Wario


 * For the universe, see Wario (universe). For the Japanese Smash 64 player, see Smasher:wario.

Wario (, Wario) is a villainous character from the series, who eventually became popular enough to spawn his own side-franchise. He made a cameo in Super Smash Bros. Melee as a trophy and became a full playable character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Super Smash Bros. 4, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. He is known to be Mario's rival.

Origin
After the critical and financial success of the 1989 Game Boy launch title , a sequel was immediately put into production. This sequel, released in 1992 titled , has Mario discover that his castle has been taken over by his antagonistic, greedy counterpart, Wario, and he must retrieve the 6 Golden Coins hidden around the land to get his home back. In the final showdown, Wario was revealed to look very much like Mario himself, except fatter, more muscular, slightly shorter, and with a big, bulbous nose that had a jagged, pointy mustache jutting out of it. In a three-part battle, Wario uses the same power-ups that Mario had access to throughout the game, and adds his own abilities to the mix. Wario charges at his opponent with his shoulder, and crashes to the floor butt first, which became staple moves for the character in future games. When bested by Mario, he reverted to a "tiny" form, and escaped out the window to search for better treasures.

Wario became the breakout star of that game and quickly developed a cult following. He would go onto take over the Mario Land series starting with  in 1994. The game is a radical departure from the previous two games, which were slightly altered versions of the 2D Mario formula. In this game, Wario sets out to earn as much gold as possible, so he can buy his own castle and rub it in Mario's face. Wario controls much differently than Mario; instead of deploying simply jumping on the heads of enemies and using simple powerups, Wario relied on his brute strength with moves like the shoulder check and the ability to sport various hats that gave him different powers, such as a dragon hat that spewed fire. Wario can still jump on enemies, where they are temporarily unable to move, allowing him to pick up and throw them. He also gained his own villain in this adventure, the equally greedy, who captured a Genie to use for her own selfish purposes. By the end of the quest, Wario defeats Syrup and pays the Genie to grant him his castle. Future games in the Wario Land series shared similar structures of Wario traveling through off-beat settings towards a personal goal, being motivated through selfishness and greed with heroism being secondary at best.

After creating what they coined as "microgames" for  on the 64DD, Nintendo wanted to expand the concept into a whole game, and decided that Wario was crass and unpredictable enough for the tone they were going for. This grew into the  series, where Wario and an eclectic cast of side characters perform these various microgames in over the top scenarios. Most plots revolve around Wario wanting to make video games for profit and either tricking or coercing acquaintances into making the games for him. This series is also one of the few Nintendo developed franchises to adopt voice acting, with WarioWare Gold specifically having all cutscenes fully voiced.

Wario, as mentioned previously, is meant to be an exaggerated foil to Mario. Alongside his name swapping the M with a W, his name is also a portmanteau of Mario combined with the Japanese phrase, which translates to bad in English, essentially giving him the name "Bad Mario." Wario does not care about ethics and altruism like his rivals, and only attempts to help others when he directly benefits. An example of this is during  where he incidentally defeats the Shake King, saves Queen Merelda and liberates the Shake Dimension from tyranny all to obtain the Bottomless Coin Sack. Wario is miserly to the extant of hoarding his treasure so no one else can find it and double-crossing his friends for a payout. Wario is also motivated by other things he enjoys like food and leisure. While Wario enjoys all types of food, his absolute favorite is garlic, often eating whole cloves at a time. This on top of his poor hygiene has led to his signature foul odors and extreme flatulence seen in many of his appearances. Wario also enjoys causing chaos, often pulling pranks on other characters because he finds it funny. Waluigi often joins in on these schemes. Wario is often shown to be surprisingly athletic and muscular for his perceived obesity, performing feats on par with or even exceeding what Mario can do. While Wario is generally seen as antagonistic in most of his appearances, he is rarely depicted as malicious and is often used for comic relief, providing whacky side plots running parallel to the main story and often being the catalyst for the major conflict.

In Super Smash Bros.
Wario did not directly appear in the original Super Smash Bros. in any capacity. A popular rumor though claims he was planned to be playable in the game along with Bowser, King Dedede, Mewtwo, and Marth, among other characters, before being cut for space/time constraints. However, unlike the aforementioned four characters, no definitive official source has ever been found that proves Wario was ever planned to be included as a playable character.

In an official poll held on Smabura-Ken (the game's official Japanese website) regarding characters for a potential sequel, Wario was the third most wanted character overall with 65 votes, after Bowser (169 votes) and Princess Peach (66 votes).

As a color scheme
While he does not appear in the game, Wario's color scheme appears as a palette swap for, though it has no effect on gameplay whatsoever.

