wl3-randomizer

Wario Land 3 Randomizer

This is a randomizer for Wario Land 3! It shuffles the contents of all 100 treasure chests, allowing for a new playthrough every time. If you want, you can also randomize the world map, key locations, game music, and other things! No matter what, everything will be shuffled in a way that allows you to complete the game.

Downloads

Download the randomizer at: https://github.com/AaronDobbe/wl3-randomizer/releases

How to use

1. Extract the .zip archive and run the .exe or .jar file inside.
2. Click the "Open Vanilla ROM..." button and select a clean copy of Wario Land 3.
3. Set your desired options, clicking the tabs to browse through the various categories. (See "Game options" below for a description of what these do, or hover over an option for a tooltip.)
4. Click the "Generate Randomized Game" button.
5. A .gbc file will be created in the same directory as wl3-randomizer.jar. Open this file in a GBC emulator to play. (bgb is highly recommended!)

I'm stuck!

Some treasures can be acquired in unintuitive ways. Check out the "Gotchas" doc for a list of places where players often get stuck. However, if you really think you've found an impossible seed, be sure to report it!

Racing

If you plan to race the game with one or more opponents, to keep things fair, you should use the "Seed" function to ensure all players have the same randomized game. To do this:

1. One player should generate a randomized game as above, with agreed-upon game options.
2. In the log below the "Generate Randomized Game" button, an 11-character seed will appear. This player should copy the seed and provide it to all other players.
3. All other players should enter this seed in the "Seed" text field, set their game options to the agreed-upon settings, then generate their own randomized games using the above steps. The generated ROM will be identical to everyone else's, allowing for a fair race.

Differences from original game

In addition to shuffling treasures, the randomizer makes a few changes to the game rules to allow treasures to be collected in any order:

• In the original game, collecting a powerup item would grant Wario the abilities of all powerups that came before it in the intended sequence, and remove the abilities of all powerups that came after it. This has been fixed so that collecting a powerup ONLY grants you the ability of that powerup.
• In the original game, collecting certain level-transforming items would cause other level transformations to take effect even though Wario doesn't have the items that are intended to cause them. This has been fixed so that collecting any stage-transforming item will ONLY cause the appropriate transformation.
• In the original game, Wario only needed the fifth and final music box to enter the final battle. This has been fixed so that Wario requires all 5 music boxes to enter the final battle.

