Neither one is particularly puzzle heavy. A lot of the hidden treasure in Wario Land does require a degree strategy and plotting to acquire, but I found actually performing what you've been planning is usually the challenge, not figuring it out. De Blob has bits that require thinking as well, but it's a lot less rigid in what will work.

I’d say Wario Land has more replay value, but that’s if you actually want to replay every level several times to find every hidden treasure, and finish every achievement-like unispiring goal such as beat the level without killing any enemies, or don’t fall in the water. I liked finding the treasure, but I got sick of the missions at 48% and just sent it back to GameFly. De Blobs secondary goals are consistent and more natural, and generally revolve on how much of any level did you finish completely. Each of the ten levels in De Blob also has two secondary linear missions, most of which are pretty cool.

Wario Land is definitely harder than the De Blob, but honestly I found it to be one of the turns off. It’s probably because I’m just getting less and less patient for those kinds of games, but It’s annoying to feel constantly punished for not being able to predict the future. If you want that kind of punishing hard as nails game, then Wario Land would be a better pick. De Blob has challenging moments, but in general most of the game is fairly forgiving, and you’re encouraged to just make a mess as much as you are to fight a revolution, so personally I had a lot more fun with it.

Wario land is my recomendation

Wario Land... then da blob.

I went with de Blob. As cool as Wario Land looks, I chose new gameplay ideas over older ones.

Warioland will always be $50 and Nintendo will make games regardless if you buy it or not.

De Blob will drop in price but if it does not sell, there won't be any more games of that type.

I went with De Blob myself, because I also knew that I could pick up Warioland used later (which is what I did).

Mike from Morgantown

Having bought and played both, I'd definitely recommend de Blob over Wario Land. de Blob has more to do, feels fresher and more original, has better music, and is just more fun.

Wario Land: Shake It! isn't a bad game. However, if you've ever played a 2D platformer before, it won't have a lot of novelty for you. The motion controls are OK but they are only moderately fun and usually end up making my arms tired.

I recently bought de Blob, and can tell you it is a lot of fun. I think your wife would be more likely to play this game. The time limits are pretty generous, and it is pretty fun to just go around trying to paint everything in the city. There are not really any puzzles, but sometimes you need to figure out how to get to where you need to go.

Yes, that's exactly what I meant. ;)

It's a fair criticism of de Blob that it really doesn't take advantage of the Wii in any way. It could easily migrate over to the HD consoles without losing anything important from the experience. Well, smashing down on a dozen inkies feels pretty viscerally satisfying, I guess.

de Blob is phenominal

I prefer Warioland.