I just finished wario land 4 and...
I'm slowly making my way through the wario land games for the first time.
I liked the first game, the virtual boy one was even better
Wasn't the biggest fan of 2
I LOVED 3, it is my favorite so far. It fixed almost every issue I had with the second game and I felt like it almost perfected the Wario Land gameplay formula and I was hoping the metroidvania - esque gameplay style would be present in 4.
When I played 4 (hearing people call it one of the best platformers ever made), I was expecting it to be "3 but better". I don't understand why ppl consider this the best game in the seires. While the art direction and music are great, this game feels like a wierd mix of the gameplay styles of Wario Land 1 / VB and Wario Land 2 / 3. I thought they had a great thing going with the first game, and I hoped 4 would refine the metroidvania style that 3 almost perfected, but the game goes back to the more linear stages of 2. The fact that you have to find 4 treasures in each level also felt like padding. I can definitely see why people like this installment, but its definately my least favorite so far.
Thank you for coming to my ted talk