Article by: Dan
Editing by: Wii60FTW

The Wario Land games have always been in the shadow of their more successful counterpart, the Mario Land series. But whilst Mario is off exploring Galaxies, Wario (described by Nintendo as ‘the smelly, bad-mannered alter ego of Mario’) decided to hold back and let Bowser be the bad guy once again.

So, after 2007’s popular title, WarioWare: Smooth Moves, we find Wario in his second appearance on the Wii.

The story goes:
‘Within an Ancient Globe (an old, giant globe exhibited at a museum), there is another world called Yuretopia (“yure” = tremor/shaking). Yuretopia’s peace is shattered by the marauding pirate Shay King. Queen Melfull and her Melfull subjects are imprisoned. Not only that, Shay King claims the legendary treasure “Deldel Purse,” which spits out coins whenever it is shaken. Captain Maple Syrup, the female pirate, observes Yuretopia’s crisis from the outside world. Setting her eyes on the legendary treasure but with no desire of doing the dirty work herself, she steals the Ancient Globe and sends it to Wario. True to form, Wario prepares to raid the beleaguered kingdom when Queen Melfull escapes to the outside world in hopes of finding help. Beseeched by the Queen to become a hero to the kingdom, Wario sets off to Yuretopia where the promise of vast treasures beckons.’ – From Wikipedia.

Screenshots of the game are few and far-between to this point, but from what has been released, we can see that the game will be a side-scrolling 2D platformer. Holding the Wii Remote sideways a-la Super Paper Mario, the player can control Wario using the standard face buttons. However, shaking the Wii Remote will allow him to attack his enemies, empty bags of treasure, and cause earthquakes.

Players will be able to play through levels several times, unlocking more missions, collecting more coins or just trying to get through it quicker than last time!

Potentially interesting are the cutscenes. Cutscenes are an integral part of most games, and the cutscenes in this game appear to be fully animated cartoons. It’s difficult to tell from a screenshot, but we can always hope.

The game is being developed by Good-feel, Co. Ltd, and is being published by Nintendo.

Wario Land: Shake It! Hits stores in Japan on July 24, Europe on September 26, and North America on September 29.

Update: On July 3rd, GoNintendo released gameplay footage. We can see Wario in a variety of levels, including Aztec, Egyptian, Snowy, Underwater, A Rocky Waterfall and an underground mine level. All pretty standard levels for a plaformer to have, but Wario also seems to have vehicles for each level, which is something that we didnt know before.

The trailer shows Wario riding in Submaries, Rockets, One-wheeled Mine Carts and even inside a snowball.