YMMV / Wario Land 4

• Awesome Art: This game really benefits from the jump in consoles. It experiments with the art style a ton to ensure each area stands out on its own merits. The animation is also nicely exaggerated and expressive — sometimes to terrifying effect.
• Awesome Music: The soundtrack in general made great use of the GBA's hardware.
  • The hurry-up theme is essentially a panic attack expressed in a bizarre, anxiety-riddled song urging Wario to escape the levels as fast as he can. It begins sounding like a malfunctioning clock and only gets worse from there.
  • Crescent Moon Village has a terrifyingly smooth, yet mysterious vibe that fits the spooky atmosphere of the village perfectly.
  • Toy Block Tower encapsulates pure, unfiltered fun in its theme, which is pretty much one of the GBA's bounciest and most upbeat music pieces.
  • Monsoon Jungle's theme is a gentle acoustic guitar piece that sends off the Emerald Passage with aplomb. It fits the calm atmosphere of the level like a glove.
  • Palm Tree Paradise has a fittingly relaxed tropical theme, complete with funny lyrics.
  • The theme of Toxic Landfill is one of the most intense songs in the soundtrack, pumping up players to have Wario smash through mountains of garbage with hard rock riffs and quick-paced percussion.
  • The Domino Row theme is classic "mobster march" music at its finest, being about as chill, classy and jazzy as GBA music can get. Not to mention that it also gets even better when Wario activates the level's namesake domino chains and causes the song's tempo to speed up accordingly...
• Breather Boss: Cractus is the easiest boss in the game after Spoiled Rotten, and even on Super Hard Mode, he won't give you too much trouble. His large hitbox makes him an easy target, and it's even possible to get him stuck in an endless loop where you ground pound his head, climb up the nearby vine, and ground pound him again once his Mercy Invincibility wears off.
• Breather Level: Hotel Horror on Hard Mode, especially since it's set after the brutal Fiery Caverns. While there are more enemies present, it's not much harder than it is on Normal Mode, and it's a rather open, leisurely paced level that's easy to gather treasure in.
• Contested Sequel: While it is widely agreed that the game is great, the game has this status when compared to Wario Land II and especially Wario Land 3. Some fans find it to be a worthy follow up, if not the best game in the series, due to its gorgeous art, fantastic soundtrack, faster pace and streamlined level design, on top of the game scaling back the more frustrating design elements from 2 and 3, while still providing a good challenge. Others however, find the game to be a step back from the previous titles, due to its more linear stages and progression, the reintroduction of a health system, the shorter length of the game and the game having less emphasis on the slower, puzzle-like elements that many enjoyed in the last two games.
• Demonic Spiders: The Iwao of Fiery Caverns are the absolute toughest enemies in the game, especially in higher difficulties. They are immune to all of Wario's attacks but the ground-pound. They attack by throwing boulders, which they summon by pounding the ground, causing the rock to erupt forth and into their hands above their heads. The Iwao use this wind-up animation as a defensive maneuver; it happens so quickly that it's quite common they strike Wario as he goes for an attack. Considering all the other hazards across the stage, the damage from these rocks can easily stack up over time if players aren't careful.
• Disappointing Last Level: The Golden Passage, despite the initial fright caused by hitting the Frog Switch at the very start of the level, turns out to be fairly straightforward. It serves as a final exam for several transformation challenges up to that point, but none of them are exceptionally difficult or different compared to what came before. What's more, on all three difficulties, the Frog Switch's timer affords Wario ample time to complete the level.
• Epileptic Trees: The stories behind several of the Sound Room CDs. "The Short Futon" in particular has a lot of fan interpretations. What are these sounds that are bookended by doors opening and closing? Just who are these two people and what are they whispering about? Are they salesmen conversing while going door-to-door? A couple trying to find their hotel room? A couple trying to have intercourse who keep getting interrupted by someone at the door? Or are they discussing a magical door that leads to a different location each time it is opened?
• Fan Nickname:
  • "Captain Coin" for the Ghost Pirate that harasses the player in Crescent Moon Village.
  • Because of the Living With Wario videos becoming a meme, in 2020, this game got the name "Wario's Greatest Achievement", in reference to the original snippet of the video that started the meme.
• Fanon: While her identity is not confirmed, some fans have theorized the redheaded girl shown alongside Wario in some of the ending shots◊ to be Mona.
• Fridge Brilliance: In Doodle Woods, Hoggus can be prevented from summoning his living drawings by redirecting him behind foreground elements—where the contents of Hoggus' sketchbook can't be seen from the player's perspective. The strategy ontologically opposes Hoggus as an artist—you're actively discouraging him from expressing himself by refusing to look at his work.
• Game-Breaker: The Boss Battle items. While the best ones can be tedious to acquire, all of them make the boss fights into cakewalks. On Hard Mode, given you only have four hit points and much less time to fight a boss now, they're an even greater help, especially if you're trying to get all of the treasures.
• Goddamned Boss: Aerodent's pattern is incredibly simple and you're unlikely to actually die to him, but he's the boss most intent on wasting your time and ensuring you don't get 100% Completion.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: The "smile" option in the shop is already pretty funny and cute, but it becomes rather sweet after it's apparent that the shopkeeper is actually Princess Shokora.
• Heartwarming Moments: The ending certainly qualifies. It's extremely odd that a game starring Wario could trigger such emotions, but there's something strangely warm and sentimental about watching Princess Shokora thank Wario (with a Smooch of Victory) and him happily riding into the sunset, reminiscing about his adventure. It almost gives the impression that there is more to Wario than we know, which is likely, as he climbed up the chasm while carrying her and even let her run to the exit before him. And this was before he knew who she really was.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: On a Q&A on the Japanese website, Wario is asked about what his favorite Morning Musume member is. Several years later, Nintendo would go on to collaborate with none other than Morning Musume producer at the time Tsunku, to create the Rhythm Heaven series, which happens to be developed by many of the developers who worked on WarioWare and this game.
