Wario

Wario in Wario Ware: Smooth Moves.
Wario
Species	Human
Hair color	Brown
Eye color	Gray
Relatives	Waluigi (possible brother)
Voiced by	Thomas Spindler (1997-2000) Charles Martinet (1997, 1999-2022) Kevin Afghani (2023-Present)
Debut	Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins

Wario is a character who initially appeared to as as an 'evil twin' to Mario and has evolved into a crude antihero featured in his own subseries. After his first villainous appearance in Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, his character was better defined with his first adventure in Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land. Wario has become known as a greedy, self-absorbed anti-hero who is often characterized in a crude manor, such as with his finger up his nose. His subseries has had two distinct lines of games: Wario Land is Wario's own brand of platforming adventures that usually focus on collecting money and treasure, while the WarioWare games feature him managing his own video game company that specializes in ultra-short microgames. He has also maintained a presence in the sports and kart-racing spin-offs of the Mario series, despite having a minimal presence in the main Mario games outside of his initial appearances. Among his castle and gaming company, he also owned his own biplane, the Bulldog, as well as the Wario Car, his own stylish purple car suitable for treasure hunting. He has a psuedo-brother named Waluigi. It is unknown if they are actually relatives, but they are often seen working together in the sports games.

Background

Baby Wario

Wario as a baby

Little is conclusively known about Wario's background. It is possible that he and Mario knew each other previous to his first chronological appearance, as Mario's narration in the instruction manual for Super Mario Land 2 mentions that Wario has been antagonizing him since they were children, but the details are unclear. He was seen as a baby in Yoshi's Island DS (making him around the same age as Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Donkey Kong and Bowser). Apparently the Toadies attempted to kidnap him, but they found his crying to be too annoying. Baby Wario was found by Yoshi and joined his party of babies for the last four levels of the third world. He left the group after clearing the third level castle, so that he could explore it for treasure.

He was later seen at the final level, Bowser's castle, searching for more treasure (to Baby Bowser's displeasure). He rejoined Yoshi's group for the final battle against Bowser, and afterwards he was returned to his "home", which was a pile of hoarded treasures on a floating raft. The ending revealed that Baby Wario was one of the seven "star children", born with one of the seven fallen stars. Baby Wario's special ability was a magnet which could attract metal (particularly coins).

Baby Wario's only other appearance has been in Dr. Mario World, where a doctor version of him was made available as a playable character who could be unlocked at random through the game's Staffing feature. He was made available starting in late June 2020.

Adult Life

Wario the Villain

Wario's original debut

Wario played the role of villain most often in his early appearances. In Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, he took over Mario's castle and Mario Land while Mario was busy taking care of Tatanga in Sarasaland (in the first Super Mario Land). After Mario collected the six golden coins, he entered his castle and fought Wario in the throne room. During the battle, Wario used some power-ups such as a Carrot and Fire Flower, but he was ultimately defeated by Mario. Afterwards, Wario attacked Mario and his friends again in Mario & Wario, in a stranger way. He flew around in a small plane and dropped buckets and other items which landed on the heads of Mario, Peach or Yoshi, blinding them as they navigated an area of obstacles. With the help of Wanda and Luigi, they were able to get to safety, and Wario's prank was undone. At the end, one of the characters boarded a similar plane and dropped a bucket over Wario's head, causing him to crash and become trapped in the bucket.

Wario then invaded the Peaceful Woods with an army of monsters and redubbed it Wario's Woods in the game of the same name, although it was implied that the monsters were only hostile due to "the nightmare that Wario inspired". This time, he was defeated by Toad. At the end of the game, in the NES Round Clear version, he became huge in an attempt to intimidate Toad, until he became too large, and the body popped to revert Wario to his normal self with an inflation pump nearby. At this point, he attempted to flee in his plane, only to crash into a tree and fall comically. In the SNES Round Game Mode, he erected a castle in the middle of the forest which Toad destroyed with a single bomb while Wario flew overhead in his plane, and without Wario's influence, the monsters settled peacefully in the forest. This was the last of Wario's villainous acts for a while.

