Had to replace the audio from 2:55:13 to 2:55:26 to avoid a copyright issue. Picked what I thought would be the funniest song to inject into that scene.
@@whybother5741 That clip is from my recording of the game where my friends are in the background. I thought about uploading edited down versions of these playthroughs, but decided against it. I might reconsider if enough people wanted it.
at the 53 minute mark and hearing the rant about enemies that transform. Counterpoint: MOST enemies that transform Wario are ACTIVELY hostile towards the player. as in they will actively attack the player. I think outside the bats in WL 3 that transform you into vampire wario and the ghost from WL 2 that turns you into Zombie wario. Also the transformations being a hinderance is a design choice to make up for the fact that in WL 2 and 3 you're practically immortal. These are your offsets to taking damage or losing a life, both of which would obviously cause lost time. Ya don't have to like em, but not everything designed has to be to a player's benefit. (It also helps to stretch what would otherwise be a very short game. WHat with given the constraints on memory and hardware.)
You remind me of Running Shine, so I'm immediately subscribing. I do like the bit regarding the book on Warioland 4. It reminded me of this dude I used to work with on this long dead game. He would go on, and on, and on about how he understood game design on a deeper level. When in reality, he was just inflating his own ego just to seem smarter, and didn't really know how to handle game design. The book was just the same way: it didn't really talk about how good Warioland 4 was, it was mostly the creator talking about himself and then trying to justify the rest of the pages with information that's either inaccurate or just flatout uninteresting.
Having played the wario land game on the virtual boy as a kid i can say without a shadow of a doubt the busy backgrounds problem is an artifact of the emulation. There are 4 background layers, the main ground the background for the main ground the "far away" main ground and then the "far away" background and when actually looking through the eyepieces you can tell they are separate by the depth. Lots of "platform is sticking out of the wall behind it" going on.
Awesome, had no clue it was separated between 4 layers. I know it's possible to simulate the same effect when playing the game on VR emulators. Thank you for clearing up my speculation that it was an emulation thing!
@@sonicphoenix7 It should theoretically be possible on a regular 3d display like the 3DS or a 3D television but that's out of my depth. I don't know if any emulators support such a thing.
Daaamn this is an amazing video. I can see the Running Shine influence plainly but you've taken everything that makes those videos special and made it your own. We definitely need more of these types of analyses. Would love to see more, maybe a short review of Pizza Tower now it's out fully? It seems to have changed a fair amount since the demos.
The reason that the screen size was like that in Shake It was specifically because TVs were still in the transition period from a 4:3 ratio to a 16:9 ratio. If they did have the screen layout the way you proposed, people with a 4:3 TV wouldn't have been able to see everything on the screen. This was a pretty big trend with media from this specific time period, TV programming especially, which is why everything has to be centered on the screen. I do think that having a wide screen option would've been for the best, but hopefully this clear some things up.
I think Shake It does a really good job of showing off Wario's character through voice clips and reactions, but the animations themselves are so stiff in terms of facial expressions. I love the animation of the game but as said in the video, Wario's face is just constantly in that same expression. The best animations are the ones where Wario is in pain or transforms. When he catches on fire, gets electrocuted, or gets squished are the best animations in gameplay. In cutscenes you really get to see Wario's personality shine through when he throws the princess or picks his nose, but otherwise it's just that static grin. It was so freaking bizarre that Shake It decided that Wario's mouth shouldn't open when he's talking in cutscenes. It's really that same static face problem I've been restating over and over again. Merfle doesn't move his mouth but his facial expression changes as he talks. With Wario I couldn't even tell if he was the one talking or if Merfle was just restating what Wario was implied to have said. GoodFeel talked about how they wanted to show how Macho Wario is, and maybe that's why they kept him in that constant confident grin. The goofy scummy side of Wario only comes off when he's in pain. Wario World I think has the best depiction of Wario. He's definitely super macho and confident, but he's also this scummy gremlin guy whose facial features literally pulsate. He can open his mouth to an ungodly size and loves to flaunt his superiority. His walk cycle is an adaptation of his walk cycle in WL2 and WL3, where he waddles around with his arms back. It's just so good overall. I think a good thing to do in the future would be to take Next Level Games' Wario animations in Mario Strikers: Battle League as inspiration. His facial expressions are top notch, and they aren't afraid to move his lips in rare moments where it makes sense to. A lot of people want another 2D animated Wario game, but I want 2.5D so they can have more room to stretch their legs. They could return to the foreground/background mechanic of Virtual Boy Wario Land, even. And depending on the style, they could go crazy with expressing Wario through manipulating his model. Transformations could be funnier than ever and he could even lip-sync voice clips in key animations.
Something that made me appreciate Wario Land 3 a lot is that it was one of the earliest games that was a perfect example of "Play it in tiny chunks at a time" As many issues as it has, they feel a lot less egregious when you just tackle them one or two levels at a time in short bursts. As for the items in 4, I think it comes down to something I've learned to respect as someone who plays games and is looking to make them; As fun as it is seeing people match up to your wavelengths, sometimes you just need to trust that the player is going to know what the most fun way of doing something is from the tools you give them. Options are optional, and if they don't enjoy it, they can just ignore it.
at first the ADHD energy of the Scott pilgrim moment was great but them my ribs were blasted by the comedic genius of " what- am i speaking another language ? ! " utterly hilarious & adore your editing !
Really great, taps into that Mr. Plinkitt sort of everyman logical critique that’s able to effectively outline parts of design while keeping it relatable.
i love that you don't hold back on anything even things you love you'll tear them to shreds. it shows as a reviewer you don't let your biases hold you back.
"White man with ADHD" is more correct. Imagine complaining about a core mechanic being annoying in a slow-paced game when you're rushing like an idiot through bosses and enemies without taking into account their patterns. He even manages to complain about a WL4 enemy's function not being too easy to grasp at 1st glance, proposing some underline to differentiate from the rest ... ! Just kill the damn enemy and you'll see if he's made to hurt or transform you : devs made sure necessary enemies for puzzles and progression respawn when reentering the room, and enemies that are just there to drop coins or damages don't (for score reason). Games were made for children not toddlers, jesus.
