Simply the Best

1: Moo Moo Meadows
2: Moo Moo Meadows
3: Chew Chew Freddos
4: Sue Sue Journos
5: Boo Boo Deadows
6: Too Tight Speedos
7: Noo Noo Eh-ohs
8: Poo Poo Smellos
9: Luigi Circuit (Double Dash)
10: Moo Moo Meadows

I had a loose arrangement with Cappa that I'd be doing the Wario platformers next. That might be a bit niche, though, so we could cover Yoshi platformers? Or something?

Do what you want bud, you're the admin!

Wario has loads of platformers, I would well up for that and Yoshi.

Kart is a good shout as well though but that seems something to tie in with Mario Kart 8 Directors Cut.

Drunkalilly wrote:

1: Moo Moo Meadows
2: Moo Moo Meadows
3: Chew Chew Freddos
4: Sue Sue Journos
5: Boo Boo Deadows
6: Too Tight Speedos
7: Noo Noo Eh-ohs
8: Poo Poo Smellos
9: Luigi Circuit (Double Dash)
10: Moo Moo Meadows

Moo Moo Meadows at 10?! YOU ARE DEAD TO ME! (Too tight speedos made me laugh)

Bugger it, it's Wario time. Worst to best, as per.



I’m quite happy to give the DS's Wario: Master of Disguise a kicking. It wouldn’t be good enough to be a fan-made game, or even a hack. It’s so poorly made, and every possible criticism that I could possibly have of a 2D platformer could probably be launched right at this. I especially hate the levels – no joke, you could complete WarioWare in the time that it takes to get through any individual one of them. Bollocks. BOLLOCKS.

On whatever console you'd see it, Wario’s Woods isn’t accommodating or approachable enough for me to have given much of a toss about. I don’t like it.

As a game designed to teach it’s players how to operate the Wii U GamePad, Game & Wario does a job…but not a particularly good one. There’s the odd bit of cleverness, but there’s too many dodgy and uninteresting minigames and too much clutter to be bothering with this today. I think a lot of people were suckered into buying this because it was just about the only thing that came out on the Wii U that summer. I’d call it a failed experiment.

Wario Land: The Shake Dimension on Wii should probably be better than it is. If you take away the magnificent art style, you’re not left with a whole lot, to be honest. I remember it as being quite an unadventurous, old-school 2D platformer that’s got the odd obligatory Wii gimmicks plonked on top. I traded it in pretty sharpish.

I’ve actually played Virtual Boy Wario Land on the original hardware. There was a boy in my primary school class who had rich parents. He was a fanny. But he also had a Virtual Boy. I think I played something like six Virtual Boy games on it when he brought it into the school on the last day before Christmas one year. My eyeballs have only just recovered. Anyway, I’m basing this opinion off of twenty years ago, but I recall Wario Land being very good. The gameplay was very similar to that of the first Wario Land, just with the odd bit of visual trickery. I’d be up for playing it again.

Wario Blast: Featuring Bomberman on the Game Boy was the first game that I ever bought with my own money, back in 1995. It’s like Bomberman on the NES, if it had been made in 1742. But I’m fond of it, because – after sharing all of my GB, Master System and Mega Drive games with my brother beforehand - it’s the first game that I could call my own. This is a nostalgia pick.

There was somebody on the NGamer Forum that loved Wario World, and I argued with them a few times about how it wasn’t all that good. Nowadays, I take that back. I think that Wario World is actually a good example of “I thought it was rubbish, but I’m giving it another go”. It’s an afternoon’s worth of good, uncomplicated – albeit unoriginal – entertainment. I wouldn’t say that it’s worth what it goes for second-hand, however, and I don't think that it's good enough for anybody to reconsider remastering for the Switch.

The four Wario Land games on Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance are all well worth a look. They’re all equally solid, tight and varied. They’re all on Virtual Console too – that would be £16.86 well spent, if you’re interested. In order of preference, I’d have to say that my favourite is Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land, followed by Wario Land 3, then Wario Land 4, and then lastly Wario Land 2. They’re all very reliable though, and you’d probably enjoy whichever one you played. Collectively they don't do an awful lot wrong.

