Wario has never needed a reason to chase money. Nintendo’s greediest anti-hero returns to the side-scrolling series that introduced him in Wario Land: Shake It!, a 2008 Wii platformer developed by Good-Feel and published by Nintendo. The game later came to the Wii U eShop in 2016. It is the sixth Wario Land installment, and it puts a Wii Remote in your hand and a Bottomless Coin Sack in Wario’s sights.
Trailer, via Nintendo Life.
Captain Syrup Mails a Globe
The plot does not pretend Wario is a hero. Captain Syrup breaks into a museum, examines an ancient globe that holds the Shake Dimension, and watches a crisis unfold inside it. The Shake King has seized power, imprisoned Queen Merelda and her Merfle subjects, and claimed the Bottomless Coin Sack, a pouch that pours out endless coins when shaken.
Syrup steals the globe and mails it to Wario, insisting the real treasure is inside. When an escaped Merfle emerges and begs for help, Wario shows no interest until he hears about the sack. Then he follows the Merfle into the Shake Dimension. That is the whole engine of the story: not duty, not heroism, just a bottomless supply of coins.
Five Continents, Seven Levels Each
Shake It! is a side-scrolling platformer. Wario travels through five distinct continents, each offering up to seven sequential levels, with a boss at the end of each. You hold the Wii Remote horizontally. The motion controls are not a gimmick bolted on — they are the moveset.
Shake the controller and Wario performs a ground punch that stuns nearby enemies and triggers certain mechanisms. Pick up a stunned enemy or a coin bag and shake it to make it spit out coins and items. Throw what you pick up by tilting the controller to aim. Mine carts and submarine sections use tilt controls too.
The primary goal of each level is rescuing Merfles, who are locked in a cage at the end. Break the cage open and, except in submarine levels, a countdown starts. You have to run back to the beginning before time runs out.
The Dash Back to the Start
That countdown is the best idea in the game. Special machines put Wario into a speedy dash that breaks blocks in his path, and the game pushes you to hold the dash so you can get back fast and still grab treasures and coins that are otherwise out of reach. The retreat becomes the real level.
It is a clean loop. Rescue, then run. Levels can be replayed for optional objectives, and the secondary goal is simple: collect as much money as possible.
| Element | How it works |
|---|---|
| Ground punch | Shake the Wii Remote to stun enemies and trip mechanisms |
| Coin shake | Pick up enemies or coin bags and shake them for coins and items |
| Aimed throw | Tilt the controller to aim thrown objects and enemies |
| Vehicle sections | Mine carts and a submarine use tilt controls |
| Merfle cage | Frees a Merfle and starts the return countdown |
Production I.G and the Wii U Return
The animation was produced by Production I.G, and it shows in how the game moves. Nintendo re-released Wario Land: Shake It! digitally on the Wii U eShop in 2016, which gave the game a second life after the Wii era ended.
| Region | Wii U eShop release |
|---|---|
| PAL regions | April 7, 2016 |
| Japan | August 24, 2016 |
| North America | November 17, 2016 |
The European title is Wario Land: The Shake Dimension. In Japan it is Wario Land Shake.
Captain Syrup Takes the Sack
The ending is the sharpest thing here. Wario defeats the Shake King after progressing through multiple worlds, and Queen Merelda crowns him a hero. He does not care. He nonchalantly claims the Bottomless Coin Sack and takes it home.
Then Captain Syrup takes the sack for herself, as payment for agreeing to help Merfle save the Shake Dimension. Wario is outraged and chases Merfle around the garage. A game about infinite greed ends with the greedy man holding nothing, and the con artist who started the whole mess walking away rich.
That is a better joke than most platformers manage, and it is told without a word of moralizing.
What the Shake Loop Is Worth
Wario Land: Shake It! is not the deepest platformer Nintendo has published, and the motion controls will not suit every player. But the shake-to-loot loop gives every enemy and every coin bag a purpose, and the cage countdown turns each level into a race against your own greed. The five continents and their seven-level structure give it real length without much fat.
What holds it back is repetition. The objectives repeat, the dash repeats, and the game leans on the same trick often enough that the back half can feel like work. It is a good game that knows exactly what it is and rarely reaches past it.
The 2016 Wii U re-release matters more than it looks. It kept a Wii-era curio available long after the hardware faded, and the game holds up better than its reputation suggests. Wario’s return to his roots is worth taking. 7.9 of 10.
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