See Dollboy from WL3 (1st boss). Pattern is always the same 4 successive hammer throws from short distance to long distance. (If you're at the same vertical position as him, he'll stop this sequence and do a horizontal hammer throw. Watch it out when he gets lower.) Between each hit, the boss tends to take a pause. Anticipate which type of hammer throw the boss gonna select to retreat and exploit the pause to charge the flashing barrel, so the earthquake effect it does while falling doesn't move you into an hammer. Repeat until last barrel is knocked. 2nd stage is a walk so no need to comment. It's a super short fight when you make the effort to understand what's going on, and frankly it doesn't require a lot of brain power. Then if you happen to fail the first times, what's the matter ? It takes 10 seconds to get back to boss entrance, and boss only has 2 stages, first being the "hardest". Most bosses take you out in 1 hit (with few exception, like Muddee and Shoot), but the developers were kind enough to make them slow or predictable, so it easy for the player to escape the dreaded attack. Though it does make some of them dull (like Scowler, a total joke). Except Pesce where the alignment of occurrences can drag out the fight if you’re unlucky (excusable since the idea of this fight is really funny - it’s not everyday you’re feeding a shark with cheese in a videogame to use his fat*ss as a plug), the implementation of gimmicks is good. You’re ranting on other « critics » being superficial, not digging into the raw mud of the game design itself, but you’re doing the same. Half of your complaints just aim at general concepts and mechanics you don’t like or understand. The developers at the Nintendo headquarters would raise their eyebrows seeing that tiny dude getting hot about tunnel vision in a game made to play on a 6.6 cm (7.3 for gba) screen where levels contain huge open rooms with several branches and hidden secrets. You can’t just walk from right to left and consider it done like your traditional mario platformer : you will have to backtrack and turn around a lot to see little details, suspicious walls, etc, and you don’t want the player to wait 2 seconds for the camera to position itself correctly each time you turn. Tweaking the camera’s speed to make it faster is not good either, unless you want the player to vomit on the carpet after 30 min of gameplay. (Plus the wario land series after WL1 makes wario moves significately faster.) So choosing a locked camera for these games was a good design. Then who cares about these « technicalities » ? Unless you’re a game developer or modder, just play the game. You don’t need to explain thoroughly to sloppy videogame companies why their game is bad : stop buying their shitty product and they’ll suddenly care about quality. If you still want to criticize a game’s flaws and make a video about it, don’t waste your time arguing about details you have no idea why they exist and pretend to be some knowledgable guy. Being self-aware won’t make you more clever either : everyone does it and honestly it’s tiresome. I’d rather see some dumbass stay true to his ideas than trying really hard to make himself look objective in front of his audience. It works on kids, not adults. Frankly you should just find a better hobby instead, cause it’s nothing to be proud of ...
Your comparison between Shake It and 1 got me thinking, and I realised that Wario Land can also be split into two separate trilogies from a gameplay standpoint. You have WL 1, VB, and Shake It for the standard platforming that mainly emphasizes Wario's base abilities. Namly the jump, shoulder bash, and groundpound. Then you have WL2, 3, and 4 which all act as in-betweens for Mario and Metroid while utilizing Wario's transformations. EDIT: The fact that you only have 567 Subscribers is crazy, this is some good content. A little profanity heavy for my taste, but very high quality regardless.
I think there's three distinct duologies(?) of Wario games, which the later developing the former's ideas: 1 and Virtual (Mario-like), 2 and 3 (immortality and more exploration-based), then 4 and Shake it (dashing)... if you compare these games in duos, they have very similar movement and shit. Unfortunately, I think Virtual is the only one of these games that really managed to deliver a better experience compared to the previous. Not that any of them are really bad, but still.
17:02 hey, I know that guy. Good friend, me and my friends back in the Golden age of FB pages mess with him with that age old post. Back when Splatoon 1 came out and he had to make such a hot take that it burned even more than hell. So funny to roast him that time.
This video is really good. The comedic timing is pretty good and the criticisms were fair and well explained. Kinda reminiscent of somebody like Running Shine, and I think you pull off the style really well.
I loved this video, I could tell that you’re pretty influenced by Running Shine but you made that style work in your own way! Definitely looking forward to your future videos/creative projects
Can’t wait for the pizza tower retrospective (warning you are required to truly 100% the game, all p ranks, all achievements, all hub secrets in order to get the full pizza tower experience, also don’t kill snotty.)
This has been an incredible retrospective, and having them all combined into one video is a good way to cap of 2022, the year of Wario's 30th anniversary. I love the insight and unique perspective you have on games, and I look forward to what else you have in store.
It's controversial, it's opinions alot of the time, it's 3 & 1/2 hours long. Goddamn is this a labor of love. Absolutely watchable and full of personality. Thanks for this.
did you know that there was a pokemon picross for the gameboy that was 100% complete but never released? the rom leaked a few years ago. if you read this, you're welcome :)
I've been having a Wario hyperfixiation as of lately and this video was the perfect thing to cement it even more. I couldn't watch it all in one sitting, but the way you talked about it kept me coming back. I think you just made one of the best videogame retrospectives on UA-cam. The editing, the comentary, the pacing, everything was on point, but please add timestamps, it would make for an all better experience (just an opinion). Hope to see a new upload soon. New sub btw.
I feel your point with regard to The Big Board is a bit wrong because you played the game on Normal difficulty. The roll mechanic becomes key in hard because all the jewel pieces get stuck behind the obstacles (i.e. fire wario bonus area, toss an enemy bonus area, etc.)
Didn't know this and it's cool, but my criticism isn't "wrong" because I was criticizing what I played, not what I didn't. It's not a stretch of the imagination to say most people played Normal mode and never touched Hard. I haven't beat the game on Hard but I get what you're sayin'
@@automaticpause That's fair. It was like three years between me beating the game on Normal and then on Hard. But I'm pretty sure that the Big Board suffers the most for it. Random dice would screw up players being able to control how they traverse the board so they can get to the space they need to get to to beat the puzzle. With regard to the whole "Get a Goal" thing, the game needs you to tie together the "Get" signs near all the other dice blocks with the big ones in the final room.
