Do you feel the Wario Land series doesn't get enough appreciation?

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And the Land cast?
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(A cool image reblogged in the wl-treasure-trove page!)


I'm a fanatic for the Land series (yes, all of the Wario Lands and Super Mario Land 1 and 2). I love all of the characters and the unique settings for the games. I really wish it'd get the appreciation deserves because this series is a true gem.
Every game in this series is outlandish, wacky, bizarre, surreal, creative, and super innovative and I just love it. It's a great polar opposite to the Super Mario games (which is about convention as much as possible) without being a clone of it at all. It has that lasting, classic-factor while having that unorthodox and frankly, loveable and really awesome feel.


i miss wario land ;_;
 
As a fan of Land, it's quite obvious why it lacks grand level appreciation vs Wario Ware. The games have really only just been on handhelds, and with no modern release on DS or 3DS, whereas WarioWare was on the highly successful DS (far more successful than GBA) and Smooth Moves was an early Wii title that kicked off at launch practically giving it purchases just based on that alone, and when we got a Land game it was a few years later and just didn't do well with sales for whatever reason.

So being that our only thing since early GBA years was Shake It, and no one really bought it, I doubt a lot of people even realize the series exists, or is worth playing. WarioWare is the more current game series and thus more people know about it cause it's newer, and had honestly, excellent opportunistic times to capitalize on the market as mentioned by the Wii launch earlier.

For Land to be recognized, it would have to be on a successful Nintendo platform, with a proper sequel and not too late in the console's life.
 
Of course it doesn't, no matter how you slice it. On the Mario side of things, you've got characters like Tatanga and King Totomesu who should be recurring characters, or at least show up once in a while. Part of the appeal of Mario Land is that it uses completely original settings and characters, and gives us a break from Peach and Bowser while still adhering to what a traditional Mario game should be. It's the exact opposite of the recent homogenization of the Mario series. It did new things in lieu of "playing it safe." Miyamoto didn't work on it, however--so they pretend that those games don't exist, no matter how good they are. That's bullshit.

As far as Wario goes...Wario's treatment in Super Smash Bros is a good indicator of what Nintendo thinks of Wario Land lately.

also,

Captain Syrup is love
Captain Syrup is life
 
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Of course. The Wario series in general doesn't get enough appreciation, to the point this is actually the second 'successful' forum set up for the franchise. In history.

As for Wario Land itself... yeah, without a doubt. The games are (in my opinion) on par with the classic Mario platformers, Yoshi's Island or Donkey Kong Country 2 in terms of quality. They've got great characters and environments, fantastic visuals and music, some really well done level design and more charm than literally every Nintendo made Mario game in the last decade or so. In any fair world, these games would be at the top of a lot of 'best Nintendo games ever' lists, not just those for the Game Boy and Game Boy Advance.

As for why it's underrated? Eh, probably characters not being 'consistent' and gameplay mechanics being so varied. My experience is that hardcore 'fans' tend to prefer franchises where the same cast members appear in most of the titles, to give them something to latch on to and admire. Like how for a lot of Kirby fans, King Dedede and Meta Knight as important as Kirby. Or how for DK fans, the Kong family are important side characters that people can see in most of the games. Wario Land has just Wario appearing with a mostly new cast list. And it's varied, with every two games changing the mechanics in a drastic way. So people who prefer one idea done decently over and over might be less attached to it.

But yeah, it definitely doesn't get enough appreciation.
 
Maybe if we ever get a Land game again, it'll be a launch title for a handheld or something. Biggest hope for it to kick off.
 
[To answer the question the thread entitles]
Worldwide: Eh probably not.
Where I'm from: YES! The main demographic for the WL series is people in their teens to people who Graduated High School (and up to College/University Students I predict) and the love for the series is entirely in a person's subconscious, meaning it's outclassed by other, more popular games (oh and my older sibling likes WL a tad).
 
I think it also comes down to Wario himself. Let's face it. He's not thay popular. I've been desperate to look for some Wario t-shirts of any kind to purchase and wear, but there are barely any in existance. See I own a bunch of Nintendo shirts and merchandise of all my beloved franshises but Wario is severely lacking.

This isn't a mistake. Nintendo probably knows this character and his merchandise doesn't sell well.
 
Koopaul said:
I think it also comes down to Wario himself. Let's face it. He's not thay popular. I've been desperate to look for some Wario t-shirts of any kind to purchase and wear, but there are barely any in existance. See I own a bunch of Nintendo shirts and merchandise of all my beloved franshises but Wario is severely lacking.

