The thing with Wario's weird, glitchy voice is that it was believable to me as a kid - he's a roided, immortal, greedy gremlin and his voice is just a result of his weirdness.
Given the borderline surreal nature of WL4, The sheer all over the place nature of Wario's voice could be interpreted in many ways, like him laughing at the sheer audacity of something harming him, among other things, It gives off this idea that Wario is the strangest creature amidst all the weird worlds and characters inside the pyramid he raids through the game because of precisely your description of him, he is an inhumanly strong greedy immortal juggernaut who only really cares about getting his cash and will do whatever to get what he wants.
Whenever Wario laughs after getting hit, I always interpreted it like Wario is SUCH a badass that he just shrugs off the pain like it's nothing, and even finds it amusing that the enemies think they can take him down. Like "Heeheheehee! I'm totally fine! That didn't hurt at all! Can't you do better than that?"
@@ZNemerald Now that I think about it, wario also doesn't "die" in 4 when losing all HP, does he? It kicks him out of the world he's in, but the big man himself is no worse for wear.
10:07 i always liked interpreting wario's voice clips in this game as him basically like narrating over your gameplay instead of actually coming out of the in-game wario, and that whenever this happened i'd interpret it as wario mocking you for sucking at the game lol
That was where I stopped watching, lmao. "Calling explicit attention to the medium" is such a contrived, high school English teacher-level stretch when in all likelihood they just wanted to show off what the GBA could do. Same way they threw voice clips onto everything you do in Super Mario Advance.
@@lime148 I there is a difference there. He did mention that Warioland 4 came out a few months after the GBA launched. And it probably could be a whole "show off what the GBA could do", but it doesn't really work in the Mario GBA games and Wario took it a different direction. It was a whole "Hey, we could add Mario samples on top of the original gameplay" thing in the Mario games, but it didn't work there b/c it just... was all over the place and kinda annoying. You could say, in its own way, it pointed out the artificiality of the Mario GBA games, but in a really... obvious way. Whereas Wario's "show off what the GBA could do" is very much a "Let's show the hardware off" in a much, MUCH different way. Let's do pitch-shifting, let's do some weird stuff, mix up which sample is played when hit, go nuts, go off. Where the Mario games just slapped the samples from previous games (and some new ones) and put them on to Super Nintendo graphics and called it a day, Wario said "No, it can't be this obvious". In a way, you could also argue that Wario's voice and presence is much more immersive or believable because he isn't shouting "Just what I needed~!" whenever he gains a 1-up. He is loud, proud and in charge of the game. Or maybe I just replied to bait.
Some people say that a perfect character can be written into any situation and still make it interesting. Wario is one of those characters. I would genuinely enjoy him in any genre, from horror to dating sim.
Never until now had I thought about how much I want a Wario dating sim. He is undeniably ugly by Japanese standards, so seeing how he overcomes this barrier would be awesome...
The very first CD "About That Shepard" is obviously a direct reference to the KLF's Chill Out, which is an infamous obscure ambient album. The title even has the same sheep on the cover from the album in game. Very cool.
I cannot adequately express how terrifying this game was to me as a 5 year old. In particular: the sound room, the bosses, and the "Hurry Up!" segments. I loved it, and played it all the time.
I had to eventually give it away because it gave me nightmares and night terrors and made me really disturbed and depressed for the very first time in my life. I gave it to a friend and he was dumbfounded, cuz video games were expensive back then
I remember a long while back reading the book "Game Design Companion: A Critical Analysis of Wario Land 4". In essence, the book seeks to deepen an understanding of game design by metaphorically wringing out WL4 for every bit of game design concept and philosophy that it could muster (did I mention that the book is also ~500 pages long?). But, I remember there was one section that stood out to me: the section on music & sound was extremely brief with the author lamenting that they didn't have the knowledge needed to accurately comment on that particular aspect of WL4's design. I've always wondered if someone would make a video like that; even to the point where I very briefly considered doing it myself. While it seems that this video has different motivations to that of Game Design Companion, I can't help but compare the two. And, on the whole, I think I could easily see this as the "long-lost" section of that particular book. In particular, the parts of the video where you talk about Wario's voice & the surrealist sound design that went into it seem very much like a dead ringer to the kind of analysis that went into Game Design Companion. Okay, comparisons to an obscure piece of VGM academia aside, I really enjoyed this video! I think the topic of musical inspiration as it relates to VGM is a critically under-discussed topic, and I hope this video can hopefully get people talking about it more. Kudos!
Any other recs for video game academia? I’m studying art history and i always wish i saw academic interpretive lenses being applied more to video games
46:45 actually, in the official japanese wario land 4 website, in a section called "ask wario" there is somebody asking for the lyrics of the ending song, which is given, so yeah, there is a official transcription of the ending lyrics! only on japanese though
It sounds like the gist of it remained intact for the localization. I don't know Japanese, but here's the google translation of that transcription if anyone's curious: 昨日 見た夢を溶かして、マクラに染み込ませて 置いてきた「時間」とも、仲直りして 砂に書いた物語は、風とたわむれ。 Melt the dream you saw yesterday and let it soak into the macra Make up with the "time" you left behind The story written in the sand is the wind and the play.
Wario Land 4 is like a weird esoteric indie game that was somehow made by Nintendo, and that's why it rules so hard. I mean, what other Nintendo game can you say has musique concrète influences in it? Firmly one for us freaks and weirdos of the world. Sick video btw, I'm so glad it showed up in my recommended feed - how you don't have more views and subscribers yet is beyond me.
I love how when it's about Treasure people either don't know who they are at all or hold them as one of the greatest videogame studios of all time if not the best (I'm one of the latter)
i think there's a chance that the sort of bouncy ball sound in "the judge's feet" could've been inspired by aphex twin's "bucephalus bouncing ball" and/or autechre's "drane2", both of which were released in the late 90's. they both do the same sort of thing and use it in a more musical-ish context, so i figured it's worth saying that it actually had been done before
The best thing about those two tracks is that they were made as a statement to Afx and autechre, respectively, on who could do the best delay trick on a synth
That's a cool connection! It's hard to say what is the actual influence, but the bouncing ball rhythym is a classic in modular synth circles. It was originally a trick people learned on analog computers in like the late 60's and currently, because it's such a specifically historic synth trick, there are modular synth modules like ADDAC503 Marble Physics that are designed to recreate variations of that rhythm!
I don't think the lyrics of the credits theme are as ironic to Wario Land 4 as you think. Actually, I'm surprised you didn't draw the connection-- doesn't the ending cutscene show the pyramid disappearing beneath the earth (the proof of his fantastical adventure disappearing, becoming nothing but memories and melting into the pillow), while in the credits cutscene, his entire hoard of treasure evaporates into the sky-- like all he'd gathered had turned into sand? I don't think the song's poetic lyrics are ironic to the concept of Wario Land 4 itself, rather it's a literal reconciliation with the ending scene and a message about how, even without any proof to show others that they were real (The pyramid and treasure have both disappeared), you should value your memories and experiences in a sort of journey-above-the-destination sort of way. Does a fantastical adventure that felt like it lasted a lifetime-- even if it only took place inside a dream, and you couldn't take your treasure with you, nor prove where you went and the things you did, nor maybe even fully recall the details- does it have any less value? Was it any less meaningful? Perhaps you could say it's ironic in the sense that a message like this would be utterly lost on Wario 😋
I never thought this topic would ever be covered. Even as a kid I always knew there was something special and otherworldly about Wario Land 4's soundtrack and it's amazing to see people finally getting into this game and really experiencing all of it's glory. Every song in this game is an ear-worm and the aesthetics of how each song is strung together, mixed with the simply "weird' aesthetic makes the game's sound truly hard to pinpoint. It's like "Island Steampunk" or something like that
Wario land 4 and the first Wario ware had such a fantastic theme to it. It was quirky and silly, but with a wonderful attitude. Wario ware itself felt like an absurd celebration of the mundane. Edit: the idea that Warios voice comes across as if remixed by a DJ is a great comparison. It adds to the funk aesthetic of the game
I really, really enjoyed this video! Now that Pizza Tower's out, I would absolutely LOVE a companion piece comparing the two game's soundtracks as well as a more in depth look at the other influences of that game's soundtrack. It's genuinely one of the greatest game soundtracks I've ever heard, and your analysis of it would be really cool!
