Wario Land: Shake It!
Developer: Good-Feel
Publisher: Nintendo
Original System: Wii
System Played On: Wii U
Rating: 3 stars
On September 3, 2025, I defeated the Shake King, thus finishing Wario Land: Shake It for the Nintendo Wii (played via the background compatibility of my Wii U). In my playthrough, I collected 74% stages, 43% treasures and 11% missions. And I did it all in 10 2/3 gameplay hours over a span of a little over about 2 months.
Wario Land: Shake It deserves all the praise it has received for it aesthetic. Wario Land: Shake It decided to go with an anime art style, and it's beautiful, gorgeous enough to rival a Studio Ghibli film. Even more impressive, Wario Land: Shake It uses its anime art style in both cutscenes and in gameplay, and the game smoothly transitions between the two of them. Even current gen consoles using photorealistic graphics in both their cutscenes and gameplay still have jarring noticeable differences between cutscenes and gameplay, yet a 7th gen console (and the Wii, as opposed to the PS3 or Xbox360, nonetheless!) using an anime art style can somehow do it. Seriously, this game is so stunning visually, that I sometimes forgot I was playing a video game, and I thought I was watching an anime movie or television show. For that alone, I would recommend this game to any otaku or weeb!
Although not praised as much yet still praised a lot, Wario Land: Shake It deserves all the praise it has received for its soundtrack. Seriously, I haven't hear so much music genre variety since Paper Mario: Color Splash (yeah, I know Paper Mario: Color Splash came after Wario Land: Shake It, but that's not the order I played them)! Furthermore, all the songs on the soundtrack are well orchestrated, instead of relying on some kind of computer synthesizer. My only complaint about the soundtrack is that the music did not always match the theme of the level, but unless actively listening for that incompatibility, nobody will notice. I personally did not notice until other reviews brought it up to me.
Not receiving praise yet it should, Wario Land: Shake It deserves praise for its screen use. See, Wario Land: Shake It came out in 2008, a year in which media outlets and consumers alike transitioned from the 4:3 ratio CRTVs to 16:9 ratio HDTVs. Video game designers, not knowing which TV their consumers owned, had to somehow account for owners of both types of televisions. Some developers would simply make the game only in the 4:3 ratio, leaving gamers on a 16:9 ratio HDTV with black void columns to the left and to the right (see WarioWare: Smooth Moves, for example). Likewise, some designers would add a static border, which is just a step up from the black void. Other developers would simply stretch out a 4:3 ratio to a 16:9 ratio for those using HDTVs, but that would distort the picture. Other designers would extend the visable screen for those using HDTVs, but with a game primarily made with the 4:3 ratio of CRTVs in mind, seeing extra screen adds little to no benefit to gameplay. Wario Land: Shake It solves this problem in an interesting way. The developers designed the game in 4:3 ratio for gamers still gaming on a CRTV, but for the players playing on the 16:9 ratio of HDTV, to the left and the right of the gameplay screen are borders that keep track of treasures and missions. Again, those gaming on 4:3 CRTVs miss out on nothing, and those playing on 16:9 HDTVs gain an additional benefit of a treasures and missions tracker. I thought this was pretty cool! I'm surprised more games of the time period did not do this.
Of course, as a Wii game, Wario Land: Shake It has motion controls. I have nothing against motion controls. I do not object to them at all. As a matter of fact, I firmly believe that motion controls have a crucial role in reaching true virtual reality. My only critique of motion controls, however, lies on the fact that motion control matches the motion made in real life. Following this simple principle explains why Wii Sports became such a success (outside its pack-in status with the Wii). Wii Tennis feels like swinging a tennis racket, Wii Golf feels like swinging a golf club, Wii Bowling feels like rolling a bowling ball, Wii Baseball feels like pitching & hitting, and Wii Boxing feels like throwing a punch (OK, sometimes it feels like slapping). Motion controls should never merely substitute a button press. Wario Land: Shake It is so inconsistent on this. I can comprehend shaking the Wiimote is like shaking money out of a bag. I can understanding slamming down the Wiimote to simulate punching the ground. Shaking the Wiimote to get Wario to swing on a bar does not compute. Tilting the Wiimote to change the angle of a cannon or to get a bucket car to move along the track does not make sense either (I don't equate this to tilting a joystick or leaning the body).
As with most video games (open world video games as the exception), Wario Land: Shake It progressively unveils the map. Wario Land: Shake It takes revealing the map in an interesting way. After beating each boss, Wario goes back to the Pirate Shop on Captain Syrup's ship the Sweet Stuff to find a map of the next continent available. The game never provides an explanation for this. The game never claims that defeating the boss lifted some kind of fog covering the land. The game doesn't even try to convince that Captain Syrup just so happens to find a lost map piece by accident at the same exact time Wario defeated the boss. The map piece just ends up there. Without a game explanation, it leave anyone wondering why the Pirate Shop couldn't have all the continent maps immediately available. It would not have taken that much effort to make up an in-game explanation. Of course, since these maps come from a Pirate Shop, they cost in-game currency to obtain. Naturally, the price increases as the game progresses. As a result, advancing in the game can come to a halt if failing to collect enough in-game currency. In turn, this can create unnecessary padding, forcing backtracking to replay level previously tread, just to collect more currency. Fortunately for me, I ended up 100% fully completing the first few levels (collecting all treasures and missions) just in the attempt to collect more currency to purchase the next continent map. If the developers had this in mind, good for them. If the designers did not intend for this, then they have created an example of unnecessary padding. Speaking of the map, my gameplay progress revealed that I uncovered 74% of the stages. That's because some of the levels had secret, hidden maps, which need to be discovered in the level. If playing a repeat playthrough after beating the final boss, the ground will sparkle where the secret map is buried. If playing the level for the first time, no such indicator exists, despite the fact the gamer can still dig up the hidden map if discovering, even if with some help (like a walkthrough). It was totally unnecessary to keep these maps so secret and hidden with no indicators on the first playthrough and then to give hints on repeat playthroughs. Make the hints available immediately, and then make the challenge reaching said map.
