Wario

Wario

Wario, as he appears in Mario Party 8
Series	Wario series, Mario series
First game	Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (1992)
Designed by	Hiroji Kiyotake
Voiced by (English)	Charles Martinet (video games)
Voiced by (Japanese)	Charles Martinet (video games) Chikao Ōtsuka (commercials and some video game dubs)

Wario (ワリオ^?) is a fictional Nintendo video game character originally designed by Hiroji Kiyotake. Wario was designed as another antagonist to Mario (besides Bowser), and first appeared in the 1992 Game Boy title Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins as the main antagonist and final boss. Since that time, Wario has developed into the protagonist and antihero of the Wario Land and WarioWare series, spanning handheld and home console markets, in addition to his numerous appearances in spin-offs in the Mario series. He is voiced by Charles Martinet, who also voices Mario, Luigi, Waluigi, Baby Mario, Baby Luigi and Baby Wario.

Concept and creation

A rival to Mario first appeared in the 1985 game Wrecking Crew in the form of Spike, a construction foreman.^[1] Although this character bears a slight resemblance to the Wario we know today, he was not to receive his true debut until 1992. The first named appearance of Wario occurred in the 1992 game Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins where he was designed by Hiroji Kiyotake who was also responsible for designing Samus Aran, another popular Nintendo character.^[2] The motive for Wario's design arose from the distaste of the Super Mario Land's design team towards designing a game based around someone else's character. The creation of Wario allowed them a character of their own to "symbolize their situation".^[1]

Wario is portrayed as an exaggerated version of Mario; he has muscular arms, a large moustache, and a bellicose cackle.^[3] The name "Wario" is a portmanteau of Mario's name with the Japanese adjective warui (悪い) meaning "bad"; hence, a "bad Mario".^[4] Charles Martinet auditioned to provide the voice for Wario around 1993. He was told to speak in a mean and gruff voice. Martinet described voicing Wario as a looser task than voicing Mario, since Mario's voice and personality is free-flowing, coming from the ground and floating into the air, while one of Wario's cornerstones is self-pity.^[5] Starting with Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land, Wario experiences rejuvenating effects from garlic. The character is also often seen making use of bombs, as in Wario Land and Wario Blast. The WarioWare series prominently uses bombs as a visual motif in every microgame to represent the time limit.

In video games in which Wario makes a cameo appearance, he is often treated as a villain. However, the development team for Wario Land: The Shake Dimension stated that he wasn't really a villain, and they didn't consider this while developing the game. They focused on his behavior, which could either be good or bad.^[6] Etsunobu Ebisu considers Wario to be a reckless character, who uses his strength to overwhelm others. Tadanori Tsukawaki, the design director of The Shake Dimension, described Wario as manly, and said he was "so uncool that he ends up being extremely cool". Because of this, he wished for Wario to come off as macho rather than comical, and requested that the art designers emphasize his masculinity.^[7] Wario was chosen as the star of the WarioWare series, due to the development team's inability to think of anyone better. They also cited Wario's frequent habit of doing stupid things as a reason for choosing him.^[8]

Appearances

Wario Land series

Wario makes his first appearance as a villain in the Game Boy video game Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, having captured Mario's castle.^[9] He appeared yet again in the role of a villain in the Japan-only Mario & Wario, where he drops a bucket on top of either Mario, Princess Peach, or Yoshi's head.^[10] This was followed by the first game in the Wario Land series, Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3, which marked Wario's first appearance as a protagonist and introduced his first villains, Captain Syrup and her Brown Sugar Pirates.^[9][11] His next adventure plays similarly, titled Virtual Boy Wario Land. It incorporates the ability to move in and out of the background.^[9] A sequel, Wario Land II, was later released, with the character Captain Syrup returning as the antagonist. This game also introduces Wario's invulnerability, allowing him to be burnt or flattened but retain no damage.^[9] Wario Land 3 plays similarly, using the same mechanics and concepts of its predecessor.^[9] A sequel was created called Wario Land 4, incorporating Wario's ability to become burnt or flattened, but reintroducing the ability to become damaged from standard attacks.^[9] Both the first console and first three dimensional Wario platforming title was released for the Nintendo GameCube titled Wario World, which did not use any major elements from previous platforming titles.^[9] Wario: Master of Disguise was released for the Nintendo DS, using the touch screen for movement.^[12] The most recent release in the series is Wario Land: The Shake Dimension, which reintroduced Captain Syrup. It used a hand-drawn animation style, which required the artists to design many frames of animation for the characters, including more than 2,000 for Wario alone.^[7] He is abnormally overweight and loves gross humor and money.

