Wario Land Shake It

Wario Land: Shake It

Rating E

Score: 8.5/10

It’s been seven long years since a worthy Wario Land sequel came out. Are gamers going to have to wait another seven years for a good sequel? This game is only available for the Nintendo Wii.

The story is, as always, very simple and straight forward. Wario is going on a mission he doesn’t want to go on, but his greed gets the better of him, and he goes anyway. This time the treasure in his eyes is the magic bottomless money bag.

The story is told through amusing and great looking cut-scenes that look like they are from a Wario anime. Although it’s not a great storyline, it’s a classic Wario Land one.

The controls, as well, are very simple. You hold the Wii Remote sideways and use only the one and two buttons and the D-Pad (Directional Pad).

The one button is the classic Wario Land charge attack, while the two button is jump. You can also shake the Wii Remote at any time to pound the ground and cause an earthquake. As the title suggests, you can shake any object by shaking the Wii Remote once you pick it up.

You can easily get more money from a money bag by shaking all the coins from it. It’s a fun new addition.

The levels are usually simple, but all have hard challenges that offer more money upon completion.

Each level has clever challenges that lead to extra treasures. Levels can be located within anything from circuses to dense jungles to scorching deserts. Different level designs have different puzzles. For example, a haunted house may have invisible blocks and disappearing/reappearing enemies, while a desert has pyramids and old, breakable blocks everywhere. At the end of each world is a boss, usually a robot of some kind, who provides different strategies and secrets.

This game is the perfect example of why many games should remain at their roots. It looks and plays great and it delivers a great challenge to fans craving one. If old school platforming action games are your fancy, this game is a dream come true.