An article I wrote on Wario Land, calling for its return, and what Wario has been since

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twhalen

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Hello all. I wanted to share an article on Wario Land I wrote. First, a brief introduction:

Wario Land II was the first Nintendo game I ever owned. Since a child I have loved the first 3 WL titles, and have long been disappointed over the dormancy of the series and its (lack of) representation in Smash and other Mario spinoff games. I wrote and put together my longheld thoughts and frustrations in an article I wrote for TechRaptor, which I'll link to below. I would greatly appreciate you to give it a read and let me know your thoughts.

I discovered this forum just today via a response to my story's auto tweet. It's great to know there is a Wario fan community and that I'm not alone in my obsession with Wario's original character, setting, and gameplay!

Here's a link: https://techraptor.net/content/wheres-wario-the-unrealized-potential-of-wario-land

In short: the Wario Land games were some of the first I ever played, I miss them and the Wario who was in them, there's a whole lot of wasted potential, Captain Syrup and her cute little pirates dudes rock, neither Wario Land 4 nor World properly continued the series or represented classic Wario, and down with Waluigi and Ware for compromising Wario's character.

Here's hoping Nintendo will resurrect Wario Land!

And thanks for reading. :)
 
Sorry about this thread going missing @twhalen, got caught in the spam filter. Anything that involves a link in a member's first post tends to get caught out by that, as part of a precaution to stop bots.

Still, it's an interesting article, and while I don't agree with all of it (I definitely feel Wario Land 3 and 4 are on par with one and two character wise), it's a good read none the less. Nice to see someone call for Captain Syrup's return as Wario's arch enemy too!
 
@CM30 No worries, that kind of precaution is understandable! I enjoyed Wario Land 3 quite a lot when it first released. It was also during a time when I did not follow gaming news outlets much, so seeing it on a store shelf not having known of its release was an exciting experience. My feelings about it losing some of the series' character come only in retrospect, and only concern the lack of Cpt. Syrup and her pirate dudes.
While I found Wario Land 4 fun to play, I was always disappointed by its setting and atmosphere. I missed Wario's castle and the world of pirates, ruins, S.S. Teacup and the like.

@Glowsquid True. Though I didn't make this point in full seriousness - more like a disgruntled fan shaking his fist saying "WarioWare ruined everything! Augh!" That is, speaking from the perspective of: "One day we had Wario Land. Then WarioWare came along. And we no longer had Wario Land."

Thank you both for reading and for your input!
 
twhalen said:
True. Though I didn't make this point in full seriousness - more like a disgruntled fan shaking his fist saying "WarioWare ruined everything! Augh!" That is, speaking from the perspective of: "One day we had Wario Land. Then WarioWare came along. And we no longer had Wario Land."
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It's still not like Ware had any hand in that, so I don't see the point of ragging on it for that.

Without Ware we still wouldn't have more Wario Land, the two series aren't even in any direct competition with each other and at least Ware still allows Wario to be more then Mario spin off fodder and the fart guy from Smash.
 
Hey lad, I appreciate your enthusiasm for Wario Land. Not gonna lie, it’s one of my favorite game franchises as well, and I’m also disappointed we haven’t seen it for years. Having said that however, I do take issue with some content in your article, which includes the dismissal of Warioware.

I think making blanket claims that WarioWare has no character, or that it’s low brow humor compared to Wario Land isn’t the right way to go. I can understand as a frustrated fan, but I also feel that the correlation just isn’t there.

I recommend giving Warioware a chance, since there’s a lot to love about it. It’s sorta a bit like Scrooge McDuck when he’s not adventuring, which is when he’s still trying to make a quick buck with some ridiculous scheme. I dunno, Ko Takeuchi really puts a lot of character into his designs for Warioware, and I just kinda don’t like it being disregarded as “it’s not Wario Land!”.

To also comment on smash bros, I really wouldn’t call that WarioWare Wario either. While the default is the Ware outfit and I assume Sakurai took inspiration from Ware for his move set maybe, keep in mind that Brawl was still during a time when Sakurai was less faithful to the characters he put in his fighting game. Like with Ganondorf and Captain Falcon, it feels like Sakurai made his own Wario, which in his eyes, is a gross guy who likes to gross people out.
 
Another article about how Wario Land needs to come back and Ware is a mistake? Fucken give me a break already, please! We all know that Land has no bright future, and we already know all this Smash bros representation of Wario fiasco thing. I really want to see two of great Wario series to live together in peace, but articles like this make lose my hope more and more I read them. I'm not first to say it, but: Wario Land has no home-developer since 2003 or 2004. Good Feel made one good WL game, only to throw it out and make Kirby one-off and Yoshi games. This is something that happened to our poor old DK: since 2001, Rare was sold to Microsoft and... Let's just say games like King of Swing, Jungle Beat or Donkey Konga did not receive as much critical acclaim as Country trilogy did. It was so until Donkey Kong Country Returns and Tropical Freeze from Retro Studios, that you mentioned in the article. WarioWare was always fine, it was just lucky to be released in 2003, I guess. As long as no one wants to adopt Wario Land and make games in the future: Nothing will change. I can't really say if this reflects Wario series representation in Smash, but it's mediocre, and we all knew it before.

