Konami Wai Wai World 2 Review

(Originally posted September, 2016)

                                        

(1991, Famicom)

(Though I own the cart, the game was played on an emulator.)

Earlier this year I cheated my way through 1988's cool but clunky Konami Wai Wai World, which brought out nostalgic memories of childhood, along with flashbacks of the rage and hopelessness accompanying many a NES game. For the sequel that came a few years later, Konami traded the unraveling of worlds for pure platforming action, revisiting areas for straightforward progression, sub-weapons and upgrades for temporary power ups...or more broadly: A failed, yet admirable excess of ambition for a more conservative, but smooth, tried and true experience. Still, with this game taking you on another tour of Konami's greatest hits: now with levels and characters redone in a comical style, frequent visits to other genres and the same self-aware wackiness from the first game, Wai Wai World 2 is by no means uninspired...

Your previous main characters Konami Man and Konami Lady opted to hang out in the lab with Doctor Simon, making way for the new hero, the nimble, weaponized robot Rikkuru. Here are three important distinctions to the game that are good to know up front:

- When starting a game, you'll choose between three combinations of Konami All-Stars Goemon, Upa, Fuuma, Simon Belmont and Billy Rizer, whom Rikkuru can transform into after grabbing a frequently appearing power-up.

- While transformed, hits won't affect your lifebar, but taking damage will shave time off your altered state.

-No longer a party of characters with unique essential skills, equipment and individual health bars to manage, the cast essentially functions as different 'suits' like in Mario 3.

That's not where the Mario 3 comparisons end, as you'll begin on an auto-scrolling stage, soon find yourself on an airship with those same huge flame exhausts and a bit later on, the spring from the original Super Mario Bros even shows up! Like Wiz Khalifia sampling Chrono Trigger, Konami certainly had the taste to borrow from the very best gaming has to offer.

The adventure starts off a bit awkward before quickly hitting it's stride. The big-headed characters and slow pace of level-1 may make you think you're playing a kiddie game, but after a couple minutes Rikkuru takes to the air in a horizontal SHMUP stage where you'll have to shoot both left and right as enemies come at you from all angles. The quality continues from there: Occasionally choosing paths over a fun little world map, you'll visit radical new takes on the worlds of Ganbare Goemon, Contra, Bio-Miracle Upa, Genso Fuuma Den and Castlevania, each capped with a boss from that game. Breaking up standard levels are charming illustrated cutscenes, mini-games that include surprisingly long and tough (but fair!) Gradius and Twinbee stages, plus visits to other Konami titles, some very obscure. A game of Quarth even functions as the game's password system!

Quickly moving from one world to the next, you're never in a single area long enough for the action to hit the same highs (or lows) as any individual game. Decently designed but never frustrating, the levels offer just a bit of unique mechanics from the source material (Stairs and vertical scrolling in Castlevania, tiers in Contra, obstacles in Getsu Fuuma Den, etc.) to both slightly differentiate the feel of each stage and serve as an appetizer for the real thing. Suspiciously easy, Wai Wai World 2 plays almost like a gateway drug to lure young Mario fans towards Konami's special stash.  With nearly as many power-ups as easily negotiable enemies and traps, a constant near-invincible state and generous continue/password system, the main quest is a breeze for the most part. If you're like me and want to pay a visit to Dracula's Castle without actually having to take on the challenge of the real thing, Wai Wai World 2's tribute might do the trick if you're still in training.

Making the strongest impression are some of the most colorful backgrounds and eye-catching sprites seen on the NES, with their "super deformed" style displaying more personality than many 16-bit games. You get the aliens of Contra and ghouls of Castlevania all cute-sied up, pleasantly fat and expressive weapon toting Konami heros, the technical wizardry of 5 levels of parallax clouds in Rikkuru's shooting stage and even Space Harrier-style '3D' in the Twinbee segment! Besides the impressive programing and sprite design are lots of little touches and details for Konami fans to watch out for. For example, I legitimately laughed out loud upon noticing that statues of the highly self-regarded Ebisumaru were decorating the outside of Dracula's Castle. The soundtrack is once again great, even if it's not entirely original. Twinbee's theme in particular really grooves, and Wai Wai World 2's rendition of Vampire Killer is convincingly more laid back and jazzy even on the rudimentary hardware. Wrapping up all the classic character themes and remixes is a very competent general soundtrack. The cheerful opening track sets the mood for the game's free-flowing surprise and pace, only to finally end with Eternal Dream ~ My Castle ~, which is one of those great tracks that makes a sound usually associated with noisy childishness into something rather bittersweet and introspective.

There's just a few real weak points to the game, like a rather clumsy Frogger segment and character transformations annoyingly forced into an auto-toggling menu, but the game as a whole is serviceable platforming action highly bolstered by an exciting, jam-packed presentation. Once you can anticipate the tough bits of the shooting stages, the game can easily be beaten within an hour, but it's important to note that the world map having branching paths means you'll need to play at least twice to experience everything. Loaded with charm and fast paced variety of adventures, Wai Wai World 2 both stands on it's own as a hidden Famicom gem and serves as the perfect "warm-up" for harder NES/Famicom games. It may be short, but you'll likely replay it enough to get your money's worth.