Wario Land: The Shake Dimension

Wario Land: The Shake Dimension! Wario Land: Shake It!
European box art
Developer(s)	Good-Feel
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Director(s)	Madoka Yamauchi
Producer(s)	Takahiro Harada Etsunobu Ebisu
Composer(s)	Tomoya Tomita
Platform(s)	Wii
Release date(s)	JP July 24, 2008 NA September 22, 2008 AUS September 25, 2008 EU September 26, 2008
Genre(s)	Platforming
Mode(s)	Single-player
Rating(s)	ACB: PG CERO: A ESRB: E PEGI: 7+

Wario Land: The Shake Dimension, known as Wario Land: Shake It! in North America and as Wario Land Shake (ワリオランドシェイク) in Japan, is a video game for the Wii video game console. It is the sixth game to be released in the Wario Land series. It is also the first home console Wario Land game and the first new Wario Land game in nearly 7 years, the last one being Wario Land 4, which was released in 2001. By the same token, it was the first appearance of Wario antagonist Captain Syrup since Wario Land II.

The game was developed by the Japanese company Good-Feel, headed by Shigeharu Umezaki, the former CEO of Konami's now-defunct Kobe branch. It includes an animated opening and ending, created by anime studio Production I.G. This is the first game in the series to feature hand-drawn graphics rather than pixelated sprites.

Wario Land: The Shake Dimension follows the graphical style of earlier Wario Land games on the Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Virtual Boy, and Game Boy Advance. The player holds the Wii Remote sideways and shakes it to attack enemies and perform special moves. These include grabbing items and enemies and shaking them to produce coins, and spinning on bars to flip upwards.

Gameplay

Wario Land: The Shake Dimension is a platform game and uses a similar gameplay style to that of Wario Land 4. The Shake Dimension (called Yuretopia in the Japanese version) is split into five continents. Each continent holds six stages (4 standard, 2-3 hidden) and a boss. It is Wario's duty to complete the stages and defeat the bosses at the end of the continent: Rollanratl, Hot Roderick, Chortlebot, Bloomsday (called Scumflower in the European version), Large Fry, and the Shake King. Most stages have secret passages and each contains three treasure chests and several sub-missions; i.e. gathering a certain amount of coins, finishing the stage in a certain amount of time, not taking any damage, etc. Wario's main goal is to free the Merfles, a small character who is trapped in every stage. Once Wario has collected him, he must back track through the stage in a limited time (this is not applicable in Subwarine levels). The Merfles hold signs that help you get back to the starting gate.

The main way to progress through the game is to collect as much treasure as possible, generally done by finding sacks of money and shaking the coins out of them. The player can also shake stunned enemies to get health recovery items. When enough money is collected, Wario can purchase maps to unlock new levels, recovery potions to recover his health, and life vessels to extend his maximum health. Wario has a variety of moves ranging from his trademark shoulder charge to a butt stomp. By shaking the Wii Remote he can perform a punch that stuns on-screen enemies and raises certain obstacles. When running into a stunned enemy, he can either shake it to receive items or throw it by aiming with the Wii Remote. Some areas leading to hidden treasure are only accessible by using methods presented on the race back to the start, like using Max Fastostity Dasherators to break through metal barriers and cross long gaps.

Plot

Within an ancient globe exhibited at a museum, there is another world called The Shake Dimension. The Shake Dimension's peace is shattered by the marauding pirate Shake King. Queen Merelda and her Merfle subjects are imprisoned and Shake King claims the legendary “Bottomless Coin Sack”, which spits out coins when shaken. Female pirate Captain Syrup observes The Shake Dimension's crisis from the outside world. Desiring the legendary treasure, she steals the Ancient Globe and sends it to Wario to avoid the actual work of stealing it. Wario prepares to raid the kingdom when one of the Merfles 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, likely not interested by the rescuing as much as by obtaining the Bottomless Coin Sack. He works his way through the worlds collecting various, yet odd, treasures. Eventually he fights the Shake King and defeats him. When Queen Merelda thanks Wario for saving her kingdom, Wario holds her in his arms, giving the impression that he is going to kiss her. However, he throws her aside instead and takes the Bottomless Coin Sack which he takes home and shakes endlessly to his pleasure. Just then Captain Syrup arrives at his place and takes the bag from his hands. Merfle then nervously reveals that he had promised Captain Syrup the bag as long as she could ask for Wario's help in the first place. The story ends with Wario chasing Merfle around his house.

Reception

Wario Land: The Shake Dimension received a score of 8.4 out of 10 from IGN and a score of 31 out of 40 from Famitsu. Nintendo Power gave a score of 8.0. X-Play gave the game a four out of five, praising the gameplay, but calling the constant shaking of the Wii-remote tedious and repetitive. Gamespot gave it 7.5/10, praising the beautiful art style and fun gameplay, but criticizing the gimmicky motion controls also stating how the game was a tad too short spanning only fifteen levels but only replay value for the three objects to collect. Hardcore Gamer gave it 4.25/5, saying the highs completely overshadow the lows. It was nominated for multiple Wii-specific awards by IGN in its 2008 video game awards, including Best Platform Game and Best Artistic Design.

Wario Land: The Shake Dimension entered Japanese sales charts as the eighth best-selling game of the release week at 25,000 copies. The game eventually slipped several places on the charts, but climbed back to tenth place for the week ending August 21, 2008. Japanese sales of the game reached approximately 114,263 units by the end of 2008, according to Media Create. As of December 2008, Wario Land: The Shake Dimension sold about 150,000 copies in the United States.

External links

• Official Website
• Official US Website
• Official Minisite
• Official Website (Japanese)
• YouTube promotional web site