Wario / Super Mario · Antagonist / Antihero · Debut: 1992 · Game Boy / Multiple · Created by Hiroji Kiyotake
Mario's greedy mirror image, introduced as the villain of Super Mario Land 2 in 1992 and turned into the star of Wario Land and WarioWare.
Wario first appeared on the Game Boy as the main villain and final boss of Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (1992), designed by artist Hiroji Kiyotake as Mario's opposite. His name combines Mario's with the Japanese word warui, meaning bad. Where Mario is selfless, Wario is selfish and greedy, a treasure hunter who usually loses his loot by the end of each game. Only two years after his debut he took over the Game Boy series in Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 (1994), his first game as protagonist, and the Wario Land series that followed made him a lead character in his own right. In 2003 WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgames! on the Game Boy Advance started a second series built around rapid-fire microgames. Charles Martinet, the voice of Mario, voiced Wario from 1993 to 2023.
Wario's rise was unusually fast: one appearance as a Game Boy boss was enough for Nintendo to hand him the series. Critics have argued that his appeal lies in his honesty about being bad — a hero motivated by money rather than rescue.