There’s eight WarioWare games, if we discount Game & Wario (which we should, because its gash). I’ve got very few memories of WarioWare: Snapped! on DSiWare, but I played through all the premade microgames in WarioWare D.I.Y. Showcase on WiiWare. The latter was all right, but I know that I could have got some much more from it had I been arsed to start up WarioWare D.I.Y. on DS. I never really played D.I.Y. on the DS properly, despite owning three copies of it somehow.

I’d categorically say that the other four WarioWare games are superb. They’re executed perfectly. The three sequels – WarioWare: Touched!, WarioWare: Twisted! And WarioWare: Smooth Moves -are all brilliant demonstrations of their creative controls schemes, fast-paced gameplay and unique and imaginative ideas. The Gyro Sensor was never used anywhere better than it was in Twisted!, and the Wii Remote was showcased much more thoroughly in Smooth Moves than it was in all but one other Wii game. That’s quite amazing if you think about it. Respect is definitely due.

That said, for as good as they all are, it's the first WarioWare that's me favreeet. The original WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$!/Mega Party Game$! is just the bollocks. What a game. Incomparable, unequalled and faultless: it's the best Wario game, the best GBA game, and maybe even the best handheld game.

Cracking lead-in, as ever. I'll post up my thoughts when I'm not so sleepy. Spoiler warning: I have a soft spot for Master Of Disguise, whilst also recognising it as the worst Wario platformer I've played.

If we don't count Super Mario Land II, I've only played the Wario Ware games, so my thought won't take long to compile, if and when I wake up tomorrow. Looking forward to reading yours as well Mon Capitan.

Agreed with Zero, that's a brilliant (if mentally scarring) intro. Mine will be a somewhat bizarre subset.

Whenever Cappa brings up Master of Disguise, you know it's going to be a gem.

I've always thought the Wario platformers were top-notch but I will try to list the 11 Wario games, I've played in some sort of order.

Game & Wario, like Cappa says it does a okay job showing what you can do with a gamepad but I never found it fun

WarioWare: Touched!, I want to say this came out fairly early for the DS and I think that's why I bought and did show of what the DS could do.

WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$!, Mas doesn't like mini game games and you'll be right, this is the best one I've played of the three I have but I'm just not a fan of the genre.

Wario Blast: Featuring Bomberman!, I think this may have been one for the first games I bought myself as well, I know I bought it form Woolworths in Exeter but that's all I can really remember about the game. It's higher then the Ware games as I think I'd sooner play it.

Wario's Woods, A okay puzzle game, not much else to say.

Now we come to the games that matter,  I'm not sure what order to put Virtual Boy Wario Land, Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3, Wario Land II, Wario Land 3 and Wario Land 4. I think I've played Wario 4 the least of the bunch and Wario II the most. That I'm going to have to agree with Cappa which ever one you play you'll enjoy.

The number one Wario game is Wario World, Treasure did a super job like they always do turning the 2D Wario games into 3D with this excellent title.

Only really played WarioWare Touched, so this is mildly enlightening. Looking to pick up Smooth Moves in the New Year

FUCK IT ALL.
I wrote a massive reply, with my favourite Wario Ware games, best to worst. I had quotes from Cappa and Mas worked seamlessly into my entries, I agreed, I made counterpoints, and I cracked jokes. It was glorious.

Somehow, I just closed the tab with some kind of keyboard shortcut.

Oh, Drunka.

Still, the people of the Reverse Internet have another beautiful post to read.

"Mildly enlightening" - the highest honour. And that's gutting about your reply disappearing Buska 👎

Wee reminder - if you were part of the 3DS Ambassador programme in 2011, you'll have been given free downloads of the original WarioWare and Wario Land 4. I've been playing through Wario Land 4 tonight, and I managed to forget all about the changes in form (Fat Wario, Zombie Wario, Spring Wario, etc) and the way that you had to do a mad dash back to a vortex at the start of every level as soon as you've reached the end of it. That's good stuff. Get it played.

