Wario
| Wario | |
|---|---|
| 'Mario/Wario series' character | |
| File:Wario2.jpg Wario's current appearance, as rendered in a promotional image from the Mario Party 6 press kit. | |
| First game | Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (1992) |
| Created by | Gunpei Yokoi |
Wario (ワリオ) is a fictional Nintendo video game character created by Gunpei Yokoi.[citation needed] 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 numerous appearances in spin-offs of the Mario series. He is voiced by Charles Martinet, who also voices the Mario, Luigi, and Waluigi characters.
As Wario is Mario's evil doppelgänger, his personality and actions are often the opposites of Mario's typical heroism and kindness, just as the first letters in their names appear to be opposites. The name "Wario" can be taken to be a blending of Mario's name with the Japanese adjective warui (悪い) meaning "bad"; hence, a "bad Mario".[1] In English-speaking countries, the name is simply a play on the fact that the letter W resembles an upside-down M.
Characteristics
Personality
In his games, he has several negative characteristics, among them laziness, ruthlessness and gluttony,[1] unlike Mario, who is portrayed as kind and a hero. One of his most recognizable traits is arguably his greed, as he is often portrayed as being unscrupulous when opportunities arise to gain wealth, whether they are good or bad. Despite Wario's negative personality and character, he has played the role of an anti-hero or neutral character in almost every game that he has appeared in since Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3. He has been cast as a hero when fighting others who are more villainous, which in turn has made his personal and moral flaws seem smaller, such as when he is victimized by the Black Jewel in Wario World.[2]
Wario is designed as an evil doppelgänger of Mario's. His fierce competitiveness is fueled by an intense jealousy of Mario the plumber,[3] but even though he originally was a rival of Mario's (as shown in Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins and several subsequent games), Wario has since then become something of an ally of Mario's, like when he teams up with Yoshi, Mario and Luigi in Super Mario 64 DS to defeat Bowser, although their alliance is still quite fragile. According to a comic published in Nintendo Power, Wario will always hate Mario because when they were both younger, Mario, playful and vaguely oblivious, inadvertently bullied Wario; in the comic, Wario was stuck picking Piranha Plants that would attack him while Mario picked turnips, Wario ends up getting flattened by Thwomps while attempting to flatten coins with Mario, and whenever they played cowboys, Wario almost always had to be the rustler that Mario, as the sheriff, had to arrest. In the one time Wario got to be the sheriff, Mario would make fun of Wario.[4]
In his first many appearances as a character, Wario is never shown to have any friends, but with the introduction of the WarioWare series, he appears to have a great many of them, such as Jimmy T. and Mona - the latter of whom he appears to have special feelings for.[5] Mario Party 6 also implies that he is secretly friends with Toadette. Since his appearance in Mario Tennis, Wario has been paired with Waluigi, Wario's undetermined brother who is designed as the opposite of Luigi.
Physical appearance
Wario is portrayed as an exaggerated version of Mario; he is very corpulent and taller than Mario, has muscular arms, an absurdly large moustache, a bellicose cackle,[6] and speaks with a more pronounced Italian accent,[7] provided by Charles Martinet. Stylistically, he is similar to cartoon villains such as Snidely Whiplash. Traditionally, Wario wears a plumber outfit similar to Mario's, although with some differences. Mario's outfit is red and blue, with brown shoes and an M on his cap, while Wario's is yellow and purple, with curly-toed green shoes and a W on his cap. However, the release of WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$ saw Wario wearing motorcycling gear, with a yellow-and-red helmet emblazoned with the letter W, aviator goggles, yellow fingerless gloves also emblazoned with a W, a light-blue vest over a dark-blue shirt, and pink pants. One of his main abilities is his great strength, which he uses to overpower enemies far larger than himself. From Wario Land 2 and onward Wario has the ability to take advantage of physical status effects, such as being set on fire or flattened.[8]
In Wario Land 4 and Mario Kart: Double Dash!! Wario is shown to possess a purple car, and loosely resembling a 1960s Cadillac, dubbed the Wario Car (or "Brute" in some games such as Mario Kart: Double Dash!!). The Wario Car also makes a number of cameo appearances in the WarioWare titles, both in minigames and cutscenes.
Furthermore, Wario has poor hygiene. This can be revealed by talking to one of the Toads as Wario in Super Mario 64 DS and going to World 3-5 for the first time in Yoshi's Island DS Also, he has had a crush on Princess Peach in earlier games such as Wario Land and Super Mario Land 2.[9] Wario is often depicted as being inordinately fond of garlic, Wario's answer to Mario's Super Mushrooms, and as a result many games depict his breath as foul-smelling. Garlic is also often used as a power up in several games. This is also shown in his debut in Super Smash Bros. Brawl,where after eating Garlic, Wario transforms to "Wario Man" - a superheroic version of himself sporting a purple suit lined with garlic bulbs. His hygiene is further used as in the game his special maneuvers usually are some sort of farting. Wario has farted previously but this is the first time it has been a super power. In Super Smash Bros. Brawl he is the only character to be able to change costumes. [10]
Appearances
Wario Land 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,[8]
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.
