Why is Wario Land a less popular series than Kirby or Yoshi's Island?
- Thread starter CM30
- Start date
There are many ignorant people out there who just think (and say) that Wario Land is like Mario Bros, but with a less appealing character. I've come across several players in person over the years who simply don't know how unique Wario's adventures are from Mario's. You'd be shocked and appalled at some of the generalisations I've heard.
This doesn't explain everyting, but the fact that Kirby and Yoshi are both cute and good-natured characters definitely plays an important role in this.
Aside from cute factor being a major thing in Japan as a whole it's just easier to come across their games as well in general.
Plus good ass tunes boyo. Honestly a lot of factors play out here
I.M.Gibbon
Wario Fan Supreme
I honestly think it has to do with marketing and collective memory.
The "more mature than Mario but still cartoony" niche is already occupied by Donkey Kong Country, which is marketed as a more sophisticated platformer series. Wario's early outings were literally just Super Mario Bros style but with a different character, and have many things that, while at the time unique, are even more associated Mario than ever now (in large part thanks to SM64; ie: caps, treasure hunting, ground pound, etc).
If my time in the DK fandom has taught me anything, it's that society only remembers the first outing of a series, or the first outing of any rebrands. For DK, that's the original arcade game, DKC, DK64, and DKCR. For Wario, that's Wario's Woods, Super Mario Land 3, and WarioWare. And from there, you can kind of gauge how people might view the Wario franchise, even though that's hardly representative :/
The "more mature than Mario but still cartoony" niche is already occupied by Donkey Kong Country, which is marketed as a more sophisticated platformer series. Wario's early outings were literally just Super Mario Bros style but with a different character, and have many things that, while at the time unique, are even more associated Mario than ever now (in large part thanks to SM64; ie: caps, treasure hunting, ground pound, etc).
If my time in the DK fandom has taught me anything, it's that society only remembers the first outing of a series, or the first outing of any rebrands. For DK, that's the original arcade game, DKC, DK64, and DKCR. For Wario, that's Wario's Woods, Super Mario Land 3, and WarioWare. And from there, you can kind of gauge how people might view the Wario franchise, even though that's hardly representative :/
I.M.Gibbon
Wario Fan Supreme
congrats, you found an exception 
call of duty, wolfenstein, fire emblem, thunder force, ace combat, need for speed, duke nukem. fast & furious if you want a non-video game exemple. I can go on a while
What defines the most iconic installment of a franchise isn't "being the first". It's being the most popular. Which often is the first installment due to the unforgiving and front-loaded nature of the entertainment bizz, but certainly not always.
What defines the most iconic installment of a franchise isn't "being the first". It's being the most popular. Which often is the first installment due to the unforgiving and front-loaded nature of the entertainment bizz, but certainly not always.
I.M.Gibbon
Wario Fan Supreme
I'd actually argue that the general rule of thumb I mentioned applies to all of those. But yes, there is certainly something to be said about shifting it to "most popular", but, as you've pointed out, that is also often "the first".
Either way, I still think the general argument stands for how the general public sees the Wario series. Even if the rule doesn't apply universally, I think it definitely applies to Wario.
Either way, I still think the general argument stands for how the general public sees the Wario series. Even if the rule doesn't apply universally, I think it definitely applies to Wario.
LesTheTimeSweeper
Wario Fan Supreme
It seems Wario Land 4 is the most popular or at least the one most people remember, though, not the first.
Honestly, I think it's all pretty close to be honest. The Wario Land series is mostly one where every game had sold well, but none have become mega breakout successes like SMB 1 or Zelda Ocarina of Time. So in some sense, any game is the most well known one, since they've all reached similar audiences.
I.M.Gibbon
Wario Fan Supreme
Might also be a symptom of being a primarily mobile series that spun off of Mario Land, and thus might still have that feeling of "lesser handheld spinoff to the main Mario console games" associated with it.
LesTheTimeSweeper
Wario Fan Supreme
It's probably why the series (As well as the Super Mario Land series in general, unless you count the Spacesuit, which looks different than the SML2 one) didn't get a reference in Super Mario Odyssey while Yoshi's Island (In the form of Poochy), Dr. Mario (His outfit) and Donkey Kong Country (The street signs in New Donk City) did. That, and possibly the rumored feud Miyamoto had with R&D1 and their Mario games.
Right. It's important to remember the difference between games/characters born of Miyamoto's group, and those delightfully freakish oddities R&D1 cooked up on their Game Boy.
Don't forget Shiggy's response to why Wario wasn't included in the New Super Mario Bros games... "because he would need a fart attack, which would make him too different from the rest of the cast".
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Well they should have included a fart attack, speaking of which Wario did became playable in SM64DS so kind of weird to have him say that.
LesTheTimeSweeper
Wario Fan Supreme
And he didn't have a fart attack there, either. Wario didn't become a gross slob outside of commercials until the later WarioWare games and Smash Bros Brawl. He was more of a muscleman type before then.
I think Shigeru meant that everyone would need a fart attack if Wario was included in the New Super Mario Bros games. So, Mario and Luigi would need one, the Toads and the Princess would need one, etc. That's part of his design philosophy, I guess.
LesTheTimeSweeper
Wario Fan Supreme
Even though he didn't fart in any of his previous platform games and could do everything Mario, Luigi and Toad can... honestly, I think Miyamoto just doesn't like Wario very much. He didn't even get a Switch avatar while Donkey Kong did.
Wario at the time similar to Luigi probably needed to be revamped, aside from Wario being a more corruption type version Nintendo probably wanted him to just grow on his own. Makes me think of Luigi when he had that weird phase in earl GCN games especially stuff like Luigi's mansion which solidified his character as a sort of wimp as a relation to Mario. Kind of prefer his Land type days but I don't really mind the more Wario Ware styled Wario too but this is what gets incorporated a lot more than his platforming series probably due to more relevant it is.
I can see where Miyamoto is going for is that each and every character would have similar or the same kind of abilities however in NSMW on the wii u each character had a separate ability much like SMB2. The idea of giving everyone a fart and shart attack that way sounds real funny though would approve of that.
I'd still argue it's the relative lack of identity the series has compared to others. While Wario Land 4 in particular has some very memorable levels, the rest of the series is kind of lacking in that regard. There's also a lack of consistent visual icons.