WarioWare series

Wario as seen in WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$!.

In 2003, the franchise introduced a new series of WarioWare games, starting with WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgames! for the Game Boy Advance, which was later remade as WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Party Games! for the GameCube. The premise involved Wario becoming inspired to open a game development company to make money, creating short "microgames" as opposed to full-fledged games.^[9] A sequel called WarioWare: Twisted! was released, incorporating a tilt sensor that allowed microgames to be controlled by tilting the handheld left and right.^[13] A Nintendo DS sequel was later released titled WarioWare: Touched!, incorporating both the DS' touch screen and microphone.^[14] A Wii game was released titled WarioWare: Smooth Moves, which used the Wii Remote's motion sensing technologies in a variety of ways.^[15] The Nintendo DS and Nintendo DSi have seen two new releases, including a DSiWare video game called WarioWare: Snapped!, which uses the Nintendo DSi's built-in front camera, and a Nintendo DS game called WarioWare D.I.Y., which allows players to create their own microgames, including its graphics and music.^[16][17]

Other game appearances

In Wario's Woods, Wario appears as the main antagonist who wanted to take over the woods. However he was soon defeated and chased out of the area by Toad.^[9] He was also featured in the video game Wario Blast: Featuring Bomberman!, which is a remade version of its Japanese original including Wario as a playable character.^[9] He has appeared in almost every Mario sports game since Mario Kart 64, including the Mario Tennis, Mario Golf, Mario Baseball, Mario Strikers, and Mario & Sonic series. He has also appeared in most installments of the Mario Party series.^{[9][18][19][20]} Amongst other roles, he appears in Dr. Mario 64 as a co-star to Mario.^[21] He appeared only as a collectible item in Super Smash Bros. Melee but later as a playable character in its sequel, Super Smash Bros. Brawl.^[22] He also appears as one of four playable characters in Super Mario 64 DS and as a baby who can ride on Yoshi's back in Yoshi's Island DS.^[9][23] He has made other cameos, including one in the video game Densetsu no Starfy 3 where he aides protagonist Starfy, and a minor cameo in Pilotwings 64.^[9][24]

Other media

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.^[25] Two characters appear in the Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, resembling Wario and Waluigi. However, this appears to be a coincidence, as the episode aired two years before Wario's first appearance in Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins.

Promotion and reception

Various merchandise of Wario has been released, including plush dolls, T-shirts, stickers and a series of Mario Kart radio-controlled cars, featuring Mario, Luigi, Yoshi and Wario in their respective karts.^[26]

Since his appearance in Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3, his first starring role, Wario has become a well-established mascot of Nintendo's.^[27] Nintendo Power listed Wario as one of the three weirdos, describing him as Mario's evil doppelganger and a "pretty uncool dude"; they cited his greed, his penchant for garlic, and his farts. However, they state that they cannot help but like him. They also listed him as having one of the best mustaches.^[28] He has also received largely positive reception, as opposed to Waluigi, who has received mostly negative reception. Wario ranked 10th on GameDaily's Top 10 Smash Bros. characters list.^[29]

He ranked seventh on GameDaily's top 10 ugliest game characters list; the authors referenced his snarling smile, moustache, and outfits.^[30] They also included him in a top 25 list of video game anti-heroes, stating that in spite of his greed, he's actually a "cool dude".^[31] IGN editor Travis Fahs commented that while he was not the most likeable character, he has incredible confidence that overshadows his flaws and makes him entertaining.^[32] In the book "A Parent's Guide to Nintendo Games: A Comprehensive Look at the Systems and the Games", author Craig Wessel described Wario as a "sinister twist" on Mario.^[33] In the book "Icons of Horror and the Supernatural: An Encyclopedia of Our Worst Nightmares, Volume 1", author S. T. Joshi cites both Waluigi and Wario as examples of alter egos, also as evidence of how popular it is to feature such character archtypes.^[34]

References

External links

• Wario Land: Shake It! official page