Wario Land

After their early clashes, Wario surprisingly did little more to trouble Mario. Instead, he focused on amassing his own fortune. In Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3, Wario heard that the pirate crew of the notorious Captain Syrup had stolen a golden statue of Princess Peach. Wario decided to steal the statue from Syrup as well as the pirates' other treasures. He hoped that the treasures and the ransom money from the statue combined would be enough to get him his own castle. Wario attacked Syrup's pirate forces on Kitchen Island and succeeded in defeating Syrup. Mario beat him to the golden statue, but Wario was able to recover a genie lamp, and the genie was able to grant Wario the castle he longed for.

Wario in his classic yellow outfit with his Wario Car

Wario continued going on treasure-hunting adventures, first traveling to the lost land of the Awazons in Virtual Boy Wario Land. Captain Syrup later attempted to gain revenge on Wario in Wario Land II. She had her pirates raided Wario's castle and looted all his treasures while he was sleeping. Wario proceeded to embark on another adventure in which he battled and defeated Syrup to regain his treasure. In Wario Land 3, he accidentally stumbled into a magical music box with a city inside. Tricked by the evil clown demon, Rudy, he set out to collecting all the treasures for him. Rudy turned out to be an evil entity and tried to renege on his promise by trying to destroy Wario. Wario was able to defeat Rudy and saved the people of the music box, who freed Wario from that world while letting him keep the treasure that he had collected.

While he did not originally appear in Super Mario 64, his presence there was retroactively established in Super Mario 64 DS. In that version, Wario joined Mario and Luigi (he and Luigi being described as 'party crashers') on a trip to Princess Peach's Castle for cake. The three of them were subsequently captured by Bowser and placed within the walls and portraits of the castle. Wario was held prisoner by Chief Chilly until he was rescued by Luigi. Afterwards, he put his efforts into helping Mario, Luigi and Yoshi to rescue Peach. Wario also acted as an antagonist to Dr. Mario in Dr. Mario 64. He attempted to steal Dr. Mario's Megavitamins, believing that they would make him rich, but Mad Scienstein beat him to the punch. Wario and Dr. Mario spent the entire game chasing down Mad Scienstein and ended up confronting his boss, Rudy. Wario did not get the Megavitamins in the end, but he did get to defeat Mad Scienstein and Rudy. In Dr. Mario's path, Wario consumed the Megavitamins and transformed into Vampire Wario, who acted as the game's true final boss.

In Wario Land 4, Wario heard about a great archaeological find, the pyramid of Shokura. His plundering of the pyramid not only greatly added to his collection of treasure, but also freed Princess Shokura from an ancient curse placed by the Golden Diva.

The Rise of WarioWare, Inc.

The Incredible Wario-Man

In WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$!, Wario was shown to be living in a house in Diamond City. Inspired by the success of video games like Pyoro, Wario decided to make his own video game-developing company: WarioWare, Inc. He did not want to do the work himself, so he hired a group of his friends (newly introduced characters Jimmy T., Mona, Dribble and Spitz, Kat and Ana, Dr. Crygor and Orbulon) to make games for him. Wario also tried to pull a fast one in the group and arranged an escape plan so that he could get out of paying his friends and keep as much of the profit for himself as possible, in order to make the most amount of money off of as little work as possible. Wario also had microgames of his own, the only common theme between his games being that they somehow featured Wario's image. Those microgames were also featured in WarioWare,Inc: Mega Party Game$! without any accompanying story. Aside from his establishment of WarioWare, Wario's personal treasure horde was once more threatened in Wario World after he collected a strange Black Diamond. His greed released the ancient evil within it, and it caused his treasure was transformed into a variety of monsters. Wario worked together with the spritelings to the defeat the ancient evil.

The Form Baton.

Among his many misadventures, Wario has also unleashed the ability to turn into the incredible Wario-Man, a superhero that effectively looked like Wario in pajamas. He first unleashed the power in WarioWare: Twisted! when, while hanging around Dr. Crygor's lab, he was sucked into the Gravitator. Meanwhile Orbulon and some of Wario's other friends are riding a spaceship. When Orbulon spotted Wario-Man, he shot him down. In WarioWare: Touched! Wario-Man was born again when a sickly Wario ate some moldy garlic. The effect of the garlic transformed him into Wario-Man once again. After showing off new powers, he was hit by a train as the effect began to wear out and was knocked into a sewer where he was promptly beat up by the Sewer Guru.

In Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix, Wario returned to his villainous ways and stole the red Music Key. He takes it to an amusement park with the intention of using it to create 'DDR: Wario Mix', a series of interpretive dances to all of his lesser qualities, such as stench, greed, and stubby legs. Mario or Luigi bested him in a dance contest, however, and he relinquished the key.

Wario discovered an ancient device known as the Form Baton in WarioWare: Smooth Moves and used it to bring a new craze to Diamond City. At the end of the game he tested a new motorcycle made for him by Penny Crygor. However, the motorcycle malfunctioned, sucked him up and spat him out as an army of Tiny Warios. The Tiny Warios attacked a strawberry field, and later combined together in order to become Wario again. However, at that point Wario was chased down by the Splunks, who forced him to return the Form Baton to the Temple of Form.

Further Adventuring

Wario in his thief costume

Wario would embark on another adventure in Wario: Master of Disguise. One day while watching some television in, Wario spied a new television program about the Silver Zephyr, a gentleman thief who used a magic wand to don different disguises. Envious of this thief's power, Wario devised the Telmet which allowed to enter television land. He stole the wand, Goodstyle which left the Silvery Zephyr as Count Cannoli. Wario renamed himself the Purple Wind (silent but deadly!) and took off to steal as much as he could. He inevitably got involved in a scheme to collect the five Wishstones. His efforts were constantly harassed by Count Cannoli and Carpaccio. It ultimately turned out that the Wishstones were used to steal away the ancient demon, Terrormisu and Wario had unwittingly released her. Wario was able to defeat her, and she fled back to her home dimension. Goodstyle revealed he was actually the first of the Cannoli clan that sealed Terrormisu away, and he was using Wario because he knew he could defeat her. Wario was angered that he had been used, but Goodstyle gave him access to the entire Cannoli fortune. Wario was ecstatic, but when he returned to the real world, he realized a fatal flaw in his plan: the Telmet only transported him! All of the riches he accumulated remained in television land, leaving Wario with nothing gained from this adventure.

Wario shaking it up

While relaxing on top of the Wario Car one day, Wario received an unexpected gift in Wario Land: Shake It!. The gift was the Ancient Globe received from none other than his old enemy Captain Syrup, whom had apparently turned a new leaf. He was immediately greeted by a Merfle, one of the subjects of Queen Merelda. With a great deal of disinterest, Wario heard the tale of how the evil Shake King had taken over the Shake Dimension and captured the Queen. It was only after the Merfle mentioned the Bottomless Coin Sack, one of the queen's treasures, that Wario suddenly took interest. Immediately Wario set off into the Shake Dimension. He met up with Captain Syrup on her new ship, the Sweet Stuff and underwent a few training exercises before setting off. In order to combat the Shake King, he had to free all of the Merfles imprisoned across the globe and defeat five evil bosses to gain their Boss Emblems. Only then was he able to break the seal of the Shake King's castle. The two did battle and Wario soon proved himself the better (and greedier) man and toppled the evil king. For his efforts, Queen Merelda came to greet him and thank him for his efforts. Not interested in her at all, he quickly grabbed her and tossed her aside and took the Bottomless Coin Sack with him back to his own world. But as he was lost in the nirvana of endless money, his riches were suddenly snatched out of his hands by a greedy Syrup, who had previously made a deal with Merfle that entitled her to the Coin Sack. A stunned Wario watched Syrup drive off with his loot while Merfle tried to explain. Enraged at being hoodwinked again, Wario took out his frustration on the Merfle.

The WarioWare company has since gone through several further adventures. WarioWare: Snapped! involved the opening of a Wario Park, and in WarioWare: D.I.Y., his employees quit for higher-paying jobs at Diamond Software, so he hired the player to make games for him instead using Dr. Crygor's new Super MakerMatic 21. In Game & Wario, Wario and his friends worked on making games for a new Wii U-esque console, with their games this time being more like minigames than microgames. Wario made a successful game called Pirates and advertised it in costume, but the game's fans confused him with the game's villain and attacked him with an energy blast.

