Wario Land: Shake It! [Wii]

The locations and settings of the stages are quite varied and nearly always pleasing to the discerning eye. The game is vibrant and really pops out of the screen with its colorful and playful look and feel. Musically, things are bit more hit or miss. Some of the tunes are very "Wario" in composition, while others are more generic or bland.

The other bells and whistles include a recurring "subwarine" stage where you tilt the Remote left and right to steer up and down and shoot torpedoes at everything in sight. On a similar note, tilting occurs for other vessels like the tightrope-bound unibucket and the altogether-awesome dual-rocketed jetbucket.

Even though the game is short by today's single-player standards, Wario Land: Shake It! offer enough good times on the first playthrough (and subsequent re-runs seeking to achieve 100% completion) to make it well recommended. We miss the days of 2D adventuring and there's no doubt that Wario Land: Shake It! manages to recapture some of that magic, albeit for a short amount of time.

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