Wario Land: The Shake Dimension

Wario Land makes a very pleasant change from the majority of games on the Wii. This old-fashioned 2D platformer harks back to the days of the SNES when Nintendo was regularly coming up with brilliant platform games, many of which are still considered classics even now.

Wario is Mario’s evil doppelganger, but he’s only evil in a cartoon sense. This cute and colourful game is suitable for younger kids and has a suitably light-hearted plot that sees Wario doing lots of running and jumping across some beautiful levels. The graphics really stand out; environments and characters look as though they’ve been hand-drawn.

Naturally Wario Land makes heavy use of the Wii’s motion sensitive controls, and the results are a mixed bag. On the one hand, shaking bags of gold so the coins scatter everywhere is a lot of fun, as is shaking it so Wario punches the ground. But there are other manoeuvres that prove less successful. Spinning the Wii remote so Wario vaults around on poles get tiresome, as does tilting to control vehicles. These movements aren’t enhanced by the remote and would have been easier to accomplish with the standard d-pad and button setup.

The control system isn’t the only thing that’s inconsistent about Shake Dimension. Many of the levels are fairly easy to negotiate, except toward the end when there’s usual a tricky section that you’ll end up repeating over. And when you do reach the goal, you’ve got to make a dash back through the level to the starting point. You’re guided on the return journey but it’s still mildly irritating. It is also compounded by the need to repeat levels just to collect more coins, which are needed to unlock new areas.

Verdict: 75%

This could have been another classic Nintendo platformer, but it’s scuppered by several flaws that keep it from entering the hall of fame. A lot of fun anyway, it’s recommended for kids so long as there’s an adult to help them through the tough parts.