Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Tingle: The Wario of the Zelda Franchise?




While Tingle surely is not as "badass" as Wario is, I noticed, that both characters took very similar ways in the history of their games. Wario basically was a disgusting, creepy and greedy version of Mario, while Tingle is a disgusting, creepy and greedy version of Link. Notice the similar clothing to their counterparts. And both of them got their own spin off series by now.

With Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land Wario got his own game. It's very similar to the previous Mario games, he got different hats, he shrinks when he gets hit by an enemy and dies if he gets hit afterwards. The main difference is, that Wario was more heavy and that the game focused more on finding hidden treasures. But overall it was a solid entry in the Mario series, it's even one of my favorite Jump'n'Runs. The graphics, music and sounds are very well made for a GameBoy game, it had a great atmosphere to it. However, with Wario Land II he followed his own course. He couldn't die anymore, but enemies could change his body state like flatten him or put him on fire, which was an unique but sometimes also annoying feature. Also, the game focused even more on hidden treasures and had different courses and endings. I personally didn't like it too much and luckily later the series would return to the format of the classic Wario Land. In addition Wario was the host of several minigame compilations, the Microgame$ or WarioWare.

Now with Tingle, his first own game called Freshly Picked: Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland was as close as possible for Tingle to a Zelda game. You have the exploring of an overworld, dungeons, typical sidequests, but Tingle used his bare hands and a series of bodyguards to fight instead of a sword and bargaining played an important role in the game. But overall it followed the Action Adventure formula of the Zelda series, which made it very accessible for Zelda fans. Now the sequel to that game, Color Changing: Tingle's Balloon Trip of Love then went more into an own direction. It didn't follow the Action Adventure formula and became more of a Point and Click Adventure game. Tingle also can't die in this game. Additionally Tingle was the star of a series of minigames, including the current installment of the Balloon Fight series and a collection of DSiWare applications, the Tingle Pack.

See the similarities?

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