The story begins at Wario's castle where he's taking some shuteye. Suddenly, three shady figures approach Wario's castle and flood it. They also place a huge alarmclock in order to bolt with Wario's treasures. The first assignment is fixing the damages at Wario's castle. Subsequently, the adventure starts, the hunt for the bandits can begin...
Like the first installment Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3, Wario Land II is a 2D Jump'n'Run game. It's devided into five worlds with five levels each. One of the most outstanding characteristics in Wario Land II is Wario's immunity to death. Having physical contact with the hostiles only causes the loss of a few coins. Some hostile can be even deformed.

Censoring:
Which was fine by Nintendo Japan was quite an issue for Nintendo of America. Due to their policy, several games needed to be altered.
Here, an abstract of the earlier policy of Nintendo of America:
- sexual content, including rape and / or nudity
- Language or illustration that particularly slurs both genders
- exorbitant violence
- graphic illustration of death
- domestic violence and / or abuse
- symbols such as crosses, pentagrams, God, Satan, Devil, Buddha
- drug abuse, cigaretts or alocohol
weren't wanted in their games.

Further regional differences won't be considered in the following comparison because they are not relevant censorshipwise.
The starting menu has been altered in a way that it will be at least mentioned in the intro:

JP	US

The "O" lacks Wario's eye and the "W" logo plus the Japanese writing is missing. Moreover, the "2" has become a "II" etc...

Compared are the US Version and the Japanese Gameboy Color Version.