Wagyan Land

Wagyan Land^[a] (often romanized as Wagan Land) is a 1989 platforming video game developed by Now Production and published by Namco. It was first released on the Family Computer on February 9, but was later ported to the Game Gear on July 26, 1991.^[1][2]

The game's protagonist is a robot-like creature named Wagyan, who has the abily to shoot syllables in order to stun enemies, so that Wagyan can stand on them.

Gameplay

The game takes control of a robot-like creature named Wagyan. Wagyan can shoot the syllables Wa, Ga, and Gya. If the enemies collide with this syllable, they will get stunned, so that Wagyan can stand on them.

After a stage is beaten, they will often play a shiritori minigame, in which Wagyan need to know a Japanese word that starts with a certain letter.

Another minigame is a puzzle, in which Wagyan needs to flip a card first, then flip the same, duplicated card.

The final boss is a compilation of the game's minigames. After the game was beaten, the different colored Wagyans are saved.

The game lacks an energy bar, so the player can die if they touch an unstunned enemy. The game also has a power meter, in which the syllables could get different; if the power meter is full, the player will become invincible and run at a hyper speed.

Reception

The game has received mostly positive reviews. CVG gave the game a score of 92/100, whereas Famitsu gave the game a 27/40, Mean Machines Sega gave a score of 85%, and Sega Zone decided to give the game a 89/100.

Legacy

Due to the game's success in Japan, sequels were made. On December 14, 1990, Wagyan Land 2 was released, and newer entries in the series are released ever since.^[3] In addition, the game received a soundtrack in Japan, named Wagyan Land Original Soundtrack^[b], released on November 12, 2016, with limited editions including a Wagyan plushie.

References