WarioWare Gold

In Dr. Mario World, he appeared as Dr. Wario and was added to the game as a potential playable character in August 2019. He could be unlocked through the game's Staffing feature.

WarioWare: Get It Together!, WarioWare: Move It!

In Other Mario-Related Games

Sports, Racing and Party Spin-Offs

Wario and Waluigi team up to race

Wario has participated in most of the sports of the Mushroom Kingdom, despite his apparent hatred for Mario. These include:

• Kart Racing: Wario's first appearance in any of these spin-off games was as a playable racer in Mario Kart 64. Wario has gone on to be playable in almost all of the following games, including Mario Kart: Super Circuit, Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, Mario Kart DS, Mario Kart Arcade GP, Mario Kart Arcade GP 2, Mario Kart Wii, Mario Kart 7, Mario Kart Arcade GP DX (unlockable), Mario Kart 8, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Mario Kart Tour (available through gacha or the in-game shop starting in October 2019). In Tour, there were also variants of Wario that were temporarily made available during certain tours: a hiker variant (starting in the Vancouver Tour) and a cowboy variant (starting in the Wild West Tour, later made regularly available in the Yoshi Tour of 2022). Wario also appears as a non-playable opponent in Mario Kart Arcade GP VR.
• Golf: Wario was playable in Mario Golf 64, Mario Golf GB (after being defeated in the Match Game, being the last opponent after Mario), Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour, Mario Golf: Advance Tour (where he was unlocked by transferring 54 Birdie Badges from Toadstool Tour), Mario Golf: World Tour and Mario Golf: Super Rush.
• Tennis: Wario was playable in Mario Tennis 64, Mario Tennis GBC (in the minigame mode, through the Game Boy-Nintendo 64 transfer device), Mario Power Tennis, Mario Tennis Open, Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash and Mario Tennis Aces. His voice could also be heard announcing the Nintendo logo in the opening of Mario Tennis: Power Tour, but he was absent from the actual game.
• Baseball: Wario was a playable captain in Mario Superstar Baseball and Mario Super Sluggers. His team is the Wario Muscles.
• Soccer: Wario was also a playable captain in Super Mario Strikers, Mario Strikers Charged and Mario Strikers: Battle League.
• The Olympics: Wario was playable in Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games, Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games, Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games, Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.
• Other Sports: Wario is playable in Mario Hoops 3-on-3, Mario Sports Mix and Mario Sports Superstars.

Wario has also been featured in every installment of the Mario Party series, with the exception of Mario Party Advance.

Storyline Roles

In many of the opening cutscenes of the games, Wario was often seen with Waluigi trying to find ways to thwart the Mario brothers. In the Mario Tennis 64 intro, Wario and Waluigi watched as the others started off a tournament. During a match between Mario and Luigi, the two of them barged in to settle their rivalries. However the unexpected arrival of Bowser, who just wanted to play Tennis, eased the tensions. In Toadstool Tour, Wario and Waluigi spied on Mario and Luigi playing a friendly game of golf with Peach and Daisy. Aiming to show them up, they tried to have an unsuccessful competition with Yoshi and Koopa Troopa, which led to a confrontation with an extremely angry Bowser.

In the Power Tennis opening, Wario and Waluigi lost a match to Mario and Luigi. Later, when defacing a picture of Mario and Luigi on the scoreboard, they ended up being pursued by the police. While escaping, they stumbled into Bowser's secret training facility and spent time training there in order to beat the Mario brothers. They interrupted the final match by taking Donkey Kong and Yoshi's place. Rather than play tennis, they brought out a Bob-Omb firing machine instead. Mario and eventually all of the other competitors ended up using their Tennis Rackets to send the Bob-Ombs flying back towards Wario and Waluigi as well as Bowser's blimp in the air. The three villains ended up being caught in a huge explosion of Bob-Ombs for their efforts.