@@automaticpause Come on man! In a level with the roulette button as it's main gimmick, if they put you in a room (directly after pressing the frog switch) and the only thing in that room is the roulette button and every time before that, it said "GET X" at a roulette button and in that room it says "GET A GOAL" and the roulette button doesn't disappear after pressing it, then the only logical thing to do in that room is to press the button until you get what you need to progress. A bit later, you even explained yourself how the game tells you to "GET X" or "GET Y" for treasure. So if it says "GET A GOAL" and it's the only symbol you haven't seen throughout the whole level (and there really aren't that many different symbols to land on), then it's just logical to press the button until you "GET A GOAL". And even if you assume the line is endless, what prevents you from just mindlessly hitting the button? The whole level revolves around pressing that button, so the solution seems pretty obvious to me. You were a dummy in that section , just admit it 😜
@@automaticpause never been more chill after watching this very well made video. Great fun to watch. Keep it going mate, good job. Just pointing out why your reasoning is flawed. Have a great day.
Damn that whole section on old school Let's Play Recordings took me back. I'm not done with the video but this shit is quality and you got *spunk*. You deserve more subscribers, so I'll add myself to that pile.
Someone said this already, but watching this video feels more like a conversation you'd have with a friend. Imagine, if you will, eating at a fast food joint on a sunny afternoon with nothing to do and you bring up Wario for a passing joke, only for the conversation to turn into a three and a half hour discussion about the Wario Land series while occasionally going off topic. Moreover, it doesn't feel stale nor takes itself too seriously. Rather, it is a relaxed casual dive into the franchise with genuine expressions of enjoyment/frustration with a few jokes tossed in for the mix. Overall, this was a great review and was very much enjoyable, good work!
While I disagree with some opinions (like how I also love Wario Land 3 and Shake It), this is a very well put together video! Good job! (also at 53:32, you kept jumping but you actually have to fall off the top platform to take advantage of your falling arc)
i seen lute's video, geno's videos, and i like the approach they take on talking about games on the internet. you got that too but you also just talk about whatever. it's nice. i'm watching this while i work. you guys are cool.
I'm sure somebody else has said this, but I think the main thing behind removing the Super Jump is just that it's unnecessary. Why not just make Wario jump at that height by default? There's no downside to using it. Mario 64 has different forms of jumps each with risk and reward. There are higher jumps, but they require either extra space to get a running start like the long jump and triple jump, are slower to execute like the backflip or are situational like the wall jump. There isn't one that's just Better Jump. If there was a super jump, why don't I just tape the D-Pad down so I'm constantly holding up? I guess there could be situations that require you to use the lower jump to avoid hazards on the ceiling, but that's like one scenario and going for the Mario 64 angle of jumps that require different scenarios gives you a more natural way to do this, as a lot of parts of 64 are better for the long jump or triple jump or sideflip or what have you. This is a fantastic video and I loved every second, you're really funny and I agree with a lot of your takes on things, that's just something that spoke out to me, and honestly the bit of constantly bringing it back to the Super Jump is funny and I liked hearing about your ideas for it. I just disagree with the inclusion of it personally.
re: Warioland4 ending. The "best ending" Princess is actually supposed to be a more 'mature' version of the Princess with a shorter skirt and more elegant/angular (older) features... buuuut is still drawn in the same cutesy style - and still appears as the 'young' princess in all the promo art - which is why I think people assume she's suppposed to be option B...
This video was just amazing! I would like to say more about it but I couldn't do the video justice. The only thing that I dislike was the rant you did about flat Wario's "hard" jump in Wario Land 2 (53:28), bro, you just had to reach the top platform and drop down (not jump, drop) while holding right (in Wario Land 3 is almost the same as well) it was not hard jump, you just did it wrong. Other than that it was incredible to watch someone dissect the Wario franchise in such a great way.
53:37 Bro.... you're not _meant_ to do a stupidly difficult jump here, you're meant to just go to the top platform and _walk off._ That's what the platforms are very specifically calibrated for. This is the case for every single case of the WL3 pancake segments as well, and most of us were 10 years old when we figured that out. And you _know_ that's how it works because you perform it perfectly at 54:02 in Wario Land 4. So in that case, why even leave this critique in?
46:30 I believe he was German but then later retconned into being Italian when Charles Martinet (the VA of Mario, Luigi and Waluigi) voiced the character. He was designed to be a German and his MK64 VA, Thomas Spindler (Who voiced Wario in the Japanese version only of Mario games from 1996 to 2001), gave him several German lines, such as "So ein Mist" (which is misheard by many as "D'oh, I missed!"). And as I said before, his nationality was later retconned when Charles voiced the character.
Wario Land 2 is my favorite of the ones I've played. I remember first getting the game on 3DS Virtual Console. I played through it and thought it was meh. Then around the time WarioWare Gold came out, I decided to buy Wario Land 3. But for whatever reason I returned to WL2 because I had just found out about the route in the game where you don't wake Wario up. I ended up playing the entire game, searching for every secret, and taking every path. It was so much fun. I didn't even notice that the level design wasn't that great because I loved searching for every little secret and seeing where each branching path would take me. I think it's definitely better to play through the game normally once, so you have the level select. It really makes the game open up, because you know which levels to look for secret exits in, and you are able to jump to previous levels at any time. Wario Land 4 never really appealed to me. I haven't played it, but I'm not really a fan of the visual style, and while the sound design is fantastic, a lot of the music doesn't really _feel_ like Wario to me for some reason. I feel similarly with Shake It, but for entirely different reasons. I really want the Wario Land series to aim for what 2 did, but better. Imagining Wario Land 2 but with better level design, more advanced movesets, and crazy puzzles just sounds like such an amazing idea. The "Choose Your Own Adventure" aspect is such a freaking cool idea that I want to be revisited and used to its full potential. Wario Land 2 is part of why I love Wario so much. WL3 definitely wasn't great, but I still enjoyed my time with it quite a lot. Now I'm gonna talk about music for like 20 seconds. The music in WL3 is surprisingly a lot better than in WL2. And while I like WL2's soundtrack, it's pretty dang rough. WL3 is like the same vibe but handled way better. Wario World still stands as the king of Wario music though. That's like the most Wario-y music in existence.