28:52 Look, Ma! I'm on TV! :D The added lyrics for the ending vocals of Hall of Hierogylphs aren't actually entirely original. They seem to be based on Medamayaki in some way. Medamayaki: "Let's go on foot" "Whilst finding a fragment of the moon" HoH Lyrics (seemingly): "Collecting the moon stones as we walk" Medamayaki also mentions clouds and the sea, while in the english ending lyrics I hear... "pour avodaco sauce on a long strip cloud" "the sky has no roof like the sea has no floor" There was probably some inspiration taken. It would be amazing if Nintendo ever remade this game and just used the original recordings of these vocals uncompressed, assuming they preserved them. But yeah, amazing video, man! I appreciate your passion for the sound of this game a ton! This game's music and sound effects have been etched into my memory since childhood. You probably already saw it, but I actually made an edit of the title theme using all the uncompressed vocals you mentioned, with Weario's HQ version of the music. It's on my channel.
Don't expect Wario Land to receive any major recognition from Nintendo anytime soon. Nintendo tarnished the legacy of the Wario Land series with Master of Disguise. PS. I'm Austinator06302012, the same guy who commented on your DeviantArt profile.
Wario Land 4 is a genuine masterpiece, and I am so glad more people have been talking about this incredible series, especial how eclectic its' sounds are. You've gotten yourself my respect, and a new sub. Keep up the great work, and have a lovely day.
@@markussmedhus9717 I started off with Wario Land 3 in my childhood and adored it (I still personally believe it to be the best of the series), but I found Wario Land 4 a blast! I distinctly remember playing the same levels over and over again, trying to get the best score possible with friends. I guess it really depends on what it is you're looking for in a game. I love Wario Land 3 for its' ambition, and how fun searching through each of the larger levels are, always finding something new in each one. On the other hand, I love Wario Land 4 for how easy it is to pick up and play, easily being able to play through and achieve different things, in each run trying to continually optimise. Either way, it's good to get others opinions on things such as games, and hear where their points are coming from. Hope you have a lovely day.
Even with less levels than its predecessors In my opinion, they all felt more focused The whole game did Wario Land 3 is great, but when replaying it The beginning always feels a bit like a slog for me, needing to unlock Wario's abilities Wario Land 4 feels so snappy and arcadey, super satisfying to get better at with each replay.
@@JustDandyGuy Unlocking abilities was the whole point of WL3 though. For as expensive as Nintendo games tend to be, I would have liked to see more content. Shake It was basically WL4 but with more levels (and less weirdnes, I'll give you that).
@Markus Smedhus something being "the whole point" of anything doesn't mean its automatically good or free from scrutiny Shake It plays very different from 4, and the level design is very much no where near as strong unfortunately
The credits theme sounds akin to influence sprouting from inspiration. The first lines of the song, "Oh the dream-- that I had last night-- melted into my pillow" to me translate into a dream entering reality and influencing what you touch, in this case being the pillow you slept upon. And sure, perhaps the original vision of said dream may have faded away overtime ("And all I'd gathered turned into sand"), though what you accomplished is still there. It's something new, something only you could have crafted in this exact manner. Singing "I made peace with the time I had forgot" as if an acceptance of this thought. In a bizzare manner, it almost describes Wario's journey throughout the game. He found out about some ancient treasure, pondered the thought of earning all that wealth for himself, and drove over to the exotic landmark safekeeping it all. What he managed to accomplish inside that pyramid in his specific way, is something only he could have accomplished. And if it's all driven by Wario's mindbogglingly simple endgoal of wanting more cash, that doesn't undermine his accomplishments in any way. I suppose that's part of what makes Wario such a fasinating and atypical character. It's not so much about how Wario's motivations and aspirations change, rather what he's up to and how that shifts the world around him.
Thank you for shedding light on the Voice clips. I always thought they were the most badass echo-looped/pitched samples I ever heard and to hear they big-brain engineered it that they are mostly 2 clips combined makes it all the more impressive. Also the meta talk on how SilvaGunner’s legacy (which I never knew how to explain or categorize in my head) affects the community for this type of music related gaming content at large. Really didn’t expect all that from a Wario Land 4 video. I just clicked because this was my first GBA game and probably a top 5 game for all-time.
Incredibly stylish and interesting video as always! I loved what you said about the music demo screen I love stuff that’s presented so thoughtfully like that. Moon Remix RPG’s albums are in a really neat spot they’re all original music of various genres. You get most of them by flicking through album covers in a store and you can ask the seller for summaries. A handful of quests even rely on you having decent knowledge of the ost. It encourages listening and appreciating and I think that’s really special.
@@geno7_ Did you know that some of the music and voice clips are used in Pizza Tower? Such as the *"Hello there"* of Palmtree Paradise is used at the beginning of It's Pizza Time, and Wario's voice clips were in Cold Spaghetti
Now that it's out you should definitely go for the Pizza Tower sound design, the sound effects are hysterical and the sound goes so extremely hard for no reason and that's amazing
48:49 i actually went and tested this myself, and at least on the normal difficulty, this song does actually play on the SECOND worst ending, i.e having exactly one chest, not more, not less. It also plays a rendition of wildflower fields without sound effects, in fact, i'll just copy Gallant Goon's comment here, because i personally verified everything about it: Depending on how many treasures you get, the credits music after the lyrical part changes to a different remix of a level's theme: •Best Ending (all chests) - toy block tower, monsoon jungle •2nd Best Ending (2-11 chests) - crescent moon village, doodle woods •2nd Worst Ending (1 chest) - hall of hieroglyphs, wildflower fields •Worst Ending (0 chests) - mystic lake, the big board
How do you ONLY have 1k subscribers??? This is AMAZINGLY in-depth and well presented, and the various goofs and gaffes sprinkled throughout had me laughing the whole way. I've honestly watched this a few times over just for background audio after the first watch! This is super good!
My brother hogged our Pokemon cartridges so this was the close to the only GBA game I played, still go back to it every year or so. The level layouts are burnt into my brain, so I feel you 😂
This game went hard in every aspect. They went above and beyond for its sound design and its really cool that they achieved so much in a tiny gba cartridge. Amazing vid
The lyric of “all I had collected melted into sand” is really fitting since the very next scene shows Wario blowing all the money you had collected on an all you can eat buffet. And so the cycle of collecting hoards of treasures begins again
I found this extremely interesting, as I played Metroid Fusion and Zero Mission at the time they came out but took years to finally play WL4 for the first time (2016-17 if I recall?). Realising that these arcane, dark, moody science-fiction games that meant so much to my teenage self were literally reworked and remodelled versions of a surreal and goofy adventure starring a beefy, smelly, Italian thief - just made my day. 🤌
Well, supervised by a Sakamoto before he lost his touch, at the very least. Or by a Sakamoto who was still supervising a team of extremely talented devs. Zero Mission and Fusion are some of my favorite games ever made, but man... the MercurySteam games do not even come close to what I love about the series...
