"Wario Land 4 - Burning Nightmares" is a single level ROM Hack of Wario Land 4.
This hack features a very big and long new level in the style of the original Wario Land titles (2, 3 and 4).
The stage is the result of months of work and showcases some of the things, which are possible with the current Wario Land 4 Editor and some other tools. This is the authors entry into Wario Land 4 hacking and was created as a means to get their feet wet in this area.
Features:
- Players can play the stage on 3 difficulties: NORMAL, HARD and S-HARD¹
- The frog switch timer is not giving the player a grace period. When time is up, players will get thrown out the level, so they need to make haste.
- 4 Puzzle pieces, one CD, Keyzer and 10 diamonds wait for the player to be discovered on each difficulty.
- Lots of surprises and fan service like music and set pieces resembling various Wario or “Wario related” titles! Some more obscure, others pretty well known!
- Vanilla game experience is not required, but recommended!
¹ Please be aware as in the nature of the vanilla game, the stage is very difficult on S-HARD mode. It’s not recommended to play on S-Hard without having played the level at least on the lower difficulties! Expect this one to be especially rough! In case it proves to be too difficult on a single playthrough, consider breaking it into multiple runs to collect everything!
Check the included readme for setup instructions and more detailed information.
If you wish to know more about WL4 hacking, consider visiting the “Wario Land 4 Hack Vault”: https://wario-land.github.io/HackVault/info.html
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## Wario Land 4 ##
## Burning Nightmares ##
## Single Level ROM Hack ##
## Created by Hiro-sofT ##
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## INTRODUCTION ##
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Wario returns once more… again… after returning again… and AGAIN!
“Hey! You! Yeah, you! Listen up when Wario’s talking to you!”
“I just was getting some rest, after a very stressful day at my game development job!
Must have been really tired and sleepy… and now I happen to be inside some sort of nightmare or whatever!
Everything in here doesn’t seem to make any sense, but it’s actually bizarre enough, I could believe this is actually real… maybe a bit too real?”
“Bah! Doesn’t matter! I smash everything, no matter if it’s new or old or… something in between!
This is my dream, you losers, get outta here!
At least the crystals, coins and gold are equally as real as these weirdos, and you will gonna help me collecting every single penny!
I want all of it, you hear me? Everything! Why care, if it’s only a dream?
Listen, this is my Dream, alright? And I do whatever I want in it! And I love money!”
“Now stop asking questions!”
“I am sure this is going to be a lot weirder and harder as that one time I smashed ugly Golden Divas face, inside that one golden pyramid way back then!
If you think that was already too difficult, then put this hack down now!
I don’t want that folks make me look bad, by jumping into entire beds of spikes for no reason, you hear me?”
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## OVERVIEW ##
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- Play a brand new, massively huge level for Wario Land 4, created and made possible with the new Wario Land 4 Editor!
This ROM Hack showcases, what is so far possible in the world of Wario Land 4 romhacking!
This level took several months to be crafted and polished in the state it is in now!
- Flex your muscles through 3 different difficulties (Normal, Hard and S-Hard*), as you try to find all the treasures!
Activate those Wario Land senses and start exploring!
- Make use of Fire Wario, Bat Wario and Zombie Wario as you try to find a way to leave his nightmares!
- The frog switch returns! It’s much nastier this time around, as there will be no grace period, once the timer runs out!
No more time left? Time’s up! Back to square zero you go!
- 4 Puzzle pieces, one CD, a silly ghost key and 10 diamonds wait for you to be discovered!
- Lots of surprises and fan service, from music, to set pieces resembling various Wario or “Wario related” titles!
Some more obscure, others pretty well known!
- Vanilla game experience is not required, but recommended!
* Please be aware as in the nature of the vanilla game, the stage is very difficult on S-HARD mode.
It’s not recommended to play on S-Hard without having played the level at least on the lower difficulties!
Expect this one to be especially rough! In case it proves to be too difficult on a single playthrough, consider breaking it into multiple runs to collect everything!
WARNING! It’s not recommended to play this hack on older versions of Visualboy Advance, due to heavy performance issues and inaccuracies!
If you run into bigger issues, please consider using a more accurate emulator such as mGBA!
Known odd things:
- The CD and gem pieces when collected appear during the result screen in odd positions. This is due how the entry passage was never supposed to have a CD in it.
