Wario Land 4; GBA Ambassador

[Nimono]

Why do people take "40 Below Fridge" as some kind of rewording of "40 Below Freezing" or "40 Below 0"? I mean, that's how I took it when I was younger, but nowadays, it's pretty clear to me that it's meant to be "40-Below Fridge", as in "A fridge whose temperature is -40". In fact, the japanese name is literally "-40 degrees Celsius Fridge".

OH MAN COMING UP NEXT IS MY SECOND-FAVORITE LEVEL HECK YEAH

[Zephyr_DragonLord]

Oh man, that ice level gave you the chills, didn't it? It looks like a level where you need to have a good memory about what obstacles are where. (That's also a dirty trick at the end, but foresight can make it better) I feel like a distinct lack of long-term memory, along with letting panic easily settle within will become ever-increasing problems as this game goes on. You're playing pretty well for a first time through, though... I'm not terribly surprised about that.

Oh man, Pinball Zone. ...I need to buy this game now.

[FPzero]

The ladder climb at the end was the part I was alluding to. Even if you were panicking, it was probably a good idea to jump in the portal and save all your diamond bits before tackling the CD just in case you were hit off the ladder more than the one time you were. When I played the other day I was pushed off it three times in a row and barely made it to the portal running as fast as I can.

In general I like 40 Below Fridge because it's a different feel, plus I feel like they made some good puzzles with the snowball. I won't defend the steadily increasing icicles and yetis as difficulties get harder though.

[Alice]

Why do people take "40 Below Fridge" as some kind of rewording of "40 Below Freezing" or "40 Below 0"? I mean, that's how I took it when I was younger, but nowadays, it's pretty clear to me that it's meant to be "40-Below Fridge", as in "A fridge whose temperature is -40". In fact, the japanese name is literally "-40 degrees Celsius Fridge".

Kinda weird to call it a fridge at that temperature though. That'd clearly be a freezer.

[Paragraph]

it's actually 40 fathoms below the sea

[ACesspoolofHatred]

Oh man, that ice level gave you the chills, didn't it? It looks like a level where you need to have a good memory about what obstacles are where. (That's also a dirty trick at the end, but foresight can make it better) I feel like a distinct lack of long-term memory, along with letting panic easily settle within will become ever-increasing problems as this game goes on. You're playing pretty well for a first time through, though... I'm not terribly surprised about that.

Oh man, Pinball Zone. ...I need to buy this game now.

It's on Wii U Virtual Console for like 8 bucks.

[Nimono]

Why do people take "40 Below Fridge" as some kind of rewording of "40 Below Freezing" or "40 Below 0"? I mean, that's how I took it when I was younger, but nowadays, it's pretty clear to me that it's meant to be "40-Below Fridge", as in "A fridge whose temperature is -40". In fact, the japanese name is literally "-40 degrees Celsius Fridge".

Kinda weird to call it a fridge at that temperature though. That'd clearly be a freezer.

Very true. Japan is weird, is that a good explanation?

[CM30]

More like this game/series. A lot of the Wario franchise is strange even by Japanese standards.

But ouch, that part where raocow forgot how rolling worked was just painful. He so needs to calm down really. All this panicking is killing him.

And well, tomorrow WILL be fun. If he panics enough already, then god knows what it'll be like when actual puzzle solving is required while the clock is ticking!

[Alice]

Very true. Japan is weird, is that a good explanation?

Works for me considering that you don't even need to specify Celsius at that temperature anyways which is pretty weird to begin with. (-40C == -40ºF oddly enough.)

[Ometeotl]

I mean, that's surely why they chose -40 as the temperature.

[Sebby19]

raocow I DEMAND you go back and complete the bonus pipe in the 'maze' room

Yes, this! It was on screen for crying out loud! That bonus room will help you master throwing stuff!

I hate this level too, but for a different, slightly petty, reason. The icicles and the Yukiotokos (Yetis) I can handle. It's just that this level ruined my attempt at getting perfect scores in all the levels. The Yetis around the final ladder are impossible to kill, without their spoils, or you, falling down the screen. It infuriated me so! Even on Normal mode, where there is only one Yeti, I can't get his coins, barring some TAS level play. Good luck doing that on a 3DS.
But yeah, the Yetis are the worst. It says something when an enemy that transforms you drops money and doesn't respawn (barring Bonus Rooms).

40 Below Fridge

Introduction

40 Below Fridge is a giant industrial freezer. The initial two rooms precede the icy interior with a continuation of The Curious Factory’s conveyor platforms. Falling clumps of snow, snow blocks, Snowman Wario, Yukiotokos, Frozen Wario, icicles, and slippery surfaces all debut, defining the wintery character of the level. The former three constitute one half of the game idea, snow, while the latter four constitute the other half, ice. The number of game elements pertinent to the game idea and the density of their application make 40 Below Fridge one of the richest levels in Wario Land 4.
Another notable aspect of 40 Below Fridge is its resourceful use of space. Rooms 2 and 7 are prime examples. Room 2 uses three interconnected lock and key arrangements to create a hub which Wario must pass through at least four time. Room 7 squeezes five optional arrangements into a single room.
The level’s music CD is the strongest curiosity bait in the game. The silver chest is placed out in the open, in the centre of Room 2’s hub, giving it maximum exposure. Despite the obvious location, figuring out how to reach the chest is another matter altogether. Even once the player knows how, the necessary time commitment can jeopardise their completion of the level. Talk about devious!

