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Wario Land 4
Developer(s)	Nintendo Research & Development 1
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Release date(s)	21 August 2001 18 November 2001 16 November 2001 June 8, 2004
Genre(s)	Platformer
Mode(s)	Single player
Rating(s)	ESRB: E (Everyone)
Platform(s)	Game Boy Advance
Media	64-megabit cartridge

Wario Land 4 (known as Wario Land Advance in Japan) is a video game released for the Game Boy Advance system in 2001. In this game, Wario has to gather four treasures to unlock a pyramid and save Princess Shokora from The Golden Diva.

Contents 1 Gameplay 1.1 Boss rooms 1.2 Difficulty levels 1.3 Passages 2 Story 3 Characters 3.1 Bosses 3.2 Boss Halls 3.3 The Sound Room 4 Development 5 Reception 6 Novel 7 Trivia 8 References 9 External links

The gameplay of Wario Land 4 allows for some open-endedness as well as some order of difficulty. There are four main passages in addition to the Entry Passage and "Final" Golden Pyramid: the Emerald, Ruby, Topaz, and Sapphire Passages, in order of difficulty. The Emerald Passage is themed around nature. The Ruby Passage is themed around mechanics and technology. The Topaz Passage is themed around toys, games, and other "playtime" ideas. The Sapphire Passage is themed around horror and danger, prominently involving ghosts and the like.

There are four levels in a passage. To progress to the next level in a passage, a player has to find the Keyzer in the previous level (a Keyzer is a floating key-nosed creature that promptly disappears after the player uses it). After the four levels comes a Mini-game Shop (not run by Mr. Game & Watch as some people seem to think - the true identity of the shopkeeper is revealed at the end of the game) and the Boss Room. To enter the Boss Room, the player must find the four pieces of the passage's namesake gem in each level (a total of four gems and 16 pieces). Also, a player can find a CD in each level, which unlocks a song in the CD Room.

Upon entering a level, one has all the time in the world they want to find treasure, beat up enemies, and such. Enemies, when defeated, give coins and health orbs. After collecting a full bar of health orbs, the player receives one extra heart (out of 8). However, the player can't return to the pyramid (and thus have all of their treasure saved) until they open the portal again via a Frog Switch. Upon hitting the switch, a time limit (which varies depending on the game's difficulty setting and level itself) is placed, and many blocks in the level appear or disappear. For some levels, this results in a rush back to the portal the same way the player came. In others, totally new areas are exposed. If a player fails to reach the portal within the time limit, he begins to lose coins. Once all of his coins are gone, he is kicked out of the level (as if he had lost all of his health) and is left with no treasure.

At the end of each passage, Wario encounters a boss room. He must destroy a boss within a set time limit to win the treasure within the boss rooms (if Wario takes too long but manages to win before the limit is up, some treasure may be withheld).

The bosses can be made easier by the purchase of items from a shop near the boss's door. The shop does not accept normal cash from levels. Instead, one must play games in the Mini-game Shop to win medals to use.

Each of the items on the bottom row of the shop's listing are "super effective" against a certain boss. For instance, the Black Dragon's flames will burn Cractus better than any other attack.

There are three difficulty levels.

• Normal: The original difficulty. Players start each boss level with 8 hearts, and there are a lot less enemies.

• Hard: The other original option for difficulty. Players start each boss stage with four hearts, but time limits are lowered, along with boss health increasing and different locations for treasure.

• Super Hard: Only available after completing the game on hard mode, Super Hard mode starts each stage with only one heart in the player's health bar. The time limits, enemy placement, and treasure locations become increasingly difficult, along with two minigames becoming harder and the prices for items being higher.

Entry Passage

Hall of Hieroglyphs: A cave where Wario can practice his various skills.

Boss: Spoiled Rotten

Emerald Passage

Palm Tree Paradise: A peaceful-looking level, with several caves holding hidden secrets.

Wildflower Fields: A flower field filled with bug-type enemies.

Mystic Lake: A lake where most movement is underwater.

Monsoon Jungle: A rainforest with constant downpour.

Boss: Cractus

Ruby Passage

The Curious Factory: A stage set inside a factory

The Toxic Landfill: A dirty-looking level with many hidden areas within its walls

40 Below Fridge: A level inside a very cold building, possibly a warehouse

Pinball Zone: A level that is modeled after a giant pinball machine.

