thread closed
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where’s the zx speccy love in this thread
i ask because it ain’t gonna be me that provides it
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somebody linked to this thread today and the last post of this thread mentions the speccy
Therefore, I am contractually obligated to mention that a brand new official Dizzy game has been released today, December 18, 2020:
playable now on your browser, in an emulator, or on your very own zedex spectre
someone please report back and let us know if this is a metrovaniad
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Or maybe
Metroidvanias have always been dizzylikes. 
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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.
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If I remember correctly, wario land 3 has some kind of indicator, maybe flashing tiles, that lets you know whether you can get something new in a level with your current abilities.
That would be helpful. I’m probably gonna get back to it after checking out this freshly translated otome metroidvania.
Yeah the colorized version is the only one I played and it’s huge for a game boy game. I think it has 30 levels or something like that?
And yeah in both versions it has like six endings, most of which you find in secret worlds, and there’s at least one alternative route that doesn’t lead to a different ending, it’s just a different set of levels.
I have no idea what was in the air at the Wario Land dev team. Just endlessly intricate bits of weirdness.
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Ok I was wrong: it only has five endings but it does have several secret worlds:
This level map is intense.
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Wario Land 2 is super impressive, I just played through it for the first time (after playing Wario Land 4) and finishing it only to have that map of routes and levels (and my unknowing path through it) open up genuinely surprised me. I honestly love the way the pace translates to a handheld game, each level is contained but also big enough that playing one or two feels like a complete experience. The game is really generous about allowing saves at any point (and saving between levels) so there’s never any obligation to push on, and the fact that you can’t die really makes the experience feel leisurely.
It’s interesting because while Wario Land 4 is clearly a much more polished/curated representation of these mechanics (while being even more erratic & daring aesthetically). I think I prefer the looseness and scale of Wario Land 2. Every level in 4 is presenting an interesting mechanical/aesthetic twist on the space and while that’s always interesting, I like the ebb and flow of 2 for how much unpredictability it adds to the experience. Also there’s a train level in 2 and I love a train level.
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R&D1, right?
they were like, always the most innovative team at nintendo through the 90s and half of the 2000s, even when EAD was only making like one genuinely good game every few years
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Looking at that map and your description, I bet they were huge fans of umihara kawase
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i love the alternate path to beat wario land 2 where you don’t push any buttons to get wario out of bed at the start of the game, and he gets thrown out of his castle by the black sugar gang and has to win it back
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I think one of the reasons these types of games get their hooks into me so strongly is because many of them excel at doing the “New Area Reveal” – you transition from one screen to another, suddenly the color palette, music and general vibe are completely transformed. New enemies are skittering about, maybe the name of this new zone is dramatically scrawled across the screen. This feeling of faux-discovery is tbh a high I am chasing all the time.
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what game has the best Area Reveal font
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Oh, that’s a pretty good question. Now I wish my memory were better
annoyingly the first example that comes to my mind is Rondo of Blood, even though (a) it’s not an exploremup and (b) they aren’t area names
but damn it has some nice design
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I mean that’s evocative as hell imho so I’m into it
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I don’t bother to beat the final boss in half the metroidvanias I play because there is just some credits behind it instead of an area reveal
Hardest fight in the game with no dopamine hit after it, nnnope
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