Wario

Wario (ワリオ) first started off as an antagonist in the Mario games, but since then has appeared in his own games such as the WarioWare series, and Wario World for the GameCube. He quite often makes playable appearances in nontraditional Mario games like the Mario Sports series. Typically wearing purple overalls and a yellow shirt, Wario sports a spiked and suitably tweakable moustache, large gut, muscular arms and wicked cackle.

Wario essentially embodies the antithesis of Mario. Whereas Mario is kind, altruistic and brave, Wario is shown to be greedy, cowardly and exploitative of others. Where Mario embarks on quests to save others from peril, Wario often is out simply to gather treasure and make enormous profits, although he has a tendency to help out others through coincidence, for example in Wario Land 3 and 4 (something that often visibly irritates him). He's also famous for his bizarre behavior, which is much more exploited in games themed after him like the WarioWare series. Wario is extremely vain in spite of his less-than-photogenic appearance, emblazoning his castles and Mario Kart racetracks with his image and even working his signature nose-and-moustache combo into all of his WarioWare games. Wario's games often have a more madcap and surreal sense of humour than Mario's, reflecting the comic nature of the man himself. Unfortunately for Wario, his money-grubbing schemes tend to end disastrously.

Other key attributes of Wario include his immense strength, in spite of his rotundity and fondness for food; in various games Wario has demonstrated his ability to smash through walls and hurl enemies far larger than himself. He is also depicted as being tougher than Mario and able to take a considerable beating; indeed, in the Wario Land games being frozen, crushed or set aflame merely prompts Wario to temporarily transform (while looking rather disgruntled; indeed, the Wario Land 3 manual makes it clear that Wario takes issue with Nintendo's game designers for his punishing ordeal).

Wario also made his Super Smash Bros. playable debut in Super Smash Bros. Brawl for Wii. Wario's special moves are the Chomp, where he bits his enemies, the Wario Bike, where Wario rides on his motorcycle, the Corkscrew, which he does an upward twisting jump, and the Wario Waft, an attack that involves explosive flatulence. He wears his costume from WarioWare Inc., as well as his traditional overalls outfit.

Wario's name is chiefly a portmanteau of the Japanese word warui, roughly meaning 'bad', and Mario's name, thus forming 'Bad Mario'. In addition 'W' and 'M' resemble each other when inverted, further making Wario's name indicative of his nature as Mario's 'evil twin'.

History
Wario's first game was Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins for the Game Boy. In this game, you learned that when Mario went off to save Princess Daisy from Tatanga in the game Super Mario Land, Wario went to steal, or take over Mario's Castle and its surrounding island. Wario then gave the 6 gold coins containing the power of the castle to 6 trusted allies of his, including Tatanga. These 6 gold coins were the key to getting inside the castle, so Mario would have to hunt them down to get inside the castle to stop Wario.

After Super Mario Land 2, Wario started to become very popular, so he starred as a boss in another game titled Mario and Wario, a Japan only game for the SNES. In this game, Wario would throw a bucket on top of either Mario, Yoshi, or Peach's head, so Wanda the Fairy would then have to guide them to stop Wario. This is one of the few games to use the SNES Mouse.

Soon after Mario and Wario, Nintendo released Wario's Woods, a game for the SNES and the NES. In this game, Wario attacks the Mushroom Kingdom, so Toad had to stop him. In the NES version, Wario was the only boss, though the SNES version had multiple bosses including Wario. Wario's Woods is the only game on the NES to have an ESRB rating.

Soon after Wario's Woods, Nintendo gave the rights to Hudson to a Bomberman game with Wario as a guest. The game is called Wario Blast: Featuring Bomberman!. It's unknown whether or not this game was the influence for Wario to always use bombs in games after that, but it is expected by some.

Wario also starred in his minigame collection, WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$! for the Game Boy Advance. The game also had a GCN spinoff called WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Party Game$!, both starred the characters Orbulon, 9-Volt, Wario, and other various new characters. Further titles in the series have included WarioWare: Twisted!, WarioWare: Touched! and WarioWare: Smooth Moves (on the GBA, DS and Wii respectively). In the original WarioWare, Wario decides to exploit the burgeoning video game industry for profit in a piece of self-satire from Nintendo. To save money all of his games are to be micro-sized, while development duties are mostly handed out to his friends in Diamond City. Unbeknownst to them, Wario fully intends to keep all the profits. Further games have involved other loose plots and madcap humor, with microgames appearing apropos of nothing.

Wario entered the Mushroom Kingdom fraternity proper in Mario Kart 64, his first appearance as a playable character in a Mario spin-off title. Quickly endearing himself with declarations that he was "gonna wheen", he has appeared in every Mario Kart title since, always as a heavyweight character. Appearances in Mario Tennis, Mario Golf, Mario Party and an array of other titles followed, with Wario proving quite adept at sport in spite of his portly frame and disproportionately tiny legs.

He also appeared as one of the villains in Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix.