Boss: Cuckoo Condor

Topaz Passage

Toy Block Tower: A Child's Toys themed stage featuring childish aspects.

The Big Board: A Drawing board-type stage using a roulette type block to progress.

Doodle Woods: A stage with a Drawing theme to it.

Domino Row: A level that requires Wario to race dominoes to certain rewards.

Boss: Aerodent

Sapphire Passage

Crescent Moon Village: Macabre themed stage with ghost enemies.

Arabian Night: Stage set in an Arabian scene.

Fiery Cavern: Stage set inside a Volcano or cavern.

Hotel Horror: Stage set inside a haunted hotel.

Boss Catbat

Golden Temple

Golden Passage:A level that combines the themes from each of the previous passages.

Final boss: Golden Diva

The manual describes how Wario is reading the newspaper when he notices an article about a mysterious pyramid found deep in the jungle. The legend related to the pyramid is that of Princess Shokora, ruler of the pyramid, who was cursed by the money-crazed Golden Diva. Without wasting time, Wario jumps on his Wario Car (as shown in the opening animation) and speeds toward the pyramid. As he enters it, he finds a black cat and chases it. Doing so, he falls down a precipice and is stuck inside the pyramid. After fighting his way through the entry passage and a early boss battle against Spoiled Rotten, Wario discovers four new passages. After completing these passages, Wario gains acess to the innermost part of the pyramid which ends up being the stronghold of Golden Diva. Wario meets the cat again who turns out to be Princess Shokora. Wario defeats Golden Diva and exits the pyramid with all his treasure and Shokora who gives Wario a kiss on the cheek and disapears. Wario leaves the pyramid triumphantly.

Princess Shokora

Princess Shokora is a mythical princess who assists Wario in his journey. During his plundering, Wario inadvertently frees her from a curse placed upon her by the Golden Diva that forced her to live in the body of a black cat. The only foreknowledge Wario had of her at all was a brief mention of her in the newspaper article he read; in his greedy lust for gold he didn't know that he was going to be rescuing her as well.

Throughout the game she helps Wario by selling him items prior to boss battles used to create pre-emptive damage to the bosses and make them easier for him. In these shops she exhibits an ability to transform herself into a black humanoid shape (resembling Mr. Game and Watch but with eyes). She takes her payment for the items in gold medals that can be received by achieving high scores in the mini game shops prior to the boss rooms.

After defeating the Golden Diva at the end of the game, the curse placed upon her is broken and she takes her true form, which varies depending on how many treasures Wario managed to obtain from the bosses. She has four different appearances (listed below), and regardless of her appearance, Wario receives a kiss from her in the ending scene. Depending on the appearance, Wario will either smile or feel uneasy when taking the kiss.

• Little girl - One treasure or less. Princess Shokora will appear as a very small, young girl. Wario has a bit of a frown.

• Female Wario - Two to four treasures. Princess Shokora appears as a fat woman strongly resembling Wario. Wario obviously feels uneasy on this one.

• Princess - Five to eleven treasures. Princess Shokora appears as a young lady in a blue dress resembling Princess Peach. Wario has a smile on his face.

• Queen - All twelve treasures. She appears as an adult with a mature, queen-like appearance. Wario obviously likes this.

Pyramid Detective

The Pyramid Detective is a minor character, but he makes many appearances in the game. His picture was seen on the article Wario read at the beginning. He is apparently a detective or archaeologist put on the job of investigating the pyramid. He appears in the purple bonus pipes (in which you can attack him, but he is invincible in order to solve puzzles), the Wario hop minigame, the main map screen, and the final cinema sequence.

Keyzer

A character in his own right. Wario must find him in each level to open the next door in the passage.

• Spoiled Rotten

The first boss, Spoiled Rotten, is a large eggplant walking back and forth with a doll in her hand. At first she does not attack, but, after accumalating enough damage she will show sharp teeth, forcing you to attack her from behind. Unlike the other bosses, she isn't airborne. Also, after defeating Spoiled Rotten, you can not fight her again, unless you erase the file.

• Cractus

The first true boss, Cractus, is a Venus' flytrap with eyes. After you destroy his vase, he slowly hovers. As Cractus accumulates more damage, he hovers higher and flies faster. His drool can turn Wario into a zombie.

• Cuckoo Condor

In her first form Cuckoo Condor is a floating cuckoo clock with various mechanical attachments. After accumulating more damage her "arms" drop gears and balls of electricity on the ground. After being halfway defeated, Cuckoo Condor's internal form is exposed, which is a condor-like being that flies back and forth, dropping exploding eggs.

