Hands-On Preview: Wario Land: Shake It!

When the Shake King of the Shake Dimension captures the all the cute little Merfles, he misses one. If only that poor guy could’ve run into Mario instead, because Wario could care less about the plight of these beings from another world.

That is, until he learns that the King also has a big bag of gold coins waiting to be snatched away as well. So, Wario gets embroiled in Wario Land: Shake It!, a 2-D platformer instead of a mini-game collection, and we all smile as he stuff himself down a pipe via awesome hand-drawn style animation.

It’s just been a while since we saw something this classic-feeling, right? (Well, aside from Mega Man 9.) The Wii is perfect for games like this, since it’s lacking in the hardcore graphics department. Even the shaking and tilting of the remote (to pull of special moves like shaking sacks of coins or steering vehicles) can’t take away from the old school design.

Range got his hands on it while I took notes, so here are his thoughts on the controls:

I actually got to play a little bit of Wario Land: Shake It! at E3, and to be honest, it’s a much needed revival of the classic 2D platforming games Wario was first known for.

No more WarioWare and all his frantic micro-games– this time Wario’s going back to his roots. Expect side-scrolling action with tons of jumping, dashing and– gasp– a lot of shaking.

You play the game by holding the Wii Remote sideways (NES style) and when you shake the Wii Remote, Wario shakes the hell out of his enemies, frees coins from treasure bags, and even punches the ground, causing an earthquake. Wario’s got some crazy moves in this game, that’s for sure.

The controls were easy to learn and very responsive, only using a few buttons to control Wario and his actions. Like Emily was saying, Wario Land: Shake It! has a classic-feeling, but the addition of the Wii Remote motion controls gives the game a fresh feel.

I’m definitely excited for Wario Land: Shake It!, which will be one of the best games to hit the Wii this fall.

Really, the only thing I wasn’t too keen on was that it sounded like there would be a lot of backtracking, like a race back to the start of a level once you found a Merfle. With five worlds of at least four levels each, that’s just too much. Everything else looks great, though, so maybe there is some kind of gimmick that will make the backtracking interesting.