@FANB how not? I think Dread did an especially incredible job, i would probably feel the same about Samus Returns had i played Metroid 2 a decade and a half ago, but i didnt so the glow up didnt have nearly as much time to fester in me
Wario land 4 is so strange and experimental that it borderlines on being a horror game. I remember I would have to psych myself up before pressing the frog switch when I was younger. The bosses are weird and grotesque, some of the levels could be quite creepy, whether it be more conventional like the factory level because of how dark and brutal it is or the pinball level which I find creepy because of how over the top it looks, but above all else that CD room is a nightmare that I couldn't even comprehend as a child, I had never heard any sort of experimental music before so I really couldn't understand what I was listening to, but now I can appreciate the absurdity of releasing a full album within a Wario game.
I just stumbled across this channel via this video because of my love of Wario and all games he's in, and I'm incredulous at the production value here. It's such a well made, researched, presented and paced video that I can't believe how comparatively little attention it's gotten. You deserve a lot more!
I'd be really curious what you think of the sound design of the first WarioWare title. It features the same composer, sound font and even a couple of the same compositions as Wario Land 4. It has more vocal songs and since it's a Ware game, can get even more nuts with its musical styles and choices. I mean it plays a friggin Enka song while you're playing microgames, for crying out loud, and it's played completely seriously!
Damn, this video was done in such a professional manner. I think this is the first video I have seen from you and I am very impressed: Extremely well researched, stays interesting throughout the whole duration and on topic, a few jokes here and there, and just everything sounded really professional. Well done! Thank you for teaching me something I never thought I cared for but that I could come to appreciate.
This is such a great video- I'm so happy to see so much love for this game that left such a huge impression on me as a kid (and i thought I was the only one), and not only that but this video has so much effort and insight into what makes it so special.
Loving this video! Great work! Hope to see more of these kinds of in depth analysis wario land 4 is a personal favorite of my mine and was surprised to see how much work went into the audio alone. I also had been enjoying the spotify playlist as well
ryoji yoshitomi is one of my favorite composers and sound designers + programmers. metroid 2's audio changed the trajectory of my life as a child. it's great to see his work explored so deeply.
Wow. It's great to actually meet a fellow admirer of Ryoji's work, especially regarding Metroid II. A lot of people didn't appreciate the game's sound design, but it really inspired my imagination as a boy. None of the sequels or remakes (official or otherwise) ever came close to capturing that same unique style and abstract vibes of Ryoji's original. It was a beautiful thing.
@@SleepingCocoon You can blame Super Metroid and Metroid Prime for completely dominating the sound direction of the franchise. That is what people recognise as the 'Metroid sound'. It is a totally unrecognised loss for the series, because Ryoji was really onto something in Metroid II. It sounded truly alien (especially the weird jarring music in the ruins) and it overflowed with atmospheric potential, but they will never tap into that or build upon it, sadly.
@@klaymodopostoffice9885 i do like SM and Prime's sound quite a bit, but it's frustrating that a "metroid sound" was so quickly reified. such is AAA games, when something works, do it again.
hi I know this is like over a year old now, but I came to the comments specifically for this: Wario Land 4 was sold to me, in part, as "it's got the same composer as Metroid II and you can really tell." A lot of the Sound Room songs, especially, are compositionally kind of reminiscent of the ambient pieces in Metroid II, just pushing this new hardware so much further than the GB could ever go, and the result is something magical on an unparallelled level. I genuinely enjoy the Sound Room music so, so much, it's beautiful music.
Thank you so much for this video. Wario Land 4's unique music style blew my mind as a kid, specially the sound room which literally introduced me to ambient/noise music.
i love wario ware and wario land 4's sounds, that echo the voices have in both games always stuck to me ever since the first time i played them and its super cool, both soundtracks are great too theyre just a very unique style anyone thats played Ware has Drifting Away stored in their heads
Fantastic video! I'm so glad to see someone finally did a deep dive on this game's sound design- something I'm very intrigued by myself. I've always loved this game's sound and music, but never been able to describe to anyone how or why it's so special and I feel like you did a great job of it
This video is incredible! Definitely going to be spending my winter break listening to all these albums and playing Wario Land 4 now. Thank you so much!
Thank you for making this video! I've loved Wario Land 4 since I was very young but only recently fully completed it for the first time. I was enamored with all of the sound test songs and how odd and experimental they were, so it's great to see someone else appreciate them and actually talk about the game's music in depth.
This is probably one of my favorite videos on the platform. Wario Land 4 is on my All Time Top 10 so it was especially interesting for me, learning about the work and influences that went into its music and sound (and now I have a bunch of new artists and albums to listen to, too).
This is one of the most well put together and interesting deep dives into a specific aspect of game design I have ever watched. All I have to say is well done.
Here's some avant garde artists the WL4 music room tracks reminded me of: John Cage Disco Volante era Mr. Bungle Early Negativland Bernard Parmegiani John Zorn Ground Zero Steve Roden Hope this helped! Nurse with Wound was a great pick.
i think i found my new favorite channel I loved playing wario land 4 when i was a kid, must have played it a dozen times and everytime i always found something new each gameplay; never thought i would find even more stuff about it years later amazing video!!
Warioland 4 is so under appreciated! It was that odd one out in my game boy advance collection, but I always come back to me for the nostalgic music. Thanks for giving it the spotlight! Oh and for the playlist, you should add “Freeze Frame” by The J. Gelis Band! The backing jingle is almost identical to Toy Block Tower
I'm so happy someone made a long form video about this. As weird as it sounds, I think Wario Land 4 inspired my whole taste in my music as I got older.
this was a really incredible video. i didn't expect to watch the whole thing, but the time truly flew by. this video also reminded me of a hobby i used to have when i was younger--i'd listen to a new album every single day. with such an amazing list of albums to choose from now, thanks to this great video, i think i have some new music to listen to :)
I liked the bizarre, unorthodox, sound room too. I have a theory some of the "music" in it were the R&D staff experimenting with the sound capabilities of the GBA. Funny enough, my Mom loved listening to the rain/swamp one on headphones. She found it relaxing. One thing you forgot to mention is the unlockable "Karaoke" song, (either by collecting all the gold crowns by getting a high coin score in every level, or by cheat code) though, it's just the Palm Tree Paradise theme, with an option to toggle the vocal lyrics on or off.
I am so happy this video exists. Not only is sound design undertalked about in general, in Wario Land 4 in particular it truly is worth discussing for 50 minutes. This video is a masterpiece.
You have no idea how grateful I am that this video exists. I am obsessed with WL4 ost and I love ambiant, experimental music. I am SO going to check out your recommendations! Amazing vid.
this video was outstanding in multiple ways, not just pacing,editing,humor, etc. but innovative thoughts and perspective shifts for something i and many of us grew up with. this game was one of the reasons why i loved the GBA but also one of the reasons why i love outlandish/esoteric music beeps and boops. along with the fact that i research for my videos and cannot begin to comprehend the time and dedication you spent researching, thinking, and writing for this sole video. i appreciate this project 1000% and you gained a new sub!
I think of Wario Land 4 as a capital A "Art" game on the level of like, Okami or Braid- stuff like that. It was really ahead of its time in terms of its presentation. Actually mentioning House was apt because it kind of does a similar thing; they both have this way of somehow making you more engaged by deliberately calling attention to their respective mediums in surreal and absurd ways. Also, I have no idea if it was actually influenced by it, but the song "Casting Agents and Cowgirls" by Busrider always sounded to me like it could have been.
