How come transformations never get used to attack bosses?

[noobmurderer34]

There are two types of bosses, arena type bosses where transformations will knock you out of the ring, and traditional health type bosses that may or may not include transformations that will stall for time when racing against the clock such as in Wario Land 4

Like all Wario Land games, transformations/reactions can be used to the player's advantage just as much as their disadvantage. So how come during boss battles, they're always a bad thing? I think it's such a missed opportunity. There are so many transformations out there that could pack a punch against bosses, and using them in levels is like solving a puzzle, and bosses themselves can be like puzzles, and figuring out their weaknesses can be a lot of fun and make a really memorable fight! Especially with transformations being chaotic and unpredictable, I could easily see them creating an opening in a critical moment! Instead of wasting time when used to the player's disadvantage, they could even be used the opposite way and take down bosses even faster, which is an important thing for WL4's timed bosses and Shake It's timed challenges. Plus having two degrees of damage would make things a lot more interesting I think! (or maybe even 3 if you accidentally hit a boss in a way you weren't supposed to, least to most damage being accidental transformation/standard wario attack/intended transformation)

There was only one example of a transformation being used to damage a boss I could think of, and it's what inspired me to make this post. When fighting Golden Diva, for one brief moment, you have to throw a hammer on top of yourself, transform into Spring Wario, and shoot upwards right when she lines up. Are there any other instances where something like this happens? I don't remember there being anything else like it anywhere

 

[CM30]

That's an interesting point there. I suspect part of it is because most transformations are more about navigation than attacking, like Vampire Wario, Puffy Wario, Bubble Wario, Frozen Wario, etc, while others are more punishments (Frozen Wario, String Wario, Invisible Wario, Crazy Wario, etc).

There is the potential to use these abilities in clever ways though, so I'm surprised it hasn't come up.

 

[Really Ilini]

It's something I would like in a Wario Land sequel for sure. I suspect the main reason they didn't build fights around them is because, like CM30 said, a lot of them either revolve around unpredictable, forced movement (Flaming, Ball 'o String, Puffy), make Wario immune to knockback (Zombie, Vampire, Snowman), or have limited/no combat capabilities (Bubble, Fat, Flat).
I definitely see the potential in designing bosses around those reactions though, since Nintendo has dabbled in gameplay modifications during bossfights with the somewhat recent Mario Wonder. I wouldn't say this 100% counts, but Wario Land Shake It also has the Hot Roderick boss, which forces you in a unicycle contraption for the entire fight with different controls and attacks than Wario on foot. That could be another interesting direction to take Wario's bosses: he's forced to pilot absurdly specific machines during bosses, while the reactions are still be a part of the regular platforming.

 

[Really Ilini]

I also wanted to mention this custom WL3 bossfight by BlanchonUltime (another member here!) that builds off of the owl "form" in that game. Another cool example for a direction the boss fights can take.