Wario Land 3

Wario Land 3 for Game Boy Color is a 2000 side-scrolling platform adventure developed by Nintendo R&D1 and published by Nintendo. Known in Japan as Wario Land 3: The Mysterious Music Box, it arrived there in March 2000, followed by Europe in April and North America in May. The story begins when Wario's biplane comes down in the woods. Exploring the area, he finds a strange music box, is drawn into the world inside it, and accepts a promise of escape and treasure if he recovers the missing music boxes.

The game builds on the exploratory design of Wario Land II, but gives its Game Boy Color world a distinct structure. The music-box map leads to 25 stages across four regions, and each stage holds four locked treasure chests. Reaching a chest is only part of the task: Wario must locate the matching key and guide it to the lock, then return to the map after claiming the treasure. These finds steadily open new routes, alter familiar stages, and supply the tools required to reach areas that were previously out of bounds.

Rather than losing health from ordinary enemy hits, Wario is transformed by many of them. A blow, bite, flame, or other hazard can turn a setback into a temporary state with its own movement or puzzle use. Some changes leave him swollen, electrified, invisible, vampiric, or rolled into a ball of yarn; others can make movement more difficult until he finds a way to recover. The player learns when to avoid a threat, when to use it deliberately, and how to combine that effect with Wario's jumping, charging, ground pounding, climbing, and later upgrades.

Progression is designed around revisiting places with new abilities. Treasures can unlock permanent skills such as swimming or the ground pound, creating fresh possibilities in earlier levels instead of simply ending a stage and moving on. Time also matters. The world alternates between day and night when Wario leaves a level, and some stages change their routes, enemies, or accessible objects accordingly. A later reward gives Wario direct control over the time of day, turning the map itself into another part of the puzzle.

Coins gathered throughout the adventure have a practical role in its golf challenge. In selected stages, Wario must send an enemy toward a cup while accounting for hazards and a limited number of strokes. The minigame becomes available from the map after it is discovered, while hidden Music Coins provide an additional collectible goal within the main stages. This mixture of compact platforming rooms, treasure hunts, transformations, and map-based choices gives each return trip a purpose.

Wario Land 3 stands as the Game Boy Color entry in Nintendo's Wario Land series and follows the exploration-focused direction established by Wario Land II. Its original cartridge release was later made available through the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console, and it joined Nintendo Switch Online's Game Boy library in 2023. For players exploring the Game Boy Color catalogue, it is a single-player Wario adventure centered on discovering new paths, solving environmental problems, and turning Wario's misfortunes into progress.