If Mario has a monopoly on boundless energy and Link on wide-eyed adventuring, then Wario claims dibs on impatience. Continuing on from Wario Land 4 on GBA, Shake Dimension plays on this particular trait by dividing each stage into two phases: a greedy stretch of looting and a mad hightailing out of there as Wario inevitably triggers an alarm.

For all the theoretical frenzied snatching of the first phase, the pace is surprisingly sedate. Calmly calculating how to chain Wario’s moves to propel him towards otherwise unreachable treasures couldn’t seem further from the ADD-addled larks of WarioWare’s microgames. However, while keeping tabs on Wario’s catalogue of sprints, barges, stomps, slides, skids, rolls and tumbles stalls the action, actually enacting your plan requires feverish button dexterity few platformers can rival.

Hotfooting it back to the exit is far simpler, often completed in under a minute and reliant only on maintaining momentum injected by cannons handily littering the stages. As such, each level is designed to be played in two directions, a decision that wows and confuses in equal measure. Motivated by the riches squirreled away in each stage, it’s possible to slave away on ‘solving’ part of a level only to discover it’s intended to come into play on the trip home. This block can be broken now, that block can’t; a sloppiness rare from Nintendo.

A handful of stages pull off the effect with aplomb. One laborious left-to-right struggle through a Chinese trampoline emporium becomes a frantic pinballing ricochet return, while a labyrinthine Gothic keep allows Good Feel to show off Wario’s beautiful animation as he skids through the snaking interior. The sense of kinetic energy injected by Wario’s hand-animated design cannot be praised enough: from the Wile E Coyote dust clouds off his hurricane legs to the Daffy Duck rage of his bulbous face, this is the most comedic realisation of the character to date.

But while Wario’s physicality reaches new heights, his older habits die hard. Perhaps taking its cue from WarioWare, there’s a ridiculous turnover of ideas that gives very few the space they need to breathe. Nintendo is famed for sprinkling around mechanics other developers would build entire games on, but here the effect is quite irritating. Shrinking machines, snowball Wario, a tilt-controlled spaceship, mine carts, flaming Wario – some appear for less than five seconds, while bombs and swing vines are regurgitated blandly throughout.

Perhaps this is part of the Wario ‘joke’, a parody of Mario’s sublime pacing for a parody of the sublime Mario himself. Put it down to Wario’s shambolic ways, however, and how do you explain the tiresome structure elsewhere that has you replaying levels to satisfy bonus criteria? Not losing health, collecting gold, killing one specific enemy – yes, they lengthen an otherwise six-hour game, but such nitpicking doesn’t fit with the overall ‘ah, fuggetaboutit’ ethos. That your only reward for doing so is a measly sound test is more galling.

Whatever happened to the everything-butthe-kitchen-sink approach of WarioWare Twisted’s 200-something bonus trinkets? Shake is at its best when emulating the obnoxiousness and buffoonery of its hero. That it occasionally bows to his stupidity is an unexpected disappointment.

6/10