Tuesday 28 Apr 2009

For me Wario has always been more of a favourite than Mario, scandalous I know! However, his greedy lust for treasure, stitch-inducing humour combined with his zany mustache and general bad-boy attitude set him apart from good ol’ Mario. Wario has mostly been relegated to mini-games in his past appearances in the videogame world, and while these crazy mini-games are fun, mostly because of their downright silly and sometimes even completely absurd nature, it’s nice to see him taking the spotlight in The Shake Dimension.

The story sees greedy Wario getting lured into helping the Merfles and their Queen Merelda after the mention of a Bottomless Coin Sack conveniently pops up in the conversation. The Shake King has stolen the Bottomless Coin Sack and kidnapped the peaceful residents of the Shake Dimension. Captain Syrup, a rival in previous games, aids you in your treasure, um rescue, quest by providing an ancient globe and telescope which enables you to travel to the five continents of the Shake Dimension.

The controls of the game are intuitive, easy to pick-up-and-play and arguably involve one of the best uses of the Wii Remote in a Wii game to date. Holding the Wii Remote sideways, you use the D-pad as well as the number 1 and 2 buttons to control Wario in the game. Hold down 1 to attack enemies or press 2 to jump. Shake the Wii Remote to get Wario to perform special actions, like punch the ground which will daze enemies and cause unstable blocks to fall, or tilt the Remote to determine the angle at which Wario throws things or alter the direction that the vehicle is travelling in.

The best way to learn is through experimentation and you get that opportunity to figure out the controls in the opening “tutorial” stage on Captain Syrup’s ship. You are put through a series of scenarios that will teach you the basics controls in order to speed you on your way. It is short enough to keep one’s attention and does impart useful control information since no-one ever reads the manual.

If you find a coin sack, shake the Wii Remote to scatter the coins and then run around quickly to collect them. My advice would be to shake the coin sack whilst facing a wall whenever possible so that the coins don’t fling too far – this way you won’t be frustrated by the coins flinging too far away so that you can’t collect them all in time before they disappear. You can also shake enemies to release garlic which, believe it or not, helps to increase your health. The bigger the clove, the more your health will be replenished.

Before Wario can secure the Bottomless Coin Sack he first needs to rescue all the Merfles as only their combined power can uncover the secret location of the Shake King. Initially each continent is clouded over on Wario’s globe and you need to collect coins to purchase a map before you can travel there. The maps start out cheap enough but Captain Syrup soon escalates their price so it’s best to collect coins at every opportunity you can. If you rush through the early levels then later in the game you will be replaying them again, just to collect coins to be able to afford the maps. You’ll also need plenty of coins to purchase additional heart vessels and recovery potions, which prove to be essential to beating bosses as you progress in the game.

The war against evil, or rather Wario’s quest for a never-ending wealth, is won stage by stage. On each continent there are a number of stages that you work through sequentially, with the final stage being a boss battle. In keeping with the wacky Wario theme, you will start in Stonecarving City before moving on to the Whoopsy Desert and Foulwater Falls on the first continent. This game mechanic could have become repetitive, however, never did thanks to varied themes, music and gameplay elements for each continent. Some stages are so beautiful you will just have to stop and admire the artistry and innovation that went into them. You are transported from lush jungle scenery on one continent into deserts on another and then on to a western theme with cowboy music which helps to keep the experience fresh and fun.

The enemies are creative and varied in the game. Even though there are a number of standard enemies, each stage has different enemies too. And so you will face owls in the level no doubt inspired by the African Savannah and rather unfriendly looking fish under the sea. Red Bandineros make a regular appearance in most levels, but you should also keep an eye out for Pitchforks, Buccaneros and many more interesting foes along the way.

Apart from hoofing it around the stages there are also a number of vehicles that you get to experiment with. The unicycle was one of my favourites, where you have to steer it across a series of tightropes by tilting the Wii Remote left and right. Lots of excitement with this one as you have to “jump” whilst in the unicycle and avoid accelerating too fast if you tilt too far. The gameplay is innovative and creative, one level will see you balancing on a unicycle while another will see you swinging from rope to rope and yet another piloting a submarine or a subwarine as Wario affectionately calls it.

You’ll need to keep your wits about you as you jump and smash your way through the stage to rescue the Merfle. Each stage has different missions which you can choose to complete, and while these don’t have to be done in order to finish the stage, they are fun to try. Achieving them is difficult and will have you playing the stage over and over again, whether it be attempting to jump on three enemy’s heads in a row or collect a certain number of coins, but once done you can certainly brag about your platforming skillz.

Like most platformers, The Shake Dimension has secret areas that are not essential in order to progress in the game, but are worth the effort it takes to solve their mysteries, not only for the satisfaction of beating the puzzle you understand but also for the loot that awaits you. As you progress in the game you will learn new tricks of how to conquer these puzzles and will find yourself wanting to go back and redo puzzles that eluded you earlier but you now know how to solve.

Once you rescue a Merfle the real fun starts as you have to make your way back to the stage start, racing against a countdown timer. You can normally make it back just in time by simply traversing your steps, however, there are a number of shortcuts that are fun to explore that will give you maximum score. Think Sonic in overdrive mode and you can get an idea of the crazy fun to be had maniacally speeding through the platforms, smashing and jumping as you go. Good times!

The boss battles are fantastic and full of light-heated humour. Each boss requires a different approach to defeat them and so they are never boring but always challenging. The final showdown with The Shake King is understandably the most challenging fight you will encounter. Fortunately by this time you should have mastered the control system and with some perseverance you can beat him too.

Wario Land: The Shake Dimension is a fun but challenging game that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Perhaps it is the influence of all around tough guy Wario, but it’s definitely an influence that I hope to see permeating other games in an industry that has arguably become dominated by graphics, guns and big bangs. A great way to spend a couple of hours and guaranteed to keep you wanting more Wario action in the future and wondering why Wario is always left in the shadow of the little red plumber.

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Contributor:	Lisa

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