For those of you with some extra money burning a hole in your pocket, know that Circuit City has a sale running from now until this upcoming Saturday. When you purchase any Wii game at full price, you can get a second game for 50% off. The sale also works with Wii Play, if you're not among the folks who've already purchased the bundle.
Do you like free stuff? Of course you do, who doesn't? Well, we're giving away one copy of Wario Land: Shake It! for the Wii (valued at $50). Want to enter for your chance to win this great game?
To enter, simply leave a comment between now and Sunday, October 12th at 11:59PM ET, telling us what your favorite game featuring Wario is. It can be one of his own games, or any other he's in. You can leave one comment per day. We'll select a winner the following day via random drawing.
There are a few things you should know before entering. Entrants must be current and legal residents of the United States or Canada (excluding Quebec) and at least 18 years of age or older. Read up on the rest of the official rules right here.
Back during E3, I talked about how Nintendo had to actually kick me out of their demo area, because I wouldn't stop playing Wario Land: Shake It! and, to be honest, that was true. The game was absolutely amazing when I got my hands on it. Would my favorable impressions be the same when I got my hands on the final product? Well, now that I've had a few days to plow through it, I'm ready to determine that.
We couldn't help ourselves--Mario fashion is so last Friday. In case you didn't notice, maybe because you were too busy getting domineered by the formidable boss roster of Mega Man 9, a little game called Wario Land: Shake It! landed at retailers on Tuesday. And you can bet we've been shaking it all week (besides listening to Charles Martinet ham it up, of course). What better way to welcome this momentous release than to dedicate our humble gallery to the big scoundrel himself?
It is appropriate that we have transformed this feature to accommodate Wario's oversized rear end. Transformations are Wario's speciality; whether he is provoked by status-changing characters or influenced by elements of his environment, Wario relies on his many forms to effectively navigate level design. Adopting forms that range from animal to mechanical, this rude evil genius is unquestionably a Master of Disguise. Let's take a look back at the numerous transformations Wario has undergone in our new gallery chock full of yellow, purple and poor manners.
It's-a WARIO World is a weekly feature in which the ubiquity of Nintendo's EVIL GENIUS is celebrated: We'll incessantly ruminate about mustache wax garlic pizza, debate the curious whereabouts of the princess MY treasure and covet troves of gold. Check back here every Friday to find out what strange and wonderful thing has got us tipping our caps shaking our butts.
It's no secret that Nintendo is the richest company since Ebenezer Scrooge found two nickels and rubbed them together. As part of a promotion for Wario Land: Shake It! and just to be nice, the company footed the gasoline bill for several individuals at a downtown LA Mobile gas station. They also hooked some lucky folks up with copies of the game, as well as Wii consoles. You can check out a video from the event above, as well as some pictures of folks taking advantage of the kind gesture in our gallery below.
It's no secret that we're madly in love with Wario Land: Shake It! and its amazing gameplay. When one of us got to check the game out back at E3, we found it to be the title of our dreams. Seriously, there wasn't a single bad thing we could say about the game. As of right now, we're counting down the days until its August 25th release.
After you've watched the new trailer above, head past the break for some more.
Sure, it may be the most neglected continent in the history of video games, but those crazy Australians are going positively mental for Nintendo all the same. According to industry tracker Gfk, the Wii has just passed the 500,000 mark down under, making it the fastest-selling console in history. Well, Australia's history. Does that still count as cool?
The Wii achieved this monumental feat (remember, there's only 20 million people in Australia) in just 84 weeks since launch in December 2006. On top of the "hey, we're awesome!" announcement, a few new release dates for some hot Wii games have been revealed. Wario Land: The Shake Dimension will be hitting consoles on September 25th, and Trauma Center: Second Opinion (yes, that neglected) is coming out August 28th.
You know what the best thing about hanging out with JC is? Hearing him gush about Mega Man 9 and how he got a ton of time to play it. It's kind of the same thing with me and Wario Land: Shake It!, I assume. But, what's important is the question we have to ask.
So, in thinking about what other retro dream sequels we could see on WiiWare (Earthworm Jim 3, for example), we'd like to know what you all can come up with. So, let's hear it! What retro dream sequel would you like to see?
Following on from last night's assault of screens is this U.S. trailer for Wario Land: Shake It. The first half deals with the game's story of marauding pirate Shay King, his capture of the "Bottomless Coin Sack," and the imprisonment Queen Merelda. Wario comes to the rescue, but naturally shows no interest whatsoever until said coin sack is mentioned. 'Atta boy!
The second part is the usual lifestyle shots of people enjoying the game from their fashionable sofa, interspersed with actual gameplay footage, which obviously looks fantastic. On a different note, anyone else surprised that this is going to be out in Japan next week? It feels like we only found out about it yesterday.
The importance of shaking in Wario Land: Shake It! is apparent from the moment you read the title, but there are also moves available to Wario that involve twisting. Spencer of Siliconera spent some time studying videos from Shake It!'s official Japanese site, and listed down the different types of shake and twist that feature in Wario's adventure.
He quickly discovered that many moves in the game are context-sensitive. So, shaking the Remote up and down repeatedly allows our dungareed hero to swing from bars, as well as shake the treasure from bags or enemies. Twisting the Wiimote is also multi-functional, and will let players steer minecarts, fire themselves from a cannon at a certain angle, or aim at where they'd like to chuck enemies. A respectable range of moves, all performed with two simple motions -- neat!
We knew that Wario Land: Shake It! looked really nice, but we simply were not prepared to see it in motion in the gameplay video available on the new Japanese site. The crisp backgrounds and fluid character animation make Shake It one of the best-looking games on Wii or any other console. It's surprisingly beautiful for something that is also so Wario-like -- the gameplay footage is all busting stuff and hoarding treasure.
The site also features the animated intro created by Production I.G., which we've embedded after the break. In addition, an animated controller diagram details the game's sideways-Wiimote-based control scheme: the 1 button tackles, the 2 button jumps, and shaking the Wiimote performs various context-sensitive actions, usually shaking stuff.
Posted May 28th 2008 1:15PM by Phil Larsen Filed under: News
Now officially listed on Nintendo Japan's official site, we can celebrate the unveiling of the latest game featuring pseudo-evil badass Wario. The kanji is translated into English as simply Wario Land Shake, which is a natural connection to the whole motion-sensing thing the Wii's got going on.
Now, despite the fact that Wario has been featured in a pile of differentgames in recent years, the inclusion of Land in the title brings hope to the possibility that this will be a full-fledged platformer that follows on from Wario Land 4 which was released way back in 2001. No longer is our portly friend relegated to hosting mini-game compilations and riding go-karts; he's in the spotlight and heading for the store shelves of Japan on July 24. Stay tuned for more details!
It's-a WARIO World is a weekly feature in which the ubiquity of Nintendo's EVIL GENIUS is celebrated: We'll incessantly ruminate about 
Now officially listed on Nintendo Japan's official site, we can celebrate the unveiling of the latest game featuring pseudo-evil badass Wario. The kanji is translated into English as simply Wario Land Shake, which is a natural connection to the whole motion-sensing thing the Wii's got going on.