I even chatted about Ambassador Programme in my post

Third attempt at post

Yay! Cappa's got it a rollin' again. Sure enough, my ordering's basically the same as yours:

WAH!
Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 - The trouble with this is that I only played it for the first time last year. It just looks a bit basic and feels clunky as all hell.

OK!
Wario Land 4 - I remember everything about this game except the game! The platforming was *shrug*, but there was so much weird stuff going on. What were the records about?
Game & Wario - Yes it's a bit lightweight, and I've not played the single player game since a first utility playthrough. But Islands, and the Pictionary game, have been multiplayer standards since I got to grab this as a Free Thing. Might've felt differently if I'd bought it, mind.
Wario Ware Touched - By changing the button prompts for the touchscreen, this cut down on the variety. Rather than guess what your button press was to do, you just looked for a thing to tap on.
Wario Ware DIY - Same problem as a above; minus points for being even more limited given its simple script-based system; plus points for the script-based system. And Our Lord Castle's Christmas / NGamer / Classic Movie games.

YAHOO!
Wario Ware Smooth Moves - Still not as good as the original - I fear that the surprise of it means diminishing returns - but there was a lot of variety on show here, and a lot of what people call "LOLs".
Wario Ware Mega Party Game$ - Brilliant. Brilliant. Brilliant. Brilliant. Brilliant. Brilliant.

Shake Dimension needs more love, it's wonderful

Shake Dimension is fun enough but Wario has better games, methinks. It's a shame that both types of Wario game that have established themselves over the years - the Land platformers and Ware microgame extravaganzas - seem to be dying out. I'd love a new version of either.

I have a Twop Twelve to throw in your faces and run away laughing. Although I have played a bit of Game & Wario, it's not going in because it was for a segment of a Videos Games, i.e. about five to ten minutes. Also, forget the spoiler tags - let's have this all out in the open.

12. WarioWare D.I.Y. Showcase: entirely because I bought it and hardly ever played it. Some of the pre-made games were OK.

11. Wario: Master Of Disguise: it's totally in love with the touch screen, to the extent that it gets in the way of the gameplay. Having said that, it reminds me of when touch was the new motion control, so soft spot.

10. Wario Blast: Featuring Bomberman: Bomberman is amazing enough on its own. The garlic-eating buffoon neither enhances nor detracts from its natural awesomeness - an unnecessarily tacked-on character winds me up.

9. WarioWare D.I.Y.: my creativity is not of this kind. A good idea, though.

8. Wario Land: The Shake Dimension: hoping this is enough love for OR. It's an intensely beautiful game, giving the devs something to cut their teeth on before later firing back Kirby's Epic Yarn and Yoshi's Woolly World (hoping for Samus's Satin Story next), but it's lost something that the handheld Wario platformers had.

7. Wario Land 2: I made the mistake of playing through this, 3, and 4 back-to-back. I know this is the first one that uses the idea of Wario transforming after certain attacks, which is a genius idea.

6. WarioWare, Inc. Minigame Mania: by the time I got to play this, I'd already seen Smooth Moves and both D.I.Y.'s. If I'd played it first, I have no doubt that it'd be higher.

5. Wario Land 4: the prettiest of the handheld Lands.

4. Wario's Woods: one of the oddest block drop puzzle games of ever. Being in the mix as a character switching things about is not the only oddity in this crazy - but crazy addictive - puzzler.

3. Wario Land 3: the music box idea worked well for me.

2. WarioWare: Smooth Moves: playing this with GNamer Forumites in a hotel in Newcastle brought back how perfect this game was. A belting use of the Wii Remote that only Wii Sports and Skyward Sword can rival (and the latter cheats a bit, what with its MotionPlus-ity), the mad microgames never stunned me as much as here.

1. Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land: nostalgia wins a Zero STB vote again. Who knew? I spent many an hour in the company of this brilliant effort when I was but a wee strip of a lad and enjoyed it all. It is much more derivative of the Super Mario titles of the same era, but that means it brings comfort to me.

Ooh, I've completely forgot about these.  Er.  However my Wario knowledge borders on the pathetic, so I think I can probably cover this quickly.



I can't be doing with Wario Blast, or indeed any Bomberman game.  The combination of timed destruction and strategic thinking is not my strong point and never has been.

Game & Wario was a step back for a majestic series.  Islands was decent, the art game was brill, and the rest was disappointing.

Wario Land 4 was fun enough to play, but Jimbob's right: what the hell was up with the CDs?  They weirded me out, so this isn't higher than it is.

Wario Wares Touched and Smooth Moves were fun little games that kept me diverted for a while.  I kept mucking up Smooth Moves by getting my Wiimote too close to the screen.

But my winner is Wario World.  Partially nostalgic, I still really like this!  Bizarre boss selections, Galaxy-style suspend-a-bits, punch-drunk brawls...  I got 100% completion on this bastard and enjoyed almost all of it.  But it probably says a fair bit that I'd've forgotten it had Cappa not mentioned it first.

Yoinks! It's Yoshi!

~

Yoshi on the NES and Game Boy is very definitely a frontrunner for the award of Most Bleh Game Of All Time. The turgid pace and the unfairly random nature of it all hump it anyway, but most damningly of all it completely lacks the hook that you need from a good puzzle game. Nintendo of Europe gave this away for free for the people who bought a 3DS right before it’s price cut in 2011, which is unforgivably offensive. Forget it ever exists, it’s a total waste.

I played Yoshi’s Safari at a mates house well over twenty years ago, and it was good fun there when I was fannying about with the massive SNES bazooka. There’s no chance I’d hunt it down today though.

Yoshi’s Cookie is another Mario puzzle spin-off from a time where shoehorning the plumber into anything and everything was top of the agenda.  I don’t know why it never came to the Virtual Console, and to be honest I’m not all that arsed; while I remember it being all right when I borrowed it off a mate before the N64 days, I don’t think I’d choose to play it nowadays.

The Game Boy Advance hosted Yoshi’s Universal Gravitation back in 2005. It’s built around quite a creative and imaginative concept, which has you using a tilt sensor built-in to the cartridge to manipulate the game's environment, squash enemies and guide Yoshi up and down walls, hills and all sorts of environmental hazards. It’s made by Artoon though, so you know already that it’s a bit shite. Thanks to Artoon and their apparent lack of talent and verve, what’s here is sloppy tits, and an absolute munter of a game.

Yoshi’s New Island – the bastard cunt son of the good Yoshi’s Island – is one I’ve typed about at length before: “This is just so consciously retro that it's frustrating. While little in the game irritates, it's consistently disappointing in the way that it doesn't approach the idea of doing anything remotely forward-thinking whatsoever. This is a much closer retread of Super Mario World: Yoshi's Island than Yoshi's Story or Yoshi's Island DS ever were, and not a particularly successful one at that. Just about everything from the SNES original is reused in a wholly unimaginative way. While that might not come as a surprise to anyone reading, it also fails to demonstrate the 3DS's capabilities, and doesn't play as sublimely as any of the 2D Yoshi platformers before it. Again, probably not too much of a revelation either. I could go on, but basically I feel short-changed”. Not especially recommended.

Yoshi’s Island DS is very true to the SNES original…but it never threatens to hit those peaks. I remember Greener’s NGamer review saying that it felt a bit like a Flash tribute to Super Mario World 2, and I agreed with that after playing it. It doesn’t quite stand up to the first Yoshi’s Island, but it doesn’t really do anything wrong itself. You’d have to work hard to hate it.

