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Wario Land 4 - Burning Nightmares & the future of Wario Land 4 hacking

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Hey guys, Hiro-sofT here!#wario{B)}

While I am pretty much a forgettable guy on SMWC (not sure if I did anything big on here but I think not), I am known in the Kaizo SMW community as the “Invictus titlelogo designer, GPW2 potrait creator and long level - guy” that can draw (apparently good) graphics. In terms of hacking SMW myself, I helped with contributions on several rather more unknown hacks (such as Super Bui Bui World, which for reasons I can’t link to here, best look it up yourself on YouTube) and having started tons of solo hacks but finished none of them.

But enough of Mario and me...!

Did you know that Warios greatest achievement, Wario Land 4, has gotten a level editor?#wario{:O}



I decided to give it a shot and created this, single, very long, traditional styled stage with it (with all 3 difficulties being playable). Just to get my feet wet with it and try it out.

Its name is “Wario Land 4 - Burning Nightmares”.

The hack features some of the possibilities of the editor, as well as other 3rd party stuff that is made possible with Wario Land 4 modding.
This includes level design, stage and enemy graphics, custom music and more.

List of Features
Originally posted by Hiro-sofT
* Play a brand new, massively huge level for Wario Land 4, created and made possible with the new Wario Land 4 Editor! This ROM Hack showcases, what is so far possible in the world of Wario Land 4 romhacking! This level took several months to be crafted and polished in the state it is in now!
* Flex your muscles through 3 different difficulties (Normal, Hard and S-Hard), as you try to find all the treasures! Activate those Wario Land senses and start exploring!
* Make use of Fire Wario, Bat Wario and Zombie Wario as you try to find a way to leave his nightmares!
* The frog switch returns! It’s much nastier this time around, as there will be no grace period, once the timer runs out! No more time left? Time’s up! Back to square zero you go!
* 4 Puzzle pieces, one CD, a silly ghost key and 10 diamonds wait for you to be discovered!
* Lots of surprises and fan service, from music, to set pieces resembling various Wario or “Wario related” titles! Some more obscure, others pretty well known!
* Vanilla game experience recommended!


Here are some pictures:

Watch a short trailer on my twitter here (sorry tried to find a better solution but also am lazy so idk...):
[Watch teaser on Twitter]
The download is ready for you on here:
[Download on Romhacking.net]

What does this mean for the future of Wario Land 4 hacking?#wario{-_-?}

It’s still young and there are still things that the devs are working on to make sure we can make all the great Wario Land 4 hacks we want. Despite it being fairly young, the editor itself shows a lot of promise and is one of the better editors that I had the pleasure working with.

It doesn’t beat Lunar Magic of course, but which editor will ever do that? It’s very close to it though and take my word for it, making the hack was very enjoyable and a much easier process thanks to this already powerful tool.

If I sparked your interest for Wario Land 4 hacking, you can find the editor here: [Get it from GitHub]
The Link leads to a github with all the releases, as well as a WL4E discord, where people can find tutorials, share their work as well as follow the progress of the editor and any future and beta versions.

Just recently we got the ability for custom backgrounds. Here is a sneak peek what you can do with it (drew the buildings myself, edited the clouds from a vanilla bg into it):


What do you guys think of Wario Land 4 hacks? Is that a future you would look forward to? Are you interested? Let me know what you guys think. #tb{:)}

Quick FAQ#wario{:D}

Q: Why hack Wario Land 4?
A: Wario Land 4 is a surprisingly good GBA game that also aged super well into our current time. Often considered the best out of the franchise, it features tight controls with problem solving stage design, puzzle challenges and faster platforming than its prequels, as well as scratching the itch for treasure hunting just like every good ol Wario Land does. Compared to Mario, Wario is deeper in its core gameplay, with the original Wario Land 4 featuring levels all of which stand out on their own. While the original game was fantastic, it would be cool to see what else is possible of the realm of Wario and to see people craft new experiences for us to explore.

