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Wario Land: Shake It! IGN review

hemtae

hemtae

Member
7.5 Presentation
Slick hand-drawn cinemas and simple menus. Not a lot of different options or game modes. Faked widescreen is annoying.
8.0 Graphics
Gorgeous hand-drawn characters, environments and animations. Lots of style and plenty of variety. Gameplay is constrained to 4:3 presentation.
7.0 Sound
An orchestral soundtrack would've been nice. Sound effects, particularly the grunts from Wario, are amusing.
8.5 Gameplay
Really fun. Excellent control and some exceptional linear level designs. It's all enjoyable, but reaching the end is not difficult, save for a couple tricky boss fights.
7.5 Lasting Appeal
The core game can be finished in about five hours, but a bevy of secondary challenges (per level) will separate the men from the boys. Kind of like going for 60 or 120 stars in a Mario title.
8.4
Impressive OVERALL
(out of 10 / not an average)
Click to expand...

Wario Land: Shake It! is a great new platformer with truly old-school ideals. So if you grew up playing and loving the classics, rest assured that you will love this game, too. It's got its share of modest shortcomings. It's not very innovative -- you've seen all this before in other platformers. The lack of a proper widescreen mode is downright annoying. And the core game is over a little too quickly for my liking. But, you know, it's still a really fun experience thanks to excellent control and fantastic level designs, not to mention a beautiful visual presentation. And even if you can reach the end without much resistance, completing all of the numerous secondary goals per level is an altogether different story, a truth that will definitely keep you coming back for more. If you are at all a fan of platformers, do yourself a favor and add this one to your collection. You'll be happy you did.
Click to expand...

I'll be getting it :D

http://wii.ign.com/articles/911/911870p1.html
 
T

The-Switcher

Banned
I assumed the game wouldn't get higher than a 7.5.

But 8.4? That's looking like purchasing material.

051303_warioworld_wario05.jpg
 
G

Guybrush Threepwood

Banned
The core game can be finished in about five hours
Click to expand...

eek

I'm sorry, but unless I really love a game, I'm not going to stick around and complete extra shit. I stopped playing Galaxy before I got to star 100 and Galaxy is one of the best games I've played in years.

That along with the (apparently) pitiful difficulty makes this a no-buy for me. And I was really looking forward to it, too.
 
F

Fun Factor

Formerly FTWer
Guybrush Threepwood said:
eek

I'm sorry, but unless I really love a game, I'm not going to stick around and complete extra shit. I stopped playing Galaxy before I got to star 100 and Galaxy is one of the best games I've played in years.

That along with the (apparently) pitiful difficulty makes this a no-buy for me. And I was really looking forward to it, too.
Click to expand...

What sucks about that is it is a very easy game, so it can probably be done in a afternoon in one try.
Not like say Devil May Cry, which is also short, but really difficult & really adds to the replay of the game.
 
HUELEN10

HUELEN10

Member
Struct09 said:
It runs widescreen, but the gameplay is in a 4:3 window. The HUD is placed in that extra space. It's really not that big of a deal.
Click to expand...
Well, except for possible detail lost due to pixel density.


When I played it on a 720p HD set, I played it in both 16:9 and 4:3 with 4:3 mode on the TV. Couldn't notice much, if any detail degradation due to it.
 
F

flintstryker

Banned
i could swear i saw this thread posted already, and Amir0x posted something along the line of : "graphics should be 11" to which Haunted said "out of 5"
 
Y

Ydahs

Member
flintstryker said:
i could swear i saw this thread posted already, and Amir0x posted something along the line of : "graphics should be 11" to which Haunted said "out of 5"
Click to expand...
That was for the AU review.

EDIT: Beaten :)
:mad:
 
T

ThatObviousUser

ὁ αἴσχιστος παῖς εἶ
Andrex said:
Oblivion said:
Will wait for IGN United States of AMERICA review. I trust (usually) what Matty thinks.
Click to expand...
It will be interesting to hear his thoughts. I think he's really going to drop presentation points for no 16:9, but I also think he might score graphics or gameplay better.
Click to expand...

Heh, I was right. Or at least, half-right.
 
S

Struct09

Member
HUELEN10 said:
Well, except for possible detail lost due to pixel density.


When I played it on a 720p HD set, I played it in both 16:9 and 4:3 with 4:3 mode on the TV. Couldn't notice much, if any detail degradation due to it.
Click to expand...

Yeah, looks great on my 720p TV in 16:9.
 