Yes, Captain Syrup makes her return for the first time since Wario Land II, and she fits in exactly where she left off as a character. She steals, she kidnaps, she deceives, she overcharges and she flirts, all in the name of making more money and getting richer. Her return never felt like a shoe-in for the sake of invoking feelings of nostalgia. She returned for the sake of fulfilling a role that fit her character, which I can appreciate. (Speaking of Captain Syrup, make I make sidebar here? Common video game knowledge will reveal that Waluigi came in existence for the sake of creating Wario a partner for sports game that played doubles, like tennis. Waluigi does indeed work as a Wario version of Luigi, but it begs the question, "Why wasn't Captain Syrup Wario's doubles partner?" After all, Captain Syrup is just a female version of Wario. It would have been nice to have Captain Syrup be Wario's doubles partner, for it would have been the first mixed gender partners.)
[SPOILER ALERT!!] The final boss the Shake King (probably a wordplay on Viking) had me intrigued at first, but then it lost my interest. At first, the Shake King attacks with a dash attack, a earthquake punch and fireballs. Minus the fireballs, the Shake King shares the same attacks as Wario, so the final boss battle at first feels like an equal and fair match between Wario and the Shake King to determine who can utilize the attacks the best. The Shake King's second phase has the same or similar attacks, just more of them, so it feels like an expected and necessary harder test. For the third and final phase, however, the Shake King starts pulling out magic that has never occurred in the entirety of the game. Some of these attacks cane one-hit KO Wario or close to it. This felt so unfair. Final boss battles should feel like a final test on how to utilize all controls and attacks. I had no way to prepare for this final boss battle. The best way way to prepare was to fight the Shake King over and over again. Doing so made phase 1 and 2 quite boring, for the gamer will learn the patterns so well, to the point of delivering all the damage while taking no damage. After all, Wario will need all the life he can get for those final phase attacks! Speaking of which, the game does allow the player to purchase a health potion at the Pirate Shop, which will automatically refill the health bar once all health runs out in battle. Actually, Wario has health potions at his disposal throughout the whole game, but not until the final boss battle does health potions feel absolutely necessary because of the unfairness of the final boss battle. Of course, health potions coming from the Pirate Shop means that they cost in-game currency. If the gamer does not have enough, it will require backtracking to previous levels to earn more currency. Let's say the player earns enough money, purchases a health potion, fights the Shake King, and then loses the final boss battle. The gamer will not get the health potion back. The player must buy another one. If Wario does not have enough money, back to grinding for coins in the prior levels! While this system rewards those who learn the Shake King's patterns, this is not fun. It should have stayed a fair fight between Wario and the Shake King over who knew and utilized the attacks the best, like in Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (ironically) [/END SPOILERS]
In conclusion, Wario Land: Shake It is another Wario Land game that once again zooms in and focuses too much on the gimmick of its original system, which in this case, is the motion controls of the Wii. The problem with such a heavy reliance on the gimmick of the Wii's motion controls lies within the disconnect between the motion control input and the action the motion controls should represent. It is such a shame, for the game has a great music soundtrack, great art style and great screen use. Not only do motion controls mar the game's great points, questionable gameplay mechanics and a final boss battle somewhere between unfair and not fun further mar the game's great points. All in all, the highs match the lows, leaving a game somewhere between average and mediocre. That too is a shame because Wario Land: Shake It trends the Wario Land series in an upward direction. True, Wario Land: Shake It does not return the Wario Land series to the glory days of the first 4 games, especially in comparison to Wario Land 4. Wario Land: Shake It, however, does find a way to zoom in and focus on the original system's gimmick yet incorporate the elements that made Wario Land fans fall in love with Wario Land in the first place. This series looked like it could improved to its former glory days, yet Nintendo decided to cut it off, with its last entry on the Wii. That also a shame. As the Switch 1 came to the end of its life to make way for the Switch 2, the Wario Land series was one of the few franchises left untouched by the Switch 1. A Switch Wario Land game that returned to the gameplay mechanics of Wario Land 4 and incorporated elements unique to the Switch hardware would have been loved by Wario Land fans specifically and Nintendo fans in general. Unfortunately, it never came to be, but then again, maybe for good reason. Wario did continue on from the Wii in the form of WarioWare, with a Wii U game, a 3DS game and 2 Switch 1 games. In the long run and in the bigger picture, the Wario Land game really did not do that much to differentiate or to distinguish itself from the Super Mario series. Heck, some of those elements intended to make Wario Land games unique now do appear in Super Mario games. The microgames of the WarioWare games, however, do differ from the minigames of the Mario Party games. Therefore, maybe Wario does fit better as the mascot of the WarioWare microgames series than as the mascot for Wario Land platforming games. Thus, I am glad that the Wario Land series ended, and I am happy to know it ended on a more optimistic note than Wario World or Wario: Master of Disguise. I will always look forward to the next WarioWare installment, but I will also fondly reminisce on the nostalgia of a Wario Land game.
Final Ranking
1. Wario Land 4
2. Wario Land 3
3. Wario Land II
4. Wario Land (1)
5. Wario Land: Shake It!
6. Wario World
7. Wario: Master of Disguise
