Wario Land 3 - With input from Samus

[J. J. W. Mezun]

060. E7 Forest of Fear - Gray

Zombified,
shriveled vines & thorns ~
dark fall morn.


061. W5 Beneath the Waves - Gray

Twilit pond ~
calm dry cave inside
harsh currents.


062. E5 The Warped Void - Gray

Eyes all round ~
love neon lights, too,
aliens.

-------------------

In order to break through to the chest, you have to:
- turn into a stringball to break the first block; you then have to spend about 20 seconds twiddling your thumbs doing nothing
- break a bunch of blocks
- turn into a stringball AGAIN, for another 20-odd seconds

One other example that always irks me is the ladder in Volcano's Base; you climb up as the weird spike things come out from the wall, so you have to wait for one of them, then another, then another like it's Elec Man's level in Mega Man 1. Then at the top, there's one enemy walking and he spawns EXACTLY so far away from the top of the ladder that you have to wait AGAIN so he doesn't knock you off. I feel like if the game instead rewarded you at the end for finally pushing on as quickly as possible, it would feel way better; instead, it's just FOUR times waiting with a very small variety at the end. Again, this is not a puzzle, nor is it challenging. It just wastes your time while you're doing nothing that is in any way fun.

It's deflated me a bit that looking mo' closely @ its level design & seeing someone play it blindly has opened my eyes to how much mo' flawed this game's level design is than I thought. I always knew Wario Land 3 had flaws & that a large part o' my love for it is nostalgia: like that minigolf game copypasta'd everywhere or 2 bubble puzzles that are basically the same in a game already filled with bubble rooms or the fact that there are a ridiculous # o' cave levels & cave rooms in levels that have nothing to do with caves & water rooms in levels that have nothing to do with water

( & we haven't e'en seen the worst treasures in this game yet... )

, but now I'm starting to realize it's less "a few" & mo' "half" the treasures.

That said, I'll still stand by this game being better than Wario Land II.

A'least this game doesn't have "The Final Chapter" or puzzles wherein you have to hop jump on erratic rats to get 'cross a spike pit.

On a mo' positive note, I'll also stand by my view that "The Warped Void" is the best level in this game. In a game full o' cave & water levels, it's immensely refreshing, & has some cool gimmicks, which we will see later.

I like the inner hub o' "Beneath the Waves" & the return o' the gimmick from "Castle of Illusions" o' putting all the chests in 1 hub; but I don't like the return o' the puzzle o' blind guessing which platform to jump up to.

Owl-eyed viewers will notice that raocow could've used a thin strip o' current going in toward the center o' the current circle 'stead o' brute-forcing the solution. This time, I did know 'bout the brute-force method, as it's what I used as a kid before I noticed that thin strip.

I'm surprised raocow stumbled 'pon the right way to the key before the chest in "Forest of Fear". Before I memorized this level, I would usually go right through those birds & spikes, which were hard to dodge as a kid, only to realize I had to do it 'gain 'pon finding that the key is somewhere else.

[Sebby19]

The first time I entered The Warped Void, I noticed it used the same tileset as the last level in WL2, I thought "Oh no! Here we go again!" I wonder how many other kids went through a similar thing.
Thankfully, no creepy faces or enemies imbedded in the walls, and the platforming challenges are not to the extent of the The Really Final Chapter.
The Void and the Forest are closely related to each other.

[Sebby19]

So, I'm going to have to split 'Story Time with Wario Land 3!' in twine, for the near future. It's no longer a simple Chain of Deals

Working though the Treasure Horde...
In the center of the vortex is a cave of treasures, but the only one Wario get now is The Detonator. With no wires attached, Wario sits on the thing to see what happens. Various explosions are then heard elsewhere. Bombs that were imbedded in various floors and walls of Cave of Flames, The Stagnant Swamp, and The Colossal Hole blow up, collapsing those and opening new underground passages.

Back and Forth...
Climbing through the dark, prickly forest, Wario finds the Warp Compact. When opened and pointed at the right place, the mirror inside reacts and opens a rift in time and space! The extra-dimensional The Warped Void comes into view, next to the forest.
I was wrong about things not getting any spookier. In fact, they are about to get worse. The void has a similar aesthetic to the cave that Captain Syrup had hidden away her treasure. Wario remember bad times navigating that place. The place is much more twisty and loopy than anywhere he's been before, and the yellow portals will both assist and hinder navigation, since who knows where they'll send you. Wario blindly somehow navigates his way to Mystery Handle. Putting that into the matching valve that happened to be close to the Forest of Fear, a warp pipe rises from below the surface, close to where the Compact was originally found.