Owing to his popularity as a comic anti-hero, Wario has starred in a number of solo platformer adventures over the years, mostly in the vein of Mario's earlier outings and mostly on handheld consoles. Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land, while trading on Mario's familiarity, marked the first Wario platforming adventure, in which the yellow archfiend set out to capture a massive golden statue of Princess Peach that had been stolen by the Black Sugar Pirates, led by Captain Syrup. Two further Game Boy/Color outings were to follow - Wario Land II, in which Wario's treasure was stolen by the Black Sugar Pirates, and Wario Land 3, in which Wario was abducted by a music box that he stumbled upon in a cave and was promised treasure for helping its apparent former ruler. Wario Land 4, on the Game Boy Advance, marked a departure from the previous two games in the series in that Wario was able to die, and saw Wario exploring an ancient pyramid in a quest, once again, for wealth. Wario: Master of Disguise has been his only Nintendo DS adventure thus far. Remarkably Wario even appeared in a title for the ill-fated Virtual Boy, the aptly-named Virtual Boy Wario Land.

Wario's only starring role on a home console was in Wario World on the GameCube. A mysterious black jewel, stolen by Wario and added to his treasure horde, came to life in the middle of the night and promptly set about transforming Wario's castle and all of his treasures into a parallel dimension populated by bizarre monsters.

The Many Transformations of Wario
Wario has become known over the years for his many and varied transformations, as brought about mostly by certain enemies in his platforming adventures. Notable examples include -


 * Fiery Wario - Upon being set a aflame, Wario would dash back and forth uncontrollably, eventually being consumed by the fire and reduced to a pile of ash. Remarkably he was able to reconstitute himself.
 * Frozen Wario - Nothing more than Wario reduced to the status of a slippery hunk of ice. The ice would shatter when it hit a wall.
 * Crazy Wario - Wandering around in a daze to jaunty theme music, Wario lost much control over his movements. An ability to knock out his enemies with a bizarre killer belch was removed after Wario Land II.
 * Snowman Wario - Another chilly metamorphosis. Snowman Wario could crush all in his wake, but would become an out-of-control snowball upon hitting a downward slope.
 * Fat Wario - Wario, already known for his mighty girth, could swell to even more portly proportions. His movement would be impaired, but his colossal flab could destroy any enemies in his path. A little exercise could cure the condition; a lesson learned for all.
 * Tiny Wario - Nothing more than Wario reduced to the status of a two-foot super-midget. Tiny Wario did have the advantage of a rapid run and the ability to fit through narrow gaps. As seen at the end of Super Mario Land 2.
 * Vampire/Bat Wario - In Wario Land 3 Wario donned a fetching cape and gained the supernatural power to defeat enemies by walking into them - by getting a bite from a bat. He could also transform into a bat himself. Regarding this as a rather cool transformation in the Wario Land 3 manual, he was no doubt disappointed by the decision in Wario Land 4 to remove the 'vampire' part. Also seen in Dr Mario 64.
 * Wario Man - As seen in the WarioWare series. Wario Man can do literally everything that regular Wario can, all while wearing an hilarious bright pink outfit. He may have been "stronger than cardboard", but he proved no match for an oncoming freight train in WarioWare: Touched!. Wario can turn into Wario Man by eating 'funky' garlic.

Super Smash Bros. series
Wario never was a playable character until Super Smash Bros. Brawl, though he did appear as a trophy in the GameCube game Super Smash Bros. Melee.

In Brawl, Wario, as every other character, has a wide assortment of attacks that he is able to perform. He is a very hard character to predict when mastered and has one of the best aerial games because of his very fast lateral air movement and his aerial attacks are excellent comboing. He also is a very small character for a heavyweight. His most notable attacks are his Chomp, the Wario Bike, the Corkscrew, the Wario Waft and his Final Smash, Wario-Man. If he uses the Wario Bike, he will hop on a motorcycle and drive around the stage smashing into his opponents. He is able to get off of it, though other people can then pick it up (only Wario can drive it, but other Warios can also drive another's Bike). The Wario Waft is a move that will shoot you upwards after Wario passes massive gas. Wario-Man is Wario's alter-ego and Final Smash. Wario's attacks have different properties as Wario-Man, and his special moves become more powerful as well. Use caution when using the Wario Bike, as it becomes much faster, and if you use it, Wario will move so quickly you might not be able to control him, and he could easily fly right off the screen (but it's easy to control when mastered)! Also, a fully charged Wario Waft becomes a One-Hit KO, and also charges faster but can't reach the max charging.

Trophy descriptions
Super Smash Bros. Melee
 * "An old acquaintance of Mario's. His failure to seize Mario's castle has fueled Wario's desire for a palace of his own. Wario has herculean strength and can do things that even Mario can't imitate. His unexpected skills include a talent with items and the ability to assume many roles, among them a snowman, a zombie, and a bat."

Super Smash Bros. Brawl
 * "Mario's self-styled rival. He loves money and gross humor. He often sets out in search of hidden treasure. His bold moves come from his superhuman strength and are completely different from Mario's moves. Aside from adventuring, he's also the chairman of game maker WarioWare, Inc. Its franchise game is WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$."