Wario Land 3 on GBC is the best of the portable Wario series. Explore a musical world with powers gained from chests. Non-linear structure, humorous tone and abundant secrets. A GBC masterpiece.
Your verdict
Category
Platformer1 player3+
Description
Wario is sucked into a music box and must find hidden objects in open stages visited multiple times. Published by Nintendo, released in Europe in September 2000. Invincible Wario, treasures to locate in semi-open stages, unlockable recurring bosses, fully interconnected world. European edition.
Wario Land 3 review
4/5
Art direction
★★★★★
"Striking"
4/5
Music
★★★★★
"Excellent"
2/5
Story
★★★★★
"Classic"
The artwork rests on transformations: touched by a flame, Wario catches fire and runs without being able to stop; bitten by a zombie, he turns greenish and sinks through floors. Each state has its own silhouette, gait and palette, which makes the character's body a visual tool as much as a gameplay one, against deliberately flat-toned settings.
Each zone gets a short theme built on a scale recognisable within a few notes, and the piece is transposed when the setting changes time of day or season. The sound chip is used sparingly, two melodic voices and a bass, which leaves the collection sound effect a clear enough place to punctuate the search of each level.
First Wario natively built for the GBC, designed by R&D1 to make full use of the extended palette and a non-linear progression structure anchored on a central hub. Widely regarded as a peak of portable 2D platforming, it remains relatively affordable thanks to a broad European print run, but copies retaining the secret-code insert and a matte sleeve unaffected by yellowing become genuinely scarce and pull pricing upwards.
Is Wario Land 3 still worth playing in 2026?
Wario Land 3 pushes the previous chapter's logic further by adding a non linear structure centered on chests unlocked over the course of time. Each level is replayed several times as new powers come online, turning the adventure into a metroidvania ahead of its time. The transformations are more varied, the writing keeps its dry humor and the art direction holds up remarkably well. A peak of Nintendo R&D1 work on Game Boy Color, well deserving of the top spot for anyone starting to dig into portable Wario.
