Anyone feel the Wario Land Successors Miss the Point of the Series?

[CM30]

Or at least, feel like they kinda go in a direction they're not super fond of?

Because to be honest, as neat as Pizza Tower and AntonBlast are, they seem very much focused on the modern DKC/Rayman style of 'flashy yet somewhat difficult platformer with a high speed focus', which wasn't really a huge part of the Wario Land series in general.

Yes you escaped the level in Wario Land 4, but the time limit was so high that you'd basically never run out of time unless you either A: sucked beyond belief, or B: got distracted looking for money and collectibles.

The focus was always on exploration and puzzles and combat, not speed and precision platforming. And even then, it was generally not a hard series of games. You were basically at no real risk of dying, since the enemies and environment were not dangerous enough to kill Wario quickly. The exploration and puzzle solving was where the challenge laid there.

However, it feels like most modern Wario Land equivalents are focused on the escape sequences, spectacle, more challenging platforming, etc. Like their inspiration is more 'modern Rayman' than Wario Land.

Anyone else feel the same way?

 

[The 3rd Wario Brother]

Alot of attention I see for Wario if it's LAND not WARE outside of here is almost always "I grew up with GBA and WarioLand4" so I've gotta I wonder how many people have a skewed idea of the series

 

[CM30]

Alot of attention I see for Wario if it's LAND not WARE outside of here is almost always "I grew up with GBA and WarioLand4" so I've gotta I wonder how many people have a skewed idea of the series

That's an interesting point in its own right. Wario Land 4 is a great game, but it's only one of three types of Wario Land game:

Wario Land 1/VB Wario Land: Mario style platformer with extra combat and exploration
Wario Land 2/3: Exploration based puzzle platformer/Metroidvania hybrid
Wario Land 4/Shake It: More standard platformer with an escape sequence

If your experience comes from the last two, you'll probably think the escape sequence is the big draw of the franchise. If you've played the other 4, you'll probably think of the series as more than that.

 

[NacklesK]

I've not played neither Pizza Tower nor AntonBlast (I'll get to that eventually) but from footage I saw, you seem to be right. For me, Wario Land is more about the exploration since even in Wario Land 4, the game those indie games are inspired by, you had to get those 4 pieces in each level to unlock bosses so exploration was required even in that game. And was the real challenge of the game because even in hard mode, those level were easy, it would be looking for those pieces that would take you a bit more effort (not that it's hard to find, just requires a bit more effort in hard mode).

But I think that it's less that it misses and more that it saw potential in WL4 and decided to expand on it. The games focusing more on the escape sequences makes sense though as anyone would have ever died to "HURRY UP!" in WL4 is probably to ashamed of it to even speak about it. If you ever ran out of time in WL4 while trying to escape and not being distracted, speak now or stay silent for the rest of eternity.

... Seriously, can anyone explain to me what's the point of those sections again? Apart from looking cool?

I've actually been in the concept stages of game I wanna make inspired Wario Land and many other platform such as Sonic or Mega Man. And the Wario inspiration is actually about the exploration, wouldn't you know. I wanna get started on working on it but first... I have to get WarioWare: Computed!'s demo out... I have been procrastinating for way longer than I'm willing to admit.

 

[Yellow Pyoro]

I think Wario Land: Shake It missed the point of Wario Land.

 

[Hotel Horror]

I feel like the Kickstarter demo for Antonblast from back in 2022 came the closest. It really felt like an early 2000s GBA game.

Here's the download for anyone who wants to play it.

https://archive.org/download/antonblastdemo/Kickstarter%20Demo/ANTONBLAST%20-%20Kickstarter%20Demo%20V1.1.6.zip

 

[WarioPingas]

I always liked Wario Land because the controls are fun to play with and every one has so much exploration and replay value. I also loved that it was always way different from Mario (and better). The stories were also always interesting, there’s so much unexplained in Wario Land 4 I can’t even, Wario Land 3’s music box story was amazing too. It was also always funny that he’d never save anyone on purpose, only by accident or for money, you always feel like you wanna get Wario his money.

 

[WarioPingas]

I always liked Wario Land because the controls are fun to play with and every one has so much exploration and replay value. I also loved that it was always way different from Mario (and better). The stories were also always interesting, there’s so much unexplained in Wario Land 4 I can’t even, Wario Land 3’s music box story was amazing too. It was also always funny that he’d never save anyone on purpose, only by accident or for money, you always feel like you wanna get Wario his money.

In terms of gameplay I always loved that each Wario Land is radically different, even the similar ones. It’s not about the speed it’s about finding the treasure