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Episode 623: The Wario Land Ranking Hootenanny (Patreon)

Published:
2024-07-01 11:00:13
Imported:
2026-06
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Jeremy: Long, long ago (well, not that long), we recorded an episode in which we ranked the 2D Super Mario games. That conversation, while awesome, stumbled into a slightly awkward moment where we had to deal with the semantics of Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3. It's called "Mario," but the protagonist was Wario, and it played differently. Hootenanny shenanigans! So this week, we put a band-aid on podcast history by giving that game and all its sequels a proper ranking of their own. Not that there were that many Wario Land game, but they were substantial enough that we managed to pull together a full episode about them. Plus Master of Disguise.

We did not, however, talk about WarioWare games, because those are a whole other thing. How do you even compare WarioWare to Wario Land? Absolute nonsense. I suppose that means there's a whole other splinter of Mario games unaccounted for by these hootenannies. So much for that band-aid.

Stuart and Kevin and I enlist the help of Nature's most precious resource for this one: The Retronauts community. Well, the community on our Discord server. If you're one of the cool people on our Discord, you already knew that. And if not, well, you should get on that.

Art by Greg Melo, edits by Greg Leahy.

09:29 - Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3: World Map

19:20 - Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3: Final Boss

36:36 - Virtual Boy Wario Land: Demon Head | Wario Land II: Hen's Nest

44:38 - Wario Land II: Flat Wario

52:29 - Wario Land 3: Big Bridge

1:02:30 - Wario Land 3: Stage Clear (No New Treasure)

1:17:59 - Wario Land 4: Hall of Hieroglyphs

1:26:45 - Wario: Master of Disguise: Mini Game (Treasure)

1:36:54 - Wario Land: Shake It!: Stonecarving City

Closing - Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3: Staff Roll

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Comments

Frankie's Cauldron

Does Gargoyles Quest count? Firebrand isn't a Red Arremer that Arthur met but he is a Red Arremer! ( I'm dreadfully sorry if this sounds like a correction it's genuinely a question)

Ryan M

Looking forward to the Mario Discovery series ranking hootenany!

blim

I really enjoyed Wario Land 3. I found the puzzles to be not too difficult. The hint system really helped. Wario Land 4 is the best though.

Miguel Torres

It’s weird because my DQ I&II hybrid cart doesn’t seem to have that limitation. I’m able to play both games with the save intact between my color and pocket models

littleterr0r

I'm sure that last line was a joke, but I'm also sure that someone, somewhere, is sad.

TheLupineOne

I suppose if you wanted to pad it out you could have added Wario World on the GameCube to the mix. It always amused me that a Wario game, starring Nintendo's most avaricious character, would be developed by Treasure of all developers. Such nominative determinism!

Shrunken Shrine

Summoning every bit of Stu-esque hyperbole here to say that Wario Land 4 is the ultimate videogame - so lightning-strike perfect that remembering it's even real is the only thing that stems the nightly tears there hasn't really been another one since.

PosiVibez4evr

OH hell yeah! Excited for this one. Such a great wide range of games the Wario series has had!

Andrew O.

Virtual Boy Wario Land is one of the few instances I can think of where the name of the hardware is in the name of the game. Game Boy Donkey Kong is another example. (It grinds my gears when people say Donkey Kong '94!) Prior they added "Super" or even in some cases "NES" (like NES Play Action Football), and eventually had "64" and "DS" added to titles, but full names seem like a rarity.

PurpleComet

This ranking was so different from what I expected. Per Wikipedia, Wario Land 3 is the highest rated game in the series, but it's ranked fourth. I've heard raves about Wario Land 2, but my impression was that Wario Land 4 was a step down. (Turns out EGM was the only outlet that didn't love it, they gave it a 7.5) But really gets me is that I thought Wario Land 1 was safe to skip but here it's rated it number 1! IIRC Bob is also a fan of Wario Land, I'd be interested to hear Bob's take (not that I expect him to differ widely from you guys).

Christopher McDougall

This ranking convinced me to drop whatever I was playing and break out my 2DSXL and finally play my Virtual Console purchase of Wario Land 2. Wario Land 3 was my first Wario game, played on that same 2DSXL back when the store was still alive. I absolutely loved it. Then the Wario Land Retronauts episode came out and convinced me to play the Wario Land 4 GBA cartridge a friend let me have. Another banger! Will this be 3 for 3? I hope so, dear friends.

James Krusling

I remember getting Warioland 2 YEARS ago because either Bob or Jeremy raved about it and it’s like, kinda secretly one of the greatest games ever? Not that I’m saying something earth shattering or anything but when I found out I couldn’t die, I realized how creative you could get and how the game is literally encouraging you to try everything, and it’s wonderful to play games that allow you to make mistakes and encourage you to utilize them! Great stuff

JJR

Great episode! I still remember how much I thought Wario was lame when the commercial for the first game came out- but I was a teenager and thought an evil Mario meant Nintendo was out of ideas. It wasn’t until Wario Ware for GC that I fell in love with the character. I wish I knew about the community voting. I definitely would have put the VB game up really high.

Nuno Amaral

Warioland is the one videogame series that my baby brother introduced to me. At the age of 6 or 7, Wario just somehow called to him. He turned out fine.

Miguel Torres

I have been replaying the Wario Land series starting from 1 on GB and I’m currently playing through 2 right now the original B&W version and I just wanna say that Stuart is right, you really can not wake up to your alarm and be taken to the alternate route right from the beginning from a fresh start on the cartridge.