I apologize for the bad rhyme pun*
Wario Land 4 is a Game Boy Advance (GBA) game released in 2001 (August in Japan, November internationally). The game stars the antagonistic, almost “anti-hero” like Super Mario character Wario and falls under the action-platformer genre, while holding some elements of the puzzle genre. This isn’t Wario’s first rodeo in a starring role, as this is the 4th game in a, at this point, decently long running series of games, and a strong connecting thread between these games is how it turns the typically sterile, straightforward, and clean-cut platforming experience of the Mario series on its head in more ways than just it’s gameplay. Wario is nowhere near the typical altruistic hero you would see in one of these games, as he is a very selfish, nasty, and greedy fellow, usually on a quest for riches out of nothing but self benefit.
This stark difference in gameplay, atmosphere, and character carries into the stylistic elements of the game, including its sound design and soundtrack.
Wario Land 4, being a game on the GBA, is cartridge based, and most cartridge based video games used MIDI technology to play music, as opposed to streaming music. MIDI music is basically when instructions are stored in the games code to play certain samples on the cartridges sound chip at certain times, in certain ways, while streaming music is one recorded audio file being played. Cartridge based video games had to use MIDI music for most of the mediums lifespan, as audio files of full tracks take up a lot of precious storage space on the cartridge, which can detract from resources used to make other assets of the game.
The way Wario Land 4’s composer and sound designer Ryoji Yoshitomi uses the MIDI technology of the games sound chip is very inventive and interesting, and not only did these choices exist out of hardware limitations, but they give the game’s sound design and feeling a very unique flavor: One that encapsulates that feeling of Wario being very much alternative from Mario.
There are a few examples of this in the sound design of Wario Land 4. The first very potent example is in how the game handles Wario’s flavor vocal sound effects. Typically in video games, characters make noise when performing actions and taking damage. If these noises are the characters voice, the vocal track is usually recorded in full for each specific action, and sometimes more than one track is recorded for one action. A good example of this could be Mario saying “Let’s-a go!” when starting a level in “Super Mario 64.” Instances like these are treated a little bit differently in Wario Land 4, however, and takes use of the MIDI format to a point where it could be considered overused for the sake of a stylistic choice. In Wario Land 4, Wario makes noises when doing things like his signature shoulder bash attack, taking damage, and activating level elements. If this were a typical video game, Wario would make the same, predetermined, fully recorded sound for each of these specific actions, but not only are these sounds played at seemingly random (i.e. laughing when taking damage), but these aren’t even fully recorded voice clips, they’re fragmented vocal samples pitched differently and stretched out to create phrases/full sounds. For example, Wario’s laugh in this game is a sample of Wario saying “heh” which is play repeatedly and procedurally toned down to simulate laughter, and while it sounds pretty close to what would be considered “the real thing,” it creates a certain charm to the feeling of the sound effect itself, and the fact that the sound designer approached this situation in this way instead of sampling the entire recording shows that he most likely liked this feeling better for the experience. There are even some instances where the sound effect takes a sampled, almost DJ mix approach, and I personally think it’s awesome. Here are some examples of this sound design, where you can clearly hear the modulation/pitch shifting of the voice clips:
I love this because it is weird simply to add to the weirdness of the game, and the offbeat atmosphere of Wario as a character.
I got the idea for this blogpost from this video by geno7 that goes far more in depth about the sound design of Wario Land 4 and why it’s cool, including a segment where they compare certain albums to the games soundtrack, and speak about how they could have inspired the composer. It’s about 51 minutes long, and you can find it below: