Wario Land 4; GBA Ambassador

[Sebby19]

Neat, Hard Mode also moves around the location of the triangle blocks, among other things.

Toy Block Tower

Introduction

"Toy Block Tower kicks off Topaz Passage’s toy theme with a tower made of playing blocks. The red and purple colour scheme, Cheshire cat grin of the cat blocks, structure and arrangement of the first six rooms, and king, queen, and knight figures in Room 1 establish the Alice in Wonderland-esque setting.
Cat blocks, which respawn when Wario re-enters a room, are used to construct sequence puzzles where the player must destroy blocks in a Specific order. These types of arrangements are only possible because the cat blocks allow the player to retry if they make a mistake. Since cat blocks are exclusive to Toy Block Tower, so too are sequence puzzles.
As most arrangements are optional and Toy Cars, a variant of the already familiar Spearmen, are the only active enemies in the level, there’s potentially little gameplay for the player to engage with. For better or worse, authority is taken away from the game designer and given to the player."

Game Idea
"The sequence puzzles are isolated, optional, and lack a cohesive theme. The shape block and key hole arrangements are typical move-key-to-lock affairs. Concealment and Flaming Wario make fleeting appearances. Coming off of the Ruby Passage, whose game ideas are coherent and richly-layered, Toy Block Tower’s mixture of undercooked arrangements feels half-hearted."

Next time: My favorite level in the game!

[Crow]

raocow:
*casually makes a jump first try with no pressure applied*
*fails the same exact jump a minute later about a dozen times once the timer starts*

you doofus.

[cheez8]

raocow:
*casually makes a jump first try with no pressure applied*
*fails the same exact jump a minute later about a dozen times once the timer starts*

you doofus.

It's not the same jump, actually. The low ceiling extends one block further out the second time. That makes a huge difference - hitting his head on the extra block is what caused the jump to miss pretty much every time, and it looks like he would have even nicked his head on the extra block if it was there when he made the first jump.

Anyway, I don't get why people are complaining about the Big Board. Yellow World has some of my favorite levels in the game, including that one, so this should be a fun time! (With one possible exception later on, but we'll see how that goes.)

[Stink Terios]

While watching this let's play I got annoyed at the game a lot, thanks to unmarked walls and having to re-do a lot of the levels if you screw up some puzzles. Just, ugh.

Then I decided to try a all crowns run on my 3DS (on normal atm) and the egg's on my face because this game is great. I think I'll even do the same for hard and super hard later :v

By the way, if you have a hacked 3DS you can restore the brightness and remove blurring for GBA games, so it's literally the same as playing on a GBA. Except for the screen size, of course.

[Lostsoldier20]

Anyway, I don't get why people are complaining about the Big Board. Yellow World has some of my favorite levels in the game, including that one, so this should be a fun time! (With one possible exception later on, but we'll see how that goes.)

From what I can see, the comments are mostly "complains" about how raocow is going to perform in it, rather than the level itself. Which... I'm inclined to agree is ready for disaster.

So I was watching a speedrun of the game by the Games Done Quick people from last year, and I discover in the comments that there is a cheat code to unlock the Karaoke song in the sound room, bypassing the 18 Gold Crowns you need.

I just tried it, and it works! Huh.

Say raocow, do you want to know it?

Oh, that's the song I was thinking of I think. RIP it being in topaz.

[Stink Terios]

From what I can see, the comments are mostly "complains" about how raocow is going to perform in it, rather than the level itself. Which... I'm inclined to agree is ready for disaster.

The escape sequence was pretty rough for me on normal, so it's probably gonna be a huge trainwreck on hard.

[Lostsoldier20]

From what I can see, the comments are mostly "complains" about how raocow is going to perform in it, rather than the level itself. Which... I'm inclined to agree is ready for disaster.

The escape sequence was pretty rough for me on normal, so it's probably gonna be a huge trainwreck on hard.

Point exactly. Though, its only a a preview of what's to come from Ruby...

[Zephyr_DragonLord]

So I've finally bought and played through most of this game. So I can tell you that most of Topaz world is going to be really fun for you. The only exceptions are the boss and maybe the last level, depending on how much you stress over races. But until then, you're going to have some great fun.

Those jumps are pretty difficult, but besides that, there's not much in the way of the exit... which is pretty nice, since they expected the player to struggle with that first escape jump a little.

[Sebby19]

That jump isn't even that hard. Rao was just jumping way to early. Wario's ability to stand on ledges puts Mega Man to shame.

[Leet]

Next time: My favorite level in the game!

That's what I came here to say!

Also, when I used to play this game I always started with Topaz Passage for some reason, so Toy Block Tower was my "first" level after the Entry Passage. Never really was too tricky.

[Ashan]

I think I used to start with either Emerald or Topaz.
I remember not really liking Ruby because of all the tight corridors and whatnot, and Sapphire was 2spooky. Especially

floating skeleton pirate guy in Crescent Moon Village

[Mata Hari]

raocow didn't get "board" by this level!!!

