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| Gonna be completely honest here: for actual decades, I always saw Wario as being in mid-air and closer to the camera in this image. It wasn't until recently that I realized that he's on the ground and everything else is simply larger than I assumed. |
“Repeat after me: I'm the bad guy in Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3, where being bad is good, and greed is good!”
- Wario, TV commercial
Release Date: January 21, 1994 (Japan), February 1994 (USA, according to Super Smash Bros. Brawl), March 13, 1994 (USA)
Original Platform: Game Boy
Director: Hiroji Kiyotake, Takehiko Hosokawa
Producer: Gunpei Yokoi
Also Playable On: 3DS Virtual Console
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| Like always, the images in this article come from mariowiki.com, unless otherwise noted |
What's the Deal
So...Wario's plot to get a castle of his own in the previous game didn't work out.
However, he gets word that the Brown Sugar Pirates (led by the
mysterious pirate, Captain Syrup) have stolen Mario's giant golden
statue of Princess Toadstool.
Wario's new plan: to defeat the
Brown Sugar Pirates, steal the statue back, then ransom it off to get
money to buy a castle of his own!
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| Wario's first time on a Nintendo Power cover! And he's wearing the worst hat in the game! |
Background/Development
Here's the weird thing. I can't find any information on this game's development.
I don't know who decided to give Wario his own game and have it be the third Super Mario Land. Don't know why Wario was chosen to get a starring playable role before Luigi, Yoshi, Princess Peach, or even Toad. Did they just decide “the bad guy from Mario Land 2 has potential as a protagonist. Let's focus on him for a bit. Insert him into the Game Boy Bomberman, make him the antagonist of a puzzle game, and, I dunno, give him his own platformer”?
Though Toad did get a starring role in Wario's Woods, a puzzle game released very shortly after this one...that also features Wario, but that's beside the point.
I don't know, man. Can't find anything. It's like the game just materialized out of nowhere in early 1994. Maybe it was a top-secret project at Nintendo.
Only thing I could find are early screenshots that feature Wario wearing his usual cap instead of the safari helmet he wears in the game proper.
An early flyer for the game promoted it with the title スーパーマリオランド3: 怪力ワリオ (Super Mario Land 3: Super-Strong Wario).
My History With It
Well, like I said in the Super Mario Land 2 article, I knew of Wario Land II as a kid, so I assumed there had to be a first one, too.
I don't really remember when I discovered that not only was there a Super Mario Land 3, but it was, in fact, the first Wario Land as well. Knowing me, I probably felt kinda bad for Mario, having his series taken away from him...by one of his villains, at that!
For Christmas 2000, I got Wario Land 3 for Game Boy Color, after being fascinated by the TV commercial for it. That game was awesome, and I loved it, but I never really looked into the others at the time.
In 2008, when Super Smash Bros. Brawl was released, and Wario was introduced into that series...I became very disappointed that none of his moveset came from Wario Land, be it 3 or what I'd seen from the others.
However, I didn't wanna be a poser, so I began collecting all the Wario Lands I didn't already have: Wario Land II, 4, and this one.
Good thing, too, because Wario Land: Shake It! was announced shortly afterwards and I was all caught up and ready for it when it released.
My young cousin (three years old at the time) accidentally erased my save file when I was close to the end of the game, so I didn't play it much after that.
Wasn't until my friends and I were playing games over Skype (basically, we'd all be playing the same game by ourselves and chatting as we did so) in about 2012 or so that we moved on to the first Wario Land after playing through Super Mario Land 1 and 2. That was how I first beat it, and haven't really touched it since! Let's see how it holds up!
Playthrough
Played On: Super Game Boy
I feel like in order to get the most complete experience, I'd have to ask a parent to spend all day driving somewhere far away while I sit in the back seat playing my Game Boy.
Unfortunately, with the price of gas being what it is, that's not a very practical plan. So, I'll stick with my Super Game Boy on a CRT TV. Close enough.
So, this game takes place on Kitchen Island...which took me forever to realize is a pun.
All of the locations in the game are named after things that are found in a kitchen, but a “kitchen island” is a freestanding counter in a kitchen that can be accessed from all sides, if you weren't aware.
There's a silly little opening cutscene where a D.D. (Dangerous Duck) is fleeing from Wario in a ship on the water, with Wario eventually catching up in a rowboat, and slamming into it, flipping the ship over, where he then stands on top of the capsized craft and poses victoriously.
