Shake It Up!

Wario has been a mainstay of Nintendo gaming since his excellent debut in Super Mario Land 3 for Game Boy. In fact, there are now two Wario franchises: Wario Land and WarioWare, which are both totally different, but totally amazing series.

Last year, Nintendo released the latest of its Wario Land games, Wario Land Shake It! for Wii. You hold the Wii remote sideways, and if you give it a good jostle, Wario will punch the ground, shaking the level, which can trigger switches, set off bombs, and make enemies lose their balance.

The most notable trait of this game is the hand-drawn animation. Everything is very cartoony, and fluidly animated. It looks very nice, and helps add to the already absurd style of Wario games. Also, the controls are really good. If you pick up a dazed enemy or a bag of money, you can shake them (by shaking the Wii remote, of course) and see what comes out.

The game also features some anime-ish cutscenes to give the story a little more meat. Anime's not really my style, but it's always nice to see they put the extra effort to have things like that. Also, they have Wario in them, so they're automatically hilarious.

There are plenty of levels to play (nearly 30, I believe), and each one has its own hidden treasures to find and missions to complete. Some of the missions are easy, like shake garlic out of five enemies. Some of the missions are nearly impossible, like collect nearly every coin in the whole level, or complete the level without getting hurt once. Either way, the missions add lots of depth to an already fairly-deep game.

As we all know, the music in a game is extremely important. If the music sucks, it can tarnish the entire experience. Wario Land games have typically had really good music. This one... not quite as good. I'm not gonna say the music is terrible, because it's not. It just doesn't always fit the mood. Some level musics are better than others, but overall the music could have been better. It's certainly not a deal breaker, but it could have been better.

But that's really the only place where the game doesn't really shine. The levels are very well designed (some nice nods to the best Wario Land game ever), and there are some truly hilarious moments, especially in the boss fights. I've gotta say, these are some of the best boss fights of any Wario game (or any game for that matter) that I've ever played. Pure hilarity.

All in all, it's a great game, and one that Nintendo fanboys (such as myself) should add to their collection without question. Everyone else should become a Nintendo fanboy and then reread this paragraph.

Pros:

• Classic Wario Land action!
• Excellent level design
• Good controls

Cons:

• The music could have been better
• Some of the submarine levels are overly difficult
• Some of missions are near impossible

This game has earned a Blatantly Biased: