Where is Wario?

An attempt to bring back Mario’s uncouth alter-ego

Nintendo has always needed more characters who fight the company’s stereotype of only making games for kids and families. Mario and Link are nearly-silent protagonists who are so uncontroversial that they have become boring for many players, despite their legendary status in the gaming world. Pokémon is for all ages, but the extraneous facets of the franchise skew young every time one sees a plushie or a trading card of Pikachu in a mall or grocery store. Enter one of the company’s most under-appreciated and underutilized icons: Wario. The smellier, freer, and fatter alternative to Nintendo’s mascot used to have multiple franchises dedicated to his greedy, garlic-obsessed ways, but in the last several years, he has faded into the background. His versatility as a character, reflected in the way his inappropriate behavior is portrayed in kid-friendly ways, allows all ages to enjoy his madness. I don’t know whether it’s just me or whether there is even a demand for the character to be featured more prominently in future games, but I thought it was a good time to bring up the merits of a Wario revival at a time when there has been a drought in new material on the Switch.

The console where Wario belongs is where we start. Nintendo hasn’t released a game in the Wario franchise for a home console since Game &…