Wario Land II

Wario Land II is a platform video game developed by Nintendo R&D1 and published by Nintendo in 1998 for the Game Boy, and later for the Game Boy Color in 1999. It is the second installment in the Wario Land series.

It was re-released in 2012 for the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console.

Plot
Captain Syrup, Wario's nemesis, and a few of her soldiers, the Pirate Goom, sneak to Wario's castle to cause havoc. They steal Wario's treasure, sets off his giant alarm clock, and leave the tap running, which floods much of Wario's castle. When Wario wakes up and figures out what's going on, he decides to give chase across the surrounding lands and reclaim his stolen gold.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) Depending on which path you are going, you can get a different alternative ending every time you are taking a different path to complete the game. Basically, you don't even need to take the exact same path to complete the game every time you play it, as you can simply take another path, and still win the game to get an alternative ending.
 * 2) There are multiple storylines and hidden chapters, so you can play the game more if you enjoy it. In other words, Wario Land II has a lot of replay value.
 * 3) For Late '90's standards, the graphics look pretty great. While both versions of Wario Land II have the same graphics, the biggest difference that the Game Boy version has no color (which is a purpose of the Game Boy), while the Game Boy Color version is in color (which is also the point of the GBC).
 * 4) Awesome soundtrack. Wario Land II still offers it to this day, especially for a Game Boy game. And this is what would you expect from a Wario Land game, especially since the Wario Land franchise does have awesome soundtrack.
 * 5) If you wanted to see a remake of a Game & Watch game on a game released for the Game Boy, then Wario Land II contains one in Flagman, here called Flagman D.D..
 * 6) The gameplay has been overhauled to feel less like a Mario game and more of being its own thing. Wario is now immortal, meaning there are no Game Overs (getting hit only makes him lose coins). Certain enemies can cause Wario to assume several new forms as a drawback for this immortality. For example, when Wario gets hit by Yukimaru's chilling breath, he will be covered in ice and slide backwards until he hits a wall, resulting in every enemy on his side being killed. And eating a cake slice from Cook will make Wario overweight, making him slower, but able to crush tougher blocks he normally couldn't.
 * 7) As expected from a Wario Land game, the game has tight and responsive controls, which are still good to this day. There's absolutely no chance for the controls to be unresponsive, especially since the Wario Land franchise has responsive controls.

Trivia

 * In the Japanese release, there is a Penguin enemy that splashes alcohol beverages at Wario, intoxicating him if hit. Localized releases censored the penguin to instead throw "Insanity Bombs", which can make Wario "act really strange".

Critical reception
Wario Land II received critical acclaim from critics and players. On GameRankings, the Game Boy Color version has a score of 88%, based on 14 reviews, while Nintendo Life gave it a 9/10. On GameFAQs, the Game Boy version received 3.91/5 stars from 352 users, while the Game Boy Color version received 3.98/5 stars from 517 users.

Videos
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Trivia

 * The Game Boy version was supposed to be also released in Japan, but this release was cancelled, probably due to the release of the Game Boy Color.