System: Game Boy Advance Genre: Action/adventure Developer: Nintendo Publisher: Nintendo Release date: November 19, 2001 ESRB rating: E Players: 1 Save: Battery; two save slots Memory size: ?

Overview

On November 19, Wario's coming back greedier than ever! In his fourth Wario Land adventure, Wario heads off to plunder a recently discovered pyramid. Of course, Wario's going to have to earn his fortune, as the pyramid is filled with bad guys...

Almost scrapping the "no-die" gameplay used in Wario Lands 2 and 3, Wario still has unlimited lives, but he now has a life meter. Below the life meter (the eight hearts in the upper-left of the screen) is a "coin meter" made up of eight bars. Collecting a red coin from a defeated enemy fills up one bar. When the coin meter is completely filled, one empty heart in Wario's life meter will be replenished.

After first playing the Japanese version of Wario Land 4, I was pleasantly surprised. The superb graphics fit the Wario Land series perfectly, and the gameplay is as addictive as ever. I was not expecting better than the excellent Wario Land 3, but somehow Nintendo managed to improve on it.

Screenshots

• Japanese title screen
• "Welcome to the item shop."
• Intro: The Wariomobile...?!
• Intro: Extra, extra! Read all about it...
• Intro: Wario meets pyramid
• Level select: "First Ruins"
• Helpful hieroglyphics
• Wario Land action