Nintendo Turned Wario Into a Fan-Favorite Character Exactly 22 Years Ago

Over the years, Wario has evolved into one of Nintendo’s most memorable supporting characters. The comically flatulent and constantly petulant anti-hero has steadily evolved into a fan favorite over the years, thanks in large part to his appearances in multiplayer Nintendo party games. He’s also headlined multiple game series himself, with the WarioWare sub-franchise routinely being one of the most entertaining corners of Nintendo’s library.

Given the character’s personality and presentation, it’s no wonder that he started out as an antagonist in the series. However, what’s more surprising is that Wario’s transition to a playable character came so quickly after his debut, and the publisher (wisely) decided against softening the character’s more over-the-top villainous qualities. It was 22 years ago today that Nintendo first showcased the potential Wario had as the headliner of his own game, and over two decades later, he remains one of Nintendo’s most entertaining side characters.

How Wario’s First Starring Role Didn’t Erase His Villainous Nature

Debuting on Japanese shelves January 21, 1994, before making the leap to North American and European markets, Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 was the game that transformed Wario from a potentially minor villain in the franchise into a fan-favorite playable character. Wario made his debut two years prior in 1992’s Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, serving as the primary antagonist of the game. As Mario’s opposite number and established rival, Wario could have easily become a peer to Bowser and kept appearing as a villain, especially in the handheld entries of the series.

Instead, Nintendo decided to shift the character into a protagonist in his own right, making him the lead character for the subsequent Mario Land game. Wario Land took the established Mario mechanics that had already been codified by half a dozen platformers and added unique tweaks to give Wario his own flavor. The character’s greedy nature was turned into a game mechanic, with collected coins opening new paths, unlocking checkpoints, or even being used as weapons. Wario was given a shoulder charge, an overt attack that, in retrospect, feels like a bridge between the original Mario’s jump attack and later games where the player actually had ingrained combat options. Enemies could also be stunned, picked up, and thrown at one another.

It all emphasizes Wario having a similar core approach to adventuring as Mario. Still, it went a long way towards establishing the differences that he has with Nintendo’s poster boy. Overall, Wario Land moves at a slightly slower clip than typical Mario games, which was actually a boon for the Game Boy. The handheld could have trouble keeping up with the pace of the more active Mario titles. By shifting to a character who was more focused on sudden bursts of movement and environment-affecting combat, Wario Land proved to be a perfect fit for the handheld platform. The game even had multiple endings, with the final animation decided by how much treasure the player collected.

How Wario Went From Surprising Star To Nintendo Fixture

One of the most important minor details of the first Wario Land game was that Wario wasn’t softened around the edges in his transition to player character. He didn’t get to become a more likable figure, the kind of trajectory enjoyed by Donkey Kong in his gradual evolution from antagonist to playable character. If anything, Nintendo leaned into Wario’s harsher qualities, like his greed and temper, as an excuse to play with game mechanics. He was a villain, willing to wreck his way through enemies and civilians alike to get his treasure. Luckily, the games gave him plenty of other villains to bounce off against. This continued to be a trend for Wario’s other games, too. Titles like Wario Land 2 did away with typical lose states, removing health and lives as a challenge while also incorporating new “power-ups” that transformed Wario into new forms.

The games embraced a wacky edge that distinguished them from other games, incorporating clever new puzzles, world exploration, and boss battles that benefited from these changes. These games even established Captain Syrup as Wario’s primary foe, a rare female villain who has never been “redeemed”—and even got the win in the Wario Land: Shake It!, which to date is the final game in the Wario Land sub-series of games. Since Wario Land, there have been multiple Wario platformers released by Nintendo, with the Game Boy titles especially having solid sales and reviews.

This was likely a major impetus to add Wario to the larger cast of Mario characters, giving Wario a chance to connect even better with players who discovered him in Mario Kart, Mario Party, or various Nintendo sports games. When Nintendo’s mini-game-heavy experiment needed a title character, the sense of anarchic humor and inventive gameplay ingrained in Wario’s games made him the ideal mascot. WarioWare has since supplanted the Wario Land titles as the primary role for the character, but it’s important to remember where the character came from. As a perfect parallel to Mario, Wario could have easily just been a minor recurring handheld enemy. Instead, Nintendo’s decision to turn him into a protagonist laid the groundwork for his development into a fan favorite that has headlined a dozen games in the years since.