Wario

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Wario's design emerged from Super Mario Land's team wanting their own character to symbolize their situation. He is a malevolent caricature featuring a large head, cleft chin, muscular arms, and a zig-zagging mustache, wearing yellow and purple plumber attire. While Nintendo originally considered making him German, he became Italian like Mario; voice actor Charles Martinet noted that while Wario is jealous and mean-gruff, he lacks any German influence despite early translation plans. His relationship with Waluigi remains ambiguous; though early European material portrayed them as brothers, Martinet described them in 2008 simply as "two nice, evil guys who found each other." In his earliest appearances like Super Mario Land 2 and Wario's Woods, he was sometimes depicted with magical abilities, such as turning enemies into minions, but his size changes in those games are gameplay mechanics rather than consistent magical traits. After Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 (1994), garlic became a recurring health item, though mushrooms also appeared in that game; the shift to garlic as his signature item was gradual. Later entries in the WarioWare series depicted him as a smelly slob who transforms into "Wario-Man" via garlic, gaining powers related to flatulence and bad breath.

In Their Own Story

In his debut, Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (1992), Wario captured Mario's castle and locked the hero out, with Tatanga serving as his henchman. He later appeared as a villain in the Japan-only puzzle game Mario & Wario (1993) by dropping buckets on characters. His first protagonist role arrived in Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 (1994), introducing villains Captain Syrup and her Brown Sugar Pirates. This was followed by Virtual Boy Wario Land (1995) and the 1998 sequel Wario Land II, which introduced his invulnerability to burning or flattening. The series continued with Wario Land 3 (2000), Wario Land 4 (2001), and the console debut Wario World (2003) for GameCube. In 2007, Wario: Master of Disguise utilized touch controls, leading to the 2008 Wii release Wario Land: Shake It!, which featured hand-drawn animation requiring over 2,000 frames. Simultaneously, the WarioWare series began in 2003 with Mega Microgames! on Game Boy Advance, evolving through titles like Twisted! (2004), Touched! (2004), and Smooth Moves (2006) to explore mini-game mechanics.

Reader's Guide

Wario is a playable character in Mario spin-offs including Mario Sports games, Mario Kart, and Mario Party, where he typically pairs with Waluigi as a comedy duo rivaling Mario and Luigi. He also appears frequently in the Super Smash Bros. fighting game series. His gameplay often emphasizes strength; for instance, in Mario Strikers: Battle League, his special shot involves smashing his butt into the ball before devouring garlic. In WarioWare: Touched!, he uses farts as a special attack, while bombs serve as visual motifs for microgame time limits. Designers for Wario Land: Shake It! focused on his reckless behavior and masculinity, with design director Tadanori Tsukawaki describing him as "so uncool that he ends up being extremely cool." Although an early 1990s guide claimed they were childhood friends, this was later contested, establishing them instead as childhood rivals. Director Shigeru Miyamoto advised actors in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (2026) to avoid crude jokes for Mario but confirmed Wario's bodily function humor would remain intact.

Did You Know?

• Wario's name is a portmanteau of "Mario" and the Japanese word warui, meaning "bad."
• Voice actor Charles Martinet voiced Wario from 1993 to 2023.
• In Wario Land: Shake It!, Wario's design required more than 2,000 frames of animation.
• Wario was originally planned as a German character before being made Italian like Mario.
• Wario first appeared in 1992, not 1993 as sometimes mistakenly reported.