Better enjoy Wario in his trademark cap here while you can. On the file select screen, he crashes through the wall, runs into a Warp Pipe, gets the hat knocked off, and puts on a pith helmet that he wears for the rest of the game.
Rice Beach is up first!
Something to keep in mind is that Wario is not Mario. Duh, right?
Let me elaborate past the obvious. Mario is light on his feet, and very acrobatic. He moves through levels quickly, bouncing on enemies, and while he does have the ability to attack directly, it's often situational, and consists of things like spinning with a tail/cape or throwing things (fireballs, Koopa shells, ice blocks) at them.
Wario, on the other hand, is heavier and slower, while also being a lot more blunt. He walks through levels at a steady pace, and attacks enemies by shoulder-charging through them, crushing them with a ground pound, or stunning them before throwing them at other enemies.
While Wario can't ground pound or even charge in all his forms, he can always throw enemies, or if he has at least that much money on him, he can throw large 10-Coins from his total.
As you can imagine, this changes the way the game itself plays. The pace is more deliberate with a bigger emphasis on combat over exploration (though there is a bit of that, too). The graphics are larger and more detailed than the other Super Marios on Game Boy, and levels are a bit more linear.
One of the cool things about Rice Beach is that, after completing the first and third levels, high tide comes in, and those two levels are flooded on revisit, opening up new paths.
Among the Brown Sugar Pirates' ranks are Thwomp-like enemies known as “Pouncers”, one of which chases Wario through a narrow passageway in Rice Beach.
At least you can ride on it afterwards. The boss of this world is a Spiked Koopa. The only Koopa Troopa to appear in the game!
According to its Japanese, it might be a cross between a Hammer Bro and a Spiny.
Of the three power-ups in this game, I think Bull Wario is the most dependable, Jet Wario is the most fun, and Dragon Wario is just awful.
Like, the Dragon Hat looks cool, and the ability to breathe jets of fire is interesting, but the startup and cooldown time for the flames are longer than the amount of time the flames are actually active. It also takes away your ability to perform a Dash Attack.
Mt. Teapot is next!
Your typical cave levels, with a few twists, such as there's a secret exit in Course No.08 that unlocks the secret world, Sherbet Land.
Course No.10 is the summit of the mountain, but you cannot access it after completing Course No.12, because at the end, Wario hits a switch that causes the “lid” on top of the mountain to drop down onto the summit, replacing it with Course No.13.
Cool!
Our boss here is the Minotaur, which looks very intimidating, being a large bull-man, but he's a pushover.
Literally. You have to push (or throw) him over the edge of the platform you're both on. And it's easy.
Things continue to heat up as we head to Stove Canyon!
Some interesting level gimmicks here, like having to outrun a wall of flames, or riding on a mine cart across a bridge.
Course No.24 requires Wario to change the water level in order to navigate the maze-like layout. If nothing else, this game introduces lots of cool gimmicks for almost every level. Rarely ever gets formulaic.
The boss of Stove Canyon is...Devil's Head. It's got a very, let's say, striking design, and attacks by shooting rocks from its nose as well as breaking apart the floor by licking it. It's weird, man.
The key to defeating it is to pick up its nose rocks and throw them back at its face, obviously.
What's that up ahead? It appears to be Captain Syrup's ship, the SS Tea Cup!
The first few levels involve Wario traveling out of Stone Canyon, across a body of water, onto a beach, and then onto the ship, which is neat.
The first level contains a few of Hiroji Kiyotake's beloved Bee Flys from Super Mario Land 2, who act the same in this game as they did there.
Course No.29, the first one on the ship itself, took me way too long to complete. I kept getting lost among all the doors.
I know it's a weird thing to appreciate, but the shoulder charge is established here as being Wario's trademark move, (to the point where the first WarioWare game calls it "the Wario Attack"), and I was over the moon when Super Smash Bros. Ultimate added it as Wario's dash attack.
Course No.30 was difficult, partly because of my refusal to spend ten coins on activating the checkpoint. I think that level of stinginess would make Wario himself proud.
Bobo, the boss of this world, shows up again in Wario Land II, again as a boss on the Tea Cup.
I had trouble with him as well, since I thought I had to throw the Watch birds back at him to damage him. Turns out I can, but it's easier to just jump on his head, or just use the (ugh) Dragon Hat.