This level wasn’t meant as an entry passage level, but to make playing the level more convenient, I placed it there regardless (so you don’t need to play an entire stage and boss just to get to it).
It’s just a visual oddity and doesn’t affect the game otherwise.
- When Wario is currently inside a transformation state and enters a room with different music than the one that plays in the area he was previously in, the song will start without the distortion effects applied.
This is a vanilla game limitation and can’t be fixed without too much work. If Wario enters a transformation, after the one he has entered the room with is done, the music will again distort as usual.
- Sometimes the song in the outside section starts to be slightly distorted, when Wario was waiting on the spot and gets moved out of his idle animations.
The cause for this is actually unknown and is fixed when either a new song is loaded or Wario loses a transformation state.
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## CONTENTS ##
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• This readme
• The .bps patch
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## SETUP ##
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This guide assumes you use "Floating IPS" (aka "Flips") for the patching process, but it should be similar to other patching programs:
1. Open the patch program Floating IPS
2. Select "Apply Patch"
3. Select the patch file (.bsp) and confirm
4. Select the original/vanilla game file (.gba) and confirm
5. Save the new file in a directory of your choice
Your file has been now patched and is ready to be played!
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## CREDITS ##
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+ Leveldesgin
- Hiro-sofT
+ Graphics
- Hiro-sofT (for custom assets)
- Hudson Soft
- Nintendo
- Compile (in game credits text)
+ Music Editing
- Hiro-sofT
- Midis provided by VGMusic
+ ASM Patches
- Beco
- SSP
+ Playtesting
- Hiro-sofT
- Nick123
+ Tools used
- WL4 Editor
- YY-CHR
- Sappy
- Usenti
- Mid2agb
- GraphicsGale
- HxD
- SynthFont
- VLC
+ Tutorials
- SSP
- Blanchon Ultime
+ Song list
- Sweatmore Peak Wario Master of Disguise
- Result Screen SML3 Wario Land
- Parsley Woods SML3 Wario Land
- Uncanny Mansion (aka “Defeat four ducks/Syrups Castle”) Wario Land 2
- Ghost house Super Mario Land 2
- Vampire Wario Wario Land 3
- Stage 1 Virtual Boy Wario Land
- Warp Zone Wario Blast
- Continue Wario Blast
- [* hidden song] [* game hidden]
+ Special Thanks
- WL4Maker Discord
- AND YOU!
* For the hidden song, beat the level on super hard by getting all four treasure pieces and Keyzer, enter the credits level and enter the pipe at the end of the credits…
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## CHANGELOG (Warning, contains spoilers!) ##
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Discord Version Release
• First official release
Discord Version Hotfix
• The level uses now a faster camera, making hopefully some sections less blind when entered
• Adjusted the secret with the bat room in the first house section on HARD mode, included a rock to make it less unforgiving for messing up.
• Adjusted the bonus pipe entrances, so that you no longer have an enemy in your face in case you didn't kill them.
• Fixed a mapping error in the first bonus pipe.
• Adjusted the camera in the bat room in the first house section to show the celling.
Final Release (Ver. 1.0)
• Fixed the hacks description
• Added 2 more diamonds on NORMAL and 3 more diamonds on HARD
• Updated some background object tiles to look nicer
• Changed the position of switch blocks to prevent a softlock inside the 1st bonus pipe area
• Added a rock, in the bat secret of the 1st house area on NORMAL, to make it easier to access the secret room on the right of the room
• Added an additional light into the bat secret of the 1st house area to prevent a softlock
• Adjusted the zombie Wario secret route which leads to the secret house sewer area to prevent a softlock
• Removed the boxes in the 2nd house sewer room climb on the right of the room, to prevent a softlock
• Replaced the rock in the 2nd house sewer room with Mad Scienstein on NORMAL and HARD difficulties to prevent a softlock
• Added a light to prevent players to enter the hint room for the Warios Adventure secret room to prevent a softlock
• Adjusted the switch hallway after the bat section of the vampire Wario song house section to prevent softlocks on HARD and S-HARD difficulties
• Added a warning sign at the famous very long ladder drop to warn players in advance from the upcoming spike pit
• Updated credits
Database match: Wario Land 4 (USA, Europe)
Database: No-Intro: Game Boy Advance (v. 20210227-023848)
File/ROM SHA-1: B9FE05A8080E124B67BCE6A623234EE3B518A2C1
File/ROM CRC32: D6141609
