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Shake it Baby! Wario Land: Shake It! / The Shake Dimension
Jam Warrior
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
It's had it's mentions in the Wii core games thread, but a game of this calibre really deserves it's own thread.
Wikipedia go!
"Wario Land: The Shake Dimension's gameplay style is very similar to that of Wario Land 4. Yuretopia is split into five continents. Each continent holds six stages (4 standard, 2 hidden) and a boss. It is Wario's duty to complete the stages and defeat the boss at the end of the continent. Most stages have secret passages and each contains three treasure chests. Wario's main goal is to free Merfle, a small character who is trapped in every stage. Once Wario has collected him, he must back track through the stage in a limited time."
So you platform your way through each level in traditional Wario Land style with much shoulder charging and butt-stomping, in order to rescue one of these rejects from a Tingle cosplay convention:
(Picture from fantastic animated opening video)
All in order to rescue their queen, who seems to be Saria from Ocarina of Time all grown up now.
This however is just the halfway point, now things get all Metroid and a timer starts to count down how long you have to high tail it back to the start of the level. Old paths will become blocked, new paths open, and there are usually multiple routes to get where you need to go.
If you were to just blast through the levels to the end it could all be over a bit quick, but there are treasures to find and, what really adds to game length, challenges to complete for each level. These range from killing certain enemies, to avoiding being hurt at all, to never touching water. Each level will always have a 'collect X coins' and a 'finish in X seconds' challenge and these will often require you to take different escape routes in order to meet the task.
I'm only part way through but some of the platforming challenges have already required quite some considerable skill and/or puzzling to get through.
All in all, it's a finely polished slice of Nintendo platform action that anybody with a love of the genre should be rushing out and picking up.
Oh, and did I mention it's gorgeous?
Because it really is. Silky smooth hand drawn cartoon animations with an immense amount of character.
Sure the submarine segments may feel a little tacked on, and the amount of waggle may get a little over the top for some people (the elderly and infirm maybe?) but I whole heartedly recommend this gem to one and all.
Oh being a Wario game they've gone that extra mile with the packaging and you get stickers, which is pretty sweet however you look at it.
So anyone else playing this right now? Needless to say I am, and I'm having a blast.
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Now what I want is a Mario game with a similar graphical/animation style.
Anyone else notice that the sound effect that plays when you get a boss emblem is the same as when you get a star in Paper Mario: TTYD? Am I hearing that correctly?
3DS FC: 0817-3759-2788
Here's a video for it, looks great.
At least rent it, though, don't ignore it.
Doesn't seem to e among the other games the developer developed, but maybe they borrowed sound effects from Intelligent Systems...
FFXIV: Tchel Fay
Nintendo ID: Tortalius
Steam: Tortalius
Stream: twitch.tv/tortalius
I'll see how I feel after beating the main story.
Good production values, but doesn't feel like a $50 game so far (I'm renting). I'd pay DS prices for it though (30-35).
Don't forget that you can restart from the elf saving checkpoint anytime you want from the pause menu. Makes perfecting that speedy dash back to safety much more doable as you don't have to go through the first half the level over again.
Anyway the game is great. It still amazes me how few game mechanics you need to still make complex and interesting levels. Doesn't feel like there's much to it, but at the same time there are regularly these "oh, cool" moments.
Bummer. I'm used to us getting stiffed on that kind of thing. I believe America got stickers with the original WarioWare when we didn't so it all balances.
They're the centre pages of the manual by the way so impossible to miss.
Oh neat. I assumed I'd have to find a way to kill myself, which is non-trivial in the early levels.
holy shit, my mouth is still agap! Getting this for christmas.
I'm the same way, and I'm feeling pretty glad that I rented it. It's good, but... I don't know, I think Nintendo has lost it when it comes to 2D platforms now. I can still plug in Super Mario World, Super Mario 3, or Yoshi's Island, and have a great time. And more importantly, still have a pretty tough time. Now we have games like New Super Mario Bros, Super Princess Peach, and Yoshi's Island DS, and the games have bland level design and are piss easy. This game is no different. It's good, and the animation is kick-ass to the point where they should really use this for other games. But everything else is just kinda... eh.
Oh, I am bitching about one thing though, even though I know damn well it's going to bring the flames of hell upon me. And that's the opening scene and the total lack of voice acting. We have this amazing animated scene to start the game... and the only sounds people make as the subtitles run by are "Ehh", "Ooh", and "Ahh" every 5 seconds. They're not even trying to have their sound effects even mimick what's being said. It looks totally pathetic, as if Grampa Nintendo still can't adapt to the times, and all I could do was shake my head. No folks, the "Fuck you, Mario/Zelda/Metroid/Kirby/whoever shouldn't talk" doesn't apply here. If you don't want to wake up to the 21'st century and not do basic VA, then don't use the style. Super Smash Bros. pulled off the "no talking" bit by having their pantamime also be 90% of the work. I seriously don't know why they went to the effort here though, but then not finish the job. It just looked really pathetic.
PAL boxart > US boxart
If you're not the type to do the challenges don't buy this game. Otherwise do. The simple challenges seen in the first few levels aren't indicative of the game's challenges as a whole (some are pretty damn tough and take tons of practice and trial/error to get right). Example in spoiler:
Ah, figured it would be something like that. Cheers.
Hmm...nope, not feeling it.
Honestly, I'm not sure how good it would be with VA. Even if they nail it, there's just something that'd be lost by having Mario and co. talk elaborate speeches. I dunno.
My only complaint so far is that the Sub-Warine level is pretty meh.
Looks like this is going on my Christmas list, though.
I wouldn't say NSMB was bland or especially easy, myself.
Not quite as hard as the older Marios, but harder than the original Yoshi's Island, or Super Mario Land 2.
Anyway, just about sold on this game, but I'm a little broke at present. I'll pick it up when that changes.
Anyway, maybe ill give this a rent, since people are saying its kind of short.
AKA [PA]Ilovepandas
My search skills are failing me, but when Nintendo first announced the game someone on PA definitely photoshopped a baby in for a Wiimote in a promo pic.
And a challenge to beat him without taking a single hit?! That's going take some practice to pull off for his final form.
The Japanese boxart is the worst of the three.
I'm really loving it and really glad I decided to grab it. The artstyle and music are superb. The game itself gives me a very 'Kirby Squeak Squad' vibe in the treasure and mission structure, this is just slightly more puzzle-y.