• Inferred Holocaust: Wario Land 4 has you go into a variety of interesting, creative worlds... to set off a bomb which will completely destroy every single level. They apparently get better, as you can reenter them as many times as you want. But then again, the entire pyramid collapses at the end of the game. Granted, nothing says the levels were actually in the pyramid.
• Memetic Mutation: "But um... look guys, look! It's one of my greatest achievements, Wario Land 4 on the Game Boy Advance! Ha ha ha!"^Explanation A clip from a web animation known as Living With Wario, specifically episode 2 in which Wario has a casual chat with the viewer as he walks slowly to the bathroom to relieve himself. The aforementioned line has been spoofed to hell and back from how out-of-place it is even in the context of the short, with one Twitter account doing nothing but posting the video over and over.
• Moe:
  • Spoiled Rotten, until it's damaged enough.
  • Princess Shokora in the second-best ending.
• Most Wonderful Sound: The sound of collecting a Blue Diamond, accompanied by one of Wario's celebratory voice clips.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • For starters, some of the bosses are pretty messed up, with most of them looking horrific due to the game's cartoony art style. Spoiled Rotten is one example; it looks very cute at first, but once it's damaged enough, it acquires a very unpleasant Nightmare Face.
  • The giant hole fish in Mystic Lake, as they come out of nowhere and look freaky.
  • The music has the capacity to be this. Particularly, the "Hurry Up!" theme that plays as the levels dissolve out of existence is terrifying; it instills panic and desperation to reach the exit before the timer reaches zero. And if it does reach zero, the already frantic theme gets replaced with even more terrifying music - more specifically, a lone looping countdown sound effect as the background turns a lifeless grey and the coin counter becomes the new timer, causing Wario to rapidly lose coins...
• Signature Song: The iconic (and infamous) HURRY UP! theme is unarguably one of the cornerstones of the game to the point where Spiritual Successors like Pizza Tower and ANTONBLAST have Escape Sequences set to their game’s intended Signature Song.
• That One Attack: The Golden Diva's friggin' eggs. They're functionally similar to Cuckoo Condor's eggs, but they also explode shortly after Wario catches them. Better hope you're quick to throw them!
• That One Boss:
  • Aerodent is a serious headache if one is going for all three chests. In order to defeat him you need to catch thumbtack enemies he sends down, throw them at the bear's feet, and wail on the boss until it recovers. Each of these three steps are quite finnicky and easy to screw up, costing precious time. To make matters worse most of his attacks inflict status effects instead of dealing damage, wasting significant amounts of time. All this adds up to an annoying and frustrating boss, especially on higher difficulties where the timeline is more unforgiving.
  • Spoiled Rotten goes from extremely easy to barely possible on Super Hard. While the strategy to beat it is as uncomplicated as before—repeatedly attack the front, then the back when it bares its teeth—you now only have 15 seconds to succeed. Any mistake will cost you the fight, even something as small as Wario walking into Spoiled Rotten and being bumped backwards.
• That One Level:
  • Doodle Woods. Good luck getting around with Hoggus constantly following you around and spawning annoying enemies right next to you.
  • Mystic Lake is downright sadistic on Hard difficulty. There are enemies everywhere, and because your underwater controls and movement are limited, you're a sitting duck for the fast-moving enemies, with your only defense being an underwater headbutt that is very hard to use. And then there are the tight corridors loaded with giant fish living in holes...
  • Monsoon Jungle on Super Hard difficulty. The most problematic area is the sequence where Wario crosses above several ponds by using swinging platforms. The section was already annoying due to the crocodiles, but Wario's initial health reduction means their bites can spell death; their speed and good positioning make them fairly difficult to either avoid or knock out.
  • Pinball Zone may not be a hard level to clear on Normal and Hard difficulties, but on Super Hard, the level is outright merciless; obstacles are found almost everywhere in the level. Robobirds will fly towards you when you're in range and are close enough to them, spike-topped monsters will charge at you when they get the change, and Yetis can outright annoy you by freezing you. Additionally, every single spike launcher and electricity generator will be active, some of which can fall from above and catch you off-guard when you least expect. Additionally, the level has a case of Suspicious Video-Game Generosity; the first Jewel Piece found at the start of a level is replaced with a box that will fully replenish your health, which seems incredibly convenient considering how you start every level on Super Hard with one heart. However, all of those hearts are essential for your survival as you will likely be taking many hits going forward. Finally, the time you have to proceed through the last two sections of the level is 3:30, compared to 6:00 on Normal and 5:15 on Hard.
  • The Big Board. Part of its gimmick is that you can only advance through hitting specific signs on switches, which requires you to essentially roll the dice and get a certain number. While they're mostly annoying on their own due to their time-wasting effects, the real stinker is the one on the escape path, which has the health damage effect as its second to last square; since it will simply alternate between the (required) escape square and the health damage square if you don't get the right number, it's entirely possible to zap Wario to death should you not get precisely the right roll while under pressure from the time limit.
  • Fiery Cavern is absolute hell for any player attempting to get 10,000 coins, especially on Super Hard. The level is loaded with obstacles and hard-to-dodge foes, and plenty of lava pits that can eat up any coins that fall out from an enemy. Super Hard takes it further and turns it into the hardest level in the entire game.
• This Is Your Premise on Drugs: The Lonely Goomba described Wario going through portals as Super Mario 64 if Mario was on DMT.

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