Wario Land 3 Playthrough (Game Boy Player Capture) - Part 1

This is part 1 of my 100% playthrough of Wario Land 3 for the Game Boy Color. This is not an emulator. This footage was recorded directly from my GameCube using my Game Boy Player with progressive scan mode enabled (you'll need the GameCube's component cables to do this and your model of GameCube must support component out as well).

Following up on my recent Wario Land II playthrough, here’s Wario Land 3. I have actually never beaten this game before. I purchased a complete copy off eBay back in 2012, but since I started my Youtube channel around the same time, I got distracted with all of my recordings and didn’t bother to play this game until now.

I’m not a huge fan of Wario Land II’s general puzzle platforming design (I prefer the action platforming of the original game), but I think this game makes some improvements compared to the prior title. For one thing, this game is no longer a massive coin collectathon and instead focuses more on the platforming elements (though coins are still used for the occasional golf minigame). Also, treasures are now obtained through a much better method, which involves obtaining one of four color-coded keys and then reaching the corresponding treasure chest. This is actually how you beat the stages since there is no longer a specific goal door.

Wario Land 3 also seems to take some inspiration from Metroid since you now revisit stages after obtaining new abilities in order to reach previously inaccessible sections. Unlike in Wario Land II, Wario doesn’t start out with all of his abilities this time but instead has to unlock them along the way by collecting certain treasures. Some treasures give Wario new abilities while others simply unlock additional stages. There are also treasures that do nothing other than add to your grand total.

I will be collecting all of the treasures in this playthrough as well as all of the optional Musical Coins. Although the instruction manual doesn’t clearly explain this, you cannot truly collect the Musical Coins unless you collect all 8 of a stage’s coins in a single run. If you pick up fewer than 8, the game won’t save your coin progress. Naturally, this requires that you have pretty much all of Wario’s abilities, so I won’t be collecting the Musical Coins until after I have already obtained all of the treasures and beaten the game. The Musical Coins simply unlock a new golf minigame.

Even though this game is broken into four different areas (North, West, South and East), it doesn’t really require you to complete stages in a specific order, so you’re given some leeway to complete them how you like. Also, if you get confused about where to go next, you can always return to the Temple for a hint. The level order that I’m following here is by no means strict.

I’ll be posting blocks of stages in separate videos with timestamps for each level. Not all of these stages were completed back-to-back in a single session. I mostly edited my successful runs together for a single video.

In this first part I started a new save file and obtained the Lead Overalls, which gave me the Smash Attack ability.

Level Guide:

N1 - Out of the Woods (Gray Chest) - 3:13
N2 - The Peaceful Village (Gray Chest) - 5:05
N3 - The Vast Plain (Gray Chest) - 6:49
W1 - Desert Ruins (Red Chest) - 8:53
W1 - Desert Ruins (Gray Chest) - 10:30
W2 - The Volcano’s Base (Gray Chest) - 12:47
N1 - Out of the Woods (Red Chest) - 14:56
N3 - The Vast Plain (Red Chest) - 17:51
W3 - The Pool of Rain (Gray Chest) - 20:43
W4 - A Town in Chaos (Gray Chest) - 22:23
S1 - The Grasslands (Gray Chest) - 24:41
S2 - The Big Bridge (Gray Chest) - 27:15
N3 - The Vast Plain (Green Chest) - 28:39
W3 - The Pool of Rain (Red Chest) - 31:35

Recorded with the Hauppauge HD PVR and the GameCube's component cables at 60 frames per second. I'm using an original model Game Boy Advance as a controller via a GameCube/Game Boy Advance Link Cable.