This video is so well made (probably the best in terms of quality and sophisticated montage, I've been watching all kinds of reviews about WL in recent weeks and I can tell), and still not so many views, that makes me really sad. Glad this made it to my recommended.
The spritework for Virtual Boy Wario Land is so good though. And I agree the purple looks great honestly! I’d love to play a fully colored version of the game someday though.
Sometimes youtube gives me gems like this in my recommended videos The quality looks like it should have at least 1M views but nope,only 1000 views (for now,im sure it will multiply by 1000) Great video
the more i replay wl3 the less charm it has, the bosses werent done the best, but i still think it’s a pretty damn good game. it may not be my favorite anymore though also you can press select on wl2 for a better pause screen
Picross 3D is super good and is actually quite a lot simpler than normal picross when you get into it. The maximum "grid" size for a 3D picross is much smaller than that for a normal picross, so you'll not be dealing with huge numbers as often. The second game makes things much more complicated, so i'd recommend trying the original on DS first. Picross 3D round 2 is one of my most replayed games, it's so good.
One: being older, it’s hilarious how funny it is that Wario 2 frustrated you. It was the first game I bought myself when I was 7. Besides the fact that I had to learn the hard way about batteries and the Gameboy Pocket, that game was frustrating. Granted I was 7 but still, I relate. 100% that thang. Two: Wario likes bombs because he worked construction. It was a demolition theme thing.
53:50 I couldn't help but find amusement in your frustration...because there is a very easy solution. Climb to the top of the ladder and just walk off the edge. Wario will float right into the hole. Why else would they put that extra rung there in Wario Land 2?
I never comment on anything but holy shit dude, I had to make an exception to tell you that you're one of the best youtubers I've discovered in a long while, not many people on here with your sense of humor. Keep up the good shit!
Already left 2 other comments, but I loved the picross rant and the segment where you sang along to the classic Auto-Mario music level. I used to watch that video all the time as a kid and I always end up rewatching it once or twice a year. Picross is like the one game I actively WANT Nintendo to make a mobile phone game out of. Imagine a Picross game with like 50 free puzzles, and then packs of themed puzzles based around series and upcoming games. They could be like 1 to $3 a pack. Let me play Picross wherever I go Nintendo! I want to play picross all the time and YOU WON'T LET ME!
This video is excellent, your delivery feels super genuine and your joke timing is on point. Really excited to see what you do in the future. You need more than like 600-something subs!
Coming back to this video really made me realize that you’re essentially doing classic Avgn style commentary and the jokes even feel very classic AVGN. I mean this as a compliment. Although some jokes make me Dwayne Johnson eyebrow a bit, I know you’re pretty cool and you have good vibes overall. It helped me enjoy the video more since I’ve been back on my Wario kick lately hope you consider talking about Wario World. I don’t think anyone else has really talked about that game with any real analysis
Kind of impossible to give a succinct comment on such a monster-video, so I'll just say, it was real real good, I like your unique presentation style, and now I yearn for remakes of VB Wario Land, Picross 2, and Mid-2000s Let's Plays, of all things
Casually sneaking TotakaSong in during the Totaka section is a great touch. You know, you'd get a lot more subs breaking videos like this up into smaller chunks and posting them episodically.
Had to replace the audio from 2:55:13 to 2:55:26 to avoid a copyright issue. Picked what I thought would be the funniest song to inject into that scene.
Pizza tower is out, you should play it if you haven't
1:04:00 where the heck did the footage here come from? Kinda wanna watch it.
@@whybother5741 That clip is from my recording of the game where my friends are in the background. I thought about uploading edited down versions of these playthroughs, but decided against it. I might reconsider if enough people wanted it.
@@automaticpause I’m the type of person who’ll watch hours worth of game playthroughs, I’d probably watch it, edited down or otherwise.
This complex video creation! I commend you for that.
I like the feel of "I know you've watched everyone else's Wario Land videos, here's the last one you'll watch"
where sherbet land tho
PIZZA DAY
I really like the way you explain and talk about the different games, its like talking to a friend on a chill afternoon about the most random things
at the 53 minute mark and hearing the rant about enemies that transform. Counterpoint:
MOST enemies that transform Wario are ACTIVELY hostile towards the player. as in they will actively attack the player. I think outside the bats in WL 3 that transform you into vampire wario and the ghost from WL 2 that turns you into Zombie wario.
Also the transformations being a hinderance is a design choice to make up for the fact that in WL 2 and 3 you're practically immortal. These are your offsets to taking damage or losing a life, both of which would obviously cause lost time. Ya don't have to like em, but not everything designed has to be to a player's benefit. (It also helps to stretch what would otherwise be a very short game. WHat with given the constraints on memory and hardware.)
You remind me of Running Shine, so I'm immediately subscribing.
I do like the bit regarding the book on Warioland 4. It reminded me of this dude I used to work with on this long dead game. He would go on, and on, and on about how he understood game design on a deeper level. When in reality, he was just inflating his own ego just to seem smarter, and didn't really know how to handle game design.
The book was just the same way: it didn't really talk about how good Warioland 4 was, it was mostly the creator talking about himself and then trying to justify the rest of the pages with information that's either inaccurate or just flatout uninteresting.
Fire Mario - gets a bouncy hadoken
Fire Wario - sets his ass on fire
Great retrospective, 10/10 sense of humor.
53:45 I'm fairly certain for these two sections you just have to walk off the platform above the one you tried jumping from
That's exactly right
I've never played the game, but that was my immediate thought upon seeing that clip. Made it frustrating to watch lol.
I love when someone who is bad at video games says level design sucks lmao
Having played the wario land game on the virtual boy as a kid i can say without a shadow of a doubt the busy backgrounds problem is an artifact of the emulation. There are 4 background layers, the main ground the background for the main ground the "far away" main ground and then the "far away" background and when actually looking through the eyepieces you can tell they are separate by the depth. Lots of "platform is sticking out of the wall behind it" going on.
