Wario Land 4

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Wario Land 4
North American box art
Developer(s)	Nintendo R&D1
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Director(s)	Hirofumi Matsuoka[3]
Producer(s)	Takehiro Izushi[4]
Designer(s)	Hiroji Kiyotake Tomoyoshi Yamane Takehiko Hosokawa Masani Ueda Isao Hirano Shinya Sano Ryuichi Nakada Takayasu Morisawa
Programmer(s)	Katsuya Yamano Yoshinori Katsuki Nobuhiro Ozaki Kota Fukui Goro Abe[3] Ko Takeuchi[3]
Artist(s)	Yasuo Inoue Sachiko Nakamichi
Composer(s)	Ryoji Yoshitomi
Series	Wario
Platform(s)	Game Boy Advance
Release	JP: August 21, 2001 AU: November 9, 2001 EU: November 16, 2001[1] NA: November 19, 2001[2]
Genre(s)	Platform
Mode(s)	Single-player

Wario Land 4^[a] is a 2001 platform video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance. It is the fifth installment in the Wario Land subseries of the Wario series. It was released in Japan in August 2001 and November 2001 internationally. In the game, Wario has to gather four treasures to unlock a pyramid and save Princess Shokora from the Golden Diva. The game received critical acclaim, with many considering the game to be one of the best platformers of all time.

The gameplay of Wario Land 4 (which is generally similar to that of Wario Land II and Wario Land 3) allows for some open-endedness as well as some order of difficulty. After an Entry Passage that serves as a tutorial for the game, there are four main passages: the Emerald, Ruby, Topaz, and Sapphire Passages. The Emerald Passage is themed around nature. The Ruby Passage is themed around mechanics and technology. The Topaz Passage is themed around toys, games, and other "playtime" ideas. The Sapphire Passage is themed around horror and danger, prominently involving ghosts and the like. Every passage contains four levels and culminates in a boss fight. After these four main passages is the "Final" Golden Pyramid, which serves as a recap of these four themes and houses the Golden Passage level and the final boss.

Each level contains four jewel pieces, found in boxes scattered throughout, that need to be collected. Finding all jewel pieces within a passage unlocks access to the boss. The player must also find a creature called a Keyzer, which will unlock the door to the next level. The player can also collect treasure that increases their score in the form of coins that are dropped by enemies and floating crystals.

Wario begins every level by jumping through a Vortex that then closes behind him. It can only be reopened by finding a Switch located somewhere in the level. When the Switch is pressed, a timer will appear, forcing the player to get back to the beginning as quickly as possible. If the timer finishes counting down, the player's score will begin to rapidly deplete, resulting in Wario being kicked from the stage and losing all collectables if it reaches zero. Switches can also make certain blocks appear or disappear, often making the player take a completely different path to the Vortex.

Unlike previous entries, Wario now has a health meter that depletes when he takes damage. If Wario loses all health, the player must start the level over, losing all collectables they had found.

Every Passage ends with a boss, which must be defeated within a time limit. Players can optionally use medals gained from playing minigames to buy an item that deals damage to the boss before the fight begins.

Wario is reading the newspaper when he notices an article about a mysterious pyramid found deep in the jungle. The legend related to the pyramid is that of Princess Shokora, ruler of the pyramid, who was cursed by the money-crazed Golden Diva. As he enters it, he finds a black cat and chases it. Doing so, he falls down a precipice and is stuck inside the pyramid.

Exploring the pyramid, Wario has to fight several bosses, each of whom is in possession of items Princess Shokora once wore. After completing these passages, Wario gains access to the innermost part of the pyramid, which ends up being the stronghold of the Golden Diva. Wario meets the cat again, who turns out to be Princess Shokora herself. Wario defeats the Golden Diva and exits the pyramid with all the treasure he has acquired.

Upon their escape, Shokora is restored to her true form—this may be a brattish child, a female version of Wario, a Peach-like princess, and, ultimately, a superheroine-like princess (what form Shokora is restored to depends on the total number of treasure chests Wario had acquired from the other bosses prior as well as how quickly the Golden Diva is defeated—if he took too long to defeat any of them, some of these chests will be withheld). Shokora gives Wario a kiss on the cheek and ascends to the afterlife as Wario watches. After she leaves, Wario grabs his loot and celebrates by going to an all-you-can-eat steak buffet.

The game was included in the list of Game Boy Advance games that were available for download by the Nintendo 3DS Ambassador Program since December 16, 2011.^[5]

The game has been released on the Wii U Virtual Console in 2014: in Japan on April 30, in North America on May 8, and in Europe and Australia on June 5.^[6][7]

In the United States, Wario Land 4 sold 720,000 copies and earned $20 million by August 2006. During the period between January 2000 and August 2006, it was the 33rd highest-selling game launched for the Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS or PlayStation Portable in that country.^[18] The game ended up selling 2.2 million copies worldwide.^[19]

The game received critical acclaim. IGN gave Wario Land 4 a 9 out of 10, or "Outstanding", citing its well thought out level design and replayability.^[14] GamePro stated "Boasting fantastic graphics and awesome transparency effects for water and fog, Wario Land 4 pushes the GBA to its visual limits". GameSpot commented "The gameplay is tight and varied, the graphics are detailed and bright, and the sound is second to none".^[20] GameSpy called the game: "An incredibly entertaining, diverse, and humorous addition to the Mario/Wario legacy. It's challenging and creative, but not as outright frustrating as Wario Land 3."^[21] Game Informer noted "It's nothing new to the Wario Land enthusiast, but it's enjoyable nonetheless".^[9] Nintendo Power stated "It's polished variety paired with a mishmash of moves, which makes Wario Land 4 fun through and through".^[16]

Wario Land 4 was a runner-up for GameSpot's annual "Best Game Boy Advance Game" and, among console games, "Best Platform Game" awards. These went respectively to Advance Wars and Conker's Bad Fur Day.^[22]

Wario Land 4 has served as an inspiration for several indie games following its release. Pizza Tower (2023) and Antonblast (2024) were both directly inspired by Wario Land 4, as confirmed by their respective developers, with both games incorporating their own takes on Wario's transformations and the game's level-end escape segments (the latter known as "Pizza Time" in Pizza Tower and "Happy Hour" in Antonblast).

• Official website (in Japanese)