Wario’s History

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Hello Smashers! Today we’ll talk about Mario’s life antagonist, Wario!

Wario is a Nintendo character created by Gunpei Yokoi. Wario was designed as an antagonist to Mario, and first appeared in the 1992 handheld video game Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins as the main villain and final boss. Since that time, Wario has developed into the protagonist and antihero of his own video game franchise spanning both handheld and console markets, in addition to his numerous appearances in spin-offs of the Mario series.

The first in the series, Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3, marked Wario’s first appearance as a protagonist and introduced his first villains as antagonists, Captain Syrup and her Brown Sugar Pirates. Wario discovers that the Brown Sugar Pirates have stolen a gigantic statue of Princess Peach, made of pure gold, from Mario and that he is looking for it. Wario then decides to take advantage of this and steal it from Captain Syrup before Mario can retrieve it. However, all his hard work is lost when, just as the castle built around the statue crumbles, Mario comes by in a helicopter and uses a powerful magnet to airlift the statue, waving and smiling obliviously at Wario on his way out. On the other hand, the genie accepts the treasure that Wario has collected throughout the game and builds him a castle in exchange with the size of the castle being proportional to the amount of treasure collected.

The game is also one of the relatively few Wario games to feature limited lives. If Wario loses all his lives, it is game over, and the only one, apart from Virtual Boy Wario Land, where he made use of various hats to get special powers in much the same way as Mario subsequently did in Super Mario 64

Nice hat Wario

In his next adventure, titled Wario Land, for the Virtual Boy, Wario must fight his way out of a giant cave which houses several different worlds, gathering money along the way. The game features Virtual Boy-style pseudo-3D gameplay, allowing Wario to travel into the background at various points in the levels.

It’s all so red

Wario Land II was released in March 1998 for the Game Boy and a year later for the new Game Boy Color, thereby being the first game to feature Wario in color. The story continues the rivalry between Wario and Captain Syrup, who has a new team named the Black Sugar Gang. Captain Syrup and her gang loot Wario’s castle, and Wario subsequently chases them to their lair on Kitchen Island to retrieve his treasure. After defeating Captain Syrup and the Giant Spear King, Wario recovers his treasure and returns home.

Unlike the first two games, in Wario Land II Wario’s abilities are gained through status effects. For example, he can be set on fire by the fire from a candle, allowing him to be set on fire and run uncontrollably in one direction until he bursts in flames, which in turn allows him to burn through certain objects.

Instead of having a life meter as in some of his other games, Wario loses coins when he takes damage, and in the event that he runs out of coins, he still cannot die — basically making him invincible. Wario Land II also featured secret exits in its levels, which allowed the player to experience alternate boss battles and endings. There are five end boss battles and one more battle before the player can experience the actual ending.

What a colourful Wario

In Wario Land 3, also for the Game Boy Color, Wario finds himself trapped in a Music Box World, and before he can leave he must help a mysterious figure regain control of this world by defeating a horde of monsters. Only when the figure promises Wario that he can keep all of the treasure he collects along the way does Wario agree to help. This game introduces a new villain, Rudy the Clown, who would later appear in Dr. Mario 64. Unlike past games, Wario is not set on a linear path, and can collect any treasures available to him. He also lacks all of his innate powers (with the exception of jumping and walking), and must find them as he makes progress in the game. Just like Wario Land II, Wario is invincible, and the bosses do work around the common fact that being harmed once ends the battle.

The premise of Wario Land 4 for the Game Boy Advance begins with Wario reading about a treasure-packed golden pyramid deep in the jungle. Wario decides to track down the treasure and travels there in his Wario Car. He must retrieve four pieces of jewelry (each guarded by a boss) in order to get to the final treasure and defeat the Golden Diva (the master of the pyramid who appears throughout the game), who transformed Princess Shokora into a cat. Wario Land 4 sports a ‘middle-way’ between the classic limited-lives gameplay of the first game, and the invincibility of the two following. Here, Wario has a health meter, and if he loses all health in a level, he loses all the treasure gathered in that level and is ejected back out to the “world map” - instead of losing lives.

