40. S3 Tower of Revival – Green
’Nother similar treasure to “Bank of the Wild River” & “The Tidal Coast”’s green treasures. Despite “Bank of the Wild River”’s having the boss, I rank this e’er-so-slightly ’bove that treasure. While Tower of Revival’s wire mesh is just a large rectangle broken off by spikes, like “The Tidal Coast”’s, rather than the snaky design o’ “Bank of the Wild River”’s, its path is more o’ an open maze, stretching in all directions rather than just going rightward, with mo’ meaningful dead ends than just having music coins — tho it does have them, too — & its path is less obvious. Also, there is mo’ enemy variety & challenge, replacing the slow-moving Kushimushi bug enemies & their awkward hitboxes with the faster sparks & Applebies· Granted, I do still prefer the look o’ “Bank of the Wild River”s mo’ natural vines than the o’erbearing grayness o’ this level.
Mo’ importantly, this treasure has an actual relevant challenge to getting the green key, forcing you to deliberately eat 1 o’ the Appleby’s apples that you mostly try to avoid to become fat & break thru the donut blocks to reach it. The more open mesh allows them to hide the key, downward on the left after the initial rise leftward, the last direction players would likely think to go, given the way this level goes upward & is a tower.
39. S4 The Steep Canyon – Green
As a kid this was 1 o’ the treasures I dreaded the most, — after the Wolfenboss treasure, ’course — as navigating its intricate spike mazes with the owl was 1 o’ the hardest things for me to do. Now I suck much less & can better appreciate the interesting layout & challenge o’ this owl section — tho I’ll admit that the owl’s hit box is still counterintuitive: the owl actually doesn’t have a hit box @ all, only Wario does. While this is the 2nd most interesting use o’ the spike mazes & the best-looking thanks to the sky, owl sections aren’t the most exotic mechanic in this game — plus, it comes straight from Wario Land II — &, mo’ importantly, has li’l to do with a canyon, which already has trouble keeping its theme coherent.
As for the green chest room, it’s clever in theory, but in practice leads to needless repetition: in a twist to Wario Land 3’s usual “put the chest @ the beginning” trick that would become the entire basis o’ its successor, this treasure puts the green chest @ the end o’ the room just before the owl room, which is, indeed, different, but in consequence requires the player to go thru that green chest room twice, once heading just for the owl room to get the key, & then ’gain to get back to the chest. Granted, this room isn’t the hardest or most tedious — in fact, I would say it’s the most clever use o’ the relatively rare platform enemy that bounces upward when you ground pound & slowly floats down, allowing you to jump on it & use it as a step — & is o’er rather quickly.
Actually, the most interesting aspect o’ this treasure is how you get access to it: when you get the super flippers allowing you to swim past currents, you can go into the currents in the red treasure room, which otherwise seems to exist purely to kick you out o’ the area if you suck, & swim past them to find this secret area. Technically, “Bank of the Wild River” does the same thing, but it’s more obvious there, since the current opening is wide open & you drop into the current right @ the end o’ the gray treasure, whereas here you have to notice the area on the other side o’ the wall past the red chest & put 2 + 2 together.
38. W4 A Town in Chaos – Gray
This level’s gray treasure is basically the red treasure done right, cleverly integrating its pieces into the layout without the tedium the red treasure forces ’pon you: not only do you have to find the gray key in the large assortment o’ rooms this apartment offers, while avoiding the Brrr Bears trying to shove you off the building, but once you get it, you need to find a way out.
As it turns out, this treasure gives you 2 options: you can hit the switch in the gray treasure room & go out & elbow the stove up top o’er to the window thru which you entered so you can reach it & go back, or, if you get hit by a zombie in the key room & fall down to the bottom floor, there is a stove down there you can elbow to exit out the window there, leading you back a floor down outside the apartment. Unsurprisingly, the path that involves avoiding the zombie is faster.
The treasure is much simpler, but not without excitement: you have to climb up to the top o’ the building, where there is a zip line you can ride down to the bottom, dropping you off @ a roll so you can plow thru the cracked blocks guarding the gray chest right ’hind where you start the level.
