Wario: Master of Disguise playthrough log

I played this for the first time today... got through the first 2 stages in about 1.5 hours..

The gameplay itself isn't bad... but holy shit this game has WAY too much talking. I just want to explore and move on, but the game keeps on interrupting me with lengthy dialog scenes... and it's not like in a Paper Mario game where the dialog is actually entertaining. here it's just a really mediocre story about Wario creating a device that lets him go into a TV show and steal the spotlight from a thief character.. he steals the thief's magic wand that lets him transform, and then uses it to look for treasure. also the wand is a character who accompanies Wario and gives you tutorials on pretty much everything.

It's basically just a Metroidvania style puzzle platformer, with the world divided into several stages where you explore and collect treasure while finding your way to the main objective... Each treasure chest has a random minigame that you have to complete in order to open it. These are kinda like Mario Party minigames that use the touch screen, and they only take 30 seconds or so to complete. Some of the treasures you find will give you a new disguise power. You have to switch between disguises by drawing a shape ontop of Wario, which seems really pointless, it could've just been done with a pause menu.

Each disguise has its own ability that lets you get to places you couldn't before. The main thief disguise lets you jump high and tackle. The astronaut disguise lets you shoot lasers and have low floaty jumps... I hate the artist disguise, it makes Wario stand still in front of a canvas and lets you draw a block anywhere on the screen to use as a stepping stone. This ability is used a lot in stage 2 and it gets REALLY tedious when you are backtracking trying to find out where to go. There are also upgrades for each disguise that you supposedly unlock by collecting enough gems, but I haven't gotten that far yet.

Even ignoring the annoying boring cutscenes, this game is nowhere near as good as the Wario Land games. The puzzles are very simple and just more of a time sink than an actual challenge.

Wario Land 3 - high replay log

high session 1: 9/23/2014

Wario finds a music box, and gets transported inside it. The god that protects this world tells him about a wicked being that sealed away his power, and took control. Wario needs to find the 5 music boxes needed to break the seal, only then can he be sent back to his own world.

Graphics are mostly the same as 2...
Controls are almost exactly the same, but at the start you can't ground pound, can't pick up enemies, can't swim (only float), can't high-jump or bounce high off enemies... probably new abilities later on.
Enemies look different now... Captain Syrup's crew is no longer part of the story.
Taking damage doesn't make you lose coins... instead there's a lot of knockback and stun time... now coins aren't as plentiful and you don't get coins from the respawning enemies.
Looks like each level has 4 keys unlocking the grey/red/green/blue treasures, and 8 music coins...

Getting a treasure ends the level, looks like I can only get the grey treasure and 2 music coins at N1 right now.

Also it changes from night to day each time you go back to the world map... stages are different depending on the time...
N2 has zombies at night, and the normal enemies are asleep and wake up when you get near them... at day it has donut throwing enemies.

N3's grey treasure was the last piece needed to open the door to the Western part of the world

W1 Desert Ruins - at night, the path to the red chest is open, in the day, you can get to the grey chest...
yeah, coins are MUCH more sparse now... I'm actually destroying any block I can find hoping for grey coins.

Wario Land II - high replay log

Captain Syrup's henchmen broke into Wario's castle, stole some of his money, then flooded the place.

- instead of dying/shrinking from getting hit or dying from falling in pits, you can't die at all in this. getting hit only makes you lose coins, and falling in a pit always leads you to another area that you can return from.

- instead of powerups that you keep until you get hit or find a different powerup... you have stuff like
"being on fire until you touch water"
"being flattened and gliding through the air like paper, until a bat unflattens you"
"being a fatass that crushes certain blocks and makes certain platforms fall, until you walk off the extra fat"
"being a zombie and can't jump until you walk into light"

- instead of collecting treasures as a main goal, and coins as secondary... you're just collecting as many coins as possible while finding the one indistinguishable door that leads to a minigame (that costs coins) to win the treasure of that level... as well as post-level minigames to win pieces of a map...

- there's no level select... and there doesn't seem to be a way back into a previous level if to get a treasure/map piece that you missed...

- the enemies respawn, so it's always possible to grind for coins to meet the requirement for the next treasure/map...

Chapter 1: One Noisy Morning

Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 - high replay log

Instruction manual summary:

Wario can turn 10 coins into a weapon to throw... I forgot all about that. Some doors need a 10-coin weapon to open them.
- Small Wario: same as when Mario defeated derp Wario at the end of SML2.
Jet Pot: Jet Wario - Peach's glide combined with body slam
Bull Pot: Bull Wario - stronger body slam, can stick to ceilings
Dragon Pot: Dragon Wario - destroy things with fire instead of body slam
- any pot or garlic changes Small Wario to normal Wario, then to Jet, then Bull, then Dragon
- hearts are now like coins, 1up for every 100 of them, contrasting SML's heart=1up and 100coin=1up... now coins are for the game's ending cutscenes
- keys, skull doors leading to treasure rooms. treasure also goes toward the ending cutscenes
- all the world names of Pirate Island are named after food...
- there are harmless enemies that are basically like coin bags for Wario

high playthrough summary:

Rice Lake... stage 3 is the only one with treasure somewhere.. stage 5, enemies already getting harder now. this boss is probably a good/easy way to grind coins

Mt. Teapot
course 8 has a secret exit leading to Sherbet Land

Virtual Boy Wario Land - high playthrough log

Starting this playthrough during high session. I've never played this before.

14 levels... apparently there's a hidden treasure to find in each, except for the boss levels...

Intro cutscene... Wario notices some masked monsters taking treasure into a cave behind a waterfall... the door closes... 10 paintings in the wall pop out and scatter...

I'm missing the treasure from stage 3... I was sure I used fire on every wall and bumped every ceiling I could... this might be harder to 100% than I thought.

wow... I can't figure out the timing to hit this first boss... sometimes got lucky, but not lucky enough to hit him 3 times. actually, couldn't I go back to an earlier level, grab a dragon powerup, backtrack to the elevator, then kill this boss easily? of he's vulnerable to fire, that is... Wario Land bosses usually only have one way to hit them.

at a game over... a bat takes one of your treasures away so you have to go back and get it again.