Play Wario Land II on GBC Online

Wario Land II came out on the Game Boy Color in 1998, developed and published by Nintendo. It was one of those games that felt perfectly suited for the handheld, arriving at a time when the library was expanding with more ambitious, colorful titles. You weren't just getting another platformer; you were stepping into a game built around a different kind of logic, one centered on a greedy, indestructible anti-hero.

You control Wario, whose main goal is to reclaim his stolen treasure by chasing the Black Sugar Gang through a series of themed chapters. The game is structured screen by screen, with exploration and puzzle solving taking precedence over traditional platforming danger. Signature mechanics include Wario's various transformations, triggered by enemy attacks or hazards; a hit might flatten him into a pancake to slip under low gaps, or set him on fire to burn through obstacles. The pacing is methodical, focused on figuring out how to use your current state, whether it's zombie shamble or spring bounce, to unlock the path forward. It feels clever and consistently surprising, turning every enemy encounter into a potential tool rather than a threat.