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A playthrough of Nintendo's 1994 puzzle game for the NES, Wario's Woods. I begin the video with the tutorial mode, and the playthrough of the Type A game starts at 3:40. At 5:16:30, I move on to Type B. When it went on sale in December of 1994, Wario's Woods became not only the final NES game that Nintendo themselves would have a hand in developing, but also the final officially licensed NES title to be released in North America. It was further notable for being the sole NES game to receive a rating from the then recently established ESRB. The front of the box bears a K-A badge signifying that it was appropriate for anyone ages six and up. Going by the number of times Nintendo has repackaged it over the years, it would seem that they view Wario's Woods as one of their golden children. In addition to its first run on the NES and SNES, it had two different Satellaview releases (including one that synced up with a streamed satellite broadcast of Japanese comedians hamming it up as you play); it was an unlockable bonus in the GameCube remake of Animal Crossing; it was sold as a Virtual Console title on the Wii, Wii U, and the 3DS eShops; and it can currently be downloaded and played through the Nintendo Switch Online NES app. If you've ever looked into the game's history, it might have struck you that many sites credit a company called TEC for development despite the fact that many well-known Japanese Nintendo staffers appear in the credits. The reason for that is that TEC was established as a joint venture between Nintendo and Intelligent Systems. Headed by Gunpei Yokoi, the company specialized in both games and engine work for Nintendo's internal R&D1 team. Around the time of Yokoi's death, the company was folded into Intelligent Systems. The only reason it ever occurred to me to look so far into the matter is that I've always thought that Wario's Woods bore a lot of uncanny similarities to Tetris Attack and I wanted to know if there was a connection between the two games. As it turns out, there is: the popular 1996 SNES puzzler was created by none other than Intelligent Systems! Once I connected the dots, everything finally made sense. The character driven presentation, the free-form flow of the match-3 gameplay, and even the tutorial segments featured in Tetris Attack (and later, the Pokémon Puzzle games), all evolved out of the framework established in Wario's Woods. But for as historically significant as the game is, I can't say that I like Wario's Woods nearly as much as I do its descendants. It looks and sounds fantastic for an NES title and the ambition of its design deserves major props, but to me, the game buckles under the weight of its complexities. Its steep learning curve and the sheer number of gameplay elements it forces you to juggle at once are completely at odds with the “easy to learn, difficult to master“ design philosophy that made Tetris and Dr. Mario such enduring classics, and the sticky controls feel awkwardly shoehorned onto the two-button NES gamepad. Nothing about it ever clicked with me. It's way too difficult to play, and I never felt like the game came together well enough to justify the time I invested to learn it. I know it has its diehard fans, and I'm not trying to rain on anybody's parade with my opinion of it. I have a lot of respect for it, but it's just not my thing. _____________ No cheats were used during the recording of this video. NintendoComplete () punches you in the face with in-depth reviews, screenshot archives, and music from classic 8-bit NES games!
