Of course, his greed was barely visible in his original state. As the star of a couple Game Boy games, his colorful personality and bright yellow shirt was downgraded to a colorless monochrome image.

But he needn’t worry about his lack of pizzazz any longer. Wario, the man who was once covered in gold bling for a magazine ad, is starring in his first action/adventure since his 2.5D release on GameCube. This sequel – titled Wario Land: Shake It! – is a true follow-up to his side-scrolling days on the Game Boy. The quirky mini-games of WarioWare are nowhere to be found in this adventure, instead giving players a full-fledged “game” to conquer.

They’re Always After Me Lucky Charms

The first thing you’ll notice about this Wii-exclusive Wario Land is that the animation quality is considerably high. There aren’t very many animations per character, which is very noticeable when playing through a level more than once. But at first viewing you will be amazed. The character models are presumably sprites, but their detail and fluidity is that of a high-quality anime. It’s not just the way the characters move but the way their colors show up on screen. They aren’t mere sprites with great animations, they actually look like they came from a cartoon. It’s not on the level of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker and it’s not supposed to be. Shake It! uses another effect that impresses in an entirely different way.

Wario Land’s gameplay obviously wouldn’t be here without its plumber predecessor, but it’s clear from the beginning that Nintendo did not want this to be a Mario clone. As expected, you hold the Wii remote sideways like an NES game pad, with the 1 and 2 buttons supplementing A and B. Wario feels very different from Mario and Luigi. He doesn’t run, he charges forward for a brief dash. He can’t double jump. He can butt-stomp his way through ground barriers but must be several feet in the air to gain enough power for them to break.

Enemies can be stomped on but none of them will die as a result. To finish them off, you’ll have to dash forward after they’ve been stunned (from a dash or stomp) or throw them into another enemy. Wario has a much stronger arm than Mario, allowing him to throw in multiple directions. When holding an object or enemy, press and hold the 1 button to bring up the targeting arrow, which is controlled by tilting the Wii remote. Release the 1 button to throw whatever Wario is holding.

Not surprisingly, this function is brought into the puzzle aspect of the game, which has you throwing objects at slightly hidden switches to unlock doors, turn on conveyers and make hidden blocks appear to access some of the game’s hard-to-reach areas.

Pound for Pound

In addition to Mario-esque features, Wario has a few tricks of his own, including a handy ground stomp feature that knocks some sense into dumb enemies. Unleash this move just by shaking the Wii remote when Wario’s pound meter is full (it replenishes on its own every time the move is executed). This is cool because enemies aren’t the only ones affected by this ground-shaking feature. If you’re trying to reach a high platform and there’s a block teetering above, you can pound the ground to shake it loose. You can also use this move to free large icicles and raise or lower ground-affected platforms (which move with every pound).

Other than that, motion functionality is kept to a minimum. Shaking the remote while holding enemies may shake something out of them, such as a bag of coins (which must also be shaken) or a health replenishing item. You’ll also use the remote to steer (tilt left and right) in the side-scrolling submarine stages.

Wario Land’s mesh of easy (but different from Mario) controls and interesting graphic designs are very appealing. Boss battles are cool and creative, as is the timed restriction, which forces you to exit each level as quickly as possible after reaching a certain point. In these respects, Shake It! delivers the same level of quality you’d expect from a Nintendo-published action/adventure.

The few areas that disappoint, however, are fairly significant. Starting with the currency system, players must collect a specific number of coins to unlock new stages. This is nothing new to action/adventure fans, but it’s a little tedious when playing through the game for the first time. Whereas most action/adventures let you skip around, Wario Land forces you to unlock entire worlds (each with four stages) before continuing the adventure. So if you finish every open stage but don’t have enough coins to buy the next world, you’ll have to play through them again to earn additional funds.

Shake It! is overflowing with extra collectibles and side missions to complete, mainly in the form of treasure chest items and golden enemies that need to be eliminated. Some are very well hidden – others are as obvious as a cactus in a desert. The thing is, completing these missions and finding extra items is less fun than in other Nintendo games. Many require you to jump in a special pipe that shoots Wario out one side, giving him a tremendous (and continuous – until he crashes) speed boost. The boost enables him to blast through special barriers. When rushing through a stage, it’s very easy to make a mistake and run into something impervious, putting an end to Wario’s speedy run. This is very frustrating because you’ll often have to attempt the same mission 15 or 20 times before getting it right.

It’s also important to note that, despite the many extras, Shake It! is a relatively short game. You can plow through most of it in a night, albeit without unlocking any bonuses. That may be too short for players used to the recent crop of Wii adventures (Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime, Paper Mario, etc.). But it’s still longer and more challenging than the quirky WarioWare games.