The Super Mario Strikers intro began with a match between Wario and Mario, which ultimately ended in Wario's defeat. In the Superstar Baseball intro, Wario received an invitation to play Baseball when Bowser issued a flyer out asking for challengers. During the competition, Wario was seen playing on the side of Waluigi and Donkey Kong. Despite a strong showing, eventually their side lost.

Wario also had a role in the Challenge Mode of Mario Super Sluggers, where his area of the Baseball Kingdom was the Wario City. However, Bowser Jr. turned off the power of the city, causing it to be filled with a fog and stranding Wario on a rooftop. After Mario's friends came to rescue him, he would then be recruited into their baseball team. Wario could use his magnet power from Yoshi's Island DS to move metallic objects and was the only character who could open treasure chests. In the ending movie, he and Waluigi, in the manner of the previous intro movies, attempted to sabotage the fireworks ceremony by replacing one of the bob-ombs Mario was supposed to knock into the sky with his bat with a Bullet Bill (which presumably his bat was too weak to deflect), but Bowser leaped in at the last minute to send it back to Wario and Waluigi. Instead of being hit by the bullet, Wario and Waluigi were caught on its arms, which carried them into the sky before exploding and dropping them.

In the Story Mode of Mario Party 3, he was associated with the Star Stamp of Wit.

Cameos and Non-Storyline Roles

• In Mario Clash, an image of Wario could appear to congratulate the player after hitting 500,000 points.
• In Mario's Super Picross and Picross 2, Wario was featured in his own mode which had harder puzzles. Picross NP Volume 7 was also based on Wario Land II and featured Wario's likeness.
• In the Game & Watch Gallery series, Wario appears in some of the Modern versions of Game & Watch games from Game & Watch Gallery 2 onwards. He appears as both a playable character and in non-playable roles.
• In Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, there is a poster in the Yoshi Theater showing Wario's name with an image of his eyes, nose and mustache. This poster was omitted from the remake.
• In Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, wearing the W Emblem badge will change Mario's clothes to Wario's colors.
• In New Super Mario Bros., Wario's image was used to represent a third player in the Vs. Battle Minigames. Wario also appeared in some of the minigames, which were originally from Super Mario 64 DS.
• In Yoshi's Woolly World, a Yoshi design based on Wario's biker outfit could be unlocked by scanning an amiibo of Wario. A design based on Wario's classic appearance was also made available in Poochy & Yoshi's Woolly World.
• In New Super Mario Bros. U, if the third player is a Mii, that Mii will be depicted wearing Wario's shirt and overalls.
• In Super Mario Maker, Wario's form (wearing the biker outfit) is among the costumes that Mario can change into when using a Mystery Mushroom. The Wario costume can be unlocked by scanning an amiibo of Wario or by completing a 100-Mario Challenge. It is also possible to flip the M in the game's logo upside down on the title screen, which will cause voice clips of Wario to play.
• Mario could wear Wario's outfit in Super Mario Odyssey.

Abilities

Wario is often shown as having great strength. This is especially particular in the Wario Land games. Whereas Mario prefers to jump on enemies, Wario can release a charging attack to tackle them into next week. Wario also utilizes the hip drop technique, and he often picks up enemies to throw at other enemies. On the other hand, Wario can barely jump into the air and is often slow and sluggish compared to the more nimble and acrobatic Mario brothers. He is naturally classified in the heavyweight class in the sports games. Additionally, in Super Mario 64 DS, Wario is the only person who can change into Metal form, after exposure to the Power Flower.

Wario also has a variety of other forms, which are mostly seen in the Wario Land games. Some are gained through power-ups like Mario's, but most Wario can gain from being attacked by certain enemies (for example, being pounded would turn him into Flat Wario). See Wario's Different Forms for more info.