Also Ware respects Land: WarioWare referenced Wario Land so many times: by small details in the cutscenes, few Wario Land microgames and even more. Did we got the opposite? Has Wario Land ever referenced Ware? I mean, when Shake it came out, Ware was 5 years old. And well... If Wario World counts as a part of Land series, then only once. If not: Too Bad, I'm not sure this will happen at all.

Can we also talk about Wario in 2013-2018. Since Game and Wario was... Very very questionable game, Ware's future was just as dark, as Land's Right now. Let's don't act like WarioWare was always doing great and had no downward spiral chasing it.

I also question your Waluigi statement. Captain Syrup at least shows up in 3 Wario Land games. Waluigi is just here for Mario series spin-offs, and he never did too much there anyway. His role is smaller than Cpt. Syrup's. I could see a reason for you to complain about this, if WarioWare characters were in Mario spin-offs. But they are not. Not even Ashley: Everyone's "favourite" character.

Look, I understand: We are all tired of Wario Land absence, and I'm not the first one to say stuff I typed above. But that is not a reason to trash on another game series, which is not really to blame. Neither is Waluigi.

Thank you for reading everything I wrote here. Can we all calm down now?
 
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twhalen said:
Hello all. I wanted to share an article on Wario Land I wrote. First, a brief introduction:

Wario Land II was the first Nintendo game I ever owned. Since a child I have loved the first 3 WL titles, and have long been disappointed over the dormancy of the series and its (lack of) representation in Smash and other Mario spinoff games. I wrote and put together my longheld thoughts and frustrations in an article I wrote for TechRaptor, which I'll link to below. I would greatly appreciate you to give it a read and let me know your thoughts.

I discovered this forum just today via a response to my story's auto tweet. It's great to know there is a Wario fan community and that I'm not alone in my obsession with Wario's original character, setting, and gameplay!

Here's a link: https://techraptor.net/content/wheres-wario-the-unrealized-potential-of-wario-land

In short: the Wario Land games were some of the first I ever played, I miss them and the Wario who was in them, there's a whole lot of wasted potential, Captain Syrup and her cute little pirates dudes rock, neither Wario Land 4 nor World properly continued the series or represented classic Wario, and down with Waluigi and Ware for compromising Wario's character.

Here's hoping Nintendo will resurrect Wario Land!

And thanks for reading. :)
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I dislike this article. It's shows you as too much of a Wario Land elitist. Wario World was pretty good too.
 
Mario Tennis is not the only Mario spinoff with Wario Land representation. The main villain and some of the baddies from 3 return in Dr. Mario 64, the only time Wario Land characters appear in a Mario game.
 
i always felt he was pretty well executed, he was cartoony, gross, brutish and egotistical. i felt it was less references to wario and more just, wario, but brawl introduced me to wariowares existence in the first place so im grateful.
 
Great article.

Personal opinion, but much as a I love Captain Syrup, I don't think she was intended to be Wario's archenemy, Virtual Boy Wario Land released the soonest after the first game didn't feature her at all. So I think the intention was always for Wario to fight new and weird foes. Syrup is still the most recurring and the fan favorite though.
 
MrLlort said:
Another article about how Wario Land needs to come back and Ware is a mistake? Fucken give me a break already, please! We all know that Land has no bright future, and we already know all this Smash bros representation of Wario fiasco thing. I really want to see two of great Wario series to live together in peace, but articles like this make lose my hope more and more I read them. I'm not first to say it, but: Wario Land has no home-developer since 2003 or 2004. Good Feel made one good WL game, only to throw it out and make Kirby one-off and Yoshi games. This is something that happened to our poor old DK: since 2001, Rare was sold to Microsoft and... Let's just say games like King of Swing, Jungle Beat or Donkey Konga did not receive as much critical acclaim as Country trilogy did. It was so until Donkey Kong Country Returns and Tropical Freeze from Retro Studios, that you mentioned in the article. WarioWare was always fine, it was just lucky to be released in 2003, I guess. As long as no one wants to adopt Wario Land and make games in the future: Nothing will change. I can't really say if this reflects Wario series representation in Smash, but it's mediocre, and we all knew it before.

Also Ware respects Land: WarioWare referenced Wario Land so many times: by small details in the cutscenes, few Wario Land microgames and even more. Did we got the opposite? Has Wario Land ever referenced Ware? I mean, when Shake it came out, Ware was 5 years old. And well... If Wario World counts as a part of Land series, then only once. If not: Too Bad, I'm not sure this will happen at all.

Can we also talk about Wario in 2013-2018. Since Game and Wario was... Very very questionable game, Ware's future was just as dark, as Land's Right now. Let's don't act like WarioWare was always doing great and had no downward spiral chasing it.

I also question your Waluigi statement. Captain Syrup at least shows up in 3 Wario Land games. Waluigi is just here for Mario series spin-offs, and he never did too much there anyway. His role is smaller than Cpt. Syrup's. I could see a reason for you to complain about this, if WarioWare characters were in Mario spin-offs. But they are not. Not even Ashley: Everyone's "favourite" character.

Look, I understand: We are all tired of Wario Land absence, and I'm not the first one to say stuff I typed above. But that is not a reason to trash on another game series, which is not really to blame. Neither is Waluigi.

Thank you for reading everything I wrote here. Can we all calm down now?
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I agree with everything you said except for the Waluigi thing and that there's no bright future for Wario Land. Donkey Kong Country's future is looking very bright imo, samething could happen to the Wario Land series with a big rival like Returns.
 
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