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Wario is back in his first solo adventure on the Game Boy Advance and it's so good that you simply must not miss it. The game's premise has Wario collecting as much treasure as he possibly can. As we all know, Wario is one greedy guy and will stop at nothing to add more wealth to his estate. He's got to pay for those fancy cars somehow! At the start of the game Wario is seen blasting off in his car, nearly hitting a small cat on the street. The cat ducks for cover just in time, but is slapped in the face with a newspaper with the headline proclaiming a new pyramid was found. Naturally, that's the reason behind Wario's joyride; he's off to nab the treasures for himself.

If you've never played a Warioland game before you'll become accustomed to the controls soon enough. Upon entering the pyramid Wario becomes trapped inside and it's up to the player to guide Wario through the passageways. The inhabitants left drawings on the wall, which illustrate button combinations for Wario's different abilities. This serves as a training level and is quite entertaining in itself. The fat guy has so many different moves at his disposal that this level effectively provides the foundation on which to build your gameplay mechanics. Besides, Nintendo knows 99 percent of gamers don't read instruction books anyway. Warioland 4 uses nearly every button on the GBA for different moves, and most of the buttons are used more than once in combination with others. At first this may seem daunting, but with some experimentation and practice the controls become quite natural. Wario can perform many of the moves that Mario can, including the butt stomp, but he has even more options to thwart his enemies. He throws a pretty mean left hook to knock out the bad guys. When that doesn't work he can always roll down small hills, thus pummeling through enemies and other structures. He's also very good at throwing rocks to get what he wants. Of course there's the occasional spiny enemy that's lethal to the touch and Wario will have to use his weight to his advantage in order to reveal their weak spots. All told, Wario is one resourceful guy.

As was mentioned earlier, the object of the game is to collect as much treasure as possible. Throughout the levels you'll find coins, jewels, and huge diamonds that will add to your total dollar amount. Along the way you also have to find four pieces of an obelisk to form a round stone key that fits into one of four slots on the boss's chamber's door. Some of the treasures will be sitting out in the open just waiting for you to nab them. However, much like the Mario games, there are secrets everywhere, and it's these secrets that keep the game fresh, entertaining, and down-right innovative. It's hard to describe the exact feeling one gets while playing through one of the levels for the first time. Not since Super Mario Bros. have I been so filled with wonder and excitement when I discover a new secret or accidentally stumble across a new room. Remember how it felt the first time you found a Warp Zone or jumped and a block appeared out of thin air in the original Super Mario? That's exactly the way I felt while playing each and every level in Warioland 4. Some secrets are so well hidden that it takes blind luck to find them. In one level I was just running around areas I had already been through when I was about to slam into a rock wall. I pushed the other direction to slow down, but to no avail I went crashing into it, or at least that was what I was expecting. Instead, the wall simply dissolved into thin air and I entered a secret chamber where a huge diamond was hiding. Mine for the taking! Other levels have those trademark Nintendo hints that let you know there's something just out of your reach. After much exploring you may finally figure out the puzzle, but sometimes it will remain a mystery until a second or third time through.

The exclamation point boxes make a return from the Mario games so if you find the switch the blocks will appear and allow you access to other parts of the level. In every level there's a statue that you will find. Upon jumping on it a timer will begin to count down and different parts of the level will open up. Wario must navigate these new areas to find more treasure and usually has to find more pieces for the key. He must make it back to the entrance of the level in the given time or he will begin to lose his treasures. If he doesn't make it out in time he will be forced to retry the level and gather all of the treasure up once again. In these sequences the game becomes quite frantic since there will be times where you can't find the last piece of the key and you know if you exit without it you have to do the entire level over anyway. Just be sure you want to exit the level before jumping on the statue's head.

In past Warioland games Wario could never die because he didn't even have a health meter. This has changed with this latest version, but enemy interaction is still necessary to explore the levels. Different enemy attacks may have unseen consequences to Wario. Bee stings will swell Wario's head so big that he begins to float into the sky. Apples thrown at him by enemies will make him instantly fat and his weight will often be enough to break open large stones in the ground, revealing hidden passageways beneath the dirt. Wario will take plenty of punishment to obtain all the treasure he desires. It's up to the player to discover when and where to use these "power-ups" effectively. If you do end up losing all of Wario's health you will simply be taken back out to the map screen and have to do the level over again. There is no "Game Over" screen so you essentially have unlimited continues.

Graphically the game looks fantastic. The game is insanely colorful and the sprites are well animated. Wario himself has many different incarnations throughout the game, but you can always tell it's him thanks to the wonderful artwork and trademark features of the big guy. The graphics are very sharp and clean looking on all of the levels, but most important of all the screen is fairly bright so you don't have to have floodlights on to see the action. The game is loaded with parallax scrolling, sprite scaling, and other graphic touches to show off the GBA's power as well. In many instances some of the backgrounds reminded me a bit of Super Metroid. Maybe it's just the art direction, but I'd be interested to hear if anyone else feels the same way. Perhaps some of the same people worked on both games? Needless to say the graphics are superb and the many different areas of the game all look great.

The sound is a real surprise. It's actually the first thing that I noticed about the game since in the introduction you'll hear vocals in the soundtrack. Granted, it's not the best voice ever heard in a game, but it's really cool to hear vocals in a soundtrack on a Game Boy system. Other stages have vocals in the background music as well, and while they're usually in Japanese, it somehow fits the game perfectly. Hidden in each stage is a CD that you can find to listen to the background music anytime you like. Wario's trademark laughing is back, but it does sound a bit different from the awesome Mario Kart 64 voice. Perhaps they used a different voice, or maybe the sound chip in the GBA just couldn't do the job well. Whatever the case, it sounds good enough and isn't as overbearing as those found in Mario Advance.

When all is said and done, this game simply rocks. Nintendo has struck gold again with Warioland 4. It's so much fun to play and is yet another 2D game on the GBA that is a must-have. If you have never before played a Warioland game, this is still a perfect place to start. After trying it out I guarantee that you'll be checking out the older versions on Game Boy Color to see what you've been missing over the past eight years. If you crave some great 2D action, look no further, Warioland 4 stands far and above any other platformer on the system. Go out and buy it, you won't be disappointed.