[Divemissile]

next video's gonna be real fun

[RegiGiygas]

This video just wasn't fun to watch.

[Sebby19]

The Heart Gauge


So, want to get the maximum amount of money? You gotta stay healthy! Let me teach you this little quirk about staying at max HP:

We all know how this thing works, 8 hearts = 8 hits. No hearts, get kicked out of the level. There is also a Heart Gauge, divided into 8 spaces. Fill up 1 section by collecting a Small Heart, drop by a defeated enemy (though they look more like red orbs). Fill up the Gauge, and it restores a full Heart. Full Hearts can also be found in the levels themselves, and a Heart Medallion restores all Hearts. Summary over.

Now, the interesting stuff comes when you fill the Heart Gauge while you already have 8 Hearts. The gauge remains full, and it does 2 things:
1) Acts as a pseudo-9th heart. The Gauge will take the hit for you, while the other 8 are untouched.
2) Since everything is full, enemies will drop Silver Coins (worth 100), instead of Small Hearts.

Now the real money can be raked in. If you want to go for the high score, the plan is to get to full health before filling the Heart Gauge once. This may mean that after your 7th kill, you may need to skip over enemies and come back for them later. This is possible to do in all 18 levels, before reaching a point-of no-return. It can get tight though, like in Frantic Factory. After that, don't get hit.
Should also mention that after you clear a level, each remaining Heart is worth 50, for a total of 400.

[CM30]

Well, Pinball Zone was less painful than I expected it to be. Probably because I'm used to Super Hard mode, where Robo Birds, Yetis and electric sparks are at least twice as common as they are here. For comparison, here's the Super Hard version of the level (recorded by some guy on Youtube):




I can picture raocow playing that version of the level and going into a meltdown.

Actually, I can see him playing a lot of levels in Super Hard mode and having a meltdown. Three or four times more enemies plus more hidden treasure locations plus really strict time limits is a recipe for extremely high levels of stress. This whole passge would probably break raocow there...

[Alice]

raocow, you should really try to get it into your mind that you have a fair bit more time than you think you do since after the timer hits zero it'll just start draining your points instead. You would have had another twoish minutes I think if you hadn't died like you did.

[Jesuiscontent]

Not gonna lie that first attempt at doing the countdown part was

hilarious

[Money]

this game looks simultaneously super fun and super frustrating to play

[Nimono]

Not gonna lie that first attempt at doing the countdown part was

hilarious

My thoughts exactly. It's quite interesting to watch someone with no experience with a game go in and struggle with things you thought were obvious when you were new to the game, such as that last pinball room. Just another example of raocow's inability to multitask, I suppose. It must be really difficult to juggle commentary, timer, and gameplay all at once. :(

At the same time, at least we can say the timer's doing its job: makng the player panic. And that is precisely what it does to raocow in each level his first time through. :D

[Alice]

It's quite interesting to watch someone with no experience with a game go in and struggle with things you thought were obvious when you were new to the game, such as that last pinball room.

A lot of this stuff really is obvious. (This is speaking as someone who has only played like the first two levels of this game btw.) raocow just isn't known for being observant nor putting actual thought into his actions before taking them.

[Hollylolly]

Pinball zone is personally one of my least favourite levels in the game, but rao made it look a tad harder than I remember it >.<
Was expecting it to go a bit worse than it did though, thought there'd be several more attempts. But that's just because I sucked at the level too.
Don't wanna think about how bad it is on Super Hard!

[MR.X]

Now, the interesting stuff comes when you fill the Heart Gauge while you already have 8 Hearts. The gauge remains full, and it does 2 things:

2) Since everything is full, enemies will drop Red Coins (worth 50), instead of Small Hearts.

Actually, they will drop Silver Coins worth 100 coins instead of the red orb. If you must act like "MR.I-Know-It-All" in every single post of yours, then at least do it right ;)

For comparison, here's the Super Hard version of the level (recorded by some guy on Youtube):

Wow, that is actually my video of me getting the max score in Pinball Zone on S-Hard, wouldn't have expected that, thank you very much for posting!

[tirakai]

Finding an unmarked breakable wall first time he gets to it then ignoring a very obvious one later and attempted an impossible jump for 2 minutes instead.

How very raocow.

[Sebby19]

Now, the interesting stuff comes when you fill the Heart Gauge while you already have 8 Hearts. The gauge remains full, and it does 2 things:

2) Since everything is full, enemies will drop Red Coins (worth 50), instead of Small Hearts.

Actually, they will drop Silver Coins worth 100 coins instead of the red orb. If you must act like "MR.I-Know-It-All" in every single post of yours, then at least do it right ;)

You caught me! I was playing it last night and realized "wait-a-second...", but I didn't edit the post because sleep.
And you got a perfect score in Pinball Zone on S-Hard? Good job! I thought about trying to get perfect scores on that mode, but if 40 Below Fridge is impossible, what's the point? So I haven't even play S-Hard.

[Crow]

raocow.

please stop treating this game like a romhack.

the wacky nonsense jumps you keep trying to do are not things the game expects of you.

the things the game expects of you are very logical and basic, but also hidden behind fake walls a lot.