Wario Land 4

Wario Land 4
Also known as: Wario Land Advance: Youki no Otakara (JP) Developer: Nintendo R&D1 Publisher: Nintendo Platform: Game Boy Advance Released in JP: August 21, 2001 Released in US: November 19, 2001 Released in EU: November 16, 2001 Released in AU: November 9, 2001 Released in CN: June 2004 This game has unused areas. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused music. This game has debugging material. This game has regional differences. This game has a development article This game has a Data Crystal page

To do: There is an unused sample for the Hurry Up Music.

Wario decides to hit up the local ancient pyramid for some treasure. Little does he know, the pyramid is anything but ordinary.

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Development Info

Unused Graphics

Debug Build A debug build of the game, made from partial source code contained in the July 2020 lotcheck leak.

Debug Mode

To do: Setting it to 08 yields some results, but other values do different things too. I need to find documentation on the different values and what they do, or document it myself. Also, is this all there is for debug code, or is there more? There may be a (stubbed?) in-game method of activating this

Wario Land 4 has a simple debug mode built into the game. Setting 0x03000C3C to 08 in the RAM will enable these modes. However, depending on where you are (the passage select screen, a level, etc.), this will yield different results.

Setting the value to 08 while in any level will allow you to do the following:

• The D-Pad moves Wario freely around the map.
• Press Select to resume playing the level normally.
• Press Start to cycle between two camera modes: normal level scrolling, and scrolling to see an entire map, including what is cut off. Pressing Select to resume play will reset the camera to normal level scrolling.
• Hold R while moving to move faster in free movement mode.
• While in debug mode, timers activated by Frog Switches will not begin counting until free movement mode is disabled, and will pause when free movement is once again enabled.
• L + Up while in free movement mode will auto-complete the level with a Keyzer to unlock the next door, all four gem portions, and the level's respective Sound Room record. Using this on a boss level will defeat the boss, but will end like a normal level: you leave with a Keyzer, three gem portions, no record, and the Keyzer unlocks the next door (Surprise! There's another door behind that door!). As well, the painting on the wall has a huge "X" on it.

Codebreaker code 74000130 01FF 33000C3C 0008 will also enable these functions by pressing L to activate the free-movement mode. The code must then be disabled in order for the level auto-complete function to work correctly.

After Wario strikes his surprised pose, it will send you to a location on that level select area that will go to a level that is not in that passage's set of levels. Selecting this level then brings you to a black screen, where Wario jumps into seemingly nothing, but the level that is displayed works as it should. If you use this on a level you've previously cleared, the Keyzer will come with you and re-unlock the door, acting as if you've just beaten the level for the first time.

(Source: HelloTibi, Abystus (Codebreaker code))

Unused Rooms

Lost Room

A little cave.

The blocked off entrance to the room. This is only visible when debug mode is enabled.

A small cave room was removed from the end of Palm Tree Paradise, which would have been accessed by bashing the wall behind the Frog Switch. The exit is fully functional, but the wall is completely solid and the background piece that would have gone in the revealed entrance was moved up out of the way. However, the exit still works in both directions.

The room itself has sprite layouts for each difficulty, with the number of enemies increasing to 5 on Super Hard and the diamond being removed. There is also an effect that darkens the background layers the closer Wario is to the entrance, which makes sense but isn't very intuitive. A similar effect is also used in the debug level. A video showing off the room can be found here.

Debug Level

Debug Level

The debug level can be accessed with GameShark code 33000003 0002 and choosing the Entry Passage. Interestingly, Metroid Fusion uses Wario Land 4 blocks and crystals in its debug rooms, which is a not-so-subtle hint that it was built on the same engine.

The stage itself is made of black blocks on a black background, making it difficult to see without changing the background color. The regular block from this tileset is actually used in multiple levels to make the solid borders of the map, and the dotted block is used for exits. The music used is the same as the last level you visited.

The first room has various types of terrain for basic engine testing, with platforms, ladders, slopes, climbable walls, water, spikes, and blocks. The first unusual feature in the room is a pair of pipes and yellow gems. The gems are switch-activated red gems with the wrong tiles, and the pipes lead to each other. Past this, the block of grey X tiles lead straight to the level select screen, a feature only used in boss levels. The yellow gems are the basic 10-coin blue gems with a different palette. The two blocks with a yellow tile in the corner were used to test blocks giving out coins. The third door in the room passes in front of Wario instead of behind him. The dotted blocks warp to each other.

The room through the first door is a layer-3 water testing room. The water actually fades to different levels of opacity based on Wario's height, being invisible until you actually fall into it the first time. This feature is unused in any of the final levels. The water opacities shown in the map indicate the depth at which the change is triggered. The water opacity remains at the same level until Wario reaches the previous trigger height, meaning the water will always stay visible. The arrow tiles indicate current, with yellow arrows indicating the strong current used in the game, and blue arrows indicating a weak current that merely pushes Wario at the same speed at which he can swim, another unused feature. The two doors in the water lead to each other. Yes, there is a monkey walking around at the bottom.

The third room features the limited vertical camera scrolling as seen in several levels, along with a lot of spikes. The purple spikes are solid to Wario even when he is flashing from damage, but enemies can pass through it. This is another unused feature. The non-animated yellow gems are actually blocks that become ramps when the switch is hit. The graphics stay the same, but the physics of it change.

The final room has nothing more than a bunch of platforms, gems, and some blocks. The door at the top leads to the door at the bottom.

Unused Music

Golden Passage

The final level, Golden Passage, starts you off immediately pressing the Frog Switch, therefore having the whole level use the runaway theme. However, if you hack the game to prevent Wario from pressing the switch, there is an actual Golden Passage theme! (You can also pause just before landing on the switch, but the volume will be lowered.) Alternately, enter the level, pause and exit the level just before you land on the switch, and enter the debug room.

Since this theme is exclusive to Golden Passage, it is likely that at some point the switch was not below the entrance.

Unknown

An intro-less variation of the main map theme.

Oddities

Layer 1 Overlays

Most of the rooms in the game use solid blocks in Layer 2 with graphics from the respective level to define solid ground, while Layer 1 is left mostly blank. Few rooms however, use debug tiles on Layer 2 to define solid ground and overlay the proper level graphics using non-solid tiles on Layer 1. The Debug tiles are normally unseen.

With Layer 1	Without Layer 1

Level Intro Tilemap

The level intro screen, where Wario presses the Frog Switch to activate the vortex, has two copies of room loaded side-by-side, as well as all of the tiles and palettes needed to draw all of the paintings in the current passage. This contrasts with how the passage map screen loads each painting individually as Wario moves through the map, and seems to indicate that the player was originally meant to walk through these rooms to reach the stages rather than using the map.

Version Differences

Credits Song

Japan	International

The first song in the credits medley was changed between the Japanese and International releases. Aside from the lyrics being changed from Japanese to English, the instruments and feel of the song were also changed, but the main melody was kept the same. As a result of the change, the international version is half a second shorter. Meanwhile, all versions keep the title song in English and the Palm Tree Paradise song in Japanese.

All versions of Wario Land 4 have both songs. It's possible to hear them by changing the language option.