Collection essentials #448: Wario Land II (GBC)

Wario debuted as the villain of Super Mario Land 2. Then, he starred in his own game, “Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land”. And now Wario has shed the connection to Mario and Wario Land II stands alone as its own thing. Though it's slightly confusing when you consider the fact that this is actually the third Wario Land game. Virtual Boy Wario Land came between Super Mario Land 3 and this game. So is Virtual Boy Wario Land the "true" Wario Land 1 and Super Mario Land 3 is ultimately considered a Mario Land game, or is the series ignoring Virtual Boy Wario Land and considering some sort of side title? It's not clear. Anyway, this game released in 1998 as a very late original Game Boy title, and then it was given a color makeover a short time later. The color version is still compatible with the original Game Boy, so there’s not much reason to seek out the non-color version.

This game initially feels a lot like the first Wario Land, as the moves are mostly the same. And it similarly revolves around collecting coins and treasure. But the structure of the game is quite different. The first one still played mostly like a traditional platformer, with a series of levels that you’d pick from a world map in which you’d try to get to the end. But Wario Land II takes more of a “puzzle” approach. A huge change that you rarely see in a game like this is the fact that Wario cannot die! Why is that? Does it make the game too easy? It doesn’t, because the game has a greater emphasis on things like puzzle-solving and secret-finding. Enemies may not kill you, but getting hit can take away valuable coins. The game has boss fights, but since you can’t die, instead the bosses will knock you out of the area forcing you to restart the fight from the beginning. 

Something cool is that sometimes you need enemies to progress. Getting hit by certain enemies actually isn’t bad, because they’ll inflict some kind of status on Wario that he needs to overcome certain obstacles. For example, some enemies will light Wario on fire, which appears to cause some distress to our anti-hero, but he won’t actually be harmed and the fire is needed to burn certain things. 

When you first “beat the game”, you find out that you haven’t truly done so. You’ll then be able to go back to previous levels and you’ll find that there are more levels that you still haven’t played. This is one of those games that wants you to go for 100% completion. There are several endings in the game, and the best one requires finding everything.

There is also a Wario Land 3 for the Game Boy Color which I also own, but it’s not making the list because, despite it having a positive reputation and being similar in many ways, I actually don’t like it all that much.

Sadly I did not grow up with Wario Land II, so I haven’t played it a ton. But that does mean I’m not intimately familiar with it and thus I may enjoy revisiting it more in the future. I’ve never come close to 100%-ing and I may try someday. It’s a creative and well-made game that’s one of the best that Game Boy and Game Boy Color have to offer. A definite collection essential.