Graphics: Great art never ages. I’m a huge fan of hand-drawn animation, an aesthetic used to great effect in Wario Land. The design decision to eschew pumping polygons in favor of good, old-fashioned sprites brings this game up several notches in my book. While we might look back at some traditional 2D platformers from the past and wonder how our eyes were ever deceived, the fact that Wario is launching now, in the midst of the HD era, proves that this game will still look good 20 years from now. From the vivid hand-painted backdrops to the fluid animation that brings even the most minor villains to life, Wario Land is a Crayola-hued confection that’s worth posting on your fridge. What I wouldn’t give to see Mario or Metroid given the same treatment.

Interface: I’m a big fan of the Wii and its potential, but the one criticism I’ve had time and time again is the unnecessary inclusion of ‘waggle’ controls. Some designers feel they have to shoehorn in these gimmicks, as if a Wii game without them would nullify its existence. Wario Land employs a number of motion-sensitive actions, but none of them border on the outlandish. While the Ground Pound maneuver does begin to wear out its welcome (I found my wrist aching after a few marathon sessions), some of the other, optional movements are pretty satisfying. I particularly enjoyed grabbing a stunned enemy and waving the Wiimote back and forth as Wario grabbed the offending party and shook them down for extra scratch. Aside from that, the controls are as simplistic and elegant as anything from the 8-bit era. The controls also feel very tight, allowing players to guide Wario to pixel-perfect landings, something that could not always be done in the older games.

Gameplay: Wario Land rewards detailed exploration of its massive levels. While finding your way from the beginning to the end boss is fairly standard, the real fun is exploring all of the nooks and crannies jammed throughout each level. The game soars when you spot treasure in a hard-to-reach location, forcing you to scour the level to gain the right abilities and environmental objects required to acquire the prize. In addition to the addictive run-and-jump mechanics employed throughout the game, the developers mix things up through an escalating series of creative departures, placing Wario in control of a unicycle, submarine and other vehicles at various points. The optional challenges add a puzzle-solving element to the proceedings, with players working to determine the best route to follow to finish a level in record time. While playing through the same level multiple times can grow repetitive, the environments are so vibrant that most players won’t mind revisiting these beautiful scenes.

Sound Effects: The sound effects are appropriately cartoony. In typical Nintendo style, voice-overs are kept to a bare minimum, with Wario and other characters represented by an assortment of over-embellished grunts and groans. The large-living Wario blasts gas (both literally and figuratively) throughout the game, and the sounds do a decent job conveying it.

Music: Here’s one area where Wario suffers in comparison to previous games. None of the musical themes have the same infectious quality that implanted ‘The Underworld Theme’ as a permanent fixture in my neural archives. Most of the music heard in the game is serviceable background noise. The tunes back up the onscreen action, but do nothing to give it much life.

Intelligence: Wario Land is cut from the same cloth as other classic platformers, meaning the enemies all follow their own set routines. The trick is often identifying and memorizing their patterns to get through trickier areas instead of altering your strategy to deal with complex adaptive AI schemes. The enemy intelligence adheres to their prime directive: ‘Walk Right. Walk Left. If Wario gets in your way, hurt him.’ As with most platformers, the intelligence demands fall squarely on the player.

Difficulty: This is not a particularly difficult game, especially if your objective is to race through each level as fast as possible. The enemy foot soldiers are easily defeated and the various puzzles that pop up can usually be solved with a few moments of contemplative thought, as each usually involves one of Wario’s trademark moves and an environment object. There are a few trickier areas, but long-time Nintendo platform and adventure fans should find them easy to overcome, assuming they know to look around. The boss battles provide a slight increase in challenge. More importantly, each one is unique and memorable. Great boss fights have become something of a lost art, so it’s nice to see the Wario developers resurrect this staple. Players who approach it from a completionist standpoint and are aiming for the 100% Save File will find that the bonus challenges increase the difficulty exponentially, with some of the mad dashes through a level proving especially taxing.

Overall: 2008 could go down in history as the year of the platformer, or at the very least, the year that platformers refused to go quietly into the night. Braid, Mega Man 9, Bionic Commando: Rearmed and LittleBigPlanet are just a sampling from this banquet. Wario Land: Shake It arrives as a welcome guest, paying homage to past Nintendo classics. It showcases Wario’s unique brand of platforming (and attitude), featuring exceptional art design and a vibrant, inviting adventure. Wario may not sit tall among Nintendo’s Holy Trinity of Mario, Metroid and Zelda, but seeing the exceptional care and craftsmanship employed to make his new adventure shine makes one yearn for similar treatment for these other stalwart heroes. Old-school platform adventure gamers are urged to tickle that nostalgia bone and pick this one up. The rest of you whippersnappers need a history lesson. Pick up Wario and unlock the secrets to how we veterans got sucked into this glorious pastime.