37. N6 Sea Turtle Rock – Gray
Wario Land 3 introduces the super-powered garlic-infused elbow charge attack in the best way possible: by introducing a level that’s just rock you can break thru, unlocked in a unique way on the map by plowing thru a rock on the map as you move past it. Ironically, this kind o’ thing was done twice already in Wario Land II, & its most notable use, in its penultimate main level, was 1 o’ the worst levels in that game. Here it’s implemented much better: it’s much shorter; it’s used for multiple treasures & the music coins, so you get something from remembering the path; the paths are mo’ inspired, using small lakes as landmarks to help keep track o’ different places, while keeping them similar ’nough to not completely give ’way the maze; the wall mazes aren’t the whole treasure, just the means for finding the gray key in 1 o’ the lakes; & finally, this level has much better aesthetics: the colorful salmon-colored rocks & inky black water ( till you find the treasure that cleans it up — which just-so-happens to be the treasure just after this 1 in the main sequence ) makes this 1 o’ the better-looking levels in the game, as well as having 1 o’ the best level themes in the game. I particularly like the design o’ the map for the gray treasure: the path to the gray key loops right back to right before the gray chest.
The gray chest, found early in the 1st lake on the main path, is just locked ’hind a boss, a squid named Scowler. To be honest, I consider this 1 o’ the weaker bosses: as cool as the ink black-out effect is ( without being cheap, as you can still see the important elements — Wario & Scowler ), the way you see the gray chest but can’t reach it before falling into the lake below, & the way you ride its halo to the gray chest after you brutally murder it, the boss fight itself is just bumping it on the head & then its bottom, which is a bit counterintuitive. Luckily, it’s also very easy, so it doesn’t significantly weaken this treasure, & it does fit in well with the beachlike aesthetics to this level.
36. S2 The Big Bridge – Gray
“The Big Bridge” starts with a simple, linear gimmick: go right & get to the end without getting hit by the hopping tadpoles, who will knock you rolling back to the start if they hit you. As a big fan o’ the original Super Mario Bros., I really like the reference to that game’s hopping fish levels. My only problem is that since this mechanic is in the main level, you’ll have to deal with these tadpoles in most o’ the treasures. Still, it’s such a minor mechanic that wastes no mo’ time than just running down a bridge if you’re good, — & when you do it ’nough times, jumping o’er the tadpoles becomes muscle memory — so it’s not as bad as, say, the puzzle @ the beginning o’ “Tower of Revival”.
As a twist, the gray key is just ’hind right where you start. I’m embarrassed to admit that there are many times when I’ve somehow missed this or forgot to get the key & had to go back & get it & go thru the tadpoles a 2nd time.
35. N6 Sea Turtle Rock – Green
The rolling puzzles in this treasure are simple, but fun, have symmetry, & fit well with this level’s cavernous theme. My only complaint is that it’s much easier than “The Volcano’s Base”’s rolling puzzles, which were introduced way back in the 6th treasure.
The looping pipes have the added touch o’ the dark room, which adds nothing but intrigue as to what’s in there ( well, & a music coin that isn’t useful this early in the game ).
1 o’ the minorest o’ nitpicks: this treasure is the 1st you try after unlocking the upgraded red o’eralls, but groundpounding is only used to open up the door to this treasure that otherwise has nothing to do with groundpounding. It would’ve been cool if they had a puzzle where you have to stun an enemy off a platform with your new quake abilities.
34. E1 The Stagnant Swamp – Gray
This level’s introduced in a novel way, with a branching path with a ladder just below where you start & a zip line just to the right. As it turns out, these 2 conspicuous options lead to the gray key & chest, respectively.
Taking the ladder, which seems less important than the zip line, & thus best to explore 1st to avoid missing anything, leads to an underground section bordered on each side with slopes that allow you to plow thru the middle, with the very center holding a 2-sided slope with the gray key on top.
To add to the symmetry & theme climbing up the ladder on the right end o’ this underground section leads to right next to the chest, which is blocked off by 1 row o’ cracked tree, which also requires rolling Wario.