It seems The Forest of Fear and The Warped Void are closely related

[Awoo]

It looks like raocow unlocked Demo's tornado form today!

[J. J. W. Mezun]

063. E4 The Colossal Hole - Blue

Twilight skies ~
'hind the bomb blasts hide
potted snakes.


064. E1 The Stagnant Swamp - Blue

Fall green swamp ~
'hind the bomb blasts hide
allergies.


065. S5 Cave of Flames - Green

Ol' fire cave ~
I jump into a
fire tadpole.

-------------------

¿What do snakes in jars in a cave in the sky have to do with a colossal hole? ¿What does a cave full o' spike-faced octopuses have to do with a swamp?

But the way "Cave of Flames" combines fire, invisibility, & the hopping fish is clever & refreshing & feels like it goes just as long as it needs to without requiring much padding.

[Crow]

raocow it said which level name was affected at the bottom of the screen!
looks like raocow is becoming flame hyenard now, sad

[Sebby19]

Some may think why I called this area The MESS. Soon...

[Sebby19]

Story Time! With Wario Land 3!

Working through the Treasure Horde...
Within what looks to be a buried and broken fort, near the swamp, Wario find the Eye of Gentle Wind. It looks like a little wind spirit with a single eye. Kinda cute? Maybe? It looks like its power may be useful, but Wario has no way to even hold onto it properly, let alone focus and control it. Thankfully, the answer to that problem is deep within the fiery caves of the volcano: Fuujin's Sack. The wind spirit instinctively crawls inside the bag. Wario aims the bag at the nearest forest, sending wind current throughout Out of the Woods. Various large leaves become dislodge and starting floating in the air. Maybe Wario can use them as platforms?
You know, it's been a while since Wario has had to return to the starting forest. With all the abilities he has regained, he's probably able to create all sorts of alternate pathways now.

[Piesonscreations]

Wario land 3 Featuring BURN TO THE GROUND BURN

[SAJewers]

huh, look what came out today

[FPzero]

huh, look what came out today

While interesting for the simple fact it's the first, unsurprisingly it is also pretty bad. How much do you enjoy tiles that force you back to the title screen being plastered all over the levels? Out of the Woods opens up with an Apple Lizard making you fat wario if you don't stop him with a flame torch spitting fires right next to you, all suspended over these title screen tiles. It's just really annoying to play levels so far when they're changed. Otherwise most of the treasures are still the same but with extra title screen tiles added in places as failure states. Oh, but it's okay to have those tiles because WL3 has a Suspend Save feature that basically acts as an ingame savestate!

So yeah, verdict is that it's interesting as an accomplishment, but not as a well-designed hack. Why are the first hacks of games always garbage...?

[Piesonscreations]

I just had to make this.

[raocow]

woah

[Crow]

hyper light kong

[SAJewers]

huh, look what came out today

While interesting for the simple fact it's the first, unsurprisingly it is also pretty bad. How much do you enjoy tiles that force you back to the title screen being plastered all over the levels? Out of the Woods opens up with an Apple Lizard making you fat wario if you don't stop him with a flame torch spitting fires right next to you, all suspended over these title screen tiles. It's just really annoying to play levels so far when they're changed. Otherwise most of the treasures are still the same but with extra title screen tiles added in places as failure states. Oh, but it's okay to have those tiles because WL3 has a Suspend Save feature that basically acts as an ingame savestate!

So yeah, verdict is that it's interesting as an accomplishment, but not as a well-designed hack. Why are the first hacks of games always garbage...?

tbf, it was apparently designed as a kaizo-ish hack.

[BobisOnlyBob]

So yeah, verdict is that it's interesting as an accomplishment, but not as a well-designed hack. Why are the first hacks of games always garbage...?

Anyone dedicated enough to make the first custom hack for a game probably also had to make the very limited initial tools, which will likely only be capable of rearranging existing tiles, and they're probably really, really, REALLY into the game and want way more challenge than the base . High demand for challenge + limited tools + little-to-no community for playtesting = probably garbage levels. Add in a "let's make a kaizo hack" attitude and it's almost guaranteed.

[strongbadman]

So is there any use for money aside from the infrequent golf minigame?