I didn't know that until looking it up just now.
After the SS Tea Cup, I did some backtracking for the secret world, Sherbet Land...
If you Google “Sherbet Land”, autocomplete has “Sherbet Land Wario Land” as the eighth suggestion...the first seven are all about the Mario Kart tracks named for it.
The starry, cloudy background of Course No.14 is very nice, for a level taking place on a collapsing rope bridge. Really sells the idea that you're incredibly high up. Particularly impressive since this is a Game Boy game.
The ice blocks moving around and opening up paths is a fun concept in Courses No.15 and 16.
Man, I do not like the Harris enemy. They're hedgehogs that, when Wario attempts to jump on them, they suddenly extend their spines, and their eyes stretch back as well. Kinda freaky for a Game Boy game.
The Penguin boss here is pretty simple. Jump on its head to knock it off the screen...then it pops back up wearing a spiked helmet. That's funny.
Unlike other bosses, the Penguin gives away giant Hearts upon defeat instead of coins.
Parsley Woods might be my favorite world in the game. Lucky for me, it's the next one!
Course No.31 is annoying due to the giant spiked balls dropping from above, and having to swim through most of it. However, after clearing the level, the lake gets drained, making it a little simpler to navigate.
Draining the lake also causes the world's name to become misspelled on the map screen as “Parsely Woods”, for some reason (maybe because of an oversight?)
Oops.
Course No.32-35 are my favorites. First Wario is on empty train tracks, then the next level has him platforming his way across a now-moving train, then after that is a vertically-scrolling level on a massive tree, and then the last one in this section has Wario riding the train back.
Wario's training has paid off
Course No.36 is themed similarly to 31, with the same obstacles, but the boss fight here is a ghost (named something like “Coin-lover” in Japanese) that transforms gold coins to small Pirate Goom ghosts.
Direct contact with the ghost stops Wario in his tracks, and the only way to damage it is by throwing the ghostly Gooms back at it.
Now that that's outta the way, it's time to head up to Syrup Castle, defeat the pirate leader, and take this golden statue of Princess Toadstool!
First level begins in Parsely Woods, and ends in the Castle foyer.
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After completing Courses No.38 and 39, parts of the castle get
blown off on the map screen, making more of the surrounding scenery
visible through the now-missing walls in the following levels.
That's super cool.
Course No. 40! The final level of the game! Begins with Wario in a balcony in the sky, and some careful platforming with those annoying Spring-Up blocks (it's the code word, no matter where you say it, you'll know that you'll be heard.
..) leads to a knight that gave me no small amount of trouble.Apparently the best way to beat him is to jump behind him, Dash Attack, then dodge his charging, then repeat twice. I kept throwing giant 10-Coins at him until I figured that out.
Okay, time for the final showdown! Let's how tough this Captain Syrup really is--
Sad thing is, this revelation of a woman being the leader of a gang of tough pirates would probably be super controversial nowadays.
...wonder how many people were caught off-guard in the 90s by the main antagonist being a woman.
Also, gotta say, judging by that portrait of her in the background, she's quite pretty.
Anyways, she doesn't attack Wario directly, but instead rides on the shoulder of her Genie and commands him to attack.
Being the final boss, the key to defeating him is a bit tricky. As he throws fireballs at our lovable anti-hero, Wario has to throw his lamp around, hoping it lands right-side-up. If it does, a cloud emerges from it, and Wario can ride the cloud upwards to jump on the Genie's head. If it doesn't, then you gotta throw the lamp again until it does.
After defeating the Genie, Captain Syrup drops a massive bomb that blows away the rest of her castle, revealing that the main support base is...the giant golden statue of Princess Toadstool!
As Wario's celebrating, a helicopter approaches. Inside the helicopter is...Mario! And he's got a large magnet attached to his chopper. Mario waves to Wario, and then uses the magnet to pick up the statue and fly away.
'bout time you showed up in the game that's (partially) named after you Couldn't help but laugh at Wario watching Mario leave, and then just turning to the camera and shrugging.
However, Wario's still got the lamp! He rubs it, summons the Genie, and wishes for what he's wanted all along: a castle of his own.
I don't know if it's the lack of actual dialogue, Wario's small size compared to the Genie, or how badly Wario wants a castle, but our hero(?) looks weirdly adorable here.
