The whole meme that Wario was big dick chad badass until Warioware bad shovelware minigame compilation for casuals emasculated him is dumb as shit. Even disresgarding that the Wario Land games and their supporting material have plenty of goofy slaptstick at Wario's expense and things like Wario scratching his butt and shaking his derrière at the camera, it's like
his name is Wario
he looks like this
It's like calling Bugs Bunny a badass.
It's also important to remember the context Wario was created under. He's an "evil" Mario. Mario's series is known primarily for being cute, cartoony, weird, light-hearted. Wario has been always a comic relief character first and then a physically strong character next. Even his second most prominent trait, his strength, is juxtaposed with his obesity, cartoonish appearance with the silly nose and pointy shoes and pointy ears; and poor hygiene to amplify absurdity. Strength alone, too, can be added to Wario's comic relief as absurd slapstick. There's also the unbinding, flexible nature of the Mario series when it comes to character traits and personality (with usually one or two traits established after a few games), so one artist's view of Wario might be different from another. Even in fans, they'll disagree how Wario "should" be. You guys see him as some sort of "badass" but I think he's some rich arrogant loser, the type that'll drive fast and cut you off on freeways, a thug who'd shove people just for a black friday Xbox, the guy who'll never get relationships with anyone (and I can't say if he's content with that or not but it seems like he doesn't care?), a very poor sport, a horrible, selfish teammate who somehow gets the maximum cooperation from his subordinates; and a guy who'll complain about things if he can't get things his way. It's not too far off the mark but I wouldn't call Wario necessarily a "badass" based on my own definition.
As others pointed out, being silly and being strong aren't mutually exclusive and it's actually common to see those two play hand in hand. Absurd strength is a common component of comedy; it's a *bedrock* of not only Wario, but Wario's parent series Mario as well, where Mario's absurdity is a David-Goliath relationship while Wario derives absurdity with a more extreme contrast between physical fitness and strength and elements of anti-hero.
It's just a weird argument that WarioWare is some linear "progression" from Wario Land rather than an independent series with its own set of rules, context. I'm not saying it's entirely independent; perhaps WarioWare has influenced Wario Land later, but I'm sure Wario Land has influenced Wario to a large extent, and maybe WarioWare has just focused more on the money-making and the weird absurdity of Wario, but hasn't dropped Wario's thuggish nature. Wario Land, however, HAS made that bed of Wario being "weird". You probably can't blame WarioWare for exploring concepts that Wario Land has established. I've already talked about Wario's design and the context he arose from, but the enemies too are very weird (one boss from the first Wario Land game is, I quote from Mayro Kiwi: "a giant stone head whose fighting style revolves around breaking blocks with his tongue", a boss from the second one is a snake from Wario's basement that can turn Wario into an egg and a basketball-playing bunny). The powerups are also weird, when you got drunken Wario, zombie Wario, Fatter Wario; and these require hitting him.
The game context is also very important. When Wario is adventuring, he needs his feats of strength to actually power through his enemies. In the minigame compilations, he can't exactly hit people or bust rocks, and he's not really in a terrible amount of microgames.
I can't think of much games where Wario has been portrayed as very contrary to what Wario is. Brawl comes into mind as maybe the most diversionary but this is probably just another interpretation of Wario. There might have been some influence in what WarioWare: Touched! has done to Wario too; the "real" Wario is kind of a loser who is in constant discomfort. He starts off as dropping his Gameboy Advances (though he beats up a Sewer Guru which just shows he's still a thug). He gorges on sweets, suffers from cavities. Wario prior to being Wario-Man is seen all lame and sick before eating a rotten garlic. Wario-Man is just... pathetic. You see him go on a work-out routine that immediately tires him, and while he does break some undefined walls, he tries to stop a train and just gets smacked away. Finally, Wario gets beaten up by the Sewer Guru. I haven't played other WarioWares as extensively as this one, but Wario faced a lot of punishment in Touched! (and it's
hilarious) even in the microgames.
