Posts Tagged ‘Wario’

Posted late due to site up-dates, this week you can here Alex talk about brand spanking new games and Darren talking about long since traded games. On Alex’s agenda the Wario Land Shake verdict and some excitement about his up coming week of 1 on 1 fighters, while Darren focuses Pilotwings and games long since sold to 8 year olds who didn’t appreciate their brilliance and were subsequently sick on them (Secret of Mana, forgive me…)

Click here to download Podcast 2 (46MB)

In which we prove we can at least record ourselves talking and edit out discussions about my tax returns.

We talk about trouble setting up the recording, the site, and recent stabbings in Japan and the atmosphere its creating. O and talk about Bangai-O Spirits, Ninja Five-O and Wari-O (sorry couldn’t resist.)

Sorry for the large file size, still fighting with audio software.

Nintendo’s recent policies are distancing them from experienced players. Mario Galaxy proved they could still deliver the goods for the hardcore, but that was 8 months ago so it falls to Wario Land shake to pick up the torch. It doesn’t.

The problem is Wario is a dick, designed to appeal 12 year old boys, and no amount of great animation will change that. Fatter and stronger than Mario, Wario barges around levels solving puzzles but never achieves big M’s charm. To compound matters it attempts to lengthen the experience with puerile tasks thrusting you repeatedly into archetypal levels to hunt for treasure.

To its credit bosses are fantastic, unfortunately repetitive enemies and environments and the carelessly shoehorned in Wii ‘functionality’ makes you wonder if it’s worth the effort to reach them.

Maybe I’m not the target audience though. I’ve played better previous 2D Nintendo games and I’m not 12.

Worth it for about £8, if you’re 12.

Originally posted – August 7th 2008