I started playing Wario Land 3 recently and then stopped and now I’m afraid to go back and pick it up again because I forgot all the level layouts and where I haven’t been yet. Maybe gonna buy a guide book.
I never never really cared about the third entry much as a kid. But now I look at how it’s embracing the slow pace that the GameBoy mandates, and instead of Super Mario Land 2 and 3 / Wario Land 1, who’re straining the hardware with big slow tearing sprite action, it just dials it more towards puzzle platformer. I think this might be the more elegant design.
Wario Land 2 was very focused, like Luigi’s Mansion, and 3 just opens up a whole new colorful world to explore and puzzle through. Maybe overwhelmingly big even, a GameBoy game I’d consiger to be large. I never played the colorized version of 2, but in hindsight I’m curious how much variety they managed to cram into that confined setting. And didn’t it have some cute little cutscenes too? Multiple endings? Anyway, I really enjoy the 2D sidescroll golf in 3, gets my best mini game in a Mario/Wario Land award.