I also love the idea to expand the horizon of games that can be modded… while SMW hacking probably stays as the king of hackable games, I would love to see some other games get some love.

Q: Will you make more Wario Land 4 stuff?
A: Probably! As sad as it is, I am pretty burned out from SMW hacking (has several reasons, which I will not talk about here) and I feel my style of level design is more fitting into the stage design of these games rather than Mario.

Q: Why do you spent 50% of this thread to talk about the editor that you didn't make?
A: I think the work they have done is amazing and this wonderful tool deserves more publicity. Things like this sadly often go under the radar and its sad to see something as promising as this being discontinued or dropped, if nobody even knew about it.

Q: What about overworld, title screen, …?
A: The dev is working hard on this to make this the best editor there can be. Some of these things are harder to make work right/editable. Slowly but surely we will get there…

Q: How can we help/support this?
A: One way to motivate each other is to make stuff and work with the editor. Showing that we care and that we are interested in working with the tool shows the devs that the editor is something worth working for, thus they will work on more features, if the demand is there for it. I think I don’t need to say that it doesn’t make sense working on something that nobody is interested in or ever using.

Q: Your hack didn’t convince me really, is there more out there that I can play?
A: If my hack is not doing the editor justice, take a peek into beco’s Wario Land 4 hack “Wario Land 4: Parallel World”, which you can get here [Download on Romhacking.net]. It is basically a complete romhack more in the style of a 2nd quest of the original Wario Land 4, with new level layouts, some impressive asm magic, new music and much more. It was also created with the Wario Land 4 Editor and is super polished and worth a play. You will not be disappointed by this one. There is also the Wario Land 4 Hack Vault, which serves as our current "Wario Land 4 romhack database" [Visit the Wario Land 4 Hack Vault].

Q: Can I make Kaizo with it?
A: Depends on what your definition of "Kaizo Wario Land 4" is, but let me say this, the dev ssp is interested in making Kaizo work in this game and already has made patches like a quick respawn. It's all still very young and rough around the edges but slowly but surely, we get there eventually... Kaizo Mario World also wasn't released right after Lunar Magic's release back then.

Q: I have a question about the editor. Can I ask you about it?
A: Sure! Feel free to ask! #tb{:)}

Q: Can I request something from you? I want...
A: No. This is not a request thread. #tb{¬_¬}

Not sure what I did is suited for C3 or not so I hope I did everything correctly (if not, feel free to boot this thread right out the door).
Finally, a ROM hacking thread that's not related to SMW but related to the series that greatly expands to the Mario universe. [slowly claps]

You did the greatest achievement in ROM hacking history by making a ROM hack of Wario's greatest achievement ever ([rimshot]), and you did very much in modding levels, graphics and music! Keep up the good work, Hiro-sofT!
The Hacking of PuyoPuyo. Come join the fun, friends. 『いけいけ団長、頑張れ頑張れ団長!』
Help us raise funds for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. #ДопомагаємоРазом / #HelpTogether
“Even if you personally are so dissatisfied with life that you want the world to end, surely the cruel reality is that it will continue on, unchanging. All the better for someone perfectly content, like me.”
Aya Shameimaru, Touhou Suzunaan ~ Forbidden Scrollery
First of all, I want to say that it's nice to hear that Wario Land 4 is advancing in its hacking scene! I do agree this game aged quite well over the years and it's most definitely one of the coolest 2D platformers I've ever played. It's honestly quite impressive that this game came out so few months after the GBA's release!

Anyway, I tried out your level for a bit and I can say some interesting setups were made with Fire Wario. I don't recall some of the music tracks used here being in the original game either (sorry, I beat this game only once and many years ago :P) so I assume they are custom, which in that case, I found the selection pretty nice!