Not everybody likes Yoshi’s Story, but I’m quite keen on it. Simplified and childish it might be, but the core gameplay is unusual (in a good way) by the standards of the genre and the presentation remains first-class almost twenty years on. I played it years before Yoshi’s Island on the SNES though, so I didn’t have the weight of the expectation following that when I bought Yoshi’s Story. It’s well worth downloading on the Virtual Console – it’s definitely one of those games that benefits from being under a tenner, as, despite it’s quality, £50 for this back in the day was a bit of a scadge.

Yoshi Touch & Go gets a lot of shit here, but it’s my favourite high-score attack game ever. Very pleasant and very entertaining - it’s quality. You’re all wrong about this, hideously wrong.

Straight from the reviews thread: ‘Yoshi's Woolly World, then. I really like it's character, it's vibrancy and it's clever play mechanics...but I liked them more in Yoshi's Island and in Kirby's Epic Yarn. It isn't the most distinctive game that I've ever played. Still, even if I would prefer something different next time somebody produces a Yoshi platformer, I enjoyed Woolly World enough to say it was one of ten favourite Wii U games’.

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island is better than Super Mario World. Aye.

I thought Yoshi and Yoshi's Cookie were the same game. I haven't played them, or Yoshi's Safari.

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island is better than Super Mario World. Aye.

Correct. I love everything about this game: the music, the jumping, the transforming, the stretchy squishy enemies. My favourite thing is the crayon art style: specifically the fact Shigsy created it as a deliberate "fuck you" to shitey pre-rendered visuals.

Yoshi Story is alright. I didn't absolutely love it or anything, but I mucked about for a while and it was okay. I watched an ex play it and she seemed to have a good time getting it to 100%.

Never played Yoshi's Universal Championship but it seems like I made the right call there. He probably gets jobbed out to Roman Reigns at the end anyway.

Yoshi Touch & Go is a banger, I'm with Cappa on that one! Spent a preposterous amount of time nudging my high scores forwards on that. Touch screen gaming done right!

I did play Yoshi's Island 2 and Yoshi's New Island but I can't even differentiate my memories of them. I guess they were okay, more of the same. Cappa seems to have already said everything I might say.

I really liked the look of Yoshi Wooly Willy, and having not played Kirby's Epic Yarn it was all new to me. Pretty standard Yoshi platforming, sure, but enjoyable enough. I've since started playing Unravel, though, and it pisses all over Yarn Yoshi. That won't wash out of wool, not really . . .

Once again, my games played are a subset of Cappa's fine collection.


Yoshi’s Universal Gravitation may quite genuinely be the worst game I've ever played, at least until Cappa sent me Major Minor's Majestic March. Definitely the worst game I've ever completed. What could have been a grand mechanic was butchered by Artoon's inept - what's that? I'm just repeating what Cappa said but less funny? Okay then.

Yoshi Touch & Go is mostly here because I hate high-score titles. I especially hate high-score platformers where you have to play through the same lack of level design every time you start.

I hate Yoshi’s Island DS because I shortened it to its initials and got told off for being anti-Semitic. That is my strongest feeling about the game.

Yoshi’s Story... I never finished this, too young and too bad at games, but it was adorable what I played. Really sweet. Should rank at least one higher, I suspect, had I given it a chance.

You know it's not the best series when Yoshi's Woolly World, a solid 7/10 if that, comes second in the list. Really quite nice without being special in any way shape or form, bar the art style which was lurvely.

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island is... I'm not sure it's better than Super Mario World, but it's better than any other 2D Mario game. Grand cute stuff.

Balladeer wrote:

I hate Yoshi’s Island DS because I shortened it to its initials and got told off for being anti-Semitic.  That is my strongest feeling about the game.

HAHAHAHA! I'd not even noticed that. As a Tottenham fan, it's a word I've come to associate with a sense of pride, despite having literally no Jewish roots at all.

Thanks for keeping this thread going, Cappa. As a guy once said in a film once, "I'll be back."

Seconded! Grand job sir.

Actually if the woolly Yoshiibo were a game it'd come top of my list by a country mile. Throwing it around my flat is more fun than any game on the list bar SMW2, and it's cuddly as well.