Not Feeling Great About Wario's Future

[warelander]

Been a while since I posted here. For a long time I kept on active regarding Wario via my blog, particularly on Twitter where it genuinely managed to gain surprising momentum, but as of now that's on hiatus for an undetermined time.

The truth is, I don't really feel optimistic for Wario's future.

The catalyst for it was Move It. Even ignoring I have issues with it that I find far more severe than the occasional, but ultimately tolerable jank in Smooth Moves, I hate it's treatment of Wario himself.

I have been historically positive about WarioWare's portrayel of the big W himself and I stand by that, but everything since Move It has felt like the things WW detractors claim of him in this series made reality.

In non-english versions of the game such as japanese or german, Wario is actually notably nice about bringing the others along for the vacation and in general this is one of the most harmless, tame versions of him ever. I am more than cool with that, the problem is that it makes his treatment over the game feel incredibly unearned.

The intro stage while very contrived in making Wario act nonsensically dumb to get him to being chased, is fine enough on it's own, but then Wario disappears for most of the game, being absent for the Remix stages and not getting his own special mode. When he returns for the final stage it's not some fun wacky hyjnx ala' Wario-Man, instead he is victimized to be made part of the volcano, for everyone else to solve the issue, while Wario has no agency and is then spat out to get his arse stuck in a pedestal for extra humiliation. The others cause problems on the island too, like hurting and bothering the octopus in Remix 2, but basically get rewarded with a fun time. Wario tries to get treasure in the least harmful to anyone way and gets punished for an entire stage for something he had no way of knowing would happen.

Wario is barely arund and devolved into being the straw loser of the cast, rather than a wacky face among several wacky faces. But hey, at least no excessive fart jokes.

Then the official WarioWare website added the fart button and proceeded to do fuck all since. They even advertised the fart button in their official magazine.

And now Wario finally gets some presence on Nintendo Today...and it's Wario's Aroma of the day, which is basiccally the fart button again, but expanded with lovely variants like Wario ripping his pants or shitting himself, while commenting on it with glee.

Yeah.

Not everything's been bad, the spin-offs have been consistently good to Wario, but overall I feel this is a horrible era for him so far. Yoshi and DK get platformers, theme park attractions and movie appearances, while Wario is MIA in all of it, Wario Land remains dead, WarioWare released a new sales bomb after actually finding succcess again with Get It Together and everything WW since has been non-stop farts.

Could things improve? Sure, but I need to see something actually happen, because as is, once Wario is away from Mario these days, he becomes everything I never wanted him to become.

Just felt like putting it out there. Maybe someone else feels similar? Iunno. Maybe it reaches someone somewhere, because talking is all that really can be done.

 

[Magma]

It doesn't feel good to see but it doesn't seem all that different from what we've seen for like the past..12 years or so? Honestly at this point I'm grateful that WarioWare still manages to chug along as it is. I think the only substantial difference now is Nintendo is setting their sights higher. It seems they fancy themselves being like Disney in the near future (though they are already like Disney in many ways now). That worries me a little because I feel like it may increase the chances of Wario becoming even more neglected.

I also think another problem is the larger overall trend in the gaming industry in that developers only want to focus on either cheap cash grabs or big budget AAA games with little in-between. Wario would generally occupy that middle-ground but it's a segment that's become increasingly neglected.

However, we are getting a new Rhythm Heaven which I was fully convinced was a completely dead series so you never really know. I'm just grateful that the overall series hasn't been forgotten and "Wario-likes" are a thing.

 

[mikera]

In my opinion Get It Together wasn't successful. Only 1,3 million sold games across 154 million sold Switchs. The last WarioWare games D. I. Y., Game & Wario, Gold, Get It Together and Move It were all without chances to reach 2 million sales (like Touched and Smooth Moves). Only Get It Together made it over 1 million. I loved Gold and Get It Together but I think the sales since D. I. Y. show that there is no interest in WarioWare anymore.

I am almost sure we will get a Wario Land remake next in 2026 or 2027 for the old Switch. Shake It would be a cheap and easy way to remake Wario Land. I would be very surprised if we didn't get a Wario Land remake on the old Switch.