Awesome, had no clue it was separated between 4 layers. I know it's possible to simulate the same effect when playing the game on VR emulators. Thank you for clearing up my speculation that it was an emulation thing!
is there any way to get the 3d effects aside from vr
@@sonicphoenix7 It should theoretically be possible on a regular 3d display like the 3DS or a 3D television but that's out of my depth. I don't know if any emulators support such a thing.
@@automaticpause Idk if you still care but there's a 3DS emulator for virtualboy now called Red Viper.
"I don't really have any connection to Wario as a character" *makes a 3 and a half hour long video essay about just one of his series*
Daaamn this is an amazing video. I can see the Running Shine influence plainly but you've taken everything that makes those videos special and made it your own. We definitely need more of these types of analyses. Would love to see more, maybe a short review of Pizza Tower now it's out fully? It seems to have changed a fair amount since the demos.
Happy the entire retrospective is compiled together now. Really excited to see your channel grow even more
The reason that the screen size was like that in Shake It was specifically because TVs were still in the transition period from a 4:3 ratio to a 16:9 ratio. If they did have the screen layout the way you proposed, people with a 4:3 TV wouldn't have been able to see everything on the screen. This was a pretty big trend with media from this specific time period, TV programming especially, which is why everything has to be centered on the screen. I do think that having a wide screen option would've been for the best, but hopefully this clear some things up.
I think Shake It does a really good job of showing off Wario's character through voice clips and reactions, but the animations themselves are so stiff in terms of facial expressions. I love the animation of the game but as said in the video, Wario's face is just constantly in that same expression. The best animations are the ones where Wario is in pain or transforms. When he catches on fire, gets electrocuted, or gets squished are the best animations in gameplay. In cutscenes you really get to see Wario's personality shine through when he throws the princess or picks his nose, but otherwise it's just that static grin.
It was so freaking bizarre that Shake It decided that Wario's mouth shouldn't open when he's talking in cutscenes. It's really that same static face problem I've been restating over and over again. Merfle doesn't move his mouth but his facial expression changes as he talks. With Wario I couldn't even tell if he was the one talking or if Merfle was just restating what Wario was implied to have said.
GoodFeel talked about how they wanted to show how Macho Wario is, and maybe that's why they kept him in that constant confident grin. The goofy scummy side of Wario only comes off when he's in pain. Wario World I think has the best depiction of Wario. He's definitely super macho and confident, but he's also this scummy gremlin guy whose facial features literally pulsate. He can open his mouth to an ungodly size and loves to flaunt his superiority. His walk cycle is an adaptation of his walk cycle in WL2 and WL3, where he waddles around with his arms back. It's just so good overall.
I think a good thing to do in the future would be to take Next Level Games' Wario animations in Mario Strikers: Battle League as inspiration. His facial expressions are top notch, and they aren't afraid to move his lips in rare moments where it makes sense to. A lot of people want another 2D animated Wario game, but I want 2.5D so they can have more room to stretch their legs. They could return to the foreground/background mechanic of Virtual Boy Wario Land, even. And depending on the style, they could go crazy with expressing Wario through manipulating his model. Transformations could be funnier than ever and he could even lip-sync voice clips in key animations.
Please make more analysis like these. You're insanely entertaining and fun to listen to, which elevates the subject matter exponentially.
Something that made me appreciate Wario Land 3 a lot is that it was one of the earliest games that was a perfect example of "Play it in tiny chunks at a time"
As many issues as it has, they feel a lot less egregious when you just tackle them one or two levels at a time in short bursts.
As for the items in 4, I think it comes down to something I've learned to respect as someone who plays games and is looking to make them; As fun as it is seeing people match up to your wavelengths, sometimes you just need to trust that the player is going to know what the most fun way of doing something is from the tools you give them. Options are optional, and if they don't enjoy it, they can just ignore it.
"2&3 are just ok"
Meanwhile they're my favorites lmao
at first the ADHD energy of the Scott pilgrim moment was great
but them my ribs were blasted by the comedic genius of " what- am i speaking another language ? ! "
utterly hilarious & adore your editing !
Really great, taps into that Mr. Plinkitt sort of everyman logical critique that’s able to effectively outline parts of design while keeping it relatable.
i love that you don't hold back on anything even things you love you'll tear them to shreds.
it shows as a reviewer you don't let your biases hold you back.
He doesn't even love half the games here wdym.
White man has been here... - how do you know? -4 hour video essay of children game
Uh, correction: MULTIPLE childrens' games!
@@raulnaldo5939 children game is still children game
Lmao
"White man with ADHD" is more correct. Imagine complaining about a core mechanic being annoying in a slow-paced game when you're rushing like an idiot through bosses and enemies without taking into account their patterns. He even manages to complain about a WL4 enemy's function not being too easy to grasp at 1st glance, proposing some underline to differentiate from the rest ... ! Just kill the damn enemy and you'll see if he's made to hurt or transform you : devs made sure necessary enemies for puzzles and progression respawn when reentering the room, and enemies that are just there to drop coins or damages don't (for score reason). Games were made for children not toddlers, jesus.
See Dollboy from WL3 (1st boss). Pattern is always the same 4 successive hammer throws from short distance to long distance. (If you're at the same vertical position as him, he'll stop this sequence and do a horizontal hammer throw. Watch it out when he gets lower.) Between each hit, the boss tends to take a pause. Anticipate which type of hammer throw the boss gonna select to retreat and exploit the pause to charge the flashing barrel, so the earthquake effect it does while falling doesn't move you into an hammer. Repeat until last barrel is knocked. 2nd stage is a walk so no need to comment. It's a super short fight when you make the effort to understand what's going on, and frankly it doesn't require a lot of brain power. Then if you happen to fail the first times, what's the matter ? It takes 10 seconds to get back to boss entrance, and boss only has 2 stages, first being the "hardest".
Most bosses take you out in 1 hit (with few exception, like Muddee and Shoot), but the developers were kind enough to make them slow or predictable, so it easy for the player to escape the dreaded attack. Though it does make some of them dull (like Scowler, a total joke). Except Pesce where the alignment of occurrences can drag out the fight if you’re unlucky (excusable since the idea of this fight is really funny - it’s not everyday you’re feeding a shark with cheese in a videogame to use his fat*ss as a plug), the implementation of gimmicks is good.
You’re ranting on other « critics » being superficial, not digging into the raw mud of the game design itself, but you’re doing the same. Half of your complaints just aim at general concepts and mechanics you don’t like or understand. The developers at the Nintendo headquarters would raise their eyebrows seeing that tiny dude getting hot about tunnel vision in a game made to play on a 6.6 cm (7.3 for gba) screen where levels contain huge open rooms with several branches and hidden secrets. You can’t just walk from right to left and consider it done like your traditional mario platformer : you will have to backtrack and turn around a lot to see little details, suspicious walls, etc, and you don’t want the player to wait 2 seconds for the camera to position itself correctly each time you turn. Tweaking the camera’s speed to make it faster is not good either, unless you want the player to vomit on the carpet after 30 min of gameplay. (Plus the wario land series after WL1 makes wario moves significately faster.) So choosing a locked camera for these games was a good design.
Then who cares about these « technicalities » ? Unless you’re a game developer or modder, just play the game. You don’t need to explain thoroughly to sloppy videogame companies why their game is bad : stop buying their shitty product and they’ll suddenly care about quality. If you still want to criticize a game’s flaws and make a video about it, don’t waste your time arguing about details you have no idea why they exist and pretend to be some knowledgable guy. Being self-aware won’t make you more clever either : everyone does it and honestly it’s tiresome. I’d rather see some dumbass stay true to his ideas than trying really hard to make himself look objective in front of his audience. It works on kids, not adults. Frankly you should just find a better hobby instead, cause it’s nothing to be proud of ...
Your comparison between Shake It and 1 got me thinking, and I realised that Wario Land can also be split into two separate trilogies from a gameplay standpoint.
You have WL 1, VB, and Shake It for the standard platforming that mainly emphasizes Wario's base abilities. Namly the jump, shoulder bash, and groundpound.
Then you have WL2, 3, and 4 which all act as in-betweens for Mario and Metroid while utilizing Wario's transformations.
EDIT: The fact that you only have 567 Subscribers is crazy, this is some good content. A little profanity heavy for my taste, but very high quality regardless.
I think there's three distinct duologies(?) of Wario games, which the later developing the former's ideas: 1 and Virtual (Mario-like), 2 and 3 (immortality and more exploration-based), then 4 and Shake it (dashing)... if you compare these games in duos, they have very similar movement and shit. Unfortunately, I think Virtual is the only one of these games that really managed to deliver a better experience compared to the previous. Not that any of them are really bad, but still.
@@springssprangyard8278 imo wario land 3 is amazing
This is one of the best retrospectives of Wario Land I have seen, really great video can't wait to see more videos by you
you seriously deserve more subs, this video is just as awesome as wario himself
17:02 hey, I know that guy. Good friend, me and my friends back in the Golden age of FB pages mess with him with that age old post. Back when Splatoon 1 came out and he had to make such a hot take that it burned even more than hell.
So funny to roast him that time.
"nobody has talked about warioland to the length they deserve"
also:
"somebody wrote 600 pages on warioland, give me a fucking break!"
Definitely listening to the this whole thing again! Loved the retrospective part to part.
Keep up the good work, and happy holidays. Wah!
This video is really good. The comedic timing is pretty good and the criticisms were fair and well explained. Kinda reminiscent of somebody like Running Shine, and I think you pull off the style really well.
I loved this video, I could tell that you’re pretty influenced by Running Shine but you made that style work in your own way! Definitely looking forward to your future videos/creative projects
This feels like a classic AVGN video, in a good way. Its super simple, and I like the presentation
Can’t wait for the pizza tower retrospective (warning you are required to truly 100% the game, all p ranks, all achievements, all hub secrets in order to get the full pizza tower experience, also don’t kill snotty.)
This has been an incredible retrospective, and having them all combined into one video is a good way to cap of 2022, the year of Wario's 30th anniversary. I love the insight and unique perspective you have on games, and I look forward to what else you have in store.
This is so good! You have a really entertaining way of discussion that feels familiar and suuuper fun.
It's controversial, it's opinions alot of the time, it's 3 & 1/2 hours long. Goddamn is this a labor of love. Absolutely watchable and full of personality. Thanks for this.
did you know that there was a pokemon picross for the gameboy that was 100% complete but never released? the rom leaked a few years ago. if you read this, you're welcome :)
I've been having a Wario hyperfixiation as of lately and this video was the perfect thing to cement it even more. I couldn't watch it all in one sitting, but the way you talked about it kept me coming back. I think you just made one of the best videogame retrospectives on UA-cam. The editing, the comentary, the pacing, everything was on point, but please add timestamps, it would make for an all better experience (just an opinion). Hope to see a new upload soon. New sub btw.
I feel your point with regard to The Big Board is a bit wrong because you played the game on Normal difficulty. The roll mechanic becomes key in hard because all the jewel pieces get stuck behind the obstacles (i.e. fire wario bonus area, toss an enemy bonus area, etc.)
Didn't know this and it's cool, but my criticism isn't "wrong" because I was criticizing what I played, not what I didn't. It's not a stretch of the imagination to say most people played Normal mode and never touched Hard. I haven't beat the game on Hard but I get what you're sayin'
@@automaticpause That's fair. It was like three years between me beating the game on Normal and then on Hard. But I'm pretty sure that the Big Board suffers the most for it. Random dice would screw up players being able to control how they traverse the board so they can get to the space they need to get to to beat the puzzle. With regard to the whole "Get a Goal" thing, the game needs you to tie together the "Get" signs near all the other dice blocks with the big ones in the final room.
@@automaticpause Come on man! In a level with the roulette button as it's main gimmick, if they put you in a room (directly after pressing the frog switch) and the only thing in that room is the roulette button and every time before that, it said "GET X" at a roulette button and in that room it says "GET A GOAL" and the roulette button doesn't disappear after pressing it, then the only logical thing to do in that room is to press the button until you get what you need to progress. A bit later, you even explained yourself how the game tells you to "GET X" or "GET Y" for treasure. So if it says "GET A GOAL" and it's the only symbol you haven't seen throughout the whole level (and there really aren't that many different symbols to land on), then it's just logical to press the button until you "GET A GOAL". And even if you assume the line is endless, what prevents you from just mindlessly hitting the button?
