anchor!! VS Escape From The Tea Cup! - Room By Room Analysis
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Part 1:
One more thing before I start: in order to create this article, I'm using level maps from Mario Universe.
Unfortunatly, there are no maps of Wario Land 2 with enemyes marked. So, in all these maps, only the level layout will be shown. You'll just have to imagine the enemies being there.
In all comparasions, Drop The Anchor!! will be on the left/top, and Escape From The Tea Cup! will be on the right/bottom.
Room 1: Ship Entrance
This is the room that Wario enters the Ship in Drop The Anchor!! throgutht the door in the upper left corner. Due to being very high up (or for what other reason?), this room did not get flooded.
Amazingly, these 2 versions are exact copies of each other. In fact, both of them have a not broken pillar in the middle of the room, coins in the exact same locations, Fat Blocks, and the Cooks that make Wario fat. The only slight difference is the darker color pallete.
It is unknown how this room stayed exactly the same after Wario flooded the ship, since he clearly passed throught this room, and must have broken the pillar (and most likely he broke the Fat Blocks as well, and gotten all the coins in at the bottom of the room.
Let's go throguht Door A.
Room 2: The Ladder
The darker pallets will continue throught all the rooms in the flooded version of the tea Cup.
The vertical wizzy lines in the water are the same as the vertical straight lines above water. Essentially, the background got flooded, but stayed the same.
But let's look at the layout.
This room did get flooded, all the way to the top of the Ladder, leaving only the top ledges un-flooded. That would explain why the 2 rooms inside those 2 doors didn't get flooded. The ladder got completly destroeyd by the water. The little wooden boxes at the top of the room are clearly gone because Wario destoryed them, and also Wario must have grabbed all the coins on the ladder.
But let's take a closer look in the water.
Firstly, thought this is less importhant, there are new coins in the water. Where did they come from? Well, they could have come from anywhere, such as wooden boxes found all over the level. Let's not question that.
There are 3 much more noticable things in the water. Firstly, the pillars on bottom right are partly destroeyd.
Did Wario destory them when he went throguth the level, or did the water destroy them? Normally, I wouldn't question it. But the weird thing is, in the normal version of the tea Cup, the pillars were clearly cracked and fragile. But in the flooded version of the Tea Cup, these pillars look like they are strong, undestroyable pillars, that can only be destoryed if it's a secret. And yet they are destroeyd. Why did they change from cracked pillars to cracked to strong if they ended up being destoryed?
That doesn't make much sense, in terms of design. And the level clearly has graphics for cracked pillars. But they only appear in 2 rooms, neather of which are flooded. I'm going to make an assumption that, due to limitations of the level tileset, they couldn't have both water and cracked pillars in the same room.
The other 2 things to note is the big current in the bottom of the floor, and the lower left corner. The cracked pillar is completly gone, destoryed by Wario. As for the other pillars... These pillars look strong, but they can be broken by an enemy. Which, as a reminder, there are enemies in rooms, even thoght they are not shown on the maps. There is a Boomerang Duck at the top of the room. Did Wario uses it to break the pillar? Of course he did, but, looking at how the pillar is broken, it does not look like it's broken by Wario, as the way it's broken does not look like a throw trajectory from the right to left side.
There's also a door in the normal version of the level, Door I, which is blocked off by wooden boxes in the flooded version. Where does this door lead?
Room 2,5: The Path To The Plug
This room leads to the level's secret exit, The Plug, which Wario will use to flood the ship.
This is the only room that is avaible in only 1 version of the Tea Cup, the unflooded one. There's not much to talk about here, since there's nothing to compare it too. The only thing I have to note here is that there is a stove in this room. It's not an enemy, but it's still a sprite, and unfortunatly, sprites are not shown in these maps. Wario uses that stove to reach the coins, as well as Door J.
Let's go throught Door J.
Room 3: The Plug
Wario uses this plug to flood the ship. Doesn't Wario use the same exact plug to unflood his Castle?
After Wario floods the ship, the level ends, with the secret exit. And amazingly, the flooded version of the level starts in this exact room.
These 2 versions of the levels are so inter-connected, that one level starts exactly where the other level ends. I don't know any other game that ever does that.
In terms of the differences between the versions, the 3 boxes on the left of the room all float up, joining the 2 boxes that already were at the top of the room. Once again, cracked boxes became strong and uncracked.
However, unlike pillars, we will actually see cracked boxes in the same room as non-cracked boxes and water.
One box appared out of nowhere at the right of the room.
Coins got spilled out boxes.
And of course, there's a strong current upwards. After all, this is where all the water is coming from. Riding this current will bring Wario...
... back to The Ladder Room, the very bottom of the bottom.
So that is why The Path To The Plug is blocked. It's because Wario gets re-routed in order to get back The Ladder.
Ok, so now that we're back in The Ladder Room, we should continue with the level. But first, let's take a quick de-tour, and go throguth Door B.
Room 4: Coin Closet
Just like the Ship Entrance, there is absolutly no difference in this room, apart from the brighness. The coins are still there, the pillar (both cracked part and breakable-by-enemy part) are still unbroken. As a reminder, enemies are not shown on these maps. There's an enemy here that Wario can use fo fully break the pillar and reach the coins.
It seems that Wario didn't even enter this room. Which is a bit odd, since it's odd.
If we take another look at The Ladder Room, we can see that Wario enters it throught Door A. After entering, Door B is right next to him, so it might seem a bit odd that Wario went down the ladder without entering Door B first.
Aniway, enought of that. Let's leave this room, back to The Ladder Room, and enter Door C.
But wait... Come to think of it, why are the pillars on the path to Door C broken? If Wario flooded the ship, then he obviously went from The Ladder Room to The Path To The Plug. He shouldn't have went into Door C, and therefor shouldn't have broken the pillar leading to it. After all, flooding the Tea Cup is an alternate story, different from the main story, where Wario drops the anchor. A bit odd...
I'm guessing these pillars really were destoryed by the water. Well, it's a good thing they were, since Wario can only break blocks from below when he is underwater. So if they weren't broken, Wario would be stuck.
But we've distarcted ourselves. Let's stop wasting time in this one room and enter Door C already.
Things are about to get interesting. And we'll be paying a lot of attention to detail in the next rooms.
To be continued...
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