Wario Land 4: Breaking Convention / HOTCYDER 

How is it possible? I haven't played this game for 17 years and I didn't hear anything talking about it in 17 years. I started playing it agen 2 days ago and now this?

But um, look guys look its one of my greatest achievement, Wario land 4 on the gameboy advance

Samus: Who are you? Wario: *I am you, but better*

And finally... In 2023, two Wariolikes. One completed and the other advancing in a steady pace. Are giving this game a new place in history

Pizza Tower and Anton Blast have brought about a garlic flavored renaissance

I genuinely believe that it might be the most underrated game of all time. No one ever talks about it. It's so polished, so offbeat and so charming that it became a classic in my eyes instantly. I can only hope that it "does an Earthbound" and becomes a cult classic. If this game was released now by maybe an indy developer, everyone would rave about it, I firmly believe that. Great video by the way, you earned a new sub, keep it up!

Absolutely loved this video. Really wish Nintendo would develop a new Wario Land again.

Christ in heaven, how do you only have 1.2K subscribers? I watched this whole thing and came to channel assuming I’d see 100K minimum. What a buttery-smooth video.

God, the frog switch was so brilliant. Fantastic work man, your editing is amazing

One of my favorite game ever, it's so unique and creative, both visually and music-wise. And the level design is one of the best of any platformer, it combines exploration and platforming so well.

I love Wario land 4. There’s something about the fact that he’s so blinded by greed that when he comes across a boss, he’s taunting it and rude instead of readying for a fight. I love the goofy Japanese humor

My first game console all my own, and my first owned video game. Many memories of riding in the back of the car trying to play with the street lights

oh the dream, that I had last night melted into my pillow.....

"There are no botomless pits or autoscroll sections" Wario Land 1 had those :P

It's amazing to me how after all these years, just randomly hearing Wario's "Hurry up!" (like at 7:20) still gives me goosebumps. I loved and still love and always will love this game.

This is a fantastic video! Warioland 4 might well be my favourite game on the GBA, which is saying a lot, but I'd never really given too much thought to the mechanics of why it works so well. You really made it clear why the Frog Switch is such an innovative inclusion, and it's a shame we've never seen a similar game since.

The series begs for another installment. I like Warioware, but I think this is the underrated one of the pair. What makes Wario great is how it use a system gimmick and always does something good with it. While this was more present in Warioware, Shake It!/The Shake Dimension managed to add in a system gimmick that made good use of what it was and didn't feel super awkward. 4 is definitely one of my favorites though, even though there are only 6ish games.

Honestly, top 10 Nintendo games of all time. Period. It was the first game I ever got and I’ve replayed its countless of times. I bought a second cartridge recently so that my girlfriend can experience its beauty.

Never heard of Wario Land OR Mario Land. I apreciate your videos, not only are they informative, I also learn of games I wouldn't know otherwise. Great video!

Great video, dude. Wario Land 4 is such an underrated gem, and it's sad, because IMO (as a platformer "connoisseur"), it's one of the best sidescrollers of all time. Which is why the fan game I'm working on is directly inspired by it. Keep up the good work, and God bless :)

My brothers and I used to play Warioland 4 all the time. Something simply feels special about the game and I remember feeling amazed at how expressive Wario's character is. One of the best Gameboy titles out there.

One charming thing about shoulder bash: You could always duck and slide forward a lil bit, atleast with wl2 3 and 4. It's always been there for you :).

Thank you for talking about my favorite game with such rigor and enthusiasm.

probably the best GBA game i'll ever play tbh. the midi music still lives in my head. like one midi instrument they programmed was the sound a human hand makes as it slides down a guitar to start a new tab.

The more you know. Both Metroid Fusion and Wario 4 were some of those rare games that I liked so much I went for 100% on my first run. Great job team

Surprised you didnt mention the puzzle rooms with the old guy, and the soundtrack is legendary. Wario land 4 is a masterpiece.