The whole level revolves around pressing that button, so the solution seems pretty obvious to me.
You were a dummy in that section , just admit it 😜
@@GVirusG calm down nerd
@@automaticpause never been more chill after watching this very well made video. Great fun to watch. Keep it going mate, good job.
Just pointing out why your reasoning is flawed. Have a great day.
Damn that whole section on old school Let's Play Recordings took me back. I'm not done with the video but this shit is quality and you got *spunk*. You deserve more subscribers, so I'll add myself to that pile.
Someone said this already, but watching this video feels more like a conversation you'd have with a friend. Imagine, if you will, eating at a fast food joint on a sunny afternoon with nothing to do and you bring up Wario for a passing joke, only for the conversation to turn into a three and a half hour discussion about the Wario Land series while occasionally going off topic. Moreover, it doesn't feel stale nor takes itself too seriously. Rather, it is a relaxed casual dive into the franchise with genuine expressions of enjoyment/frustration with a few jokes tossed in for the mix. Overall, this was a great review and was very much enjoyable, good work!
It's like stumbling upon Running Shine all over again. Great vid. And Pizza Tower was ballin.
glad to have been here for the whole ride of the series, awesome work all the way through brother :)
loved this whole series, excited for your next project!
While I disagree with some opinions (like how I also love Wario Land 3 and Shake It), this is a very well put together video! Good job!
(also at 53:32, you kept jumping but you actually have to fall off the top platform to take advantage of your falling arc)
i seen lute's video, geno's videos, and i like the approach they take on talking about games on the internet. you got that too but you also just talk about whatever. it's nice. i'm watching this while i work. you guys are cool.
I want every UA-camr making hours long videos on their interests in detail to know I love this shit. I LOVE IT.
How the fuck does a channel come out of nowhere and hit every single good note for me? Bro keep making content, because this is gold.
I'm sure somebody else has said this, but I think the main thing behind removing the Super Jump is just that it's unnecessary. Why not just make Wario jump at that height by default? There's no downside to using it. Mario 64 has different forms of jumps each with risk and reward. There are higher jumps, but they require either extra space to get a running start like the long jump and triple jump, are slower to execute like the backflip or are situational like the wall jump. There isn't one that's just Better Jump. If there was a super jump, why don't I just tape the D-Pad down so I'm constantly holding up? I guess there could be situations that require you to use the lower jump to avoid hazards on the ceiling, but that's like one scenario and going for the Mario 64 angle of jumps that require different scenarios gives you a more natural way to do this, as a lot of parts of 64 are better for the long jump or triple jump or sideflip or what have you.
This is a fantastic video and I loved every second, you're really funny and I agree with a lot of your takes on things, that's just something that spoke out to me, and honestly the bit of constantly bringing it back to the Super Jump is funny and I liked hearing about your ideas for it. I just disagree with the inclusion of it personally.
Cant wait for a pizza tower full release review, awesome vid man
I love WL3, I think it‘s underrated as fuck. It’s weirdly chill for some reason
It's the best one
incredible esoteric deep cut using a clip from the episode where Jeff calls Clarence's horn a "gimmick"
re: Warioland4 ending. The "best ending" Princess is actually supposed to be a more 'mature' version of the Princess with a shorter skirt and more elegant/angular (older) features... buuuut is still drawn in the same cutesy style - and still appears as the 'young' princess in all the promo art - which is why I think people assume she's suppposed to be option B...
3.5 hour video essay on the Wario Land series?
Yes, please!
Here before this gets popular
Amazing video by the way!!!
This video was just amazing! I would like to say more about it but I couldn't do the video justice. The only thing that I dislike was the rant you did about flat Wario's "hard" jump in Wario Land 2 (53:28), bro, you just had to reach the top platform and drop down (not jump, drop) while holding right (in Wario Land 3 is almost the same as well) it was not hard jump, you just did it wrong. Other than that it was incredible to watch someone dissect the Wario franchise in such a great way.
53:37 Bro.... you're not _meant_ to do a stupidly difficult jump here, you're meant to just go to the top platform and _walk off._
That's what the platforms are very specifically calibrated for.
This is the case for every single case of the WL3 pancake segments as well, and most of us were 10 years old when we figured that out. And you _know_ that's how it works because you perform it perfectly at 54:02 in Wario Land 4.
So in that case, why even leave this critique in?
46:30 I believe he was German but then later retconned into being Italian when Charles Martinet (the VA of Mario, Luigi and Waluigi) voiced the character. He was designed to be a German and his MK64 VA, Thomas Spindler (Who voiced Wario in the Japanese version only of Mario games from 1996 to 2001), gave him several German lines, such as "So ein Mist" (which is misheard by many as "D'oh, I missed!"). And as I said before, his nationality was later retconned when Charles voiced the character.
Had a good ass time watching this lmfaoo.
Your transition to VBWL was straight godly
Wario Land 2 is my favorite of the ones I've played.
I remember first getting the game on 3DS Virtual Console. I played through it and thought it was meh.
Then around the time WarioWare Gold came out, I decided to buy Wario Land 3. But for whatever reason I returned to WL2 because I had just found out about the route in the game where you don't wake Wario up.
I ended up playing the entire game, searching for every secret, and taking every path. It was so much fun. I didn't even notice that the level design wasn't that great because I loved searching for every little secret and seeing where each branching path would take me.
I think it's definitely better to play through the game normally once, so you have the level select. It really makes the game open up, because you know which levels to look for secret exits in, and you are able to jump to previous levels at any time.
Wario Land 4 never really appealed to me. I haven't played it, but I'm not really a fan of the visual style, and while the sound design is fantastic, a lot of the music doesn't really _feel_ like Wario to me for some reason. I feel similarly with Shake It, but for entirely different reasons.