[Sebby19]

The absurdly low Coin Cap is exibit A in how unimportant coinsnarebhere, compared to the other games where they just rain down on you.

This ain't the Mushroom Kingdom anymore.

On the flip side, this game has the biggest focus on treasures.

[J. J. W. Mezun]

066. N1 Out of the Woods - Green

Autumn morn ~
dim blue sky rains down
leaves & bugs.


067. N4 Bank of the Wild River - Green

Blue river ~
past the currents dwells
plump mouse fish.


068. N5 The Tidal Coast - Green

Twilit coast ~
in the rising tides,
vine fences.

-------------------

Strangely, 1 o' the few rooms in "Out of the Woods" that doesn't have trees has falling leaves. Guess they're way up off-screen.

Despite playing this game mo' than 10 times for o'er a decade, I ne'er noticed that pufferfish was also a mouse & that you were dropping cheese in front o' it.

As for Wario Land 3: Master Quest, I'm surprised it's the 1st hack o' Wario Land 3, 'cause hacking tools for this game have been round for mo' than 5 years. I've seen some attempts @ making hacks for that game, which have probably all fizzled out, & all o' them were dumb "let's make things obnoxiously harder for no reason" kaizo-like hacks. Novice designers seem to gravitate toward that kind o' design 'cause they've forgotten what it's like to play the game for the 1st time & 'cause they have the mentality that a level designer's job is the impede players as much as possible, not guide them.

Blocks that reset your game are a new 1 for me, though.

[Ashan]

I love how they give you the ability to swim against currents and immediately in the first level that helps you they introduce a super current you can't swim against

[BobisOnlyBob]

I love how they give you the ability to swim against currents and immediately in the first level that helps you they introduce a super current you can't swim against

It almost feels like the flippers should have been the reward for this boss, and the current being a regular strong one.

[Paragraph]

they have the mentality that a level designer's job is the impede players as much as possible, not guide them.

Can you blame them with this particular game though ?

[Implo]

I love how they give you the ability to swim against currents and immediately in the first level that helps you they introduce a super current you can't swim against

I have thought: "Oh, they changed the rules. That's great..."

Also this boss while it's not very hard, it was for me the hardest to figure out. After I figured out, first two forms are easy, but third with different timing always take me a lot of time.

One more thing. In my previous post I mentioned that the most troublesome coin appear in

Cave of Flames

. I was wrong. It was

Grassland

. While it's not very important, I started to think why did I mixed these two levels. I realized that the room nearby troublesome coin could appear in both of these levels. Not only that. It could appear in every level in the game.

So I decided to remind what I remember about this game. Right now, I mostly remember beginning outside areas of most levels, but not insides (rooms). I also know that water levels had water in them and volcano levels had fire. Also remember bosses. And that's it. To tell you the truth, I remember more of WL4 after playing it many years ago than WL3 after beating it 2 weeks ago.

I started to think about design of the levels and for me it's really generic. The only thing that can persuade me that village level is village level is outside area and aesthetics. In that matter the most focused level is Frigid Sea (because of ice bears, ice physics and snowman blocks). But the other levels have really random design. For example:

1. Dr Science in Vast Plains. Do you think it's believable that he and his eye gates are placed randomly in this level? Not really. It would be better to place him in more civilized place like village, city, castle of illusion or even tower. His placement in the plains is really random.

2. Ice bears in City in Chaos. Random appearance on this enemy is really random. Why they are there? Because of the puzzle. But this puzzle could be placed somewhere else. Like in Frigid Sea for example.

3. Ice bear in volcano level. Seriously, what is this guy doing in this hot place?

There is many more examples like that. Maybe I'm overthinking, but it feels like the inside places have been designed before the level themes have been chosen.

[Ditocoaf]

I think they often designed the general layout of the level, then just chose enemies that mechanically fit that layout. Like Town in Chaos they wanted a hub with a bunch of long flat floors stacked above each other, that you'd walk along and jump between before ascending to the next floor, and decided ice bears worked best there.

[Implo]

I think they often designed the general layout of the level, then just chose enemies that mechanically fit that layout. Like Town in Chaos they wanted a hub with a bunch of long flat floors stacked above each other, that you'd walk along and jump between before ascending to the next floor, and decided ice bears worked best there.

I know what you mean. My point is that ice bears look out of the place here. Respriting them into some kind of ice bots or putting snow in the level would be better idea.