Wario Land 4

Wario decides to hit up the local ancient pyramid for some treasure. Little does he know, the pyramid is anything but ordinary.

Unused Graphics


An early title screen. This would have fit with the Japanese title, Wario Land Advance.

Door Frames


Each boss door not only has an unused opening animation, but an unused alternate palette to go with it. In-game, the doors all slide up instead of opening, only making use of the first frame.

Animations


Wario pulling out a key and opening a chest, much like the animation from Wario Land 3. In-game, Wario merely touches chests to open them and none are actually locked. The key is never seen anywhere else.

Golden Diva 13th Mask


This mask, featuring the Diva's first head with a large number 13 on it. Indeed, it is the 13th of the Diva's masks in the data (excluding the stunned face). It's probably just a placeholder.

Lost Room
A small cave room was removed from the end of Palm Tree Paradise, which would have been accessed by bashing the wall behind the Frog Switch. The exit is fully functional, but the wall is completely solid and the background piece that would have gone in the revealed entrance was moved up out of the way. However, the exit still works in both directions.

The room itself has sprite layouts for each difficulty, with the number of enemies increasing to 5 on Super Hard and the diamond being removed. There is also an effect that darkens the background layers the closer Wario is to the entrance, which makes sense but isn't very intuitive. A similar effect is also used in the debug level.

Debug Level
The debug level can be accessed with GameShark code and choosing the Entry Passage. Interestingly, Metroid Fusion uses Wario Land 4 blocks and crystals in its debug rooms, which is a not-so-subtle hint that it was built on the same engine.

The stage itself is made of black blocks on a black background, making it difficult to see without changing the bg color. The regular blocks from this tileset is actually used in multiple levels to make the solid borders of the map and the dotted block being used for exits. The music used is the same as the last level you visited.

The first room has various types of terrain for basic engine testing, with platforms, ladders, slopes, climbable walls, water, spikes, and blocks. The first unusual feature in the room is a pair of pipes and yellow gems. The gems are switch-activated red gems with the wrong tiles, and the pipes lead to each other. Past this, the block of grey X tiles lead straight to the level select screen, a feature only used in boss levels. The yellow gems are the basic 10-coin blue gems with a different palette. The two blocks with a yellow tile in the corner were used to test blocks giving out coins. The third door in the room passes in front of Wario instead of behind him. The dotted blocks warp to each other.

The room through the first door is a layer-3 water testing room. The water actually fades to different levels of opacity based on Wario's height, being invisible until you actually fall into it the first time. This feature is unused in any of the final levels. The water opacities shown in the map indicate the depth at which the change is triggered. The water opacity remains at the same level until Wario reaches the previous trigger height, meaning the water will always stay visible. The arrow tiles indicate current, with yellow arrows indicating the strong current used in the game, and blue arrows indicating a weak current that merely pushes Wario at the same speed at which he can swim, another unused feature. The two doors in the water lead to each other. Yes, there is a monkey walking around at the bottom.

The third room features the limited vertical camera scrolling as seen in several levels, along with a lot of spikes. The purple spikes are solid to Wario even when he is flashing from damage, but enemies can pass through it. This is another unused feature. The non-animated yellow gems are actually blocks that become ramps when the switch is hit. The graphics stay the same, but the physics of it change.

The final room has nothing more than a bunch of platforms, gems, and some blocks. The door at the top leads to the door at the bottom.

Unused Music
The final level, Golden Passage, starts you off immediately pressing the Frog Switch, therefore having the whole level use the runaway theme. However, if you hack the game to prevent Wario from pressing the switch, there is an actual Golden Passage theme! (You can also pause just before landing on the switch, but the volume will be lowered.) Alternately, enter the level, pause and exit the level just before you land on the switch, and enter the debug room.

Since this theme is exclusive to Golden Passage, it is likely that at some point the switch was not below the entrance.

Credits Song
The first song in the credits medley was changed between the Japanese and International releases. Aside from the lyrics being changed from Japanese to English, the instruments and feel of the song were also changed, but the main melody was kept the same. As a result of the change, the international version is half a second shorter. Meanwhile, all versions keep the title song in English and the Palm Tree Paradise song in Japanese.

The Japanese credits song is still in the International release, but it is unused.

Debug Mode
Wario Land 4 has a simple debug mode built into the game. Setting 0x03000C3C to in the RAM will enable these modes. However, depending on where you are (the passage select screen, a level, etc.) will yield different results.

Setting the value to while in any level will allow you to do the following:
 * The D-Pad moves Wario freely around the map.
 * Press Select to resume playing the level normally.
 * Press Start to cycle between two camera modes: normal level scrolling, and scrolling to see an entire map, including what is cut off. Pressing Select to resume play will reset the camera to normal level scrolling.
 * Hold R while moving to move faster in free movement mode.
 * While in debug mode, timers activated by Frog Switches will not begin counting until free movement mode is disabled, and will pause when free movement is once again enabled.
 * L and Up while in free movement mode will auto-complete the level with a Keyzer to unlock the next door, all four gem portions, and the level's respective Sound Room record. Using this on a boss level will defeat the boss, but will end like a normal level: you leave with a Keyzer, three gem portions, no record, and the Keyzer unlocks the next door (Surprise! There's another door behind that door!). As well, the painting on the wall has a huge "X" on it.

After Wario strikes his surprised pose, it will send you to a location on that level select area that will go to a level that is not in that passage's set of levels. Selecting this level then brings you to a black screen, where Wario jumps into seemingly nothing, but the level that is displayed works as it should. If you use this on a level you've previously cleared, the Keyzer will come with you and re-unlock the door, acting as if you've just beaten the level for the first time.