[Jesuiscontent]

tfw raocow finally realizes an enemy has spikes on its side and forgets it 10 seconds later

[CM30]

Well that went surprisingly well. Except with the part with the Spiny, since he seems to keep forgetting how to safely kill that level. But yeah, nice that raocow got through The Big Board rather easily in general.

Doodle Woods will be... interesting. It's got a really neat gimmick, but it's also one that can get extremely frustrating if you're unlucky or impatient. Hope he has less problems with the spiny pig than he does the normal spnies..

[Alice]

tfw raocow finally realizes an enemy has spikes on its side and forgets it 10 seconds later

Well this is the same person who can get a double jump, require using it to leave the room where he got it, then forget about it immediately afterwards so that's not terribly surprising, lol. Even with those moments of stupidity this video was one of the best in this series so far.

[Grounder]

people were expecting this to be a toughie for him?

he can count to six you know

[Sebby19]

Wow, he played the dice way better than I did on my first try. I'm ashamed to say I had to use save states to get what I wanted my first few times.
I really thought we would see one of Wario's idle animations during this level. He has a unique one after the Frog Switch is pressed, and it would have been most appropriate to see him do it while waiting for the right number under the Dice Block. Unfortunately, raocow was too good for once and kept his cool.

The Big Board

Introduction
"In The Big Board, board game elements are fitted to optional lock and key arrangements. Contextually, these elements simulate the rolling of a dice and Wario’s movement along a non-existent board. Functionally, they act as reflex testers that reward the player with the means to participate in the arrangements, adding an initial step of interaction. By rolling the right number and using the reward to solve the arrangement, the player can snag a free diamond. On normal, the arrangements are entirely optional. On hard though, the diamonds are replaced with jewel piece chests which make participation and decent reflex skills mandatory. Come post-fold, the player must reach the end of the board. For players who wagged the arrangements pre-fold, this means traversing the entire board in one go post-fold. The scalable punishment is one of Wario Land 4’s best post-fold twists."

About that 2nd Bonus Pipe, this is the only one that can be accessed after the Frog Switch. Daniel notes at the end of the chapter that this is really bad level design, but I disagree. Pinball Zone had 3 pipes, so what is wrong with exceptions? He does make a good point with the red switch blocks underneath the pipe. They need to be On, but the 3rd dice block in that same room suggests that you turn it Off, a contradicting message. For what it's worth, this Bonus Room is one of the simplest. Ground pound to make the Prof. bounce toward you, and Charge Throw him up through the blocks to hit the switch. 2 steps.

But man, Daniel has a lot to say about this level, and I have a bunch of words myself. Later, I'll do a semi-summary of this chapter, but it will be mostly my observations. I love the Big Board! It's like playing two games at once!

[Nimono]

people were expecting this to be a toughie for him?

he can count to six you know

It's because you have to time the dice just right to get the gems, and each die only gives you 1 chance except the goal one

[Mata Hari]

people were expecting this to be a toughie for him?

he can count to six you know

Bullshit

[Sebby19]

By the way, that blue background that raocow said unsettled him, a recoloured version appeared in Psycho Waluigi (in the 2nd dark level). In fact, Wario 4 influenced a lot of Psycho Waluigi. I bet you can see it now, right?

[Lunikyuu]

Part of me kind of expected raocow to pick up on the gimmick fairly easily tbh. I'm glad too since this is a pretty neat level.

I've seen a lot of people talking about the next level in the comments but... I don't remember it being particularly hard? Maybe I'm just abnormally good at that one level? Now I don't really know what to expect for tomorrow's episode.

[Mandew]

people were expecting this to be a toughie for him?

he can count to six you know

Bullshit

Well, you know, counting from One to Five isn't his cup of tea (he'd rather count from un to cinq) but since six is the same in both English and French...

[CM30]

Part of me kind of expected raocow to pick up on the gimmick fairly easily tbh. I'm glad too since this is a pretty neat level.

I've seen a lot of people talking about the next level in the comments but... I don't remember it being particularly hard? Maybe I'm just abnormally good at that one level? Now I don't really know what to expect for tomorrow's episode.

It's not a hard level at all.

But that pig ghost does spawn an infinite number of enemies, and one of them is a lot like the Spinies he keeps having trouble with for some silly non reason.

It also has a fairly involved section after the timer. I mean, it's not like Pinball Zone level complex, but it's got quite a few puzzles and enemies in places you can only explore in 'panic mode'.

[Mata Hari]

Hey I'm pretty sure raocow would've recorded tomorrow's episode by now but could you keep potential level gimmick spoilers like

Hoggus

a little closer to your chest. Thanks

[Nimono]

Part of me kind of expected raocow to pick up on the gimmick fairly easily tbh. I'm glad too since this is a pretty neat level.

I've seen a lot of people talking about the next level in the comments but... I don't remember it being particularly hard? Maybe I'm just abnormally good at that one level? Now I don't really know what to expect for tomorrow's episode.

It's not hard, it's just really, really, REALLY annoying. Like, Fishin Boo annoying. Or maybe just Lakitu annoying, Fishin Boo is actually a threat. Something you just simply want to go away, but it's not really making it tougher to win, does that make sense??