I really want the Wario Land series to aim for what 2 did, but better. Imagining Wario Land 2 but with better level design, more advanced movesets, and crazy puzzles just sounds like such an amazing idea. The "Choose Your Own Adventure" aspect is such a freaking cool idea that I want to be revisited and used to its full potential.
Wario Land 2 is part of why I love Wario so much. WL3 definitely wasn't great, but I still enjoyed my time with it quite a lot.
Now I'm gonna talk about music for like 20 seconds.
The music in WL3 is surprisingly a lot better than in WL2. And while I like WL2's soundtrack, it's pretty dang rough. WL3 is like the same vibe but handled way better.
Wario World still stands as the king of Wario music though. That's like the most Wario-y music in existence.
This video is so well made (probably the best in terms of quality and sophisticated montage, I've been watching all kinds of reviews about WL in recent weeks and I can tell), and still not so many views, that makes me really sad.
Glad this made it to my recommended.
The spritework for Virtual Boy Wario Land is so good though. And I agree the purple looks great honestly! I’d love to play a fully colored version of the game someday though.
Sometimes youtube gives me gems like this in my recommended videos
The quality looks like it should have at least 1M views but nope,only 1000 views (for now,im sure it will multiply by 1000)
Great video
Now it's 2,500 views.
the more i replay wl3 the less charm it has, the bosses werent done the best, but i still think it’s a pretty damn good game. it may not be my favorite anymore though
also you can press select on wl2 for a better pause screen
This is the most afternoon feeling video essay
Regarding the flat Wario stuff in 2: You're meant to stand on the right height platform, and Walk off the edge.
1:32:00 You missed the chance to say "I didn't read the entire book... but then again he didn't played the entire series so it checks out"
Ah, hell. This is a great video. Good stuff, man. Wario took up so many hours of my childhood. Good times.
2:33:13 Cmon man. I like Pinball Machines, (Mostly the ones from the 70’s and the Early 2000s) since they captured a good vibe.
There is unexpected amount of continuity from the end of each game to the next
The unhinged humor is fkn hilarious. Keep going.
Picross 3D is super good and is actually quite a lot simpler than normal picross when you get into it. The maximum "grid" size for a 3D picross is much smaller than that for a normal picross, so you'll not be dealing with huge numbers as often.
The second game makes things much more complicated, so i'd recommend trying the original on DS first.
Picross 3D round 2 is one of my most replayed games, it's so good.
I put this in my watch later playlist and it sat for like a month before I watched it and honestly I regret because gah dang this is funny as heck
I actually think the vampire transformation is pretty cool and is a real power up.
Anyone know why Dr. Mario 64 has so many WarioLand 3 characters?
One: being older, it’s hilarious how funny it is that Wario 2 frustrated you. It was the first game I bought myself when I was 7. Besides the fact that I had to learn the hard way about batteries and the Gameboy Pocket, that game was frustrating. Granted I was 7 but still, I relate. 100% that thang.
Two: Wario likes bombs because he worked construction. It was a demolition theme thing.
53:50 I couldn't help but find amusement in your frustration...because there is a very easy solution. Climb to the top of the ladder and just walk off the edge. Wario will float right into the hole. Why else would they put that extra rung there in Wario Land 2?
- Nichijou enjoyer
- Urusei Yatsura enjoyer
Impeccible taste 👌
I never comment on anything but holy shit dude, I had to make an exception to tell you that you're one of the best youtubers I've discovered in a long while, not many people on here with your sense of humor. Keep up the good shit!
I think you are one of the funniest, best UA-camrs I’ve seen in a while. Reminds me of the golden age of UA-cam like jontron, and sequelitis
random UA-cam algorithm recommendations for the win! Wario is #1!
this rules, i love your style of content. You had me laughing like at least once every minute. Keep it up dude :)
The one takeaway from this very entertaining video, is that AutomaticPause, has unbridled hatred for fat people.
Would've subbed for the Virtual Boy references alone, but turns out this is also a genuinely well put together video!
Already left 2 other comments, but I loved the picross rant and the segment where you sang along to the classic Auto-Mario music level. I used to watch that video all the time as a kid and I always end up rewatching it once or twice a year.
Picross is like the one game I actively WANT Nintendo to make a mobile phone game out of. Imagine a Picross game with like 50 free puzzles, and then packs of themed puzzles based around series and upcoming games. They could be like 1 to $3 a pack. Let me play Picross wherever I go Nintendo! I want to play picross all the time and YOU WON'T LET ME!
Very awesome video, hope you explode in popularity soon. Wario rules, you rule, Running Shine rules. Wahhaha
thank you so much for this video. i love it
This is the best video I have ever watched
This video is excellent, your delivery feels super genuine and your joke timing is on point. Really excited to see what you do in the future. You need more than like 600-something subs!
We will watch your career with great interest.
This feels like watching old school youtube. I love this. Awesome in depth coverage too!
Coming back to this video really made me realize that you’re essentially doing classic Avgn style commentary and the jokes even feel very classic AVGN. I mean this as a compliment. Although some jokes make me Dwayne Johnson eyebrow a bit, I know you’re pretty cool and you have good vibes overall. It helped me enjoy the video more since I’ve been back on my Wario kick lately hope you consider talking about Wario World. I don’t think anyone else has really talked about that game with any real analysis
Fusion is built on the engine of warioland 4 and has leftover warioland 4 assets in its code
My time has come.
Commenting to help with the algorithms :3 Loving this style of stuff.
everytime you put homestuck on the screem i get really scared
Can't wait for the insanely obtuse sonic series retrospective
This video is so good. I hope you get a million subs someday, and you're now one step closer, keep it up!
Kind of impossible to give a succinct comment on such a monster-video, so I'll just say, it was real real good, I like your unique presentation style, and now I yearn for remakes of VB Wario Land, Picross 2, and Mid-2000s Let's Plays, of all things
I have no idea how the hell I'm ended up here, but this was so freaking amazing. Got yourself another subscriber, bro!
That whole section about donkey Kong for game boy brought back so many lovely memories of ego raptor talking about mega man!
Amazing work!
Casually sneaking TotakaSong in during the Totaka section is a great touch. You know, you'd get a lot more subs breaking videos like this up into smaller chunks and posting them episodically.