In Nintendo there are dozens of characters from various franchises, although the universe of the Mushroom Kingdom is the one that has some of the most charismatic and that have starred in a greater number of video games, especially Mario, of course. But our beloved plumber has not always been at the forefront, since on occasion he has handed over the baton to Wario.
The one who is considered Mario’s archrival, we have been seeing him for years in titles as crazy as WarioWare. Even so, it hasn’t always specialized in minigames and nothing else, because above all he became popular thanks to his own series called Wario Landabout which we have spent years without knowing anything, hence we want to take a look at the past to ask ourselves, what happened to her?
From final boss to “hero”
To talk of Wario Land you have to go back to the origins of Wario, because his first appearance in video games was quite peculiar. He didn’t do it as someone who had to be saved or just presented himself to her. In his place, he was the final boss we had to face in the classic Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins of Game Boy, who had to be defeated in a battle until he took to his heels.
Apart from all this, the fact that he is considered Mario’s archrival is also evident in his appearance and in his name, due to the fact that it is like turning the M around to turn it into a W. What’s more, the adjective in japanese warui means “bad”, so all the more reason to introduce kind of bad mario. In any case, it is seen that Nintendo liked it so much that it wanted it to star in its own video game in 1994 with the name of Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3.
Wario has always been a very greedy character who only seeks to have large amounts of money and treasures. That was the goal of his first 2D platform adventurehaving to go through a few levels getting all the money possible and especially had to locate secret rooms where there were some chests with extremely valuable items.
The fact that it was so important to seize all of them is due to the very end of the game, because they would serve to pay a genie from the lamp (you can see that nobody works for free here) to fulfill Wario’s wish of having his own castle. In this way, the more treasures he obtained, he would receive in exchange from a birdhouse or a log to a castle and even a planet, thus offering a good replayability to unlock all the endings that exist.
Other strengths were the fact that Wario could modify the appearance of your suit with some special caps which gave him more strength, the ability to shoot fire or fly through the air briefly. In addition, Wario’s bulk made him resistant to the impact of enemies, not weapons, and he was also capable of performing tackles, but on the contrary, his movements when jumping were noticeable that they were more abrupt compared to those of Mario.
A few sequels with which Wario intended to get richer
The fact that Wario Land It was such a fun title with a charismatic character, it seems that it was enough to make it a success. A key fact for Nintendo to consider that Wario was capable of starring in his own series of video games with a similar proposal that ended up heading to more platforms.
That is why in 1998 (1999 in Europe) it went on sale Wario Land II for Game Boy Color. In this case, Wario already had his own castle, implying that this was the canon ending of the previous game, but a group of pirates assaulted it, stealing all its treasures and flooding it. That gives rise to a nice adventure in which Wario had to recover all his belongings and return his castle to normal.
The funny thing is that here you could not die in any way. It didn’t matter how much damage and hits Wario took because all he would do was be thrown backwards, but he could also suffer status ailments like getting squashed, getting fatter, burning himself, and even turning into a zombie. On the other hand, there was even more emphasis here on the goal of obtaining lots of coins and secret treasures.
Another idea that was kept from the first Wario Land was the fact that some levels had forks with hidden passages or elements that could alter the scenarios, giving rise to other paths in history with their respective endingshence the replay value was present from the first minute, because already in the first phase a hidden path could be activated without touching a single button on the console.
All these characteristics in the end became very identifying symbols of the franchise, because in the year 2000 with Wario Land III the same play was repeated. Thus, Wario had to go through a few very colorful levels to obtain treasures, with hidden paths, without being able to die in any way and with transformations to modify his appearance, something that was decisive to access certain places that could not be reached otherwise. form.
The last Wario Land for portable consoles was released on the Game Boy Advance with Wario Land 4. The difference with its predecessors is that here the forks in the roads were left aside to directly offer us several worlds with their own biomes and phases, although in all of them there were some items to unlock that encouraged the player himself to return to them again and again to locate them. And the health points were coming back too, so you had to be careful that Wario didn’t take too many hits or he would be kicked out of the level losing everything he had collected in his path.
From starring in other adventures to being forgotten
After the latter, the series changed its name when it was renamed Wario World on GameCube, with which 2D gameplay was completely set aside to welcome 3D settings. A few years later he returned to laptops with a somewhat different proposal with Wario: Master of Disguise and finally it was Wii that had the privilege of having the last game in the saga, in this case in 2D, with Wario Land: The Shake Dimension.
It was in 2008 when Wario starred in his latest action adventure, puzzles and platforms, returning to his roots under the name of Wario Land. Since then, the only times we have seen Wario again, beyond in series like Mario Party, Mario Tennis, Mario Golf, etc., have been with the titles of WarioWare, nothing more. It does not mean at all that the latter are bad, but why has Wario not been given more options to have more of his own adventure games like good Mario?
It is not that it can be said that they have had a bad reception, because the last one for Wii was a great game and got very good reviews, although unfortunately the sales were not enough and it sold just over a million units worldwide. Perhaps that was decisive for Nintendo wanting Wario to focus more on minigames, but it’s not like this series has been a console seller, because WarioWare: Get It Together! it has only achieved 1.27 million units.
It is a pity not to have seen Wario in more solo video games, because we cannot forget about him either. Wario Blast: Featuring Bomberman! for gameboy or Wario’s Woodsbut what would be very nice would be to develop a new Wario Land, even in 2D. Why not? Metroid Dread is 2D and it’s an excellent game, so Wario could come back to the fore with an adventure like this to make it clear that Mario and Luigi aren’t the only characters from the Mushroom Kingdom who can star in video games today.