And never has this felt "off" from Wario's schtick, as I believe he's comic relief. He's supposed to be sometimes hilariously pathetic. Wario isn't exactly immune to it in the Wario platformers either, as he gets a statue stolen by Mario, the Bottomless Coin Sack stolen by Captain Syrup, Wario World's story prefaces with comic reversion "
From Riches to Rags". Wario Land's entire set up entirely eschews traditional "be a handsome man to save the princess and the mystical creatures" and emphasizes the "get rich along the way", which one could call almost a satire/parody (?) of these stories.
Anyway, sue me; I just wrote an essay about Wario, of all things.
My biggest issue with references to the NES games is that they're so common, and they're often the only thing that ever gets referenced. At this point they've lost any and all meaning.
I can't argue if the NES games "lost meaning" but I think marketers leave out a younger audience that didn't grow up on those games. NES is a major milestone in video game history, and people that were born to it are in their 30's and they just seem to be an immediately easier demographic to reach since older people probably remember the milestones better. Nostalgia marketing can be saturated however, and that's what I have a problem with. I don't even think video game merchandising in of itself is saturated, not where I am where I think "saturation" better applies to
merch I don't care for Marvel and Star Wars. Just that within that smallish market, it's a lot of NES stuff and it's tough sometimes to find merch I like. Maybe I'm just a minority demographic, so I turn to other markets.
Perhaps the want of a more engaging story in Mario could be why the RPG games (and its characters) are held in higher regard compared to the other spin-offs like Kart, Party and the Sports games. In a way, the RPG characters and story made a stronger impact than even characters from Super Mario (ex: Broodals, Nabbit and Sprixie Princess). This is despite the fact that the RPG games have a lesser sales reach compared to something like Mario & Sonic or Mario Party. This is evidenced by a few things: how much fan art is inspired by the RPGs, the much louder vocal discontent from the recent Paper Mario games*, more visible request for Smash Bros to have a character from an RPG like Paper Mario and oddly Geno** and overall the more positive inspiration that has often been mentioned.
* Best evidenced by how much "Fail Awards" votes anything involving Sticker Star got.
** A character starting in spin-offs is usually cited as a reason against making them playable
In a way, I started to appreciate Donkey Kong (arcade) references because of the overflowing Super Mario Bros. references, whereas I was not exactly thrilled by Donkey Kong references before that. At one time, Nintendo outright never acknowledged that Mario started from Donkey Kong at all, and when I brought this up, most people here either didn't mind that or they outright prefer that Super Mario Bros. should be the starting point of acknowledgement. People even mistake the Super Mario Bros anniversary as the anniversary of the character.
Therefore it's my unpopular opinion that the original Donkey Kong should by right be acknowledged as a part of Mario history because it's a very instrumental game for Nintendo (you know, because Mario started here) and not something to brush off. It's great to see that they are coming around on this.
Thank you for reading.
I think the MaRPG has better influence on the audience because of the more apparent storytelling and maybe more engaging single player. But you did sum up pretty well the reasons for MaRPG's appeals. I'm probably just not that audience so maybe that's why I find it sometimes difficult to relate.
It doesn't help that Donkey Kong is regarded as part of the Donkey Kong series when I think it's more of a trunk that split into two. It's kind of its own series, really. Doesn't seem accurate that there are spinoffs of it or something, but I do remember when people said the Mario series and Donkey Kong Countries are spinoffs of Donkey Kong.
On the subject of merchandise. I'd absolutely kill for M&L or Paper Mario merch, especially of the characters that don't appear in the other games. Sadly it's unlikelier than ever now that M&L's developer is bankrupt and Paper Mario seems to have retired all its OCs. But if I was in charge of a merch company I'd most certainly reach out to Nintendo to try and make that a reality. I just love the characters so much and hate that I can't flaunt that love with anything official other than a stylus that went missing and finding another is rare -_-
Yeah, I think the market is there but I still think it's not big enough for official licensing outside from minor swag from pre-release promotions. Free-lance, however, is still a profitable venture for those involved. Might be more expensive though, but it'll feel more special than something mass-produced and mass-marketed.