Other Appearances

Video Games

• Wario was featured in Wario Blast: Featuring Bomberman! a crossover game with Bomberman that was modified from a normal Bomberman game. In the game's story, Wario discovered a portal to another world and decided to raid for money and possible minions in the forms of the Madbombers. It turned out that the Madbombers were not willing to be mindless minions, and Wario had to battle them instead. In this game, the player could choose whether to play as Wario or Bomberman, and the two were seen chasing each other in the end credits.
• Wario appeared in Excitebike: Bun Bun Mario Battle Stadium. In its first episode, he only appeared as a computer-controlled opponent, but he became a playable character in the following episodes of the game.
• In Pilotwings 64, the Little States map contained a version of Mount Rushmore which had Mario's head, but it would change into Wario's head if shot.
• Wario made a guest appearance in the eighth world of the Japan-only game Densetsu no Stafy 3. In this world, he worked together with Stafy to get treasure and used some of his transformations from the Wario Land games. He gave Stafy a treasure related to him in each of the first three levels. These treasures were a Wario hat, a Warioware game and a Wario nose and mustache set.
• In Yakuman DS, Wario appeared as a secret opponent who could be unlocked by completing all of the Easy challenges in the game's Challenge Mode, and he was the fourth-best player in the game.
• In Kirby Super Star Ultra, Wario could be seen in the audience spectating Kirby's fight with King Dedede in the "Spring Breeze" mode.
• Wario has appeared as a playable character in the board game-themed crossover games Itadaki Street DS and Fortune Street.
• In Nintendo releases of Minecraft, Wario is available as a playable skin through the Super Mario Mash-Up Pack.
• In Rhythm Heaven Megamix, Tiny Warios and a wrestler dressed as Wario-Man all appeared in a set of WarioWare-themed challenges.
• In Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, one Rabbid midboss dresses as Wario and is called Bwario. He is paired with a similar Rabbid named Bwaluigi.

Super Smash Bros.

Within the Super Smash Bros. series, Wario appeared as a playable fighter in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS/Wii U and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, being an unlockable character in every game after his first appearance. Wario appears with his WarioWare outfit as his default appearance, but his classic overalls are available as a set of alternate costumes. His special moves are derived from a combination of WarioWare and original moves, and he also has his tackling ability from Wario Land in Brawl.

In the 3DS Smash, he is unlocked by playing 30 Vs. Matches or clearing 100-Man Smash, and in the Wii U version he is unlocked by playing 20 Vs. Matches or clearing 100-Man Smash. In Ultimate, he could be unlocked through the game's variable-based system for unlocking characters, or by awakening him in Adventure Mode (where he is found at Dracula's Castle). His Classic Mode route in Ultimate, which is called "I'm-a Gonna Win!", consists of pitting Wario against physically powerful characters and ends with a battle against Master Hand (with Crazy Hand on harder difficulties).

In the latter two games, Wario's hat has also been available as headgear for Mii Fighters.

Abilities

Wario has the following moveset:

• Standard Special Move: Chomp- Wario will reach forward with his mouth to bite into his opponent. If successful, he will continue to bite into his enemy until they break free.
• Side Special Move: Wario Bike- Wario whips out his motorcycle from the Warioware games and rides it around. If he gets knocked off of it, he has to re board it afterwards.
• Up Special Move: Corkscrew- Wario spins upwards into the air.
• Down Special Move: Wario Waft- The infamous farting attack; the attack is charged up and is more powerful the longer it is held in. A powerful fart can propel Wario straight into the air.
• Final Smash: Wario-Man- Wario transforms into his Warioware alterego by eating garlic. Wario-Man is controlled similarly to Wario, but he can pummel enemies, negate various moves, deliver a powerful shoulder tackle and fly while performing his midair attacks. The only downside is that using the motorcycle as Wario-Man will cause the motorcycle to go uncontrollably fast.

Trophies/Stickers/Spirits

Prior to becoming playable, he appeared as a trophy in Melee. In Brawl, he has two trophies: one normal trophy and one of his Final Smash, Wario-Man. Wario also appears as six different stickers- using artwork of Wario from Super Mario 64 DS, WarioWare: Smooth Moves, Super Mario Strikers, with his bike from WarioWare: Mega Microgame$', as Tiny Wario from Virtual Boy Wario Land and as Wario-Man from WarioWare: Touched!!. In the fourth Smash Bros., he has two unlockable trophies, as well as a trophy of Wario with the Bruiser from Mario Kart in the 3DS version and a trophy of Wario-Man in the Wii U version. In Ultimate, he has two different Fighter Spirits (for his biker outfit and his classic outfit), and there is also a Legend-rank Primary Spirit of Wario-Man.