That is where the zip line comes in, leading to an arrangement o’ many zip lines, requiring timed jumps from 1 to the other. There’s a lot o’ variety to the directions they go in & how they’re spaced out, including some lines crossing each other, & there’s a branching path that leads to a music coin 100% completionists will need to keep in mind for later — an alternate path that, thankfully, allows you to backtrack to the main path. The penultimate zip line ( the final requires a quick jump onto it from the penultimate to reach ’nother music coin ) zooms you downward, leaving you in a roll to break thru the tree & reach the gray chest.
The contrast o’ the zip lines up in the sky & the underground area & the way they’re subtly connected, both spatially by meeting up on the right & thematically by both ultimately focusing on rolling, is very interesting. It’s weird that the actual swamp isn’t used for this treasure, but that just adds intrigue for what the future holds, since a savvy player should realize by this point that that swamp water will eventually hold something when they get a later treasure, specially with the door floating ’bove the water, out o’ reach.
33. E4 The Colossal Hole – Green
What this treasure lacks in coherency toward its level — taking a break ’way from the colossal hole to ride an owl thru a maze o’ spikes & then dodging & using the fire spit by the sun to get the key & chest — it makes up for in a different, mo’ interesting theme: ’stead, the main focus on this treasure is the daytime, which is finally unlocked in the east just before this treasure in the main sequence, as daytime is necessary to use the owl, as during night it’s too high to reach without the high-jump boots — which you get from this very treasure, so you obviously can’t get it before getting this — & for the sun to be out in the treasure room itself.
While the owl sections & dodging the sun’s fireballs to the green key are mo’ basic — tho also shorter, & the sun section is made subtly mo’ difficult by being pocked full o’ cracked blocks that can make quickly traversing such uneven terrain challenging — than other variations on these challenges, the mo’ interesting challenge is breaking open the chest area, not ’cause you have to use Fire Wario to break thru the blocks, but ’cause you need to make clever use o’ the terrain nearby to ensure you burst into blames on the platform with the fire blocks.
32. W4 A Town in Chaos – Blue
The heart o’ this treasure is the most elaborate layout o’ throw puzzles in the series where you have to throw a Spearhead up & across a series o’ small platforms without letting it fall off while riding windstreams higher up till you reach the key blocked by throw blocks. While the blend o’ the windstreams & throwing enemies is novel & the layout interesting, the small camera & large gaps ’tween platforms make it difficult to see where the Spearhead goes & makes it easy for it to despawn, which feels unfair.
Also, the windstreams aren’t used much beyond being a simple treasure requirement for the fan to get this treasure. You’d think they could’ve a’least made some windstream puzzle for getting to the chest, but they just have the blue chest in plain access in the switch room.
31. S5 Cave of Flames – Green
This treasure takes 2 rare mechanics — invisibility & hopping tadpoles — & wraps them in the theme o’ fire. While invisible you have to hop ’cross platforms o’er a lake o’ fire & avoid falling in, which will o’erride invisibility with Wario’s fire state, to get past the seeing-eye door to reach the key, & later get past Brrr Bears & hopping tadpoles while still invisible to reach the chest. ’Tween these you have a puzzle where you have to use the lake under the green key to become fiery & time your jumps so that you reach the fire blocks blocking the room with the green chest so you can break them, & as a final touch, you need to roll down a slope & hope o’er a small pond o’ fire to break thru to the green chest itself. None o’ these setpieces are remarkable by themselves, but they do a better job o’ creating both coherency to its theme & variety @ the same time than most treasures.
I like how open-ended the 1st lake o’ fire is in relation to the later fire-block puzzle: a mo’ mediocre but mo’ common game would insist on having some obvious 1 place where you get hit by fire, clearly indicated; this treasure trusts players’ intelligence that they’ve become accustomed ’nough to the mechanics & have memory to remember that the fire lake they were just avoiding can also be used gainst the fire blocks. Furthermo’, that the fire lake stretches wide offers an added element to the puzzle in terms o’ timing where the best place to land in the fire lake & start Wario’s running back & forth while on fire. Granted, I feel having such a big empty place on the left o’ the higher platforms with the fire blocks, where you can’t jump up ’gain if you happen to burst into flames below the top platform, is a bit much.
