Wario Land 2
Ok, so this is one of those GameBoy Color games that started off as a regular GameBoy game, I think? In any case it kind of shows in the graphics. They're not as nice as Wario Land 3, which is easily one of the best looking GBC games out there.
Anyway, this was the first game in the series where (unlike Wario Land 1 and Wario Land VB) you don't wear different hats to get abilities. In this game, the enemies affect Wario in different ways: if you catch on fire, you'll destroy fire blocks, if you eat a caker's cake you become fat and heavy, if you touch a zombie you'll fall through floors, etc.. It's much more interesting than the hat system which feels too much like Mario. You also can't die - you lose coins instead of taking damage, and bosses will throw you out of the boss room so you can try them repeatedly.
Each level contains a secret treasure room. You have to play a mini-game to open the chest, and each time you play it costs you coins that you've collected in the level. The mini-game is always the same, and it's basically an eye reflex test where you're shown a portrait. You then get about a second or two to see 8 portraits and have to match the one that is shown. It can be difficult to catch it in time.
Then at the end of each stage you can earn a puzzle piece. This also requires money and plays like a mini-game where you are shown a 9-piece puzzle of a number between 0-9. The more pieces you choose to show the more money it costs. Both of these mini-games get a bit tiresome after awhile, and it's unfortunate they didn't mix things up more.
The game is linear at first - you play through 25 of the 50 levels and then you can go back and find alternate paths that open an additional 25 stages, including some new bosses. I found it became a bit exhausting to do this, and it's not as fun as exploring the world map in the other games, but in the end I did complete the game 100%.
Unfortunately the alternate endings aren't very good, and the amount of money you have when you beat the game doesn't change anything. I liked how in the first Wario Land, the castle you end up with changes based on how many coins you had collected, but there's nothing like that here. No real reward for getting all the treasures, either but a different splash screen after the ending.
It's not a bad game, and it gets points for introducing so many ideas that would become standard in the series, but I would only recommend it to die-hard Wario fans.
Wario Land 3
What a huge difference from Wario Land 2 to 3! It builds on the premise of enemies affecting Wario in different ways, but it also uses the GameBoy Color's specs much better. This game really looks closer to a 16-bit game than an 8-bit game because there are so many more colors available than the NES.
Anyway, this time the world map returns and there are 25 stages. Wario starts off with limited abilities that must be earned by collecting treasures, so you can't break certain blocks or perform moves like the ground pound straight away. There are 4 treasure chests in each stage, locked with a key of corresponding color. Some treasures will open new stages on the world map or will open pathways to previously blocked treasure chests, plus as you unlock new abilities you'll want to revisit stages several times over the course of the game.
You can beat the game with only about 60 treasures but it's worthwhile to get all 100 because the levels are well designed. The mini-game this time around is a side-scrolling golf game where you smash an enemy over the course (which may have hazards like water, sand bars, or out-of-bounds sections) into the hole. It costs coins to play and opens a gate, which is a requirement to reach certain chests. It's more fun than the ones in Wario Land 2 but again there is a lack of diversity. There are also 8 special coins in each stage, but they don't count for anything special unless you collect all 8 in one go, which is impossible to do until you've unlocked everything - and the reward for doing it is just more of the Golf mini game.
Again, it's a bit disappointing there doesn't seem to be alternate endings but that's not a big deal in this case. In my opinion the GameBoy Color didn't get that many great games but Wario Land 3 is definitely worth picking up. It's not as good as Wario Land 4 or Wario Land: Shake it but it is close behind those and I think if you like puzzle-platformers there is a lot of fun to be had with it. These two games were sitting in my backlog for years and I'm glad I finally cleared them.