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.[8] 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.
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.[8]
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 on March 5 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 is also given 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 Wishsone, 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.
WarioWare series
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 Inc. games, starting with WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$! (later remade as WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Party Game$ for the GameCube) 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 proceeds, but is foiled in the end. Each of the games consists of a number of microgames that last between three and seven seconds. The game spawned several sequels available across all of Nintendo's current consoles and handhelds.
The release of WarioWare: Twisted!, released in 2004 (Japan) and 2005 (North America) for the Game Boy Advance, utilized new features of the Game Boy Advance. In this game, Wario breaks his Game Boy Advance out of rage. Dr. Crygor restores it to a playable condition, though it loses its face buttons and gains a tilt function in the process, which inspires him to create 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.
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.
The newest of the WarioWare Inc. games, WarioWare: Smooth Moves, released 2007 (2006 in Japan), 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.
Other game appearances
Since his debut in Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, Wario has come to be a central character of Nintendo's.
He has appeared in almost every Mario sports game since Mario Kart 64 and aside from Super Mario Kart, he has appeared in all Mario Kart.
In Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, he is associated with Waluigi, and is driving the Wario Car.
Wario is among the lightest of the heavyweights in the Mario Kart series; he features great ramming power, but bad acceleration and off-road handling.
Aside from Mario Tennis: Power Tour and the original Mario's Tennis, he has appeared in all of the Mario Tennis games. In Mario Tennis for the Game Boy Color, Wario is a secret unlockable character, while he is available from the start in the Mario Tennis for the Nintendo 64. In Mario Power Tennis for the GameCube, Wario is featured sporting two machines: he uses one machine to shock himself, theoretically allowing him to hit harder, while the second machine extends his racket.
Mario Tennis: Power Tour for the Game Boy Advance was the first Mario sports title since Mario's Tennis to not feature Wario.
In the games in which he is a playable character, Wario is generally a very powerful character with moderate speed, second only to Donkey Kong and Bowser in power.
Wario also appears in Mario Golf for the Game Boy Color and Nintendo 64. Unlike the other Mario sports titles, Wario's character plays without any unusual quirks. He has appeared in every game in the Mario Golf series.
Mario Superstar Baseball features Wario as a team captain. He is also a team captain in the GameCube title Super Mario Strikers, a soccer game. Like in most other Mario sports games, he is also a powerful character in Superstar Baseball and Strikers.
Wario appeared in Dr. Mario 64 as the co-star to Dr. Mario. In this game, Wario attempted to steal the bottle of Megavitamins from Mario in order to become a doctor himself, but fails. Wario eventually gets involved with a man named Mad Scienstein, who steals the Megavitamins. Mario and Wario chase him together in order to retrieve them. Wario was a different selectable character. If Dr. Mario defeated Rudy the Clown without being defeated, he would face Vampire Wario, and if Wario defeated Rudy the Clown without being defeated, he would face Metal Mario.
The Mario Party titles feature several characters from the Mario series as playable, including Wario. Wario is one of the original six playable characters and has been a playable character in every Mario Party game, with the exception of Mario Party Advance, which only features Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, and Yoshi as playable. Unlike the Mario sports titles, there is no difference between any of the characters outside of voice and appearance.
And while Wario's first appearance in the Super Smash Bros. series was as a trophy (as well as an alternate outfit color for Mario in all three Smash Bros. games to date), he is set to appear in the upcoming Wii title, Super Smash Bros. Brawl in February 10, 2008.[11] Wario appears in the first trailer in his WarioWare-style biker outfit as opposed to his plumber outfit (although his plumber outfit will be available as an alternate costume) and is shown using the "Wario Chopper" and the "Wario Waft", two moves which respectively involve his motorcycle and explosive flatulence. His Final Smash is his transformation to Wario-Man from the Wario Ware series. Though his overly muscular arms are slightly obscured because of the sleeves on his shirt [they are quite visible during certain animations, however], he still possesses his herculean strength in this game, as seen in the Subspace Emissary where he is practically swinging an oversized Subspace weapon and leaving the scene while carrying both Zelda and said weapon.[2] In the Subspace Emissary adventure mode, he appears and transforms the princess not rescued from Petey Pirahna into a Trophy and escapes from the Coliseum.