Hey man, thanks so much for this video! I've never come across a video that so thoroughly analizes a music OST, BGM and sound effects and you know what, you've actually inspired me to start learning music myself! I've somewhat been toying with the idea of learning a music to become a composer for videogames, but never dared to actually jump in because I thought I'm too old (turning 28 this year). Your video kinda helped me decide that there is no point in not giving it a try, seeing how many interesting ideas and experiments can be done with a bit of skill and creativity, as was the case for this game. Even if I never get to the point where I can actually earn money by composing music, I still seems like a lot of fun to me!
Amazing video! Holy crap at the music comparisons and Lute for spotting all that! One song that really reminds me of WL4 is Captain Beefheart’s song Tropical Hotdog Night.
Holy SHIT the song at 22:53 HAS to be the inspiration (or sample) for the song Cell from Bomberman Hero. What a weird thing to come across in a totally unrelated video.
Tomorrow's Blood Pressure was a foundational track that's shaped my tastes for the majority of my life now. I can't really express how happy I am that this video exists. I saw the video you referenced and actually ended up buying a romdump cart just to have the game physically again after lol.
Was just searching for Wario content on a whim and found this video. Great stuff man! I really miss when Nintendo used to go out on a limb and experiment! Nowadays it seems like Wario is set in his WarioWare ways
Stellar video and well researched. I really appreciate how you didn't just critique or stop whenever you came to a halt, like how you tried to recreate the lead brass sound or went ahead and looked into the WarioWare franchise to rule out possibilities. I'm subbing!
Air's Moon Safari album reminds me a lot of the Mystic Lake music. Also, I had the idea to make a video exactly like this as I just started playing this game, I look it up and see you've already done it!!
Also Testpattern's Aprés Midi album reminds me of the music that occurs in the rooms before the boss fights. Especially "Ocean Liner". Could just be a coincidence and the composers using similar sound files as they are both making "midi music". More likely they were influenced by YMO who also influenced Testpattern (as they were on their label "Alfa Records"). If you like that sort of janky midi sound I would check out YMO and all the stuff on their label Alfa Records, the label that the haruomi hosono (in ymo as u probably know) record you mentioned was on. I have a bunch of reccs of good stuff that has a similar sort of sound, will have to look at my laptop tomorrow for them bc I'm bad at remembering names
Glad to see someone giving Wario Land 4's sound design the appreciation it deserves. It clearly had a ton of influence on the WarioWare series, particularly in some of the lyrical songs included in the GBA entries (specifically, that they made lyrical songs for the GBA games). If you're interested in classic console games with lyrical songs, a similarly impressive example is Tales of Phantasia for the SNES, which had a special chip in the cartridge specifically to enable the game to have a fair amount of voice acting, and the intro includes basically an anime theme song for the game, fully voiced. But, perhaps even more relevant to this topic is the PS1 game, moon. It was given a remaster on modern hardware a couple years back that is also its only official localization, and one of its main features is that, in lieu of a normal soundtrack, most areas in the game are devoid of BGM, and you instead get to make your own using purchasable CDs, or "Moon Discs". You can use your "Moon Disc Player" to arrange up to ten (IIRC) tracks into a playlist that will then play as long as you're not on one of the few screens with their own BGM. These Moon Discs were composed by various underground musicians and bands that played at local clubs the sound designers frequented. The designers themselves actually formed a band, the Thelonious Monkeys, and are credited as such in the game. Of course, the PS1's Redbook Audio codec meant that the moon discs basically sound like they would if they were actual CDs, so it's not as impressive from a technical standpoint, but it's possible that the concept is what inspired Wario Land 4's CD room.
This soundtrack has influenced me musically so much ever since i was a kid playing this. Here I am replaying it 20+ years later and this video is blowing my mind. Thank you. I knew I wasn't alone thinking that this game's music was special. 👍
Here's a potential influence: Taeko Ohnuki's Labyrinth. It's got that same sort of weird Hanayo vocal texture, but over a pop song. Really it sounds most like Dribble's Highway Jazz from Wario Ware to me.
My favorite use of adaptive or in this case "Interactive Music" is the LittleBigPlanet games, they let the players edit certain music pieces with sliders to edit the volume of instruments in the song.
I’ve never seen your channel before, but dude. That was a fantastic video. The humour, the dumb repeated deep cut jokes that were right up my alley, the editing, and above all the super interesting deep dive into musical inspiration for a wario game. Perfect video. Fantastic work
Using the scooby doo clip three times, the best my ass in the comments joke twice, the look guys look joke being used a few times.. repetitive humour is my jam man
Fantastic video, as someone that's missed out on a lot of Wario media growing up it's nice to see the love this series has! I lost it when you pointed out how the music slows down when he crouches.
The thing with Wario's weird, glitchy voice is that it was believable to me as a kid - he's a roided, immortal, greedy gremlin and his voice is just a result of his weirdness.
You.
You finally put what I had on my mind into words.
Yeah it sounds less like a robot in context it’s more like he just TWEAKING
Given the borderline surreal nature of WL4, The sheer all over the place nature of Wario's voice could be interpreted in many ways, like him laughing at the sheer audacity of something harming him, among other things, It gives off this idea that Wario is the strangest creature amidst all the weird worlds and characters inside the pyramid he raids through the game because of precisely your description of him, he is an inhumanly strong greedy immortal juggernaut who only really cares about getting his cash and will do whatever to get what he wants.
Wario is an underrated character. He hits that perfect sweet spot where he's fascinatingly repulsive but also charismatic enough to still be likeable.
He makes my heart go WEH
Pratchett calls that quality, where someone is fascinating because of how repulsive they are, 'charisn'tma'. It was Feet of Clay, I think.
Nitnedo's it's always sunny in Philadelphia
I'm writing his name on the next election ballot.
He is a sigma wth u saying
geno7 moment
thanks hazel for introducing me to this wonderful individual and this amazing video
the hazel apparition
Never expected you here
This is truly a geno7 moment!
YO HAZEL YOU LOVE UR VIDZZZZZZ!!!
Whenever Wario laughs after getting hit, I always interpreted it like Wario is SUCH a badass that he just shrugs off the pain like it's nothing, and even finds it amusing that the enemies think they can take him down. Like "Heeheheehee! I'm totally fine! That didn't hurt at all! Can't you do better than that?"
Same, in wario land 1-3, you pretty much can't die and he has a smile after getting burned in 3.
2-3 yes, 1 no
Like it tickles
@@ZNemerald Now that I think about it, wario also doesn't "die" in 4 when losing all HP, does he? It kicks him out of the world he's in, but the big man himself is no worse for wear.
And when he goes "Yeah!" I read that as him being sarcastic.
*gets hit*
Wario: "Yeah, Great job!"
10:07 i always liked interpreting wario's voice clips in this game as him basically like narrating over your gameplay instead of actually coming out of the in-game wario, and that whenever this happened i'd interpret it as wario mocking you for sucking at the game lol
Same actually
Same actually
I think wario in his games as a omniscient being
That was where I stopped watching, lmao. "Calling explicit attention to the medium" is such a contrived, high school English teacher-level stretch when in all likelihood they just wanted to show off what the GBA could do. Same way they threw voice clips onto everything you do in Super Mario Advance.
@@lime148 I there is a difference there. He did mention that Warioland 4 came out a few months after the GBA launched. And it probably could be a whole "show off what the GBA could do", but it doesn't really work in the Mario GBA games and Wario took it a different direction.
It was a whole "Hey, we could add Mario samples on top of the original gameplay" thing in the Mario games, but it didn't work there b/c it just... was all over the place and kinda annoying. You could say, in its own way, it pointed out the artificiality of the Mario GBA games, but in a really... obvious way.
Whereas Wario's "show off what the GBA could do" is very much a "Let's show the hardware off" in a much, MUCH different way. Let's do pitch-shifting, let's do some weird stuff, mix up which sample is played when hit, go nuts, go off. Where the Mario games just slapped the samples from previous games (and some new ones) and put them on to Super Nintendo graphics and called it a day, Wario said "No, it can't be this obvious".
