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A while ago, I saw an interesting description of Wario's abilities in the Wario Land games. That being, that he's basically like a playable boss character rather than a traditional platformer protagonist. That not only is he a villain or anti-hero by nature, but in terms of gameplay mechanics too.
And I think this is worth exploring, since it explains a lot of the design decisions that go into the series.
Like say, Wario's character sprite being huge compared to other video game protagonists. Mario is generally dwarfed by his enemies, with anything bigger than a Goomba being his size or taller. Same goes for the likes of Sonic, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, Rayman, etc.
Wario is the exception. Wario is absolutely massive compared to every non-boss character in the games. Look at Wario Land 4, and compare just about any enemy here to Wario himself:
www.mariowiki.com
With a few rare mostly background character exceptions (Utsuboankō and Togenobi, Hoggus and Captain Coin/Ghost), they're either the same size or smaller. They have virtually no chance to defeat Wario himself, and are basically cannon fodder on any difficulty lower than Super Hard mode. It's like one of those fan games where Bowser blasts through hordes of Toads and Yoshis. You're not the underdog there, your enemies are.
Similarly, Wario is also built like a tank too. Yeah it's not as noticeable in Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 and VB Wario Land (since he dies in two hits), but even there the majority of enemies can't actually damage him on contact. Compared to just about every platformer protagonist in existence, Wario not taking collision damage is a big deal.
And then the next few games just ratchet it up to eleven. Wario being invincible in II and 3 means that he's literally guaranteed to win any encounter he falls into, and any level he plays. So, the games don't try to kill you or make you restart the level. They just try to delay you as much as possible to frustrate you (and Wario) into giving up. That's the entire difficulty setup there.
Meanwhile Wario Land 4, Wario World and Wario Land: Shake It just make Wario so tough that while death is possible, it's simply very unlikely to occur. Wario has 8 hearts worth of health in Wario Land 4, and 10 hearts of health + two full restores in Wario Land: Shake It. That's not gonna hit zero unless you're extremely careless.
So, the gameplay loop is that you're basically the near invincible boss charging through levels while the enemies and obstacles are trying to chip your health down enough that you lose before the end. It's less like the hero trying to survive a gauntlet of obstacles and more like the villain trying to fight off an army.
But yeah, I think it's an interesting setup to be honest. What do you think?
And I think this is worth exploring, since it explains a lot of the design decisions that go into the series.
Like say, Wario's character sprite being huge compared to other video game protagonists. Mario is generally dwarfed by his enemies, with anything bigger than a Goomba being his size or taller. Same goes for the likes of Sonic, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, Rayman, etc.
Wario is the exception. Wario is absolutely massive compared to every non-boss character in the games. Look at Wario Land 4, and compare just about any enemy here to Wario himself:
Wario Land 4
Wario Land 4 is a platformer game released for the Game Boy Advance in 2001. It was later re-released for the Nintendo 3DS on December 16, 2011 via the Nintendo 3DS Ambassadors program the Virtual Console for the Wii U on May 8, 2014, and for the...
With a few rare mostly background character exceptions (Utsuboankō and Togenobi, Hoggus and Captain Coin/Ghost), they're either the same size or smaller. They have virtually no chance to defeat Wario himself, and are basically cannon fodder on any difficulty lower than Super Hard mode. It's like one of those fan games where Bowser blasts through hordes of Toads and Yoshis. You're not the underdog there, your enemies are.
Similarly, Wario is also built like a tank too. Yeah it's not as noticeable in Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 and VB Wario Land (since he dies in two hits), but even there the majority of enemies can't actually damage him on contact. Compared to just about every platformer protagonist in existence, Wario not taking collision damage is a big deal.
And then the next few games just ratchet it up to eleven. Wario being invincible in II and 3 means that he's literally guaranteed to win any encounter he falls into, and any level he plays. So, the games don't try to kill you or make you restart the level. They just try to delay you as much as possible to frustrate you (and Wario) into giving up. That's the entire difficulty setup there.
Meanwhile Wario Land 4, Wario World and Wario Land: Shake It just make Wario so tough that while death is possible, it's simply very unlikely to occur. Wario has 8 hearts worth of health in Wario Land 4, and 10 hearts of health + two full restores in Wario Land: Shake It. That's not gonna hit zero unless you're extremely careless.
So, the gameplay loop is that you're basically the near invincible boss charging through levels while the enemies and obstacles are trying to chip your health down enough that you lose before the end. It's less like the hero trying to survive a gauntlet of obstacles and more like the villain trying to fight off an army.
But yeah, I think it's an interesting setup to be honest. What do you think?