In Super Smash Bros. Melee
Many people suggested to Masahiro Sakurai to add Wario as a playable character for Melee's roster, and Sakurai also stated that he would have added Wario to the roster if he had enough time to add one more character. Despite this, Sakurai decided against him, as he was concerned that the game would have too many characters from the series. He also explained that he could've implemented Wario with the development time allocated to or  and  (despite planning on including all three of those characters in the roster as playable characters), or that he could have instead included Wario as a clone of, but had rejected the offer.

As a color scheme
Wario is once again referenced by a costume with his colors being sported by. As in Smash 64, this costume change has no effect on gameplay. The only changes to the overall "Wario" color scheme are the blue M, and the silver rivets and buttons.

Trophy
In addition, Wario has his own trophy in the game, unlocked by beating All-Star Mode on any difficulty level without continuing.

As a playable character
Wario is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. His appearance draws inspiration primarily from the WarioWare series, although a couple of his animations still reference his other appearances, like his forward smash which is his iconic from the Wario Land series. As a fighter, his attacks and maneuvres are animated in a choppy, frame-by-frame nature, causing Wario's movements to be very erratic and sometimes comical in nature; this ranges from a dash where he appears to be dancing (similar to 's movement), to a fart attack that builds up in power as time passes. Mario still has a Wario color scheme, and the "M" on his cap is still blue. Wario can wear his biker suit from WarioWare, as well as his original Mario-style suit from the Mario series and Wario Land. His Final Smash is Wario-Man, where he consumes garlic, turning the already insane anti-hero into a more powerful caped "superhero".

Wario's combination of having heavy weight, a surprisingly small frame, and high air speed makes him a very defensive character who is difficult to KO. He is ranked 10th on the tier list in B tier.

As a playable character
Wario was unofficially revealed as a playable character in SSB4 with the Japanese release of the 3DS version, first publicised on September 11, 2014 in a Twitch livestream, before being formally confirmed on October 3. Prior to his reveal, the Nintendo 3DS eShop listed on a list of games that include Wario, though it was later removed when this was made public. A supposed report from the Australia Classification Board provided further evidence for Wario's inclusion, as his design and Wario Waft attack apparently contributed toward the game receiving a PG rating.

Wario's moveset is mostly unchanged, with the exception of him having his up and side smash attacks replaced with different moves. Wario's animations now are far more fluid, which is best exemplified with his new running animation. Wario also lost palette swaps, now only having 8 color swaps (4 biker, 4 overall) like every other character (except Little Mac), as opposed to his 12 color swaps in Brawl. He is now an unlockable character, as opposed to being a starter like he was in Brawl.

also retains his Wario color scheme, except the "M" on his cap is green instead of blue.

In the transition from Brawl, Wario gained a number of decent buffs, yet the few nerfs he also received were relatively drastic. The removal of DACUS took away Wario's Gatling Combo, removing an effective part of his offensive game. While Wario's new forward smash delivers much more knockback, it is much slower in start-up lag, and also lacks the transcendent priority and armor of his old forward smash. His superb air acceleration was also reduced slightly, though it remains as one of the best in the game. Some of the buffs Wario gained include extra utility to Wario Bike, as it can now be ridden indefinitely until Wario dismounts manually or is forced off by an attack. It can also now be pulled out immediately upon despawning, ending a wheelie can now slam down on opponents for huge knockback, and throwing it at opponents has the potential to cause large amounts of damage. Wario Waft was also given more knockback at full charge, making it even more deadly. Forward throw also received more KO power, making it a viable KO throw, especially close to edges. Wario currently ranks 41st out of 55 characters on the tier list; while he has secured some noteworthy results in tournaments, his overall representation and results are relatively uncommon when compared to Brawl.

As a playable character
Wario was officially revealed as a playable character in the Nintendo Direct at E3 2018 on June 12, 2018. Like in SSB4, he is an unlockable character.

Wario's moveset is mostly the same as his moveset in SSB4, with some minor changes. Most notable is the replacement of his sliding dash attack with his iconic shoulder barge from the  series. He still retains his 8 color swaps (4 biker, 4 overall) from SSB4, although his overall costumes now occupy the even-numbered costume slots rather than the second half.

Also, for the first time in the series, no longer has his Wario-inspired, as he gains two new costumes from ' and '.

Trivia

 * Wario is the only character that was introduced before Super Smash Bros. 4 that has never had fewer than eight alternate costumes.
 * Wario is also one of two characters who had their number of alternate costumes reduced from one game to another, as he had 12 colors in Brawl and 8 in Smash 4. The other is Little Mac, who was reduced from 16 to 8 from Smash 4 to Ultimate.
 * Wario is the second non- fighter to have alterations to his costume aside from recolors.
 * Prior to Ultimate, Wario was the only character who debuted as a starter and later became an unlockable character.