Game options

• Main
  • Seed: Allows you to generate a randomized game identical to another player's. See "Racing" above.
• Items
  • No junk items: If checked, all useless items will be removed from the game, including the chests that would have contained them. Be sure to pause the game inside a level, or use the magnifying glass item if you have it, to check which boxes have treasure! Recommended for competitive play, but speeds up casual playthroughs as well.
  • QoL items starter kit: If checked, lets you start with the magnifying glass and time button items. Highly recommended turning this on if you check any other boxes on this tab.
  • Powerful start: Grants Wario a set of three randomly decided powerups to start.
  • "Open Mode" starter kit: Grants Wario a set of items to help navigate most of the world map from the start.
• Logic
  • Item placement difficulty: Adjusts the difficulty of the game.
  • Easy: Ensures you can find helpful items before difficult situations, and avoids hiding things in obscure locations.
  • Normal: The standard experience for players who know the original game well.
  • Hard: A hardcore difficulty that requires speedrun-level tricks and very difficult/odd maneuvers, but no glitches.
  • Hard + Minor Glitches: A super-hardcore difficulty that also requires wallclips, but no out-of-bounds or screenwrapping.
  • Merciless: An extremely hardcore difficulty that also requires screen wraps, wrong warps, and double boosts.
  • Map shuffle: Shuffles the location of every level on the world map. Recommended for experienced players.
  • Key shuffle: Shuffles the locations of all keys and music coins in each level. This can make some treasures much harder (or much easier) to get! Recommended for experienced players looking for a game with more exploration.
  • Restrict music boxes: If checked, music boxes will only appear in treasure chests guarded by a boss. Recommended for competitive play.
  • Force axe start: If checked, the axe will appear in the gray chest of the first level. Recommended for beginners, as it guarantees access to The Temple for the whole game. (No effect if Open Mode is selected.)
• Other
  • Shuffle golf: If checked, the order in which golf courses unlock will be shuffled, meaning that harder courses may appear earlier in the game and easier courses may be locked until later. This includes courses that only appear in the GAME tower in regular gameplay! Recommended for nobody.
  • Temple hints: Affects the behavior of hints from The Temple.
    • Unhelpful: Reveals the locations of items in the same order as the vanilla game, regardless of whether you can get them or not.
    • Next item: Reveals the location of an item you can get to with your current inventory. Helpful if you get stuck! Recommended for beginners.
    • Next quest item (Strategic): Hints at the location of the axe, the five music boxes (in the order you're expected to find them), and then the powerups needed to defeat Rudy. Recommended for experienced players as a longer alternative to "Restrict music boxes".
• Personal
  • Random BG palettes: If checked, the color palettes of all 25 levels will be randomized.
  • Random object palettes: If checked, the color palettes of all enemies and other in-level objects will be randomized.
  • Random chest palettes: If checked, the colors of the four chest/key pairs will be randomized. (This is only cosmetic - the keys and chests will functionally remain as they normally are.)
  • Skip cutscenes: If checked, all cutscenes that would play after collecting a treasure are removed from the game. In addition, you can skip the opening cutscene and the pre-final-battle cutscene with the B button. (Tutorials cannot be skipped just yet.) If you already know what all the treasures do, this can remove a lot of downtime from the gameplay.
  • Reveal secret paths: Reveals all hidden passageways to the player. Highly recommended for your first few runs, even if you're familiar with the game. Many of these are rather unknown, and had applications only in Time Attack until now.
  • Music shuffle: Affects the game music.
    • Off: Music will not be affected.
    • On: The soundtrack will be shuffled, so that every track appears exactly as many times as it appeared in the original game.
    • Chaos: Each instance of (looping) music in the whole game will be replaced by a randomly-selected (looping) music track, with no guarantees of balance. This can either be really annoying or really incredible.

Known issues

• The tutorial after collecting a powerup will often show powerups Wario doesn't have along the bottom of the screen, and also fail to show powerups that Wario does have. This is purely cosmetic.
• Sometimes, saving and reloading mid-level will cause enemies to change color. This is also purely cosmetic.
• Playing key shuffle causes some objects to use Wario's palette (primarily coins), meaning anything that affects Wario's palette affects those objects too. This is due to GBC limitations and shouldn't have any affect on gameplay.

Many emulators run WL3 somewhat poorly, causing odd graphical/sound errors or randomly causing Wario to be unable to climb ladders through screen transitions. Using bgb is recommended if you're experiencing these issues.

Tips

While the randomizer will never require you to use any glitches or difficult tricks (unless you're playing on Hard or above), there are a few unusual mechanics you will need to know.

• If you collect an item that connects two quadrants of the world map, you can warp between them by pressing SELECT and selecting the NEXT MAP buttons. This may be required to get to levels you otherwise couldn't reach.
• Just because a level's "dot" isn't available on the world map doesn't mean you can't enter that level. For example, collecting the torch early allows you to walk to E4 The Colossal Hole and enter the level even though the hole itself hasn't appeared on the map.
• Small barrels can be nudged around by slowly walking into them while crouching, allowing you to reposition them and use them as platforms even if you don't have any gloves.
• The boots won't affect your jump height if you're afflicted with a status effect, including rolling. Conversely, this means that you don't need the boots to jump high if you're rolling, flattened, etc...
• If you're new to the game or even just new to the randomizer, try setting hints to "Next item" and checking "Force axe start" for your first few games. That way, if you get stuck, you can visit the Temple for direction on where to go. Generating a seed also generates a spoiler log you can consult for help!
• The "Gotchas" doc has a list of places that players commonly get stuck - if you're having trouble proceeding, consider giving it a read!
• For help playing advanced difficulty settings, check out the Difficulty Breakdown doc for a list of what's possible in each difficulty setting.

Discord

The Wario Land 3 Randomizer has its own channel on the Wario Series Speedruns Discord! Join the discussion, find opponents to race, or just vent about being forced to visit Above the Clouds without any powerups.