Brawl: The Subspace Emissary

In "The Subpace Emissary", Wario was one of the antagonists serving under Master Hand as part of the Subspace Army. He went around using a Dark Cannon to turn fighters into trophies. He first appeared at the end of the first level, capturing whichever princess (out of Peach and Princess Zelda) that Kirby had failed to save. Wario later attempted to capture Ness at the Ruined Zoo. But when Ness continuously dodged his beams, he instead aimed his cannon at Lucas so that Ness took the blow instead, and Ness was captured by Wario.

Wario stored the trophies in a special hovering car; he was later lured out when he saw a trophy of Luigi lying on the side of the road. At that point King Dedede stole his kart, and a swarm of Waddle Dees took the Luigi statue from him. Wario then battled Lucas and Red at the ruins, but he was defeated and became a trophy. Soon afterwards a Subspace Bomb was set off, and Wario's trophy was sucked into the portal to Subspace. It remained there until freed near the end of the game. Wario then joined the party and rode his motorcycle up the staircase towards the Underground Maze and the final battle with Tabuu.

Canceled Appearances

• The earliest proposed concept for Donkey Kong Country was called Donkey Kong vs. Super Wario. As implied by the title, Wario would have been featured as the main villain. The premise was that Wario would use a stolen time machine to obtain some type of futuristic gun, with which he would turn others into stone in order to conquer Nintendo Land. This concept did not make it far before it was discarded, as Nintendo wished for Rare to use a new villain for the game. This ultimately resulted in the creation of King K. Rool.
• A Mario Land game was in development for the Virtual Boy prior to its cancellation. Little is known of the game, but one of the few available screencaps showed a Thwomp-like enemy with Wario's face. This implied that Wario was intended to play a role in the game, likely as an antagonist in a follow-up to Super Mario Land 2.
• In one build of the canceled game Diddy Kong Pilot, Wario was included as a playable character and was seen riding a plane that resembled his canonical biplane, the Bulldog.
• Unused text in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga indicates that Wario was one of the guest characters planned to appear when a new drink was made, and apparently he was to appear to taste the Hoohoo Blend, causing the cashier to complain about his outstanding tab. He would give the player an item called Wario's Gold, which was changed to a Greed Wallet in the final game.
• Shigeru Miyamoto has stated that he considered including Wario as a playable character in New Super Mario Bros. Wii and would have given him a flatulence-based attack, but he was ultimately not included in favor of ensuring that all playable characters would have the same abilites.

Other Media

• Wario appeared throughout the Super Mario-Kun manga series after first making a one-panel teaser appearance in an issue based on Super Mario Kart. This included arcs based on Super Mario Land 2, Wario's Woods, Mario & Wario and Wario Land, although his role in the Wario Land adaptation was diminished due to Mario, Yoshi and Luigi also appearing. He was also featured in a spin-off manga started from 2007 to 2010 entitled Ore Dayo! Wario Dayo!! (which translates to It's Me! I am Wario!!), which focused on Wario games such as Wario World, Wario: Master of Disguise and Wario Land: Shake It!.
• Wario was featured in a pair of "Mario Vs. Wario" comics printed in Nintendo Power magazine as follow-ups to the "Super Mario Adventures" comics. The first was based on Super Mario Land 2 and had Wario inviting Mario to his house and having bosses from the game attack him as he came. The root of Wario's hatred for Mario was shown to be Mario's unintentional bullying of Wario in their childhood days. In the second comic, they competed in buying Princess Peach a present she wanted (a Samus Aran doll), only to end up sabotaging each other while Luigi outdid them both.

Trivia

• In addition to flipping the "M' in Mario's name, Wario's name is a play on "warui", the Japanese word for "bad'.
• He was developed to give Mario a nemesis that was compared to Popeye's nemesis Bluto.
• It is implied in Mario Golf that Wario's mustache is fake; it is found along with a yellow cap in one of the lockers in the clubhouse.