In a way, you could also argue that Wario's voice and presence is much more immersive or believable because he isn't shouting "Just what I needed~!" whenever he gains a 1-up. He is loud, proud and in charge of the game.
Or maybe I just replied to bait.
Some people say that a perfect character can be written into any situation and still make it interesting. Wario is one of those characters. I would genuinely enjoy him in any genre, from horror to dating sim.
Never until now had I thought about how much I want a Wario dating sim. He is undeniably ugly by Japanese standards, so seeing how he overcomes this barrier would be awesome...
epic video dude, i’m super happy my silly little topsters chart was helpful!
lute jumpscare
You get it. Being part of the Wario fandom is a truly lonely and often misunderstood experience but this video made me feel less alone
The very first CD "About That Shepard" is obviously a direct reference to the KLF's Chill Out, which is an infamous obscure ambient album. The title even has the same sheep on the cover from the album in game. Very cool.
"Some people call him Worio, these people should be exiled from society" thank you for being brave enough to finally say it
and confident enough to lead with it
Worio, the great worrier
They got nothing on ppl who say "Merry-o"
@@EvilCrash3000Jimmy Fallon
My names Wario
I cannot adequately express how terrifying this game was to me as a 5 year old. In particular: the sound room, the bosses, and the "Hurry Up!" segments. I loved it, and played it all the time.
I had to eventually give it away because it gave me nightmares and night terrors and made me really disturbed and depressed for the very first time in my life. I gave it to a friend and he was dumbfounded, cuz video games were expensive back then
Hahahaha holy crap I thought I was the only one. Played the shit out of it anyway, too.
I remember a long while back reading the book "Game Design Companion: A Critical Analysis of Wario Land 4". In essence, the book seeks to deepen an understanding of game design by metaphorically wringing out WL4 for every bit of game design concept and philosophy that it could muster (did I mention that the book is also ~500 pages long?). But, I remember there was one section that stood out to me: the section on music & sound was extremely brief with the author lamenting that they didn't have the knowledge needed to accurately comment on that particular aspect of WL4's design. I've always wondered if someone would make a video like that; even to the point where I very briefly considered doing it myself.
While it seems that this video has different motivations to that of Game Design Companion, I can't help but compare the two. And, on the whole, I think I could easily see this as the "long-lost" section of that particular book. In particular, the parts of the video where you talk about Wario's voice & the surrealist sound design that went into it seem very much like a dead ringer to the kind of analysis that went into Game Design Companion.
Okay, comparisons to an obscure piece of VGM academia aside, I really enjoyed this video! I think the topic of musical inspiration as it relates to VGM is a critically under-discussed topic, and I hope this video can hopefully get people talking about it more. Kudos!
I'd love to read that.
Who is the author?
@@kommissar.murphy The author is Daniel Johnson
Any other recs for video game academia? I’m studying art history and i always wish i saw academic interpretive lenses being applied more to video games
Totally agree. Love this book! Highly recommended.
schizophrenia
I always figured Wario said "Yeah!" Or laughed when getting hit because for lack of a better term, he found it thrilling
46:45 actually, in the official japanese wario land 4 website, in a section called "ask wario" there is somebody asking for the lyrics of the ending song, which is given, so yeah, there is a official transcription of the ending lyrics! only on japanese though
It sounds like the gist of it remained intact for the localization. I don't know Japanese, but here's the google translation of that transcription if anyone's curious:
昨日 見た夢を溶かして、マクラに染み込ませて
置いてきた「時間」とも、仲直りして
砂に書いた物語は、風とたわむれ。
Melt the dream you saw yesterday and let it soak into the macra
Make up with the "time" you left behind
The story written in the sand is the wind and the play.
@@AbruptAvalanche macra (or rather, makura) is actually pillow in japanese
Wait a fucking second
The international version of the song is literally a direct response to these lyrics
Wario Land 4 is like a weird esoteric indie game that was somehow made by Nintendo, and that's why it rules so hard. I mean, what other Nintendo game can you say has musique concrète influences in it? Firmly one for us freaks and weirdos of the world. Sick video btw, I'm so glad it showed up in my recommended feed - how you don't have more views and subscribers yet is beyond me.
Pikmin comes pretty close imo
You can say the same about a lot, and I mean a lot of Nintendo games. Beatles, and Beach Boys songs have commonly been sampled, used as a base
@@fshoaps oh yeah, Mother is full of this stuff
@@noahsabadish3812 I suppose Beatles music isn't as cool as OP would like. Time to end my life...
6:15 WHAT
WHAT
WHAT
WHAT
lmao
The craziest thing is this engine was reused for Metroid games later in the lifespan of the console. Or at least Zero Mission.
I love how when it's about Treasure people either don't know who they are at all or hold them as one of the greatest videogame studios of all time if not the best (I'm one of the latter)
There actually is a diegetic reason why Wario's voice warbles in real time, he hasn't brushed his teeth in 40 days.
i think there's a chance that the sort of bouncy ball sound in "the judge's feet" could've been inspired by aphex twin's "bucephalus bouncing ball" and/or autechre's "drane2", both of which were released in the late 90's. they both do the same sort of thing and use it in a more musical-ish context, so i figured it's worth saying that it actually had been done before
ooh these are cool suggestions thanks
The best thing about those two tracks is that they were made as a statement to Afx and autechre, respectively, on who could do the best delay trick on a synth
Also sounds a little like Perpetuum by Monolake, which came out in 1999
That's a cool connection! It's hard to say what is the actual influence, but the bouncing ball rhythym is a classic in modular synth circles. It was originally a trick people learned on analog computers in like the late 60's and currently, because it's such a specifically historic synth trick, there are modular synth modules like ADDAC503 Marble Physics that are designed to recreate variations of that rhythm!
I don't think the lyrics of the credits theme are as ironic to Wario Land 4 as you think. Actually, I'm surprised you didn't draw the connection-- doesn't the ending cutscene show the pyramid disappearing beneath the earth (the proof of his fantastical adventure disappearing, becoming nothing but memories and melting into the pillow), while in the credits cutscene, his entire hoard of treasure evaporates into the sky-- like all he'd gathered had turned into sand?
I don't think the song's poetic lyrics are ironic to the concept of Wario Land 4 itself, rather it's a literal reconciliation with the ending scene and a message about how, even without any proof to show others that they were real (The pyramid and treasure have both disappeared), you should value your memories and experiences in a sort of journey-above-the-destination sort of way. Does a fantastical adventure that felt like it lasted a lifetime-- even if it only took place inside a dream, and you couldn't take your treasure with you, nor prove where you went and the things you did, nor maybe even fully recall the details- does it have any less value? Was it any less meaningful?
Perhaps you could say it's ironic in the sense that a message like this would be utterly lost on Wario 😋
Wario is Björk. Björk is Wario.
There needs to be a better way to find good shit like this aside from "youtuber I follow tweeted this". Your channel is godlike
I never thought this topic would ever be covered. Even as a kid I always knew there was something special and otherworldly about Wario Land 4's soundtrack and it's amazing to see people finally getting into this game and really experiencing all of it's glory.
Every song in this game is an ear-worm and the aesthetics of how each song is strung together, mixed with the simply "weird' aesthetic makes the game's sound truly hard to pinpoint. It's like "Island Steampunk" or something like that
Otherworldly is very fitting
I feel like the term "tracker music" is more fitting than "midi music" when describing the two types of modern music media used in games.
Hard agree. I have composed a bunch of tracker music myself.
@@FL4SHK Nice, what tracker software do you use?
