1. Hotel Dusk Room: Room 215 (DS)
2. Ecco the Dolphin (GBA port)
3.
Wario Land 3 (GBC)
4.
Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door (GC)
5. Shining Force II (GEN)
6. Nectaris: Military Madness (PS1)
7. Return Fire (PS1 port)
8. Guardian Heroes (SS)
9. Galactic Attack (SS)
10. Decathlete (SS)
Two down, eight to go!
At first, I did not like Wario Land 3 as much as Wario Land II. Wario does not start the game with all of his "abilities" from Wario Land II, and it gave me that feeling you get when you play one Metroid game right after another. ("What did Samus do with all of her power ups? Throw them out?") After a while, however, the game started to remind me of Metroid in a different, better way.
The goal of the game it to obtain the four treasures hidden in each stage. To obtain a treasure, Wario must first find the key to the treasure chest and then locate the treasure chest itself. Once Wario obtains one treasure, he has cleared the stage and may proceed to the next. As he progresses through the game, however, certain treasures grant Wario new abilities while others cause things to happen in stages he has already visited. The changes open up new areas, and the new abilities - in addition to allowing Wario to bypass certain sections - also allow him to access new areas. Accordingly, the game's baktracking and exploration are very reminiscent of the backtracking and exploration required in classic Metroid games.
Moreover - and as in Wario Land II - Wario is completely invincible in this game. Normally, invincibility makes a game too easy, but Nintendo wisely decided to use Wario's invincibility to make the game more challenging. Obtaining all 100 treasures is a true challenge, and some of the platforming requires a lot of precision. Finally, the games puzzles are, at times, genuinely challenging, but they are never frustrating.
In short, I am very glad that I played through this classic, and I now consider it one of the very best games in my GB/GBC collection.
), but I plan on powering through some of the games on my list when I am not in the office (and then heading to the beach as soon as I can so that they don't have too much fun without me!).