I never knew which Wario game this was, I remember playing this all the time when my family would travel

One of my favorite titles of all time

Huh, kinda funny that Wario/Samus have the overlap that they do.

One thing that I also love about this game: They uses vibrant colors. Most GBA games have washed out palettes while Wario Land 4 is one of the few that still looks great when viewed on modern displays.

Guess I got a new series to play through. I love the idea of flipping mario conventions on their head for a weird and whacky platformer something I’ve been needing that’s actually done well for a long ass time.

Excellent video! This makes me really want a Wario Collection of sorts with all 5 games playable on Switch so more people can experience these underrated games

I grew up with this game and it brings back so many memories. I loved Wario Land 4.

ITS PIZZA TIME

Also the "breaking convention" theme is reflected in the plot of the game, because SPOILERS While usually in Mario games princess Peach can't really help you, the girl to save here (princess Shokora) gives you a hand in many ways: in her cat form she guides you inside the pyramid in the intro, and in her shopkeeper form she both shows you how to play in the tutorial level and lets you buy power-ups to use against the bosses. Not only that, but also the finale is pretty different from an usual Mario game: after thanking Wario, Shokora literally ascends to heaven because, like 90% of the characters in the game, she is just a ghost, a spirit. Pretty wild for a Nintendo game if you think about it. Brilliant video!

Wario Land 4 is a goddamn masterpiece. What a classic!

I own this game but can barely remember it. I recall I really wanted something new that was something close to Mario. The newest Mario game at the time was 5 years old, and the newest 2D Mario game at the time was even older (especially if you don't count YI). I saw this had good reviews and figured it was the closest I was going to get. I'm pretty sure I just ripped through it in a week or so and then never thought about it much after that. I probably need to revisit it now and appreciate it for what it is.

YO James, freaking, the way you frame things, like, it's amazing. The frog switch in this video was the perfect example. The way you introduced the frog switch and its effects, your writing, your delivery, your editing, it all just comes together and makes it super easy for a viewer to understand what you're trying to get it. Like, as someone who kinda rarely has experience with games I'm watching videos about, it's kind of a pain when someone glances over some sort of tacit knowledge they have about a feature, but you use every bit you can to get across exactly what this potentially foreign concept is and why its important to the video. Like, boi. And bless up thanks for this podcast, got something new to listen to at work aaaaaay

Wow this was a really good video! How does your channel only have a few thousand subs? Ether way, you just earned another one!

It would have been nice if this was recommended to me some time ago. This video really just makes me feel sad because I lost my copy of this game. I just really loved the music and pixel art style of this game. Its still a great game to this day.

It’s been 21 years and I finally play the game that’s one year older than me

Wario Land 4 is so good, I was never really a Mario fan growing up but I had WL4 and absolutely adored it. Great video man!

This is one of the few games where I played it more then any other, a game I beat over and over again and it kept entertaining me, and still found ways to play better

"Takes about two-to-three hours to complete" *has taken me two to three decades and I still haven't finished it

Absolutely agree with everything here, thank you for pointing out all the magnificent features of the game.

Yesss I remember playing both WL3 and WL4 growing up. I forgot all about them, thank you for reminding me! On a side note, I hope you find the time and energy to keep releasing videos in the future. Yours are some of my favourite on the website and they just keep getting better and better. This is easily one of your best - the analysis, the graphics, the pacing, the laughs, it's all fantastic.

It has the lowest amount of levels, but in exchange you get the highest variety of level designs. Each level has its own music and tileset including special gameplay features like the board game, domino runs, art painting etc. This really makes it unique and fun. Creating that obviously took some time, think quality over quantity and the result ended up being a great game. That doesn't mean the other games are worse, they just reuse the tilesets and music when having more levels. It was my first game on the GBA and I played it so many times, loved it all the time. I saw that there are three difficulty levels in a video about the level editor for it, but I always remember only two difficulties, normal and hard. To be honest, seems like I never discovered the Super Hard difficulty level and Sound Room Karoke Mode despite the many playthroughs. Seems like I know what I have to do next, including trying out Wario Land 3 Randomizer (randomizes the unlocking order on the world map, something not possible with the (mostly) linear level order of the other games)

Oh my god! I completely forgot about the cat? How? I had no idea a game I loved so much as a kid had so many fans!

