Wario Land: Shake It more than lives up to its name, if not its pedigree - Nintendo’s latest mascot platformer will leave you shaken, stirred, and hungry for more. Expertly designed, and packed with secrets and collectibles, the game will satisfy anyone looking for a good sidescroller, though it’s certainly not in the same league as the company’s stellar (interstellar?) Super Mario Galaxy. And really, that’s okay – there’s certainly room for both.

The game sets out with a gorgeous anime/Saturday morning cartoon aesthetic that is as beautiful as it is fully realized. Shades of the GameCube epic Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker show up in the cel-shaded graphics, pirate themed map screens and the pseudo-Celtic music of the title screen. I had to look twice to make sure this was a Wario game - you know, with Nintendo’s rudest, crudest mascot. Sure enough, a lovely visual of Wario picking his nose assured me that yes, Virginia, we were indeed in Wario Land.

Soon after the anime-style cut scene introducing the land of Yuretopia and Wario’s quest to get tons of treasure and reluctantly save the Merfles (little fairy-like creatures) from the evil Shake king (you can’t make this stuff up), you are thrown in to a training level and invited to try out the controls – the main element that sets the game apart from the pack. You hold the Wii-mote sideways (like an NES controller) and use only the 1 and 2 buttons for throwing and jumping. The D-pad is used to control basic non-vehicle motion, and most everything else, from aiming to vehicle control to Wario’s explosive slam attack – is a matter of shaking, twisting, and tilting that Wii-mote.

The game proper is organized into five worlds with several stages and a culminating boss fight. In each level, you run, jump, hop, bop and shake your way across the terrain (filled with obstacles, enemies and simple puzzles) until you rescue a locked up Merfle. Once the little dude is rescued, you must race Wario back through the level as the clock ticks down. It’s fun and frantic, and nicely complements the more exploration-friendly first half of every play through.

There are plenty of secrets and extras involved that unlock tantalizing goodies. Each stage has several mission objectives and hidden treasures, and some have secret maps that unlock hidden stages along the way. Missions carry a stiff challenge, even for the most hardened platform veteran. They range anywhere from “collect 55,000 coins” to “complete the level without touching the water” and treasures are often cleverly hidden, keeping the replay value high for completionists.