Thursday, May 1, 2008

Wario Land 2: I Hate the Slug

This guy can suck it:



He is a bastard. He's the only enemy in Wario Land 2 that I hate. I don't remember anything like him in Wario Land 1 or 3, so obviously the designers realized he was bullshit and took him out. The problem I have is this: he is almost impossible to kill reliably! Every other enemy is fairly easy to kill because their weak points are obvious. This guy seems to start his attack animation randomly, and if his mouth is facing you, he is invincible. And if you get hit? You lose like six coins. A bigger problem is that the designers always seem to place three or four of these guys in a row, in a small enclosed area. So, say goodbye to your coins.

Which brings me to a major problem I have with Wario Land 2. As I mentioned before, the minigames in this game aren't fun to begin with; what I failed to mention was that they are fucking expensive. 50 coins just to see one block of 9 for the game where you guess the number! That means you might have to spend 300 coins or more to figure out what the number is! This wouldn't be such a problem if you could PICK THE FUCKING BLOCK YOU WANT TO SEE! I think that would be fair, because it would make the game easier, yes, but it would still cost 50 goddamn coins for each flip. And the other minigame costs at least 100 coins to win, basically, because the "hard" setting, while cheapest, is also damn near impossible.

The main game remains pretty good, but so far I think I like the other Wario Land games better. Wario Land 1 focused on collecting coins and treasure within the level without minigames, and I think it seemed more focused than Wario Land 2. The third game, though, focused better on entering a level and solving a puzzle to get a treasure, and I think it was pulled off better than 2. Plus, whether you liked the golf minigame or not, you didn't have to play it in every fucking level like you do in with the minigames in Wario Land 2. The second game just seems unpolished compared to the other two; I would recommend them over this one. That's not to say this is a bad game, but it seems more like a mishmash of ideas that don't gel together perfectly.

(Click here for my first Wario Land 2 article)

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