Wario appears as a playable character in the remake Super Mario 64 DS for the Nintendo DS, but he must be unlocked using Luigi, the only one who can can defeat a boss named Chief Chilly. He has abilities that Mario, Luigi, and Yoshi do not, such as being incredibly strong, being able to break large, black bricks, and also being able to turn into Metal Wario with a Power Flower (unlike the original Super Mario 64, wherein Mario could become Metal Mario). Wario can also use the Wing Feather in Versus mode, as well as his Wild Swing-Ding ability from Wario World.
In November 2006, the release of Yoshi's Island DS featured Wario as a baby. In the game, he teams up with Yoshi, Baby Mario, Baby Peach, Baby Bowser, and Baby Donkey Kong. He has a very powerful magnet that is able to attract coins, metal platforms, and metal boxes. Baby Wario is only available in a few levels, and at the end of world 3, he leaves Yoshi in favor of the Bandits and their treasure. He returns in the game's final level, however, when he was found arguing with Baby Bowser over the treasure that the older Bowser kept within his castle, and they both tag along until Baby Bowser starts fighting the others over the treasure. Baby Wario ends up helping the crew defeat Bowser, and he makes off with the treasure in the aftermath of the game, though arguments once again ensue when Baby Bowser fell into the treasure.
In Densetsu no Stafy 3, Stafy encounters Wario in World 8. Throughout this world, Wario assists Stafy with completing the levels, giving the player four different treasures - a Wario cap, a Wario nose/mustache combo, a copy of WarioWare, Inc. with a Game Boy Advance, and a pile of gold. In each level, Wario is affected by one of his three more common status effects - Puffy Wario, Fire Wario and Bubble Wario, all of which Wario uses to help Stafy complete the level. At the end of the last level in World 8, after Wario and Stafy found four jewels to unlock a door, Wario went inside to see if there are anything worth having, but then got kicked out by an octopus dressed up as a Medieval knight. Then Stafy went inside and successfully fought and defeated it.
Wario also makes several minor appearances in various other games. He appears in various minigames in Super Mario 64 DS and New Super Mario Bros., both for the Nintendo DS. The Game & Watch Gallery series replaces Mr. Game & Watch with various Mario characters in the modern version of Game & Watch games, including Wario. Wario appears in such modern versions as Helmut, Ball (Game & Watch Gallery 2), Mario Bros. (Game & Watch Gallery 3 and 4), Rain Shower, and Fire Attack (Game & Watch Gallery 4).
Wario makes a number of cameos as well. One of the tracks in Uniracers is called Wario Paint, a reference to Mario Paint for the Super NES. In Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga for the Game Boy Advance, there is a WarioWare, Inc. poster on the wall of Yoshi Theater. Interestingly, Wario was also supposed to make a cameo appearance in the Starbeans Cafe at one point in development, alongside several other Nintendo characters. In his scenario, Wario is offered some coffee, but does not like the taste. He also makes a cameo in Pilotwings 64 in the Little States stage after the player shoots Mario's face on Mt. Rushmore, turning it into Wario's. Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door for the GameCube has a badge called the W Emblem badge, which changes the colors of Mario's clothes from red and blue to yellow and purple, the same as Wario's (but Mario's hat still retains the "M").
Wario also appears in Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games.
Other media
Various Wario merchandise has been released, including plush dolls and stickers. There is also a series of Mario Kart RC cars, featuring Mario, Luigi, and Wario in their respective karts. The Super Mario Adventures graphic novel, which is a collection of comics originally serialized in Nintendo Power, features Wario in two of the stories. It features a variety of storylines, including a story of Wario's past and his relationship with Mario, explaining Wario's rivalry with Mario.[4]
References
- ^ "Wario Land 3". Nintendo of Europe. January 1st, 2006. Retrieved 2006-08-25.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Gerstmann, Jeff (June 20, 2003). "Wario World review". GameSpot. Retrieved 2006-08-25.
{{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ "Wario World". Nintendo. 2006-01-01. Retrieved 2006-09-02.
- ^ a b Takekuma, Kentaro and Nozawa, Charlie. "Mario VS Wario". Nintendo Power vol. 44. January 1993.
- ^ "WarioWare". Nintendo. January 1st, 2006. Retrieved 2006-08-26.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "History of Wario". Wario-World.com. Retrieved 2006-09-02.
- ^ Nintendo EAD (24 June 1997). Mario Kart 64 (Nintendo 64). Nintendo.
- ^ a b c d "Review of Wario Land 4". DMC Ice. Retrieved 2006-09-02.
- ^ Nintendo EAD (11 March 2005). Super Mario 64 DS (Nintendo 64). Nintendo.
- ^ Nintendo EAD. Wario Land 3 (Game Boy Color). Nintendo.
- ^ "Character". Smash Brothers.com. Nintendo. 2006-01-01. Retrieved 2007-06-28.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help)
External links
- Wario World official home page
- WarioWare, Inc. home page
- Wario Land 4 official home page
- Wario at the Super Mario Wiki
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