It's true that the poop stuff and so on existed on the old websites and I'm not a fan of that, but at it's core that is just Wario having a crass sense of humor and openly talk about stuff most would deem uncalled for. My main problem with those is more the complete lack of wit, especially compared to translated manual examples of it, which also had Wario mention his extended bathroom times or talking about his insides:
Thing is, we have devolved from Wario just having a crass taste in conversation subjects, to him being a master of farts who can rip several varieties of them and will demonstrate them with glee.
It's not even internally consistent, since the japanese Mega Microgames website even had him mention he dislikes farting in front of others, because he thinks it would damage his coolness. Now he literally shits himself while demonstrating a fart and is proud of it.
Literally the last thing they did for the website and the one thing they put on Nintendo Today, is to commission Takeuchi to draw Wario's arse, so it can be clicked on for farts. You never saw specific art of Wario on the toilet back then, just because he likes spending a lot of time there.
More than anything I also have to genuinely ask who the fart stuff is even for. Out of every franchise on Nintendo Today, Wario has the most baffling presence. Others get unique animations, preview content for upcoming releases, activities that are meant to engage with their casts in a fun way or talk about the history of whatever game or series is featured.
Wario gets farts.
Instead of talking about the history of WarioWare, it's cast and everything that makes it unique.
Wario gets farts.
It's not even like Wario can't find success anymore. Get It Together wasn't a monster hit, but it is one of WarioWare's best selling titles and around a million and half units sold, with some notable reach the series usually doesn't get, it a good place to be.
Nintendo just failed to meaningfully follow that up and it is something that will never cease to baffle me.
Wario is still reliably popular, people always ask for him to be in stuff, anytime Wario Land content comes up people get gleeful about it and WL itself remains in high demand and as Pizza Tower and Anton Blast have shown, is so wanted that spiritual successors become big success stories.
Even WarioWare still has a future, given GiT did well and the attention MindWave is getting shows that a strong hook and presentational identity like say, the GBA games also had, still catches eyes.
More than anything Wario needs a new champion at Nintendo, who pushes for him and his cast to get more support and presence elsewhere and for his series to get more push towards a healthy direction, instead of the character being degraded into a vehicle for basically fetish content at this point.
Others get unique animations, preview content for upcoming releases, activities that are meant to engage with their casts in a fun way or talk about the history of whatever game or series is featured.
This is a strong point. Compare DK getting high-quality animation of the funny crocodiles vs Wario being entirely stock-artwork of him with Deviantart-tier edits
Can't they just bring back the Ashley shilling. I know some people here were real upset when it was new but I am unironically sure that did more good for the brand than whatever the fuck they're doing here lol
Yeah, I myself have softened on it considerably. While I still ideally want a more even-handed push, the Ashley stuff back then was promoting something much more widely appealing and healthy for WarioWare as a brand than the current fart obsession.
A big reason I warmed up to to the Ashley stuff is that it at least pushes something that's in the games.
That is one of the many reasons the fart stuff BAFFLES me. The website and Nintendo Today are at the end of the day, means to promote their products and this weird fart obession really doesn't do that. Even for people who honestly like it, it's basically false advertising, since across 12 standalone releases plus two DSi versions of existing minigames, I can count the amount of Wario fart jokes across the series on one hand. With fingers to spare. You find far more instances of say, Shoulder Charge references.
Nintendo's view on WW just feels all kinds of warped. Their official magazine when covering Move It also made it a point to cover the fart button and prided WW for it's vulgarity, which is sincerely strange to me. Toilet humor is a part of the series, but nowhere near the main focus.
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.
And now we have got Wario World for Switch Online too. 2025 is one of Wario's best years ever and I think that shows that Wario still is an important figure for Nintendo. I am sure this all is only the preparation for a Wario Land remake in 2026 for the old Nintendo Switch.
Yeah, I would say the same if it wasn't for the fact that we got 3 games in 5 years alongside two of his greatest achievements rereleased this year - this is way more than other Nintendo franchises can hope for (looking at you Punch-Out!!). And with series like Rhythm Heaven, Mario & Luigi and Tomodachi Life being revived, I have no doubt they will do the same for Wario Land, it just might be a bit. Nintendo is obviously seeing the demand for it, just look at Cractus' appearance in Move It! and even Wario tried to use one of his Land abilities to float away in the final cutscene, the game does not have that much toilet humor in it.
Stuff like the fart button on the website… is a bit crude, but out of the almost 2000 microgames across the series, there is still only 1 to feature Wario farting (in Tiny Wario's stage) and it took 12 games in the franchise to get a microgame where you unclog a toilet. They could have made his gimmick be something as immature as that for Get It Together! but instead they went with the shoulder bash/Wario Attack, showing that he is still connected to his Wario Land roots. That's the first time in 13 years that we have actively gotten to control Wario with his signature attack in one of his games (well, outside of Loot Scoot in Gold).
I think Move It! is a beautiful game and a great return to form for the series with its wacky 3D models present in many of the microgames, that is something that I have been wanting back since the Wii era! And even then it is not as crusty looking as some of the games in Smooth Moves which I think is even better because it still makes sure the series gives each game a unique aesthetic. The series would get boring waaaay too quickly if every game was the same. It is without a doubt my favorite Switch game although it does not have the most content, and I love how Wario is portrayed in it, not so much of a bad guy as usual. They did away with the Rhythm Heaven art style and blandness of Game & Wario and actively gave the series a fresh coat of paint, making an effort to have co-op options and full voice acting, and they did not even have to do that but it makes the characters all the more better for it!!
And yeah, Wario is MIA in the remix stages, but he kinda always has been so it really does not surprise me. I love the fact that we still are seeing the characters interacting so much with each other since the other other game in the franchise to actually do this was Gold (and even then, it shows them asking where Wario is), and this was previously given to Jimmy T. He even makes an appearance at the end of Crygor's cutscene. I am sure that Kevin Afghani will only continue to nail his voice with time!!
All in all, stuff like the rereleases and just more games and the website in general show that Nintendo still deeply cares about this character, and I am super happy about that!! I am more than sure that we will get another Wario platformer, but I am happy with anything with him.
While I still have my opinions of Move It and the Fart marketing obsession, the recent NSO Wario World release has been a step towards the proving me wrong that I wanted, because this is a trend now:
Both Wario Land 4 and Wario World got re-released on their own, not as part of a wave and with their own dedicated trailers, with the World one leaning hard into the goofy, yet macho aspect of Wario.
It does give me more confidence that Nintendo seems to be waking up to the demand the Wario platformers have, like this is a luxury treatment that NSO re-releases really don't get normally, it's all for Wario and that is pretty big.