I used to have a Choose your own adventure book based off the game I think it's somewhere under my bed now or lost

A well written video. Maybe my 2nd favourite game ever (just below Devil May Cry3), every aspect is great & unique! I just bought a gameboy advance sp mostly just for this 💗

The guy who created both Wario and Foreman Spike also created Samus.

Yes! Finally this game gets some attention. I’ve played 1 and 4 and shake it. 2 and 3 Never struck me. 1 benefits from gameplay linearity in having a better designed backgrounds

I was here since you had only 200 subs and seeing you grow this much has been quite the ride. Keep improving man! I can’t wait to see how much farther you go every day

Wario land 4 and shake it are so much fun

they need to make another one, same exact thing, fresh new levels

This game deserves a remake.

Man the production value on your videos are top notch, I'm sure it takes you a lot of time, but keep at it and it'll pay of for sure!

Mah boi GAMESD bringing the fire! Great video man, makes me want to buy a copy of WarioLand 4.

Thank you for this video. Funnily enough I’ve been replaying the game over the last month, and just finished it on super hard mode today. Something I thought I never would accomplish back in the early 2000s. In a way this only goes to prove its timelessness - by the time you do attempt super hard mode, you’re familiar enough with the game to make it a fair challenge. It really is a special game - and definitely a product of its time given Nintendo R&D 1 hasn’t been restructured.

Fastastically edited and well thought out video! Love this game and always will!!

Super Mario World: * exists * GamesD : This game blows! * throws away *

Thanks for this video. Wario land 4 is one of those rare perfect titles which aged like fine wine. As a kid the artstyle and music was mindblowing, and it surely left a mark on me which lasts a lifetime. I always wondered who is the director of this game?

My favorite game on GBA

Wario Lands 2, 3, and 4 were peak Nintendo. Wario Land 2 developed an unbelievably innovative system of puzzle platforming by using enemies in a way never seen before. Rather than enemies being something you jump on and move on from, they turned them into the main feature that defined the gameplay of every level. Wario Land 3 perfected the transformations and gameplay style developed in Wario Land 2 into what I consider hands-down my favorite video game of all time. Wario Land 4 kept that perfected gameplay fully intact while adding graphical and technical enhancements provided by the improved hardware and adding a quirky style that has defined Wario since then. These three games represent the most creativity and skill that Nintendo has ever demonstrated. There was nothing better they’ve ever created before or since.

I think I need to go back and revisit Wario Land 4. I always go back and forth as to whether I prefer WL3's more open structure or WL4's more arcade-influenced level setup with the crazy frog switches and timer. I also really love Shake It (I think it's called The Shake Dimension in your region), but I think we can all agree that it's just a worse version of WL4 when it comes down to it. Nothing has the zaniness of WL4 outside of WarioWare. Fantastic video my man!

I love this game. After you press the frog switch the game becomes faster paced than some of the sonic games out there. Definitely recommend!

Considering how much you brought up metroid fusion, I'm kinda surprised you don't have a metroid fusion review. I can listen to people gush about that game all day.

Just saw the Direct with Super Mario Bros Wonder and it gave me real Wario vibes🥰

This game did really interesting things when you changed the difficulty levels. On hard or very hard some stages would place the frog switch earlier (sometimes immediately after the level begins) increasing the panic level. Little tweaks like this made it a refreshing to tackle each new challenge.

I would love to see Wayforward do a Wario Land.

