Konami Wai Wai World (NES) Playthrough, Translated - NintendoComplete
716A playthrough of Konami's 1988 action-adventure game for the Nintendo Famicom, Konami Wai Wai World.
This game was released only in Japan, so in this video I am playing a copy that has been fan-translated into English. If you're interested in trying it out for yourself, you can find the translation patch at https://www.romhacking.net/translations/1995/
When Wai Wai World was released in early 1988, it was a strange breed of game. It's a mascot platformer, but it's not like the sort that we were accustomed to seeing on the NES. Instead of focusing on a particular character or franchise, Wai Wai World pulls together characters and settings from *nine* different Konami franchises.
How insane is that? How many companies had even made nine NES games by January of 1988, let alone had so many that were popular enough to warrant fan service? ...and how many companies, even if they had a large enough back catalog, would have the hubris to make such a game? Or to put their company name in three different places on the title screen?
Wai Wai World begins by giving us control of Konami Man and Konami Lady, two corporate-themed superheros that look a lot like Superman, and the goal is to save all of the captured Konami characters in a non-linear, combat-heavy action-platformer. You visit eight different areas, each based on a classic Konami game, searching for keys, weapon upgrades, and the captured mascots themselves. The mascots become available to you to play as once you've saved them, and they each have their own unique abilities that you'll need use to get past obstacles.
So which of their heroes did Konami go with? Here's a quick rundown. (Several of these games were released in Japan only, so you might not recognize them all!)
-Dr. Cinnamon (TwinBee/Stinger) and Pentarou (Parodius) are on hand to help at home base
-There's a shoot 'em up stage in which you play as either TwinBee or the Vic Viper (Gradius)
-Simon Belmont (Castlevania) is playable. His stage is Dracula's Castle.
-Mikey from The Goonies. His stage is...a damp cave? I guess it's probably the caves under the Fratelli hideout.
-Moai Alexandria from Moai-kun (and Gradius). His stage is a temple at Easter Island.
-Fuuma from Getsufuumaden. His stage is a Hellscape.
-Kong from King Kong 2: The Megaton Punch of Fury. His stage is a city.
-Goemon from the Mystical Ninja games. His stage is 19th century Edo.
The final stage is also based on the alien lair in Contra, and it has a miniboss that we also saw in Life Force.
Phew. That's quite a list.
So the game is open-ended, and most of your time will be spent scouring the huge maps for captured characters and weapon upgrades. The focus on exploration makes Wai Wai World feel a great deal like Castlevania II: Simon's Quest. The controls, the level layouts, and the difficult combat all also feel eerily familiar, but W³ and CV2 came out around the same time, so it seems natural that they would share a lot of the same staff and assets.
If you're a fan of Simon's Quest, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this game to you right away. If you don't like the way Simon's Quest plays, you'll probably get tired of this one pretty quickly. The game is pretty fun and the mash-up it presents is an appealing idea, but it's a difficult, frustrating game, and it features the same stiff controls as Castlevania I and II did. If you aren't willing to dedicate some real time to this one, you probably won't finish it.
But if you can get into it, Wai Wai World makes for a very memorable game. Otherwise, the greatly improved sequel might be more your speed.
You can find that one right here: https://youtu.be/HzZScVFUeI4
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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