Soapbox features enable our individual writers and contributors to voice their opinions on hot topics and random stuff they've been chewing over. Today, Scott ponders how Mario's nemesis number 2 deserves more respect...
In the conversation of all-time great video games you have many Nintendo faces who show up near enough every time; Super Metroid, Ocarina of Time, most main-series Super Mario games. And while all of those live up to their high praise and deserve to be mentioned amongst the greats, there are many Nintendo titles that unjustly don't get mentioned in that conversation. Games like Rhythm Paradise Megamix and Kid Icarus: Uprising, which — despite them being tremendous experiences — very rarely make the cut. While I could argue with you over how fantastic those two games are, I’m here to talk about another, which, despite a cult following and even receiving very positive review scores at the time, is rarely brought up in all-timer conversations: Wario Land 4.
Wario Land 4 is the fifth Wario Land game, released in 2001 on the Game Boy Advance, five months after the launch of the system. While I’m advocating specifically for this game, the series up to this point was no slouch either. Wario Land 2 and 3 are considered amongst the best Game Boy Color games, and Virtual Boy Wario Land is seen by many as the sole redeeming entry in the small software library of Nintendo’s migraine-inducing machine.
The core of the series features our beloved treasure-obsessed hunk as he explores a variety of different areas in search of treasure. While its lineage began with the third entry in the Super Mario Land series, Wario Land ended up somewhere in the middle of Mario and Metroid thanks to its increased focus on exploration.