Awesome video! You deserve a lot more subscribers! I also love Wario Land 4, definitely one of the best games made by Nintendo

It's more rewarding to run fast in this game them any of sonics GBA games

the first video game I ever played, funnily enough, since this game was so damn good, when I eventually got hold of some Mario games I found them really boring in contrast with WarioLand 4, but I thought it was just me since Wario is less popular than Mario, I tried telling people about WarioLand 4 and they didn't understand since all they had ever played was Mario games.

There's a reason why it's his greatest achievement.

I wish it had a bigger modding community I need more levels!!!

This game is gonna be 20 years old soon AHHHH. I wish Nintendo would port these games.

Mate I played this game more than any other game when I was a kid. And now I speedrun it, just because in my opinion it's the perfect platformer Also how do you have 1.5 k subs the video was awesome and you should feel awesome for making it ! Cheers mate keep it up :)

cant believe it's been a year congrats! here's to many more putting out good content like this :^)

5:27 lol accidentially left the mouse on screen. Great vid tho. You deserve more subs.

Always enjoy the videos man, keep up the good work

All I've learned from this video is that Samus and Wario should go on epic adventures together for sweet loot. This game is actually the very first gba game I ever played. Because of that it's been pretty high up on the list of my favorite games. I've been replaying it for the first time since I was a kid in the last year or so. I thought, "We're an adult now, let's play on hard mode." What a fool I was.

Great video. I like how you point out the differences between Wario and other platformers.

Ever heard of Pizza Tower? You should probably check it out, the gameplay is in the style of Wario Land 4. The full game isn’t out yet though.

I feel like there should be more analysis videos like this on the Wario series.

This was a fantastic video! I loved Wario Land 3 and 4 and have always been sad the games didn't get as much appreciation as they deserved. Really loved the analytical nature of the video. Definitely sub worthy. Hopefully one day we'll get a Wario World 5/6 one day! (There was that one spiritual successor on the wii after all!) I'm a whole bunch smaller than you, but if I find the time to grow a bit, I'd love to hopefully collaborate sometime in the future; keep putting out great content!

Late to the channel, loving the content!

Wow, great video

So I'm pretty annoyed. I only just found out about this, and I had to scroll at the bottom of my subscription list to found it. I loved this game as a kid, and I loved your video about it! Brought back tons of memories. I just wish it had been recommended to me by RU-vid, and on time! This work deserves love. Also, had no idea about the Metroid thing, fun to look back and compare now. And can we take a minute to talk about the music in this game? Not just how it was done how you mentioned, but just out chilled out and groovy it is, compared to anything Nintendo had done at this point (afaik). Reminds me of the menu music for Marvel vs. Capcom 2. P.S.: Didn't realise the game was so short though. It probably took me ages as a kid...

Wario is one of Nintendo's greatest achievement

Thanks for an amazing video about Wario Land 4! Really hoping Nintendo will do more Wario Land games in the future! Thirty years since the first Wario Land game in 2024.

This video is amazing! Such great quality in content and editing. You deserve a lot of subscribers sir! 👏🏼

this game was such a fever dream for me when i was a kid, but i could not put it down. one of the many under appreciated gems on the gba

And now, everyone knows WL 4 because of pizza tower, and antonblast!

One detail that got left out from the replayability bit was the varying difficulty levels you could choose. Considering how beating it on Hard unlocked Very Hard which swaps a lot of gameplay elements, it gives you a reason to play the whole game from scratch again for a really big challenge.

Excellent video

Im playing this on my ps vita and with how similar it is to the GBA button wise, its fun.

Wow, there's a lot of potential for new Wario moves in Smash Bros. :o

Two things to note: - There is a secret S-Hard mode. Get 10,000 coins in each level in Hard mode and complete the final boss to unlock it. Another reason to get those coins! - If you want a really in-depth level-by-level analysis of the game, you can buy a book about it here: danielprimed.com/warioland4/ I didn't write it, but it's a really good read.

his greatest achievement.

And then there is the *frog switch*