Wai Wai World 2: SOS!! Parsley Castle (NES) Playthrough, Translated - NintendoComplete
263A playthrough of Konami's 1991 action game for the Nintendo Famicom, Wai Wai World 2: SOS!! Parsley Jou.
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/4099/
The game also has multiple stage paths, and you can't play every stage in single playthrough. I wanted to show them all, so right after the ending (at 56:26), you can find recordings of each of the stages that I didn't get to before.
Four years after putting out their first all-star crossover, Wai Wai World (https://youtu.be/Kh9emKxm6IU ), Konami gave the concept another go. The company's skill with the NES hardware had improved considerably in the time since the first game was made, their software library had grown far larger, and the tech that powered NES games had seen several advances.
By 1991, Konami had conquered the hardware, and they were regularly creating games that pushed the 8-bit console to its limits. What better way to celebrate their achievements, then, than to release a game that highlighted the best that the company had to offer?
Like in the first game, several popular Konami characters are brought together to fight against some contrived injustice. Konami Man and Lady are now relegated to Metal Gear-style codec briefings between stages, having been replaced as the protagonists by Rikuru, a Mega Man-style robot created by Dr. Cinnamon from TwinBee. The bad guy, Warumon, has kidnapped the princess and has recreated enemies of Konami past in order to prevent Ricky-boy from meddling in his plans.
Apparently Warumon didn't count on Rickle being able to take the form of various Konami heroes.
Wai Wai World 2 isn't a Metroidvania like the original. The stages here are far more linear, action-oriented affairs, and instead of reusing Castlevania's OG control system, the sequel feels much more like Kid Dracula or Monster in My Pocket. The controls are precise while also being comfortably loose and forgiving, and the game comes across as far less "primitive" as a result. Even now, it still feels really good to play.
It's a much easier game than the first (thank God!), and the graphics and sound are so dramatically improved that the games don't even look like they run on the same system. The characters are all colorfully rendered in the big head SD-style, and the several remixes of fan-favorite Konami themes sound amazing. Those mixes of the Contra Jungle and Simon's Quest's Bloody Tears themes always get me uber hyped.
The game's gameplay goes for much more variety than the first game, as well, now featuring both horizontal and vertical shoot 'em up stages, racing stages, and... (because nothing is perfect) an entire stage devoted to pseudo-slider puzzles.
WTF Konami? A stage of slider puzzles!? (┛ಠ_ಠ)┛彡┻━┻
That one black mark aside, pretty much everything else here is excellent. Here's the star line-up for this outing:
-Bill Rizer from Contra
-Vic Viper and Metalion from Gradius
-Simon Belmont from Castlevania
-TwinBee, WinBee, and Dr. Cinnamon from TwinBee
-Goemon from the Mystical Ninja series
-Upa from Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa
-Fuuma from Getsufuumaden
There's some crazy stuff going on here, like a Castlevania-themed take on Frogger as you approach Dracula's Castle, and there's even a level based on Falsion, the 3D shooter that Konami made for the Famicom's 3D display goggles! Talk about exotic.
Each of the characters have their own abilities to help in different situations (psst... the best choice is always Bill!), and the stages' cheeky tributes to classic franchises are sure to make you smile.
The real achievement here is that Konami succeeded brilliantly at what they set out to do: they created an anything-but-humble monument to their own greatness, and it's brilliant. It's one of the best non-Mario platformers on the NES, it's one of Konami's best games on the NES, and it's a technical marvel for the hardware.
Bravo, Konami. Among NES games, if Wai Wai World 2 hasn't earned a Cool Runnings-style slow clap, then the world is no longer a place I recognize.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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