@@Drozerix I mostly use OpenMPT, but I also make Game Boy music with hUGETracker
@@FL4SHK OpenMPT is nice, I use it for IT files -- I have never heard of hUGETracker though, must be a newer one. How good is it?
@@Drozerix It's pretty good, basically an OpenMPT-like tracker for writing Game Boy music
Wario land 4 and the first Wario ware had such a fantastic theme to it. It was quirky and silly, but with a wonderful attitude. Wario ware itself felt like an absurd celebration of the mundane.
Edit: the idea that Warios voice comes across as if remixed by a DJ is a great comparison. It adds to the funk aesthetic of the game
I really, really enjoyed this video! Now that Pizza Tower's out, I would absolutely LOVE a companion piece comparing the two game's soundtracks as well as a more in depth look at the other influences of that game's soundtrack. It's genuinely one of the greatest game soundtracks I've ever heard, and your analysis of it would be really cool!
yes please make a pizza tower video geno7!
28:52 Look, Ma! I'm on TV! :D
The added lyrics for the ending vocals of Hall of Hierogylphs aren't actually entirely original. They seem to be based on Medamayaki in some way.
Medamayaki:
"Let's go on foot"
"Whilst finding a fragment of the moon"
HoH Lyrics (seemingly):
"Collecting the moon stones as we walk"
Medamayaki also mentions clouds and the sea, while in the english ending lyrics I hear...
"pour avodaco sauce on a long strip cloud"
"the sky has no roof like the sea has no floor"
There was probably some inspiration taken.
It would be amazing if Nintendo ever remade this game and just used the original recordings of these vocals uncompressed, assuming they preserved them.
But yeah, amazing video, man! I appreciate your passion for the sound of this game a ton! This game's music and sound effects have been etched into my memory since childhood.
You probably already saw it, but I actually made an edit of the title theme using all the uncompressed vocals you mentioned, with Weario's HQ version of the music. It's on my channel.
Don't expect Wario Land to receive any major recognition from Nintendo anytime soon. Nintendo tarnished the legacy of the Wario Land series with Master of Disguise.
PS. I'm Austinator06302012, the same guy who commented on your DeviantArt profile.
Wario Land 4 is a genuine masterpiece, and I am so glad more people have been talking about this incredible series, especial how eclectic its' sounds are.
You've gotten yourself my respect, and a new sub. Keep up the great work, and have a lovely day.
I felt it was a step back even at the time merely because it has so few levels compared to the early games.
@@markussmedhus9717 I started off with Wario Land 3 in my childhood and adored it (I still personally believe it to be the best of the series), but I found Wario Land 4 a blast! I distinctly remember playing the same levels over and over again, trying to get the best score possible with friends.
I guess it really depends on what it is you're looking for in a game. I love Wario Land 3 for its' ambition, and how fun searching through each of the larger levels are, always finding something new in each one.
On the other hand, I love Wario Land 4 for how easy it is to pick up and play, easily being able to play through and achieve different things, in each run trying to continually optimise.
Either way, it's good to get others opinions on things such as games, and hear where their points are coming from. Hope you have a lovely day.
Even with less levels than its predecessors
In my opinion, they all felt more focused
The whole game did
Wario Land 3 is great, but when replaying it
The beginning always feels a bit like a slog for me, needing to unlock Wario's abilities
Wario Land 4 feels so snappy and arcadey, super satisfying to get better at with each replay.
@@JustDandyGuy
Unlocking abilities was the whole point of WL3 though. For as expensive as Nintendo games tend to be, I would have liked to see more content. Shake It was basically WL4 but with more levels (and less weirdnes, I'll give you that).
@Markus Smedhus something being "the whole point" of anything doesn't mean its automatically good or free from scrutiny
Shake It plays very different from 4, and the level design is very much no where near as strong unfortunately
The credits theme sounds akin to influence sprouting from inspiration. The first lines of the song, "Oh the dream-- that I had last night-- melted into my pillow" to me translate into a dream entering reality and influencing what you touch, in this case being the pillow you slept upon. And sure, perhaps the original vision of said dream may have faded away overtime ("And all I'd gathered turned into sand"), though what you accomplished is still there. It's something new, something only you could have crafted in this exact manner. Singing "I made peace with the time I had forgot" as if an acceptance of this thought.
In a bizzare manner, it almost describes Wario's journey throughout the game. He found out about some ancient treasure, pondered the thought of earning all that wealth for himself, and drove over to the exotic landmark safekeeping it all. What he managed to accomplish inside that pyramid in his specific way, is something only he could have accomplished. And if it's all driven by Wario's mindbogglingly simple endgoal of wanting more cash, that doesn't undermine his accomplishments in any way.
I suppose that's part of what makes Wario such a fasinating and atypical character. It's not so much about how Wario's motivations and aspirations change, rather what he's up to and how that shifts the world around him.
It is fucking insane to me how much Im discovering the influences this simple game I played as a child had on my musical tastes.
Thank you for shedding light on the Voice clips. I always thought they were the most badass echo-looped/pitched samples I ever heard and to hear they big-brain engineered it that they are mostly 2 clips combined makes it all the more impressive. Also the meta talk on how SilvaGunner’s legacy (which I never knew how to explain or categorize in my head) affects the community for this type of music related gaming content at large. Really didn’t expect all that from a Wario Land 4 video. I just clicked because this was my first GBA game and probably a top 5 game for all-time.
Incredibly stylish and interesting video as always! I loved what you said about the music demo screen I love stuff that’s presented so thoughtfully like that. Moon Remix RPG’s albums are in a really neat spot they’re all original music of various genres. You get most of them by flicking through album covers in a store and you can ask the seller for summaries. A handful of quests even rely on you having decent knowledge of the ost. It encourages listening and appreciating and I think that’s really special.
OH YEAH I forgot about the CDs in moon remix rpg I fuckin love those
@@geno7_ Did you know that some of the music and voice clips are used in Pizza Tower?
Such as the *"Hello there"* of Palmtree Paradise is used at the beginning of It's Pizza Time, and Wario's voice clips were in Cold Spaghetti
Now that it's out you should definitely go for the Pizza Tower sound design, the sound effects are hysterical and the sound goes so extremely hard for no reason and that's amazing
48:49 i actually went and tested this myself, and at least on the normal difficulty, this song does actually play on the SECOND worst ending, i.e having exactly one chest, not more, not less. It also plays a rendition of wildflower fields without sound effects, in fact, i'll just copy Gallant Goon's comment here, because i personally verified everything about it:
Depending on how many treasures you get, the credits music after the lyrical part changes to a different remix of a level's theme:
•Best Ending (all chests) - toy block tower, monsoon jungle
•2nd Best Ending (2-11 chests) - crescent moon village, doodle woods
•2nd Worst Ending (1 chest) - hall of hieroglyphs, wildflower fields
•Worst Ending (0 chests) - mystic lake, the big board
The video i got the info from:
ua-cam.com/video/aDJtLrdJo64/v-deo.html
How do you ONLY have 1k subscribers??? This is AMAZINGLY in-depth and well presented, and the various goofs and gaffes sprinkled throughout had me laughing the whole way. I've honestly watched this a few times over just for background audio after the first watch! This is super good!
with this game being my first actual videogame i ever played, wario's voice clips from 4 are fully integrated into my inner voice 😂
My brother hogged our Pokemon cartridges so this was the close to the only GBA game I played, still go back to it every year or so. The level layouts are burnt into my brain, so I feel you 😂
This is a pretty badass intro to gaming, I'd say! Wario is the most underrated Nintendo character ever
This game went hard in every aspect. They went above and beyond for its sound design and its really cool that they achieved so much in a tiny gba cartridge. Amazing vid
And fact the game was released in 2001 😮
The lyric of “all I had collected melted into sand” is really fitting since the very next scene shows Wario blowing all the money you had collected on an all you can eat buffet.
