An interesting thing for me is how the Wario Land games were really coming out when Mario wasn't. He was first introduced in Super Mario Land 2 of course, and then the next game is the start of the Wario Land series, with the last game being Shake It! for the Wii in 2008 once the New Super Mario Bros series had already started. Even the prototype for a Virtual Boy Mario Land turned into another Wario Land. Maybe once Nintendo brought back Mario's 2D platformers after the absence they wanted to focus on him again and not Wario. Or maybe that does not make sense. I don't know.