A patch adding comprehensive rumble support to Wario Land 4 has just hit 1.0, bringing with it a bunch of further improvements and bug fixes.
The Wario fan djedditt initially released the patch for the game back in August 2023 to coincide with the 22nd anniversary of the Game Boy Advance in Japan, with the project aiming to be the first homebrew solution to introduce the fun and tactile feature to the classic platformer.
The patch was compatible with various flashcarts (like the EZ-FLASH Omega Definitive Edition and insideGadgets 32MB 256Kbit FRAM rumble), as well as emulators (MGBA, MiSTer hardware emulators), and the Analogue Pocket. It even featured Game Boy Player support, allowing those who owned the GameCube peripheral the opportunity to experience a rumble effect when playing with the console's controller.
According to djedditt, the latest version of the hack introduces several fixes for areas where the rumble could get stuck during scene transitions and also implements additional "rumble events" during cutscenes, boss fights, and the Wario Roulette mini-game. There is also the option to toggle rumble off and on in the save select menu, in case you ever want to temporarily disable the feature
Wario Land 4 originally debuted back in August 2001 in Japan, before arriving in North America and Europe in November of the same year. It saw Wario set off on a quest to find the treasures of a newly discovered pyramid deep within the jungle, and free a cursed princess.
The game was previously reissued on the 3DS and Wii U virtual consoles and is also set to be reissued this week on the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack.
You can download the patch now from GitHub. If you're playing with Analogue Pocket, you'll either need a rumble-compatible flash cart or access to the openFPGA-GBA core and a Nintendo DS Rumble Pak (an additional patch is required to make this second solution work).