Review: Wario's Woods

Video: Wario's Woods Unboxing

I've been seeing these red cards that say Nintendo Switch Online for quite some time without knowing what they were about, but I finally decided to buy one just recently to find out.  And was I pleasantly surprised to see that all it is is the Switch's Virtual Console service.

And I was quite interested to see all the different consoles that were already available for download.  Looking through all the games for the Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64 sure took me on a trip down memory lane.

So I first upgraded to the expansion pack and then bought an SD card so I could start downloading games, and decided to start from the very beginning with the NES.  And despite the NES being before my time, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the very first game was an old favorite that I loved on the Super Nintendo, Wario's Woods.  So I immediately started playing it.

What I Think Of Wario's Woods Overall

This is clearly Nintendo's take on the puzzle genre.  It's like the Mario version of Tetris, but with monsters and bombs rather than tetriminoes.  So it's actually more like a mix of Tetris and Bomberman with a Mario twist.

And as one of the very last games that I played on the Super Nintendo before it was time to move on to the N64, I still remember like it was yesterday when I purchased this baby from a toy store that also sells video games.  And I still remember all the fun I had with this game on my Super Nintendo.

What I Like About Wario's Woods

Even though this is mostly from my own experience from the when I played it on the Super Nintendo, I was pleasantly surprised to see that I still had it as I made it all the way round 95 in just one try in the Round Game.

Pulling off all of those chain reactions and making diamonds was still every bit just as much fun as I can remember.  Even when I was losing and getting game overs at round 99, I was still having so much fun that restarting didn't even bother me at all.

And while I haven't yet attempted to complete the Type B game, I still find it to be just as spooky as ever.  While I do still find it weird that you have to make matches with the bosses to hit them, it's still every bit just as much fun watching them make weird faces every time I do as it did when I was in grade school.  And even the fake Wario was just as goofy looking as I remember.

And even though it was pretty tough, getting those gold achievements in the Timed Race was still so much fun that repeating the same levels over and over trying to shave off seconds from your overall time never gets boring.  And even though I found it so much easier than I remember, most likely because of my previous experience, it was still just as satisfying to reach those Gold achievements as I remember it from the Super Nintendo game.

Overall, this was one of the best trips down memory lane that I've experienced.  And I'm even more impressed that I still have so much of my old skills that I pretty much blazed through it in just a few weeks, whereas it took me at least a whole year back when I was in grade school if I remember correctly.  

While it will probably take a while for me to dust off the rustiness that I have from not having played it in years for me to reach and clear Round 100, for both game types, I know that it's just a matter of time before I do.  And with this game being just as much fun as I remember, I see no reason why I would get bored and stop before I do.

What I Do Not Like About Wario's Woods

While me having played it when it was rereleased on the Super Nintendo when I was in grade school was a blessing in so many was as you've probably seen by now, it was also a curse in other was as you will see soon enough.  Obviously, the biggest one is me still being so used to playing it on the Super Nintendo, that I found it extremely hard to adjust myself to the NES controls.

I'm so used to having X and Y buttons to press when playing this game, that I found myself constantly pressing them trying to do my favorite move only for nothing to happen because the NES didn't have X and Y buttons.  And this confusion often has me fumbling a lot of things that would otherwise be easy for me to do.

Also because I played it on the Super Nintendo previously, I'm still used to hearing all of those crazy sound effects every time I pull off a series of chain reactions.  Yeah, Cool, Yoohoo, Ow Baby, You The Man, You Kick Butt, and so on.  Well you get the idea.  But I don't get that with the NES game.  Not even hearing Toad say "Sweet!" every time you clear a level.  By comparison to the Super Nintendo game, the NES game is pretty quiet.

And finally is a problem that I found with both games, and that would be the fact that there is no coherent story.  You are never told the reason why Toad is in Wario's Woods in the first place.  You're never told about a princess that Wario kidnapped, a plot by Wario that Toad is protecting the Mushroom Kingdom from, nothing.  

And because of this, it actually makes Toad look like the bad guy.  As if he just decided to go and invade Wario's home and kick his ass for no reason just because he's bored.  And even though we know that Wario is the bad guy and so we know that Toad has a very good reason for being in Wario's Woods, we're never told what that reason is.

The one and only thing that we can figure out about the story is that by the hero being Toad and not Mario or Luigi is that storywise, whatever bad thing that Wario did or is about to do to the Mushroom Kingdom had to have happened or was discovered is going to happen after Mario and Luigi had already gone off to deal with some other threat to the Mushroom Kingdom, most likely from Bowser.  And it's because Mario and Luigi were already gone dealing with that threat when the threat of Wario happened that left Toad as the only person left that could step up to Wario and stop him.

What I Find Found Strange About Wario's Woods

The one thing that I find really weird and funny about the game is that, by me being so used to the superior graphics of the Super Nintendo, the NES game has Wario looking like a straight crackhead.  As if you ever met him on a street corner, he'd be hitting you up for some crack/cocaine.  "Hey buddy, got some of that good stuff for me?"  Well now all of you drug addicts know who to hit up if you ever find yourselves in the Mushroom Kingdom!  Just make sure you bring some gold coins with you, as I'm not entire sure if Wario takes dollars.  And unfortunately, I don't know the dollar/gold coin exchange rate.

Conclusion

Overall, I'm loving every minute that I spend with Wario's Woods.  Not only is this a very fond trip down memory lane for me, as I originally played this game on the Super Nintendo back when I was in grade school, but this is also a very fun game that I'd very much enjoy even without the fond memories.

And while I did list a number of complaints, almost all of them are the result of me being so used to the Super Nintendo game, so I don't think that it would be fair for me to deduct points because it doesn't live up to it's more improved and updated rerelease on a superior console.  On it's on, no comparisons to the Super Nintendo game, this is one of the most enjoyable games that you can play on the NES.

Otaku Universe gives Wario's Woods for the Nintendo Entertainment System a(n):

A

Bringing down the Roof!