The key to getting very far in the game is replaying the stages over and over again; as that’s the only way you’ll earn enough coins to unlock the next map. Other goodies (like health potions and heart pieces) are available in the “pirate shop” as well, but your main concern will be learning all the hidden nooks and crannies in order to pay off those maps. It’s slightly lame that you have to buy access to later stages (especially for impatient types), but this encourages exploration and experimentation – the bread and butter of a decent mascot platformer.

The game is a true feast for the eyes – it’s one of the most beautiful, best-animated 2D games you’ll ever see. Wario animates with all the fluidity of a hand-drawn Disney Cartoon, circa the 1950s. It may sound like a cliché, but it’s really true – the game looks and feels like a cartoon come to life. It’s the perfect aesthetic for a Wario game (goofy, cartoony, and hyper-real), and a fantastic choice for a title on Nintendo’s underpowered console. I only wish more Wii games looked this fantastic.

As a Nintendo platformer, there’s a certain level of expectation built in, and as such, Shake It delivers, but it doesn’t really do anything new or revolutionary with the genre. It’s really more of a pastiche of other Nintendo games – it has the revolutionary controls of a WarioWare, the basic premise of previous Wario Land’s (especially Wario Land 4), an aesthetic that recalls the aforementioned Wind Waker, and the shake-shake element of the ultra-underrated N64 platformer Mischief Makers.

Actually, the game that kept popping up in my mind while playing Shake It was Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat, a GameCube platformer that had players control the famous ape with a pair of bongos. Think about it – both are mid-generation Nintendo mascot platformers with totally wacky (and equally well-implemented) control schemes and a familiar level-level-boss gameplay structure. Needless to say, Nintendo fans have been down this particular block a few times.

Comparisons aside, Shake It stands out in its own right. Shaking, twisting and tilting your way through the funky levels is a blast. Especially awesome are the vehicle sequences – including a few auto-scrolling underwater levels that are so old-school and so unabashedly twitchy that you’d swear it was the 1980s all over again (but so much prettier!). The game isn’t trying to innovate or push the genre forward – it’s presenting a polished, super-fun take on the established gameplay norms, topped off with the wackiest control scheme this side of a Power Glove – what’s not to like?

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