The second Wario Land homage of recent years tries to outdo Pizza Tower in terms of overly angry protagonists that destroy everything in their path. It’s 17 years since Nintendo released a new Wario Land game and even longer since the series’ heyday on the Game Boy. Every indication is that the franchise is on a permanent hiatus, but what might bring it back is the sudden rash of indie imitators. Well, we say rash. The first one was 2023’s Pizza Tower and this is the second, but that’s still two more than we would’ve ever expected.
![[Antonblast screenshot]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SEI_235405391-7636.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
We’re not sure where this sudden interest, in this seemingly forgotten franchise, has come from but it’s perfectly welcome; not necessarily for the sake of nostalgia but simply because Pizza Tower was a great game and you can never have enough of those.
If you’re not familiar with the Wario Land series, the first one was actually Super Mario Land 3. It deviated from regular Mario platformers by focusing on defeating enemies, and destroying obstacles, by barging through them at high speed. Antonblast takes most of its cues from Wario Land 4 on the Game Boy Advance, but you absolutely don’t need to have played that game to appreciate it.
‘Dynamite’ Anton looks more like Yosemite Sam than Wario and has a similar temperament, although you can also play as his roommate Annie if you prefer. The story is some nonsense about trying to defeat Satan, who is upset that Anton is redder than him, but naturally none of that matters in the slightest.