But, because nobody in this game (aside from Mario, maybe) are completely selfless, the Genie asks for payment before he grants Wario's wish: the amount of coins and treasure the player has collected will determine the size of the castle Wario gets, ranging from a birdhouse to a planet with his face on it.
Before the treasure was tallied, I had 5,084 Coins.
After the treasure was added my final total was 54,084, and Wario's castle ended up as a log cabin. He seems okay with it. Better than a birdhouse or treehouse, at least.
The second-best ending is the canon one, because Wario's Castle from that ending appears in Wario Land II, Wario's Woods (SNES), Wario World, and Mario Party 10.
Though I've always assumed that the garage from Wario Land 4 and Wario Land: Shake It! is part of that same castle, but it's not confirmed.
Power-Ups
Returning:
Star
New:
Garlic Pot
Bull Pot
Jet Pot
Dragon Pot
Milestones
First platformer starring Wario!
And thus, the first game in the Wario Land series.
Final game in the Super Mario Land series.
Unless you count Super Mario 3D Land...but should you? That's kinda its own thing.
Final Super Mario on Game Boy.
Only appearance of Princess Toadstool in a Super Mario Land, albeit as a gold statue
Debut of Captain Syrup and her gang
First female main villain in the greater Mario franchise
First Super Mario game where Mario himself is not playable
Debut of Sherbet Land, which becomes a staple Mario Kart track starting in MK64.
Trivia
There was a debug code left in the game (presumably accidentally). By pausing the game and pressing Select sixteen times, a cursor pops up that allows the player to alter Wario's number of lives, Coins, Hearts, current form, and even the timer!
I only used it on my Coin total twice, because it didn't feel right to abuse it. (Yeah, I'm one of those people). But I did change Wario's form a lot in the final boss, I admit.
There's an unused cutscene depicting Bobo (with a slightly different skull design on his belly), sitting down, with Syrup Castle visible in the background.
An official Game Boy guide in 1999 refers to Captain Syrup as “The Princess”, as does a 2001 Game Boy guide in regards to Wario Land II.
The Japanese title of the game is Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land, emphasizing that this is the third Super Mario Land, while the international title reverses the two phrases (Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3), emphasizing that this is the first Wario Land.
Conclusion
All right, if you couldn't tell, I am a huge fan of the Wario Land series. In fact, Wario Land II is my favorite game on the original Game Boy.
Unrelated, but I also enjoy WarioWare a lot, too. Not as much as Land, but it's great as well!
As I said earlier, this title plays out like a parody of Super Mario. There's platforming, coins, jumping on enemies, power-ups inside blocks...technically, even a princess to rescue.
It looks great. Graphics are large and detailed, with lots of fun animation. The characters, enemies, bosses, and even things like doorways and checkpoints have a unique personality to them, building off of what SML2 started.
Music is...fine. It's mostly variations on a main theme, which does get kinda old.
The levels themselves have lots of interesting gimmicks and twists on gameplay. Most levels feel distinctive from each other.
Thing is...I don't love this game.
It's good, don't get me wrong. There's a lot to like about it, but things like the slow, clunky gameplay, and none of the power-ups really being all that impressive really bring it down for me.
Admittedly, the way Wario controls makes the game feel like kind of a chore to play a lot of times.
This is the launch of a new series, but it feels like it's stuck between being a Super Mario parody and finding its own identity. Wario Land II is where Nintendo decided what Wario Land is, and even Virtual Boy Wario Land, which plays a lot like this one, has a better idea of what it's trying to be.
Again, it IS a good game, and maybe I'm not being fair by comparing it to what followed, but it's my least-favorite of both the Super Mario Land and Wario Land series.
If you're really interested in seeing where Wario's career as an anti-hero platforming star began, or you wanna see the debut of Captain Syrup, or are just a Wario Land completionist...then I recommend checking it out. But otherwise, it's probably safe to skip it.
“Can Wario find the coins and treasures hidden on Kitchen Island ?
What will his new palace look like? Will he keep being so mean and ugly? Let's find out!”
- Instruction manual
Next time: Wario got his chance to shine, but what about another popular character recently introduced? Ever wondered what Mario and Bowser were like when they were babies (answer: adorable)? Can you really call it a sequel if it's a prequel? All these questions and more will be answered when we check out Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island!
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