Games To Try Before You Die: Wario Land – Super Mario Land 3 (Game Boy)

Game Boy has turned 25 years old this year! Doesn't it just seem like yesterday that the little system fell into our hands? Anyway, when I was in Elementary school, our class had this little 'Garage Sale.' We basically brought something we didn't want anymore in class and paid CASH for our classmates possessions. Don't really know what we learned here, but there is a reason for this story.

A classmate we called Scooter (sounds like a 50's cartoon right?) owned a Super Game Boy for SNES. A cartridge you could play Game Boy games on your TV! It also included a game with it called, Wario Land - Super Mario Land 3, which became, THE FIRST EVER Game Boy game I ever owned.

What: You play as the evil Wario! Not out to save a Princess, not out to save the land, your quest was to collect as much money as possible and build the largest castle!

Why: See that last part I wrote up there?

"Your quest was to collect as much money as possible."

That is what made this game! It was such a departure from the super familiar Mario formula. It was 'good to be bad' for once. Platforming was fun, ramming into enemies and seeing them fly across the screen was cool, and the different hats you could get were neat. It was a simple game of finding things and collecting coins! SIMPLE ENOUGH! However, just getting coins wasn't that easy. You had to dig, throw, and really explore each level in order to find all of the coins. Each coin was imperative to the size of your castle, so grab those coins!

This was also the first game that features Wario as a playable character. Since then, Wario has become a staple character in Nintendo games and continues to have success with his games.