MFGG - Mario Fan Games Galaxy

Review Information

Game Reviewed	N/A, by N/A
Review Author	CM30
Created	Jul 27 2016, 5:19 PM

General Commentary and Game Overview

As someone who's been following this for a while, Project Wario Land is a game I've seen change a lot over the last few months. From a basic one level test to the more complicated package we have here, it's almost a timeline for its creators skills in game development.

But how does it stack up as an actual game? How good is Project Wario Land really?

Well, let's find out, in my full fledged review of the game!

Pros	Music fits the game really well Plenty of replay value due to achievements and missions Level concepts are more interesting than your bog standard platformer ones
Cons	Graphics could do with some work, especially where backgrounds are concerned Physics engine has a few minor flaws left It's confusing what power ups are needed for certain levels and missions.

Impressions

Gameplay 6 / 10	So let's start out with the gameplay side shall we? First off the bat, you'll notice that the engine is... somewhat middle of the road as far as quality goes. It's not terrible (like say,Super Mario Bros Super Quest), and you can generally get Wario to go where you want without too much hassle. Add some decent jump physics, a health bar and moves that work mostly like in the original series, and you've got one of the better examples of a Wario Land engine I've had to play. I also like the power up system here. You see, this game takes a lot of inspiration from Wario Land 1 in that your powers come from caps you find in the levels. Three of the forms these grant act like you'd expect (Bull Wario, Jet Wario and Dragon Wario), whereas three are a bit more new (Biker Wario, Frog Wario and Cloud Wario). These are used to solve puzzles (like burning plants as Dragon Wario). However, you don't just find these caps in levels. No, you have to buy them from a shop with coins. This means a significant part of the game involves saving up money in missions to buy power ups to use to complete more missions. A bit like how Donkey Kong 64 used instruments and magic potions. This does have a downside though. Namely, you can't tell what forms you need to clear each mission. As a result, it's all too easy to start up a mission, then realise you can't actually complete it with the powers you have at the moment. This can be infuriating, and in some cases outright broken (like where you can't backtrack or move forward at all). Talking of missions, that brings me to something else that's notable about the game. The levels here are huge, open ended areas like Mario 64 and Banjo-Kazooie, with multiple different missions to beat in each other one. This has its good and bad points. On the bright side, it means the levels are a lot more memorable than most platformer levels. You don't just have a single beach, you have a beach with treetops and underground river and multiple cave systems. In that sense, it works a lot like Wario Land 3. However, the levels do have a few issues cause of this one. For one thing, it's very easy to get lost when looking for a star, since the levels sprawl out in every possible direction. This is an 'issue' in Wario Land 3 as well, but that game at least had more structured stages that would notably change when you got new power ups. This game doesn't. It also means that backtracking in case of a wrong decision take a while. I mean, imagine you fell from the sky in the desert area. How do you get back up? Well, you go all the way to the left, then all the way through a tomb, then all the way through the sky area till you reach the part you fell off of. And hope you don't fall off again along the way. This is also bad if you don't have the right ability to complete a puzzle, since each 'sub area' is massive. Can't beat the water section because you're not Frog Wario? Well, have fun going all the way back to the left or right to find an area you can complete properly. There are also other minor issues here, like rocks acting strangely (they're auto picked up and go in a straight line regardless of gravity), some collision detection issues with enemies and ladders not working too well (you have to press up to grab one, not hold it). But those are less common problems, and so don't affect the score that much. So yeah, 6/10 it is.
Graphics 4 / 10	Graphically, the game looks a bit of a mixed bag. Why? Well, Wario's graphics look good. There's no denying that part. But the enemies then look kind of weird, because there's no consistency. Wario Land 3 enemies walk around next to Wario Land 4 and custom ones, which kind of clashes a fair bit. Add a few clearly resized sprites, and the sprite side of things looks a tad messy in this game. Backgrounds and foregrounds are mixed quality too. The latter for example mostly look fine (albeit somewhat simplistic), but the former feel like they were often drawn in Microsoft Paint and hence clash with the foregrounds and sprites as a result. So yeah, graphics aren't this game's strong point. Maybe they'll need to get a proper artist somewhere down the line.
Sound 8 / 10	Music wise, the game sounds a lot better than it looks. Almost all songs are custom composed, all fit the environment really well and some are genuinely good enough to be in a Game Boy installment of the Wario Land series. SFX is a bit less inspiring (and sometimes a tad repetitive), but I'd still say the sound design is one of the game's strengths.
Replay 7 / 10	Which leaves us with one more aspect to rate. The whole replay value thing. And honestly? I think this game does surprisingly well here. With eight long missions to complete, various power ups to buy and a whole achievements system to work through, there's a lot more to keep you playing than in most other demos on the site.

Final Words

Project Wario Land is shaping up to be a decent effort as far as Wario Land fan games go. It's not the best looking game, and it doesn't have a great engine, but it has enough creativity and charm to make it worth checking out none the less.

Report This Submission

Comments

No comments have been left.

Pages: | Last Unread