Wario Land II (Game Boy)

Wario Land II is the popular sequel to the popular Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3, in which Wario collects treasure while being squashed, set on fire, zombified, and all sorts of other fun stuff.

Unused Super Game Boy Functions
Nintendo planned extra Super Game Boy features and may have cut back on a few likely due to time constraints, or other reasons.

PAL_PRI
While listed as an unknown Super Game Boy packet, when bit is set to , palettes are switched back to enhanced when directed to by the game anytime the palette changes, and since palettes are disabled by the game, this is unnecessary and leftover from a probable early idea to merely have them switch back instead of disabling them as seen in Kirby's Dream Land 2, Donkey Kong '94, Donkey Kong Land, and others. Loaded after PAL_SET with all bits set to. Game Genie Code will replace ICON_EN with PAL_PRI  enabling palettes along with the intended effect.

Super Game Boy Sounds
Every single Super Game Boy enhanced sound effect is listed, and none are used anywhere. Interestingly, the Game Boy Color re-release completely removes them from the packet listing. Starting at and ending at  is the complete listing of unused Super Game Boy SOUND commands. Game Boy Game Genie codes will replace ATRC_EN by calling the desired SOUND command.

Pro Mahjong Kiwame GB as well as a few other games share a nearly identical unused SOUND command listing. Nintendo was either planning to use sounds, or they forgot to remove the leftover code from a Super Game Boy dev-kit.

Connection with Game Boy Gallery


Rather interestingly, Flagman DD is actually taken from the obscure Game & Watch remake released only in Europe, cementing the confusing Game Boy Gallery series as the first real entry. Palette changes and graphic swaps were most of the alterations. Some code was changed and removed from the original. Nintendo decided to keep the original border as an added bonus. Flagman DD removes Game A, and likely uses the Game B setting as seen by the pipes.

Connection with Game Boy Color Promotional Demo
Fonts, music, and all sound effects from Wario Land II are present in the Game Boy Color Promotional Demo. Nintendo likely built the Tech Demo using Wario Land II, probably because they wanted to save some time and quickly borrow the graphics and sound effects necessary for re-creating the cutscenes.

Regional Differences
The later Japanese version, which first added Game Boy Color support to coincide with its release, has additional differences.

The International version differs slightly from the original release (seen above) in that the image and copyright is moved slightly upwards and a border surrounds the logo. The Japanese release retains these details, but the roman numeral II was shifted down and changed to the standard numeral 2 with a different texture, and Wario's eye was also added to the O rather than it being merely filled in. Compared to the original release, the island was touched up slightly when played on a Super Game Boy, and the numeral share's the castle's purple shade. On the Game Boy Color, the International version also corrected the numeral's color to red to reflect the box art, although the palette change also affects the castle. In addition, the ™ symbol in the International release was changed to a ® symbol in the Japanese release. The "Wario Land" logo has its katakana equivalent (ワリオランド) and a "W" emblem underneath it, which is not seen in the English releases. Another change with the Game Boy Color-enhanced releases compared to the original is that save files are no longer compatible between Game Boy / Super Game Boy and Game Boy Color - the player must navigate a menu and delete all progress to play the game on the other system.

The intro scroll was shortened in the Japanese release, perhaps due to the smaller amount of text required.

In the Japanese version, the penguin enemies carry and toss full beer mugs. In other versions, they are strange orbs with handles, though the effects are still the same (which explains why Crazy Wario acts intoxicated until reaching water).