And so the cycle of collecting hoards of treasures begins again
This video is highly relevant to my interests and I'm very glad I clicked on it
You got mentioned on Vinny’s pizza tower stream! Congrats!
AWWW FUCK YEAH AN HOUR LONG WARIO LAND VIDEO ESSAY
43:38 No wonder why Wario Land 4 is such a good game. Yoshio Sakamoto, the developer behind various Metroid games, was the supervisor for this game.
It is in the same engine as the metroid gba games
I found this extremely interesting, as I played Metroid Fusion and Zero Mission at the time they came out but took years to finally play WL4 for the first time (2016-17 if I recall?).
Realising that these arcane, dark, moody science-fiction games that meant so much to my teenage self were literally reworked and remodelled versions of a surreal and goofy adventure starring a beefy, smelly, Italian thief - just made my day. 🤌
Well, supervised by a Sakamoto before he lost his touch, at the very least. Or by a Sakamoto who was still supervising a team of extremely talented devs.
Zero Mission and Fusion are some of my favorite games ever made, but man... the MercurySteam games do not even come close to what I love about the series...
@FANB how not? I think Dread did an especially incredible job, i would probably feel the same about Samus Returns had i played Metroid 2 a decade and a half ago, but i didnt so the glow up didnt have nearly as much time to fester in me
Supervisors don't really have much influence on a games overall design. They just make sure the project is going well and keep an eye from afar
Wario land 4 is so strange and experimental that it borderlines on being a horror game. I remember I would have to psych myself up before pressing the frog switch when I was younger. The bosses are weird and grotesque, some of the levels could be quite creepy, whether it be more conventional like the factory level because of how dark and brutal it is or the pinball level which I find creepy because of how over the top it looks, but above all else that CD room is a nightmare that I couldn't even comprehend as a child, I had never heard any sort of experimental music before so I really couldn't understand what I was listening to, but now I can appreciate the absurdity of releasing a full album within a Wario game.
31:39
Anytime anyone references The Three Stooges in any capacity in the modern day, it does my heart a hell of a lotta good
I like the idea that wario likes pain i mean he goes "aaaawwww yeaaaah!" when he gets shocked in strikers charged hes gotta be into it
I just stumbled across this channel via this video because of my love of Wario and all games he's in, and I'm incredulous at the production value here. It's such a well made, researched, presented and paced video that I can't believe how comparatively little attention it's gotten. You deserve a lot more!
I'd be really curious what you think of the sound design of the first WarioWare title.
It features the same composer, sound font and even a couple of the same compositions as Wario Land 4.
It has more vocal songs and since it's a Ware game, can get even more nuts with its musical styles and choices.
I mean it plays a friggin Enka song while you're playing microgames, for crying out loud, and it's played completely seriously!
Damn, this video was done in such a professional manner. I think this is the first video I have seen from you and I am very impressed: Extremely well researched, stays interesting throughout the whole duration and on topic, a few jokes here and there, and just everything sounded really professional. Well done! Thank you for teaching me something I never thought I cared for but that I could come to appreciate.
I love this game so much, thanks for making such an in-depth video about it
This is such a great video- I'm so happy to see so much love for this game that left such a huge impression on me as a kid (and i thought I was the only one), and not only that but this video has so much effort and insight into what makes it so special.
Loving this video! Great work! Hope to see more of these kinds of in depth analysis
wario land 4 is a personal favorite of my mine and was surprised to see how much work went into the audio alone. I also had been enjoying the spotify playlist as well
ryoji yoshitomi is one of my favorite composers and sound designers + programmers. metroid 2's audio changed the trajectory of my life as a child. it's great to see his work explored so deeply.
Wow. It's great to actually meet a fellow admirer of Ryoji's work, especially regarding Metroid II. A lot of people didn't appreciate the game's sound design, but it really inspired my imagination as a boy. None of the sequels or remakes (official or otherwise) ever came close to capturing that same unique style and abstract vibes of Ryoji's original. It was a beautiful thing.
@@klaymodopostoffice9885 huge agree. am2r and samus returns miss the mark completely in terms of both the general atmosphere and the sound direction.
@@SleepingCocoon You can blame Super Metroid and Metroid Prime for completely dominating the sound direction of the franchise. That is what people recognise as the 'Metroid sound'. It is a totally unrecognised loss for the series, because Ryoji was really onto something in Metroid II. It sounded truly alien (especially the weird jarring music in the ruins) and it overflowed with atmospheric potential, but they will never tap into that or build upon it, sadly.
@@klaymodopostoffice9885 i do like SM and Prime's sound quite a bit, but it's frustrating that a "metroid sound" was so quickly reified. such is AAA games, when something works, do it again.
hi I know this is like over a year old now, but I came to the comments specifically for this: Wario Land 4 was sold to me, in part, as "it's got the same composer as Metroid II and you can really tell." A lot of the Sound Room songs, especially, are compositionally kind of reminiscent of the ambient pieces in Metroid II, just pushing this new hardware so much further than the GB could ever go, and the result is something magical on an unparallelled level. I genuinely enjoy the Sound Room music so, so much, it's beautiful music.
Thank you so much for this video. Wario Land 4's unique music style blew my mind as a kid, specially the sound room which literally introduced me to ambient/noise music.
Such an incredibly put together video, was hooked the entire time, didnt realise a whole hour had gone by!
This is such a fantastic video, great editing, great concept and had me watching all the way through, keep up the good work man!
i love wario ware and wario land 4's sounds, that echo the voices have in both games always stuck to me ever since the first time i played them and its super cool, both soundtracks are great too theyre just a very unique style
anyone thats played Ware has Drifting Away stored in their heads
0:05 that plushie tho
Fantastic video! I'm so glad to see someone finally did a deep dive on this game's sound design- something I'm very intrigued by myself. I've always loved this game's sound and music, but never been able to describe to anyone how or why it's so special and I feel like you did a great job of it
This video is incredible! Definitely going to be spending my winter break listening to all these albums and playing Wario Land 4 now. Thank you so much!
Thank you for making this video! I've loved Wario Land 4 since I was very young but only recently fully completed it for the first time. I was enamored with all of the sound test songs and how odd and experimental they were, so it's great to see someone else appreciate them and actually talk about the game's music in depth.
This is probably one of my favorite videos on the platform. Wario Land 4 is on my All Time Top 10 so it was especially interesting for me, learning about the work and influences that went into its music and sound (and now I have a bunch of new artists and albums to listen to, too).
This is one of the most well put together and interesting deep dives into a specific aspect of game design I have ever watched. All I have to say is well done.
Great video man! Gonna be fun watching this channel grow. Keep up the amazing work
Here's some avant garde artists the WL4 music room tracks reminded me of:
John Cage
Disco Volante era Mr. Bungle
Early Negativland
Bernard Parmegiani
John Zorn
Ground Zero
Steve Roden
Hope this helped! Nurse with Wound was a great pick.
The whole game really reminds me of WarioWare before WarioWare
i think i found my new favorite channel
I loved playing wario land 4 when i was a kid, must have played it a dozen times and everytime i always found something new each gameplay; never thought i would find even more stuff about it years later
amazing video!!
Great pacing and editing made this video a blast to watch, THANK YOU
I never realized that the music slowed while you crouch, that explains some of my memories of the ost. Such a fantastic game and soundtrack!
BANGER VIDEO!!
Love this video! Helps me really appreciate one of my favorite games even more.