• Aerodent

Aerodent is, strangely, a mouse that flies in an inflatable teddy bear balloon. Aerodent immediately inflates his teddy bear and floats up to the ceiling, dropping jumping beings shaped like thumbtacks. After accumulating a lot of damage he drops fire, which if touched sets Wario aflame, wasting valuable time.

• Catbat

Catbat is a floating, purple cat with a ghostly tail in place of its hindquarters, and with a vampire bat attached to its head. Unlike the other bosses you must fight him in and over water which is guarded by a robotic yellow fish. He coughs up purple spikey creatures, which when touched will make Wario's face inflate temporarily, causing him to float up to the ceiling, wasting time. When the bat on his head is finally destroyed, Catbat coughs up orange spikey creatures that damage you when you touch them.

• The Golden Diva

The Golden Diva is the final boss in Wario Land 4. She is a ghost who wears a fur coat, white makeup, a mask that changes faces each time you damage her as well as all the jewelry from all the previous bosses. Initially she covers her mask with a folding fan and makes four masks appear that are identical to hers. One of these masks bounces slowly around the room. After all of these ghostly masks, her folding fan, and her 'real' mask are destroyed her true face is revealed, which looks like that of a deformed clown. She then starts destroying parts of the floor, revealing sharp metal spikes. After four attacks her body is destroyed, leaving only her lips scurrying across the floor.

Before each battle, Wario will enter a hall way consisting of two doors. One is a shop which uses mini-game coins as currency. In the shop you can buy various power-ups which deal little to massive damage to the Boss right before the fight, thus saving time during the battle.

After completing The Hall of Hieroglyphics, a room called the sound rooms opens. This is where people can listen to CDs of 16 different songs, which are unlocked throughout the game. They may well have been a way to flesh out the system's sound chip, producing high quality sound for the game. A special feature called "Wario Karaoke" is unlocked by earning a gold crown ranking in every level or by entering the sound room and pressing the start, select, up, L and R buttons simultaneously. This allows people to see the lyrics to the song Medamayaki (meaning "fried egg" in Japanese), a song found in the level "Palm Tree Paradise."

CDs

• Level: Palm Tree Paradise; CD: About That Shepard
• Level: Wildflower Fields; CD: Things That Never Change
• Level: Mystic Lake; CD: Tomorrow's Blood Pressure
• Level: Monsoon Jungle; CD: Beyond the Headrush
• Level: The Curious Factory; CD: Driftwood & the Island Dog
• Level: The Toxic Landfill; CD: The Judge's Feet
• Level: 40 Below Fridge; CD: The Moon's Lamppost
• Level: Pinball Zone; CD: Soft Shell
• Level: Toy Block Tower; CD: So Sleepy
• Level: The Big Board; CD: The Short Futon
• Level: Doodle Woods; CD: Avocado Song
• Level: Domino Row; CD: Mr. Fly
• Level: Crescent Moon Village; CD: Yesterday's Words
• Level: Arabian Night; CD: The Errand
• Level: Fiery Cavern; CD: You and Your Shoes
• Level: Hotel Horror; CD: Mr. Ether and Planaria

IGN gave Wario Land a 9 out of 10, or "Outstanding", citing its well thought out level design and replayability, though the game does not significantly push the performance power of the Game Boy Advance.^[1]

A "choose your own adventure" novel based on the game was written by Craig Wessel and published by Scholastic Inc.

• Many sounds from the game were used in the Wario Ware series. Pieces of music were also used; for example, the Crescent Moon Village theme was used in the ending sequence of WarioWare Inc.: Mega Microgame$.
• Several pieces of music in the game feature voice samples and lyrics. Most notably, the Japanese lyrics in the Palm Tree Paradise theme, Medamayaki, and the English, funk-based lyrics in the game's title theme (the clearest line being "those piles of gold are pilin' up.") Although it could also very well be "your time is over, I've had enough".
• The shopkeeper whom you can buy items from before a boss and the Minigames you must play to get shop medals resembles Mr. Game and Watch, of Game & Watch and Super Smash Bros. Melee fame.

• Wario Land 4 at MobyGames
• gameboyadvance.com
• Warioland 4 at GameSpot
• Warioland 4 at Gamestats
• Warioland 4 at IGN

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