Virtual BoyWario Land is a platforming video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Virtual Boy game system in 1995. It stars Wario, a treasure hunter who must find treasure and fight enemies to progress. Wario can jump and charge with his shoulder as basic techniques, though he can also equip special hats to gain things such as fire breathing and bull horns. He has the ability to enter the background at certain points, a gimmick which works with the game's 3D gimmick. It was developed by Nintendo R&D1, containing a large portion of its staff, and features the red-and-black color scheme that is standard for Virtual Boy releases. It received generally positive reception, particularly among retrospectives. It is regarded as the best game on the Virtual Boy, with some critics wanting to see it re-released for other systems to allow more people to play. It served as an inspiration for multiple games due to its background gimmick, including Donkey Kong Country Returns and Mutant Mudds.
Gameplay
Virtual Boy Wario Land stars Wario on a quest to find treasure in the Awazon. Gameplay involves techniques such as jumping, charging, and throwing enemies and objects. The levels he explores are viewed from a sidescrolling perspective. He has the ability to jump into the background at special blocks. Similarly to , featuring the ability to equip hats to gain new powers, which he loses if he takes damage or dies. These hats include an eagle hat that allows Wario to charge horizontally in mid-air, a dragon hat that breathes fire, and a bull hat that increases his power and adds horns. He can obtain a hat with all three abilities called the King Dragon Hat. In each stage, Wario must collect treasure and find a key to unlock the elevator to the next stage. Players can find different treasures hidden around the stages to increase their overall score. There are also mini-games in between stages in which Wario can gamble with the loot he has collected so far. Players fight bosses on occasion, which make use of the game's background gimmick.
Development and release
Virtual Boy Wario Land was developed by Nintendo R&D1 and published by Nintendo. The game was originally named Wario Cruise, appearing with the name on the Virtual Boy system's box and in a Nintendo Power issue. Its development had a large allocation of R&D1's staff involved. The music and sound effects were composed by Kazumi Totaka, who ended his work with R&D1 with it. Totaka includes a song called "Totaka's Song", which he hides in most video games he composes. Like all other Virtual Boy games, Virtual Boy Wario Land uses a red-and-black color scheme and uses parallax, an optical trick used to simulate 3D. It was released on December 1, 1995 in Japan and November 27, 1995 in North America.
Reception
Upon release, Virtual Boy Wario Land had mixed reviews. Next Generation felt that while it had appeal to more "hardcore" Mario fans, it was not very advanced in comparison to older Mario games, particularly noting that the 3D mechanics did not affect gameplay much. Rocky Mountain News felt that its use of 3D demonstrated the Virtual Boy's possibilities. Los Angeles Times found the game enjoyable, but did not like the Virtual Boy's visual style. GamePro praised it for its sound effects and character sprite quality, calling it the best of the platform. Retrospective criticism for Virtual Boy Wario Land has been more favorable. It has been named as one of the best games on the Virtual Boy by Nintendo Power, GamesRadar, and Retronauts, the latter which noted that it should be remade for a different platform. Websites such as Destructoid and IGN hoped that it would be re-released on the Nintendo 3DS, while Kotaku felt that it was unappreciated back when it was released due to its platform. AllGame felt that it was a good demonstration of the Virtual Boy's gimmicks and enjoyed its gameplay, while Retrogamer felt that the background gimmick helped enhance an otherwise "traditional" platformer. While Nintendo World Report enjoyed the background gimmick, they felt it did not do as well as it could to explore the concept. ABC Good Game also felt that it could have done more with its visuals, nonetheless calling it the best Virtual Boy game. 1UP.com felt that it served as a demonstration of what a "traditional" game could look like with the 3D gimmicks. GameZone felt that its cavernous setting helped the Virtual Boy emphasize subtle visual details, considering it worth buying a Virtual Boy for this game. Play Magazine returned to play Virtual Boy Wario Land often, praising it for not getting tiresome to play. The background gimmick served as inspiration for multiple developers, including Retro Studios in the 2010 Wii gameDonkey Kong Country Returns and Jool Watsham in the 2011 3DS game Mutant Mudds.