Be sure to beat that plant before the time runs out

Wario World for the Nintendo GameCube is a departure from typical Wario platforming games in how it plays. It was co-developed by Treasure and Nintendo, and is a 3-D beat-’em-up/platforming video game. Unlike the Wario sidescrollers, Wario World focuses on more heavily on action, although there are still many platform jumping and puzzle-solving sequences. Wario gets his hands on a mystical Black Jewel, which eventually destroys his castle and turns all of his treasure into monsters. Throughout the game, Wario will encounter Sprites trapped in small boxes. Once Wario defeats the Black Jewel, the Spritelings will reward him with a new castle. Depending on how many Spritelings, treasures, and coins Wario finds in each area, he will get one of two castles—if he does not collect enough wealth and Spritelings, he will be given a shack. As in Wario Land 4, Wario has a health meter, but the status effects have been removed.

Wario: Master of Disguise showed the return of the Wario Land series, and was released in 2007 for the Nintendo DS. The game allows Wario to transform into various different forms of himself, each allowing Wario certain abilities. It centers around Wario (A.K.A. The Purple Wind), inventing the Telmet, allowing him to enter a television series revolving around thievery. In this game, Wario is given criminal-like abilities from the get-go as The Purple Wind (Thief Wario), such as unparalleled jumping abilities, similar to those of a cat burglar. Wario also steals a magic wand known as Goodstyle to aid him in his criminal endeavors. The wand is essential for Wario in order for him to don various disguises, such as Cosmic Wario (an astronaut) and Genius Wario (a mad scientist-type disguise). The plot revolves on Wario acquiring the various pieces of the Wishstone, an ancient tablet that supposedly grants the wish of those who behold it, in order for him to gain all the wealth and treasures in the world. As in the latest Wario adventure installments, Wario has a health meter.

Grawr dragon Wario!

Wario World marked a break in the series of games featuring Wario going solo in ‘classic’ treasure hunting. Instead, the franchise shifted focus towards the newly established series of WarioWare games, starting with WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$! for the Game Boy Advance.

In this series of games, Wario is the founder of a video game development company, which he founds after seeing a report on a new “killer app” video game titled Pyoro on television. He then hires his friends to help him make his games. In most of the WarioWare titles, after they make the profit from the video games, Wario attempts to run away with all of the profits, but is foiled in the end. Each of the games consists of a number of microgames that last between one and seven seconds. The game spawned several sequels available across all of Nintendo’s current consoles and handhelds.

Everyone loves akward addictive minigames

The release of WarioWare: Twisted!, released in 2005 for the Game Boy Advance, utilized new features of the Game Boy Advance. In this game, Wario wakes up from a nap on his couch and begins to play a spaceship game on his Game Boy Advance, but he soon crashes into an asteroid and loses. Infuriated, Wario breaks his GBA by throwing it at the floor. Overcome with regret, he takes it to Dr. Crygor, who restores it to a playable condition, though it loses its face buttons and gains a tilt function in the process, which inspires Wario to develop new games based on the tilt function.

The cartridge of the game has a built-in gyro sensor and rumble feature (for feedback during rotation). Most of the microgames are played by rotating the entire handheld device.

Don’t let the kitty fall!

In WarioWare: Touched!, which was the first game in the Wario series for the Nintendo DS, Wario is walking down the street after having stolen a Game Boy Advance and Game Boy Advance SP, but trips and drops them into a sewer hole. However, an old man floats up, and asks him if he dropped the GBA systems, or if he dropped the ‘fancier one.’ Wario states that he wants all of them, and then lunges at the Sewer Guru, causing them both to fall into the sewer. Wario comes out with the fancier system, and has no idea how to play it until he finds the stylus. After winning a game, he decides that this idea would make a ton of money, and goes to get his friends to help out. Near the end, Wario walks down the street and trips near the same sewer hole. The Sewer Guru comes out and smacks him over the head as revenge.

Reel that fish in!

The newest of the WarioWare Inc. games, WarioWare: Smooth Moves, released 2007, saw the Wario games move on to the Wii console. In this game, Wario stumbles upon an old temple, and when he comes to the Form Baton (similar to the Wii Remote), he notes its inspiration for a new series. He then escapes Indiana Jones style (a gigantic boulder chases him when he picks up the Form Baton). The Form Baton is however eventually returned, only to be used by Orbulon for his own purposes soon after.

Damn this minigame is hard

Well that pretty much covers up Wario gaming history, stay tuned for more news and updates!

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