 

[Cirta]

The thing that turned me off the most about playing WarioWare: Move It! for the first time, apart from its lack in content, was its vibe. Everything just felt so annoying to me. And that's a shame because the vibe of every other Wario is near impeccable every Mega Micorgames, Twisted, Touched, Smooth Moves, DIY, Game and Wario and GiT all had charming aesthetic but Move It just felt extremely childish, which yes, it's Wario game so it's gonna be childish but I think Move It! pushed too far, I don't think Move It! is the good kinda weird. To be fair, I think this "annoying weirdness" really started with Smooth Moves but it wasn't much of a bother but I feel it got slightly worst with each entry.

In my opinion Get It Together wasn't successful. Only 1,3 million sold games across 154 million sold Switchs. The last WarioWare games D. I. Y., Game & Wario, Gold, Get It Together and Move It were all without chances to reach 2 million sales (like Touched and Smooth Moves). Only Get It Together made it over 1 million. I loved Gold and Get It Together but I think the sales since D. I. Y. show that there is no interest in WarioWare anymore.

Tbf, GiT actually made some noise compared to every Wario game in the last decade. I didn't care at all for WarioWare at the time and still stumbled upon plenty of people playing and talking about it online. This cannot be said about Move It! despite the fact that I was a Wario fan when it released.

 

[mikera]

But to be honest 2025 was a relatively good year for Wario: in february we got Wario Land 4 for Switch Online. In august there were icons from Wario Land 3 and Wario Land 4 for the Switch profile. In september Nintendo confirmed Virtual Boy Wario Land for Switch Online. In october there were Wario icons from Mario's Super Picross.

 

[Yellow Pyoro]

It does feel like Wario is the neglected stepchild of the Mario franchise. Though the DK series is making a come back right now, their fanbase too was going through despair previously.

I wish Nintendo would at least give us one Wario platformer per console generation like Yoshi does. Even in Mario action games, Nintendo would rather have other characters playable (Like DK in Rabbids, Daisy in Wonder, and Rosalina in Rabbids & 3D World). Why not Wario?

The story in Move It is not my favorite, but I think it's fine for ONE game. If this a story like this continues to be a trend for future WarioWare games, that would suck. Mario Power Tennis also had Wario and Waluigi be the butt of the joke, but it was more funny and charming.

I really want the fart jokes gone. I want Wario to appear in one of the movies, but I am also worried about them doing lame stuff like fart jokes and it would start a bad trend of his portrayal in future games/media.

But to be honest 2025 was a relatively good year for Wario: in february we got Wario Land 4 for Switch Online. In august there were icons from Wario Land 3 and Wario Land 4 for the Switch profile. In september Nintendo confirmed Virtual Boy Wario Land for Switch Online. In october there were Wario icons from Mario's Super Picross.

That is true. I did replay WL3 and WL4 on NSO. Hopefully, Nintendo looked at the stats of people playing those games and saw potential for a new game.

 

[Really Ilini]

There's a lot of fair complaints here. The only thing I somewhat question is if his humiliation in Move It is deserved, since he was ultimately still trying to steal the relics of quite possibly the only unevil deity he has come across. I do think it goes a little far with him being so upset by it; feels like the last scene with him getting stuck in the pedestal and worshipped by the guards could've been written in his favor ("All these fruits and flowers for me? Excellent!") to at least not leave a sour taste in the end. Wario has always been a "making the best of bad situations" character to me, and that would've been a nice payoff to him initially not wanting to go on vacation as well.
It is also odd that he is so absent for the rest of the main Move It story outside of those beginning and opening stages. He could've been written into those remix stages at least, as him checking up on what the groups are doing before getting caught in their antics. I think another factor of this lack of Wario himself could be that the cast has grown so large, with it seemingly not slowing down on that front. I wouldn't be surprised if Leo and Cicada join the crew by the next entry, but regardless, leaving Wario out of their stories only weakens the connection he has to all of them.
And yeah... those fart jokes being pushed to the forefront. Nothing good to say there.
That said, I would say I feel somewhat hopeful for Wario's future. I don't want to put all my eggs in one basket, but it is looking much better than it was in the Wii U/early 2010s era. Between Nintendo themselves acknowledging Pizza Tower and Antonblast, which wear that Wario inspiration on their sleeves, and various Wario Lands returning in the Nintendo Classics collections, and the subtle nods to Land itself in Ware (I never would've thought ANY of the WL4 bosses would appear again, let alone in a Ware title), I think Nintendo is definitely paying attention at least to a demand for more Wario. I still think it'll come down to how he is portrayed in the Mario movies, as I'm confident he'll show up in one of these sequels we'll be getting. Time can only tell.