{"id":4532,"date":"2013-04-02T11:55:10","date_gmt":"2013-04-02T11:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/danielprimed.com\/?p=4532"},"modified":"2013-03-27T13:45:01","modified_gmt":"2013-03-27T13:45:01","slug":"wario-land-shake-dimension-mechanics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/danielprimed.com\/2013\/04\/wario-land-shake-dimension-mechanics\/","title":{"rendered":"Wario Land: Shake Dimension – Mechanics"},"content":{"rendered":"

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To wit, Wario Land: Shake Dimension<\/em> takes Wario Land 4<\/em>, pairs back or removes the mechanics, transformations, and game elements to a sort of proto-Wario Land<\/em> 1 state and then replaces all the nuance and dynamics that made Wario Land 4<\/em> engaging with gestures that don’t evolve beyond their base level application. That’s not to jump on the \u201cmotion controls ruin everything, boo, hoo, hoo\u201d<\/em> bandwagon. In this case, the gameplay concepts themselves aren’t expanded beyond the player shaking the remote to make Wario do a particular action. The folded level design also isn’t so crash hot either, and the game has a nasty habit of making it easy for the player to fail optional challenges (often listed as side objectives, for the compulsive) and then denying them a retry, something which encourages manual restarts. Shake Dimension<\/em> is a bare bones Wario game to say the least. Let’s extend on this a little though:<\/p>\n

Mechanics<\/h3>\n

Wario’s core ability set is identical to Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land<\/em>, except that the player can turn the Wii-mote to angle throws and shake the Wii-mote to shake a held object or activate an Earthshake Punch. Shaking a held object can cause coins or other treats to come bouncing out of them. The Earthshake Punch has Wario punch the ground, stunning enemies and altering certain level elements. The mechanic’s similar to Wario Land 4<\/em>‘s heightened smash attack (level 2 quake), but can be activated instantly and runs on a cool down meter.<\/p>\n

The Earthshake Punch and shaking held objects aren’t very engaging mechanics: the player waggles the controller and Wario does the action, that’s it. Although the mechanics are intuitive, as the input matches the output (shaking), there’s no variability to the motion. So, Wario can’t not do an Earthshake Punch because the player didn’t shake the controller hard enough, for example. Furthermore, the player can’t charge the mechanics like Wario Land 4<\/em>‘s smash attack (ground pound), frame cut like Wario Land 4<\/em>‘s attack jump, or activate frame-specific moves like Wario Land 4<\/em>‘s dash attack.<\/p>\n

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Many of Wario’s mechanics are allocated to specific game elements. It’s these game elements that make up the majority of gameplay concepts\u2014as opposed to the transformations in Wario Land 4<\/em>, which are extremely paired back in Shake Dimension<\/em>. These devices make clever use of the Wii-mote’s accelerometer and are much more engaging than the two permanent, motion-controlled mechanics. The unibuckets, for example, accelerate sharply when the Wii-mote is tilted, so the player must work against this nuance so as not to oversteer (more examples in the image above). I’m not so convinced of the Subwarine, though, which is fiddly and unnatural. Best to leave the submarining to Mario.<\/p>\n

When Wario enters a red, right-angled pipe, officially called a Max Fastosity Dasherator, he can dash attack. Shake Dimension<\/em>‘s dash attack is modelled after Wario Land 4<\/em>‘s, but there are two significant differences:<\/p>\n