O

Osuwari

Member
WORLDWIDEWII said:
day one
Click to expand...

damn straight!

for me the low difficulty and short challenge is not an issue. that's why you replay the game with different rules. going by that it seems like a very speedrunnable game. you can also do minimalist challenges if you feel the difficulty isn't enough (even 3D zelda games get a bit difficult if you go minimalist)
 
blu

blu

Wants the largest console games publisher to avoid Nintendo's platforms.
sigh. it's about time my wallet's wii-induced drainage began..
 
A

AniHawk

Member
I hope this starts an awesome trend of new 2D platformers for the Wii like Kirby, Yoshi, and a new Super Mario Bros. game.
 
H

HK-47

Oh, bitch bitch bitch.
AniHawk said:
I hope this starts an awesome trend of new 2D platformers for the Wii like Kirby, Yoshi, and a new Super Mario Bros. game.
Click to expand...

First it has to sell. Japan wasnt encouraging
 
J

jarosh

Member
i really wonder about the widescreen though. i suppose it's anamorphic, i don't think the wii can display anything beyond 640x480. which would mean that you actually do get less pixels for the actual play area if you go for the widescreen option, considering that the gameplay is still confined to a 4:3 box between the hud borders on each side. it's probably smarter to pick 4:3 even if you're on a widescreen tv then.

maybe someone with a 16:9 display can confirm this once they get the game...?
 
M

Metroid Killer

Member
I'm probably get this someday, but it's not that high on priority right now, and especially not for full price, when I have de Blob(for half the price) and Megaman 9 coming next week, Disaster next month and Animal Crossing and Tales of Symphonia later.
 
S

swerve

Member
jarosh said:
i really wonder about the widescreen though. i suppose it's anamorphic, i don't think the wii can display anything beyond 640x480. which would mean that you actually do get less pixels for the actual play area if you go for the widescreen option, considering that the gameplay is still confined to a 4:3 box between the hud borders on each side. it's probably smarter to pick 4:3 even if you're on a widescreen tv then.

maybe someone with a 16:9 display can confirm this once they get the game...?
Click to expand...

I have a 1080p Plasma and with the Wii set at 480p 16:9. Wario Land Shake is one of, if not *the* prettiest Wii game in my 40+ game collection. Especially the bosses. And the animations are supreme.

It's certainly one of the most striking games that I've seen for a while. I'm hoping vanillaware's next takes that crown soon.

So, I think what I'm saying is if you don't worry about the number of pixels, and instead just put it in the correct mode for your TV and look at it, you won't be at all disappointed.
 
S

swerve

Member
Metroid Killer said:
Disaster next month
Click to expand...

Fairly sure Wario is a much better bet than Disaster.

And as for all the worry earlier about the length of the game - the IGN review seems to misinform. The secondary missions they talk about are actually not secondary. Each stage has multiple objectives, from 'get to the end and back' (the standard one) to time trials to simple collection quests, to tasks like 'hit 3 of ENEMY X consecutively without touching the floor'. Whilst there is a default one, it's only default in the same way as the first star in a Mario 64 stage is default.
 
Haunted

Haunted

Member
swerve said:
I have a 1080p Plasma and with the Wii set at 480p 16:9. Wario Land Shake is one of, if not *the* prettiest Wii game in my 40+ game collection. Especially the bosses. And the animations are supreme.

It's certainly one of the most striking games that I've seen for a while. I'm hoping vanillaware's next takes that crown soon.
Click to expand...
Now that's what I'm talking about.
 
G

GrotesqueBeauty

Banned
Metroid Killer said:
I'm probably get this someday, but it's not that high on priority right now, and especially not for full price, when I have de Blob(for half the price) and Megaman 9 coming next week, Disaster next month and Animal Crossing and Tales of Symphonia later.
Click to expand...
Where are you getting this from? I was under the impression both games would have a full retail price of $50. Personally I'll take Wario over de Blob any day of the week.
 
G

Gagaman

Member
The end of this week will be quite possibly the most money I've blown on the Wii at one time since I bought one. This, Samba De Amigo, De Blob and presuming they are released this Friday on Wiiware, Strong bad episode 2 and Megaman 9 as well. For a moment I was thinking of buying a 360 but I'm spending enough money on the Wii at the moment as it is. :lol
 
A

Anasui Kishibe

Banned
deserves it. I've played the first two worlds of the Japanese version and dude, it's some great looking stuff. Game's funny as hell, the music is AWESOME and FUCK IGN for saying shit about it, perhapos a little too easy but definitely a must buy for us starving 2D platform addicts
 
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