This isn't a mistake. Nintendo probably knows this character and his merchandise doesn't sell well.
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Wario was number 1 in character popularity polls in Japan in 2006 , yes higher than Yoshi and even Luigi. Daisy as well was higher than Yoshi and Peach. It surprised me too
 
You know what bugs me? Wario Land has actually ALWAYS been a top seller in terms of numbers, Even Shake It apparently outsold Game & Wario. Not to hate on Ware Fans or anything but it seems pretty dumb Nintendo would ignore it... Then there's his poor treatment in Smash 4, which to me at least - is even worse than Brawl's. But at least he is viable and ridiculously strong despite his poor source representation.
 
What you guys say about characters really seems to be the case. The majority of the Mario fandom seems to latch onto the fact they exist in this very formulaic Mushroom Kingdom enviroment, I doubt they even know instances where they're used differently, or place any value on that at all. They like the blob that forms as a result of mixing everything together. I'd even say most don't even know what's the deal with SML beyond it being Daisy's debut game; they probably just see it along with WL as just more classic Mario platformers. I was one of those, and it was way too easy to see both Wario n Daisy as "part of the cast" without much substance, til @ChanceTime gave me the games and it blew my mind how creative they were.

Even then it calls my attention because most people who have actually tried them could definitely confirm their quality, but it seems to stay as a nostalgic achievement more than anything? WL as a whole seems to be classed as the best out of the consoles they're in. The fans really have played it through and have their fond memories, but at the same time they're not the sort of fans to be active in fandoms, hence the lack of content as a whole. I guess it's quality vs quantity if we compare these with the fans described above?

...Also it's really ironic our actual Wario is pretty much stuck on his first "bad mario" appearance given his games were most likely made as a response against Mario's formulaic approach. It's like they wanna take away everything the team achieved with the whole process between Mario Land and Wario Land 4 precisely because it's not perfectly polished clean cut soulless Mario.
 
Melluh said:
What you guys say about characters really seems to be the case. The majority of the Mario fandom seems to latch onto the fact they exist in this very formulaic Mushroom Kingdom enviroment, I doubt they even know instances where they're used differently, or place any value on that at all. They like the blob that forms as a result of mixing everything together. I'd even say most don't even know what's the deal with SML beyond it being Daisy's debut game; they probably just see it along with WL as just more classic Mario platformers. I was one of those, and it was way too easy to see both Wario n Daisy as "part of the cast" without much substance, til @ChanceTimeIt's like they wanna take away everything the team achieved with the whole process between Mario Land and Wario Land 4 precisely because it's not perfectly polished clean cut soulless Mario.
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Ironically this plan seems to be backfiring on them - The 2 NSMB games on 3DS and Wii U were mediocre and felt like slightly edited versions of the Wii game ((Hell, unused leftovers from the Wii game are present in NSMBU)), Sticker Star was regaurded as terrible and pretty much "tricked" people as it was SHOWN to be a traditional Paper Mario at first... But changed at the last minute. And by the looks of Paper Jam's sales, Color Splash is going to do even worse.

The "dark age" of Mario is why I look back at Super Mario Sunshine, my first Mario game - More fondly then a lot of other people. I think it's time for them to return to the creative route it was taking, because it's MORE of a risk for them to keep playing it safe. People are already turning their backs on the series because of the NSMB syndrome. I don't HATE Miyamoto, I respect him for giving me one of my favorite gaming franchises since childhood, But his strict limitations on staff and ignorance need to stop otherwise it would be best for him to retire. Again, I say this about every franchise - You can't live off of Nostalgia forever.

Pac-Man can't just rehash the maze formula forever, Mega Man can't stay 8-bit and 2D forever and Sonic can't keep rehashing classic Badniks and "Green Hill Zone" Area 1 forever. There's a time for nostalgia, yes - But it shouldn't be over relied on, and more importantly, companies need to stop being so tone-deaf: People WANT another Pac-Man World for instance yet Namco is so tone deaf they gave them the watered down version known as Ghostly Adventures, and it failed so badly in sales he hit rock bottom and had to be shifted to mobile games for a short period, let alone all they have been doing is "pandering" to the original arcade game pretended nothing else existed. Evolution is important to games, let alone gaming franchises.
 
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While a vocal fanbase may want a new Pac-Man World or a Mario game with completely new environments, believe it or not, we are the minority.

The majority of people wouldn't recognize Mario or Pac-Man if they looked any other way. The majority of people only dabble in these games and know very little beyond the most basic and mainstream aspects of the series.
 
Mario123311 said:
Pac-Man can't just rehash the maze formula forever, Mega Man can't stay 8-bit and 2D forever and Sonic can't keep rehashing classic Badniks and "Green Hill Zone" Area 1 forever. There's a time for nostalgia, yes - But it shouldn't be over relied on
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You mention this, yet you don't bring up how Nintendo is always cramming SMB1 references into nearly everything they make, even their non-Mario stuff? I remember they tried to avoid doing that in the N64 era.
 
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