I'm so glad somebody covered this, I've been meaning to complete Wario Land 4 for years but always appreciated it's compressed sound effects and ost
Warioland 4 is so under appreciated! It was that odd one out in my game boy advance collection, but I always come back to me for the nostalgic music. Thanks for giving it the spotlight!
Oh and for the playlist, you should add “Freeze Frame” by The J. Gelis Band! The backing jingle is almost identical to Toy Block Tower
I'm so happy someone made a long form video about this. As weird as it sounds, I think Wario Land 4 inspired my whole taste in my music as I got older.
this was a really incredible video. i didn't expect to watch the whole thing, but the time truly flew by. this video also reminded me of a hobby i used to have when i was younger--i'd listen to a new album every single day. with such an amazing list of albums to choose from now, thanks to this great video, i think i have some new music to listen to :)
You are VERY underrated. Keep at it and your time will come
Thanks fot the amazing vid - what a cool lesson on sound design!
I liked the bizarre, unorthodox, sound room too. I have a theory some of the "music" in it were the R&D staff experimenting with the sound capabilities of the GBA.
Funny enough, my Mom loved listening to the rain/swamp one on headphones. She found it relaxing.
One thing you forgot to mention is the unlockable "Karaoke" song, (either by collecting all the gold crowns by getting a high coin score in every level, or by cheat code) though, it's just the Palm Tree Paradise theme, with an option to toggle the vocal lyrics on or off.
I am so happy this video exists. Not only is sound design undertalked about in general, in Wario Land 4 in particular it truly is worth discussing for 50 minutes. This video is a masterpiece.
You have no idea how grateful I am that this video exists. I am obsessed with WL4 ost and I love ambiant, experimental music. I am SO going to check out your recommendations! Amazing vid.
this video was outstanding in multiple ways, not just pacing,editing,humor, etc. but innovative thoughts and perspective shifts for something i and many of us grew up with. this game was one of the reasons why i loved the GBA but also one of the reasons why i love outlandish/esoteric music beeps and boops. along with the fact that i research for my videos and cannot begin to comprehend the time and dedication you spent researching, thinking, and writing for this sole video. i appreciate this project 1000% and you gained a new sub!
I think of Wario Land 4 as a capital A "Art" game on the level of like, Okami or Braid- stuff like that. It was really ahead of its time in terms of its presentation. Actually mentioning House was apt because it kind of does a similar thing; they both have this way of somehow making you more engaged by deliberately calling attention to their respective mediums in surreal and absurd ways.
Also, I have no idea if it was actually influenced by it, but the song "Casting Agents and Cowgirls" by Busrider always sounded to me like it could have been.
You succeeded at what I failed to do for 5 years: get my husband to finally listen to Björk. Wanted to thank you for that !
God you're blowing up, man, I'm so friggin' happy for you!!!
Hey man, thanks so much for this video! I've never come across a video that so thoroughly analizes a music OST, BGM and sound effects and you know what, you've actually inspired me to start learning music myself! I've somewhat been toying with the idea of learning a music to become a composer for videogames, but never dared to actually jump in because I thought I'm too old (turning 28 this year).
Your video kinda helped me decide that there is no point in not giving it a try, seeing how many interesting ideas and experiments can be done with a bit of skill and creativity, as was the case for this game. Even if I never get to the point where I can actually earn money by composing music, I still seems like a lot of fun to me!
Amazing video! Holy crap at the music comparisons and Lute for spotting all that! One song that really reminds me of WL4 is Captain Beefheart’s song Tropical Hotdog Night.
Ohh yeah I def hear what you mean
Holy SHIT the song at 22:53 HAS to be the inspiration (or sample) for the song Cell from Bomberman Hero. What a weird thing to come across in a totally unrelated video.
wow damn you're right
What a well-edited and fantastic video. Brilliant work!
Tomorrow's Blood Pressure was a foundational track that's shaped my tastes for the majority of my life now.
I can't really express how happy I am that this video exists. I saw the video you referenced and actually ended up buying a romdump cart just to have the game physically again after lol.
Was just searching for Wario content on a whim and found this video. Great stuff man! I really miss when Nintendo used to go out on a limb and experiment! Nowadays it seems like Wario is set in his WarioWare ways
Stellar video and well researched. I really appreciate how you didn't just critique or stop whenever you came to a halt, like how you tried to recreate the lead brass sound or went ahead and looked into the WarioWare franchise to rule out possibilities. I'm subbing!
Such a great video, your addition of humor adds a lot to it too! Love ya ❤
Air's Moon Safari album reminds me a lot of the Mystic Lake music. Also, I had the idea to make a video exactly like this as I just started playing this game, I look it up and see you've already done it!!
Also Testpattern's Aprés Midi album reminds me of the music that occurs in the rooms before the boss fights. Especially "Ocean Liner". Could just be a coincidence and the composers using similar sound files as they are both making "midi music". More likely they were influenced by YMO who also influenced Testpattern (as they were on their label "Alfa Records"). If you like that sort of janky midi sound I would check out YMO and all the stuff on their label Alfa Records, the label that the haruomi hosono (in ymo as u probably know) record you mentioned was on. I have a bunch of reccs of good stuff that has a similar sort of sound, will have to look at my laptop tomorrow for them bc I'm bad at remembering names
Glad to see someone giving Wario Land 4's sound design the appreciation it deserves. It clearly had a ton of influence on the WarioWare series, particularly in some of the lyrical songs included in the GBA entries (specifically, that they made lyrical songs for the GBA games).
If you're interested in classic console games with lyrical songs, a similarly impressive example is Tales of Phantasia for the SNES, which had a special chip in the cartridge specifically to enable the game to have a fair amount of voice acting, and the intro includes basically an anime theme song for the game, fully voiced.
But, perhaps even more relevant to this topic is the PS1 game, moon. It was given a remaster on modern hardware a couple years back that is also its only official localization, and one of its main features is that, in lieu of a normal soundtrack, most areas in the game are devoid of BGM, and you instead get to make your own using purchasable CDs, or "Moon Discs". You can use your "Moon Disc Player" to arrange up to ten (IIRC) tracks into a playlist that will then play as long as you're not on one of the few screens with their own BGM. These Moon Discs were composed by various underground musicians and bands that played at local clubs the sound designers frequented. The designers themselves actually formed a band, the Thelonious Monkeys, and are credited as such in the game. Of course, the PS1's Redbook Audio codec meant that the moon discs basically sound like they would if they were actual CDs, so it's not as impressive from a technical standpoint, but it's possible that the concept is what inspired Wario Land 4's CD room.
Found your playlist for this on spotify.
Thanks!!!
This soundtrack has influenced me musically so much ever since i was a kid playing this. Here I am replaying it 20+ years later and this video is blowing my mind. Thank you. I knew I wasn't alone thinking that this game's music was special. 👍
Here's a potential influence: Taeko Ohnuki's Labyrinth. It's got that same sort of weird Hanayo vocal texture, but over a pop song. Really it sounds most like Dribble's Highway Jazz from Wario Ware to me.
My favorite use of adaptive or in this case "Interactive Music" is the LittleBigPlanet games, they let the players edit certain music pieces with sliders to edit the volume of instruments in the song.
I’ve never seen your channel before, but dude. That was a fantastic video. The humour, the dumb repeated deep cut jokes that were right up my alley, the editing, and above all the super interesting deep dive into musical inspiration for a wario game. Perfect video. Fantastic work
Using the scooby doo clip three times, the best my ass in the comments joke twice, the look guys look joke being used a few times.. repetitive humour is my jam man
Fantastic video, as someone that's missed out on a lot of Wario media growing up it's nice to see the love this series has! I lost it when you pointed out how the music slows down when he crouches.
Wario Land 4 is what inspired my love of sound design. The GBA snapped with this one!