Unfortunately, I don't have much else to say, because I found my low-level and rusty WL4 player skills to be a hard stop against some of the sections that required more precision. I stopped in the room where I had to carry the little guy across a room with ledges and fire dropping statue heads between each one of them. I just found that room a bit too cramped to jump around with Wario without dropping the guy from hitting the ceiling corners. 😅

I can tell, however, that you put quite some effort into this! I think more experienced players may find this more up their alley!

Cheers for showcasing this game and the progress of the level editor!
Hi HiroSoft or what shoult i say? Team D### frined or what so ever
Oh my god, we can finally do this. This game defined my childhood, and I cannot wait to try this out for myself! #wario{O_O}
Just so you know, I'm very active on the site anymore like I was before; I'm mainly on Discord now.
Having grown up with Wario Land 4 being one of my top favorite platformers, I have to say... This was a very pleasant surprise!

This brings back some very fond memories. I love the tight controls, focus on exploration for treasures, and the varied level designs and themes the original game had. The top-notch groovy soundtrack and nightmare fuel bosses have to be the most memorable aspects. Just from what's being showcased here, I did recognize some of the references
(one example being a motif from Virtual Boy Wario Land's music)
.

I'd be very interested in giving Wario Land 4 hacking a go if time permits in the future. There are already so many things I imagined doing with this if I ever had the tools available to me, so I thank you for your creative efforts and for sharing this!
Wario Land 4 is probably the best GBA game ever made, so it's incredibly exciting to see ROM hacks of it! Definitely going to give this one a go.
This is fantastic. Wario Land 4 was an incredible game and having more hacking tools is always wonderful.
omg I can hack an actually good video game?

I might actually get back into romhacking for this one. This could be the one. They said it was impossible, that Impetus would never return to the hacking scene for real and only just for random contests when bored to make shitposts, but this could be it.

I love this new possibility!
It's cool to see more games to be hacked even if it is a game which I never played (though I did watch an LP years ago).

As an aside, Wario Land 4 uses the same engine as the GBA Metroid games (this can be seen in some debug rooms of the latter games) so I really wonder, how much information was shared between both hacking scenes.
The WL4 editor looks very impressive! I'll certainly give some of the hacks for it a try because they look really cool.
Yo, sorry if I appeared to be inactive, but I was watching the thread during the entire C3 and have to say, I didn't expect this one to get any responses (especially not this many), so it’s cool to see I didn't do this for nothing #tb{:DD}.

It's cool to see that I could spark the interest in you guys, I know i often talk way too much and generally I am not the best one with words, but thank you for showing support for this #tb{:j}.

As mentioned in the OP, if you got questions, feel free to ask me #tb{^V^}.

Originally posted by SMWizard
Just from what's being showcased here, I did recognize some of the references
(one example being a motif from Virtual Boy Wario Land's music)
.


That is correct. It’s one of the many songs I imported into the project. While custom music is a bit tedious to work with, the way to make and import it is extremely simple, thanks to some of the tools we have #tb{^V^}.

Originally posted by Lumy
I can tell, however, that you put quite some effort into this! I think more experienced players may find this more up their alley!


Thank you so much and sorry if it ended up too difficult #tb{^V^}. I am unfortunately known for my creators bias and making things a bit too difficult at times. Really trying to get this issue under control but making an easy level is one tough challenge for me, as I easily think it would become too easy and thus uninteresting for the player. I got here and there though interesting data that will help me with future WL4 projects as on how to lay out my stages and plan difficulty curves #tb{:j}.

I am looking forward what future Wario Land 4 projects will give us, as I am, myself, would love to see what you guys can cook up with this #tb{^V^}.

Who knows? Maybe I will see you at a future C3 with something? No matter when, I look forward to dive myself into treasure hunting in your creations #tb{:DD}.
What a pleasant surprise seeing one of my favourite games of all time get the editor needed to make rom hacks.

I will absolutely keep up with the developments of the editor and try out the assorted hacks that are already available to play.

Thank you for bringing this to my attention!

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