Wario Land 3

Wario Land 3 is another installment in the Wario Land series, this time solely for the Game Boy Color. Wario finds a mysterious magic music box in a mysterious cave, found in a mysterious forest after his plane mysteriously catches fire and mysteriously crashes (mysteriously).

Sub-Pages#

Bugs

Debug Leftovers#

Graphics for a debug menu can be found in the ROM, though the menu itself appears to have since been removed.

Waruo appears to be a misspelling of Wario. Assuming that the developers wrote the text in the graphics in by a keyboard, this could be attributed to the fact that the QWERTY layout has the letters U and I right next to each-other, and Japanese text on computers is written through hepburn (using latin characters).

To do: Find out if the debug mode is still accessible.

Unused Graphics#

To do: There are a lot more. Maybe consider moving this to a sub-page?

Rudy's shoes have a skull at the tip, reflecting his design in concept art. However, they can't be seen in-game because they are hidden beneath the floor. To see them, use the following GameShark codes:

• 01xx83C0 - Shifts Rudy vertically (barring sprites); using a value of 80 or greater will make his shoes completely visible.
• 01xx8DC0 - Shifts the floor vertically; using a value of 90 or greater will make the floor disappear.

Final Boss Room Placeholder#

The final boss room has an unused tileset and tilemap as a placeholder, which can be seen through the level editor. It may have been initially intended for "A Hidden Figure"'s transformation, but whatever it's supposed to be, it's probably for the best that it went unused...

In Desert Ruins, one of the Block types has this face drawn on it, probably supposed to foreshadow the transformation.

Japanese Text#

While inside some levels, this shows up in the tile viewer when setting VRAM Bank 1 and Char Base 0x8800. It translates to "Under Construction".

The Volcano's Base#

These ladder tiles would have been used in the outside sections of the level. Like the used ladder tiles, they use two metatiles in the tileset, except that... both metatiles are set as solid.

Sun and Moon#

The Sun enemy has a frame for it grinning as an idle animation. This goes unused since the final game uses his 'spitting' animation as his default expression.

Similarly, the Moon enemy also has an unused frame stored nearby, this time minus the puffed up cheeks.

Wario#

An unused frame of Wario, similar to frames used when he messes up in the golf game, hangs from an owl or gets frozen.

Another unused Wario frame. It's similar to the frame when he starts rolling, but it could have been used for the animation when he messes up in golf.

Spark#

The Spark enemies have graphics for being defeated, or possibly stunned. In the final game, they are invincible.

There also exists sprites for Spark looking left and right.

Denki#

The Denki, the electrical sparks that fall from hanging lamps, have unused graphics depicting them with eyes. Presumably intended for being defeated.

Water Urchin#

The underwater urchin enemies have a defeated frame in this game, but cannot ever be killed in normal gameplay.

Kushimushi#

The Kushimushi have frames for an unused animation with them flapping their wings, possibly intended to be "flying," or potentially an unused "stunned" pose. In the final, they never appear stunned, and just fall off the screen when defeated.

Tadpole#

A Tadpole with an angrier look (possibly for when preparing to jump) and turning. In the final, they jump immediately, and cannot turn on-screen.

Disintegrated Zombie Head#

The zombie enemies have animations for their heads disintegrating. Presumably, these were going to be used when their heads were destroyed (it just flies off in the final game).

Vampire Wario#

Vampire Wario has an unused frame showing him being exposed to light or garlic. Most likely meant to be used for Wario reverting to his normal state, which (rather jarringly) happens instantaneously in the final game.

Unused Map Tiles#

This page or section needs more images. There's a whole lotta words here, but not enough pictures. Please fix this.

The overworld map has unused tiles for earlier revisions of the world design. These include a version of the Desert Ruins without the actual ruins (implying it used to simply be a standard desert level at one point) and a messed up version of the Forest of Fear graphics (showing the creators originally had some very different graphics in mind for it on the map).

Unused Enemy#

This flower uses object slot 4 in The Tidal Coast, but it isn't used. It attacks Wario by throwing its head towards him, then it plants itself back into the ground. Nothing to be afraid of.

Unused Rooms#

All of these rooms are neither defined as a region, nor connected to anything. Due to the former, they show up as completely black on the level editor.

The Volcano's Base#

Sector 1B

A placeholder room. It's after the room with the pipe leading to the boss.

The Grasslands#

Sector A

This room containing only a treasure chest (and Wario's starting position) is present in The Grasslands. The level already has the four other rooms with treasure chests.

Above the Clouds#

Sector 1B

Another placeholder room. It's before the red chest room.

The Frigid Sea#

Sector A

A simple chest room, again. Containing the same two objects of the other room. It's even in the same sector.

Oddities#

The Vast Plain#

After getting the beanstalk seeds, some rooms change a bit. The catch is that the beanstalk seeds are needed to get in these rooms, so the earlier variations are never shown.

Before (Day)	After (Day)

Before (Night)	After (Night)

Both the earlier day and night variations are missing details in the background, along with the Music Coin.

The night variation is also missing the stars in the background.

Before	After

A somewhat nitpicky change, but three single background tiles are different on the right above the wooden background tiles.

The Tidal Coast#

Day	Night

There is a room that cannot be accessed during the day. A tile towards the upper-left and an enemy in the middle being moved to the right is all that is different.

Normally Unseen Wario Reaction Interactions#

There are a few interactions with a few of Wario's reactions that cannot be seen through the course of normal gameplay.

To do: Check for more of these, and add videos of the interactions in action.

Ball 'o String Wario#

Water and spikes will cure Ball 'o String Wario with the latter damaging him like normal. No water or spikes exist where Silkies exist, so this cannot be seen in normal gameplay.

Snowman Wario#

This reaction oddly has the same properties as Fat Wario. The reaction can be cancelled by falling into water, and can also break blocks from the top, like Fat Wario. While blocks are encountered in the red chest section of The Frigid Sea, no water is encountered with the snowdrifts, effectively making former interaction unseen. Both of these interactions are also in Wario Land 4, but only the water interaction is seen in normal gameplay.

Bouncy Wario#

This reaction can be cancelled via the Doughnuteers doughnut, which turns Wario into Fat Wario, via falling snow, which turns Wario into Snowman Wario, and via water drops, which just turn him back to normal. No Doughnuteers, falling snow, or water drops are placed with Hammer-Bots.

Revisional Differences#

Virtual Console Changes#

Some cutscenes have different color palettes in the 3DS version. In the cutscene when The Steep Canyon becomes accessible, the flashes that occur during lightning strikes were changed to a dark gray (as opposed to white in the GBC version).

To do: Since some cutscenes share palettes, there are more cutscenes that were changed. Find all the cutscenes with palette changes, and find any other changes that may exist.