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Nintendo revealed Wario Land 4 as the latest game coming to Nintendo Switch Online. It will be added to the Game Boy Advance library as part of the Expansion Pack subscription on February 14, 2025.

In Wario Land 4, players take Wario through a pyramid in the jungle in search of treasure. Wario travels through the pyramid’s four ages in search of jewels, hoping to uncover the Golden Diva at the heart of it all. The game is mainly a 2D platformer where you use Wario’s various abilities to bash through walls and roll through small spaces. Wario can also transform into other forms, such as a bat or a snowball, or he can inflate when stung by a bee, allowing him to float around. There are also minigames such as a baseball game and an endless runner.

Wario Land 4 first released for the Game Boy Advance in 2001 and is the fourth of Wario’s adventures since his debut in Super Mario Land 2 on the original Game Boy. Developers of the indie games Pizza Tower and Antonblast have both cited the game as a major inspiration. Prior to the Nintendo Switch Online release, Wario Land 4 had also appeared on the 3DS and Wii U Virtual Consoles. Its predecessor, Wario Land 3, was one of the first Game Boy game released for Nintendo Switch Online.

The previous games added to the GBA library on Nintendo Switch Online were the F-Zero spin-off games, F-Zero: GP Legend and F-Zero Climax, which both released in October 2024.

Wario Land 4 will be available to Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscribers on February 14, 2025.

The post Wario Land 4 is the Latest GBA Game for Nintendo Switch Online appeared first on Siliconera.

In December, we posted the news about Game Design Companion: A Critical Analysis of Wario Land 4 by Daniel Johnson.  We mentioned at the time that the book was out in both .pdf and .epub formats, and they're now ed by its Kindle version.

To celebrate, the book is extending its introductory price sale till February 14th for $4.99. After the sale is over, it returns to $7.99. If you pick up the book now at Stolen Projects, you’ll also receive the Game Design Companion book free.

The book is an in-depth look at Wario Land 4 with evidence-based analysis dissecting the mechanics, psychology, education, level design and game feel—perfect for anyone interested in getting into game design or learning more about how video games work under the hood.

You can get it at Stolen Projects or at Amazon. Note that if you pick it up from the Amazon link, you only get the .mobi version, but picking it up from their main site gets you all versions and the free extra book.

The post Dissecting Wario Land 4 Gets Easier With Kindle Edition, Also Cheaper appeared first on Siliconera.

Game design is a serious business. Behind the amazing fun and fluidity of your favorite video game belies a lot of thought and due process: Where do we place this platform for a player to jump on, and why? What sort of music should we use? How do the characters look, and even how far can they reach with bounding boxes?

Ask fighting game enthusiasts and they’ll tell you those bounding boxes matter. Even in something like the 2001 Game Boy Advance title Wario Land 4.

The latest book to the quiet but growing discourse on video game designs and impacts is Daniel Johnson's Game Design Companion: A Critical Analysis of Wario Land 4. Johnson is an ex-writer for sadly defunct (or perma-hiatus) GameSetWatch, which was an amazing site to dig through in its heyday. He's also a game design analyst.

The game of choice is pretty interesting too, examining in depth the video game Wario Land 4. While not the first game people think of when they think of great game design, Johnson’s book purports to go in-depth into the game via evidence-based analysis rather than socio-cultural critique that will dissect the various parts that make up the whole, such as mechanics, psychology, education, level design and game feel.

Johnson said he hopes the 600-page behemoth "will push against the accepted norms of ‘games criticism’ and open up new avenues for analytical discussion.”

The book is available from Stolen Projects starting Wednesday 18th December at $7.99, with a special introductory price of $4.99 till the end of January. The e-book comes in both .pdf and .epub formats, with a Kindle version planned for future release.

The post Would You Like An In-Depth Look At The Design Of Wario Land 4? appeared first on Siliconera.