Wario Land 4: Kaeru no Tameni Kaneha Naru Cameo

[Grandy02]

Today I stumbled upon the trivia section in Wario Land 4's Wikipedia article, and I read something very interesting. The old archaeologist who appears in the bonus rooms in the game is actually from the Japan-only Game Boy game Kaeru no Tameni Kaneha Naru, or looks identical to the scientist who appears in this game. That's the scientist from Wario Land 4:



So I quickly looked on the named game's official Japanese site where I found this image of the scientist, whose name is Dr. Arewo Shitain. (the translator tells so)



Looks VERY similar, doesn't he? If the translator spits out the right words, the Japanese Wikipedia even implies that both scientists are the same person. That's definitely an important cameo, Dr. Arewo Shitain's return after almost 10 years!



Anyways, I would like to know how this guy looks in the actual game or what role he plays? I never played Kaeru no Tameni Kaneha Naru.

[TV Eye]

Heh, that's actually pretty awesome!

Kinda like how Shokura was Mr. Game & Watch...

[Fryguy64]

Very intriguing. I'd never made that connection before. I shall have to investigate. If anyone can supply staff credits for the two games, that would be a big help.

[Grandy02]

MobyGames shows the credits for both games (or did I understand you wrong now?):
Kaeru no Tameni Kaneha Naru
Wario Land 4

It shows that those two staff credits share four identical members. Yoshio Sakamoto, Kohta Fukui, Katsuya Yamano and Tomoyoshi Yamane.

[Hiker of Games]

That's pretty awesome. And ironic, I was on a site the other day that claimed it was "Professor Scienstein". I always thought this characters was a little too awesome to be just a nameless old guy in a Wario game.

[Manspeed]

Dr. Scienstien was a completely different character, from Wario Land 3 to be exact.

Jun 24, 2008 10:07:20 GMT -5 TV Eye said:

Kinda like how Shokura was Mr. Game & Watch...

She looked like him, but I don't think she actually was him. He's meant to be an amalgamation of every GW character with a look based of an NPC drone, you know.

[mach7]

Wow, never knew that there was another cameo, in one of the earlier Wario Land games. Good find, although Wario seems to be receiving most of the cameos, from Japanese games like Stafy for instance

[Hiker of Games]

Jun 24, 2008 17:02:51 GMT -5 Manspeed said:

Dr. Scienstien was a completely different character, from Wario Land 3 to be exact.

Of this I am aware. Though I could understand someone coming to that conclusion.

[Manspeed]

I dunno. Scienstien has ordinary human proportions and a helmet thing on his head. The guy in WL4 looks like a red ass with a face, hands and feet.

[Fryguy64]

Jun 24, 2008 10:53:14 GMT -5 Grandy02 said:

MobyGames shows the credits for both games (or did I understand you wrong now?)

You understood me perfectly well, but alas I am still in Germany and my resources are tucked away safely back home

You can pretty much ignore the programmers - these are the interesting ones:
Yoshio Sakamoto (Kaeru-Scenario / WL4-Supervisor)
Tomoyoshi Yamane (Kaeru-Character Designer / WL4-Designer)

The character designer for Kaeru worked on both. Well, I'm convinced!!

[The Qu]

I'm always amazed when cameos like this are found when the game is over half a decade old. I always wondered who the scientist guy was...
Grandy, you're knowledge of these Wario cameos is very impressive. Fry has his work cut out for him when his next site update comes along!
Off topic, at the top of the thread, there's an ad for a 20th Century Masters CD for some band I've never heard of called Cameo. The album art is unintentionally hilarious:

[Fryguy64]

That is both random and excellent. Gold star!

[Grandy02]

This just came to my mind: You know, there are Frog Switches that start the timer and Frog Coins to buy items in the Item Shop? It's not important for the gameplay or storyline that those are symbolized by frogs, it could be anything else. But that could also be another reference to Kaeru no Tameni Kaneha Naru (For the Frog the Bell Tolls), where frogs are VERY important. Since a notable character from the named game appears in Wario Land 4 and the Kaeru character designer worked on it, I think it's clear that this is a possible reference. Well, maybe not clear enough for NinDB.

On a side note, you can see the scientist sometimes playing with a Game Boy Advance.

[The Qu]

That's also interesting Grandy. It might not be clear enough for a definite cameo, but might be worthy noting in the cameo blurb about the scientist.

I've always wondered why the switches were frogs. I chalked it up to some Japanese thing.

[BeamClaws]

Now I know that's his head, I always thought he had orange hair.