Today Wario stands as one of Nintendo’s older characters, having first appeared in 1992, but since I grew up without him he’ll always feel a little unfamiliar to me. He’s also routinely presented in a gross manner, exhibiting a lot of nasty bodily functions that I do not particularly enjoy. So I slept on the Wario Land series when it was new, and did not look back even when Pokémon renewed my interest in the Game Boy console.
Thanks to this week’s episode, I’m starting to understand that I missed out on games I would have enjoyed. Wario Land (which we covered in Episode 343) took steps to distinguish itself from Mario’s adventures, but Wario Land II and Wario Land 3 went even further.
Joining Jeremy and Bob to explain to me (and all of us) the finer points of these two games is returning regular Ray Barnholt and frequent Retronauts contributor Stuart Gipp. And since it comes up in the episode, I’ll point out that Wario Land II and Wario Land 3 are still available on Virtual Console for the Nintendo 3DS. Haven't tried them? This episode might convince you!
Description: Jeremy Parish, Bob Mackey, Ray Barnholt, & Stuart Gipp return to definitely-not-the-Mushroom-Kingdom for the innovative further adventures of definitely-not-Mario. What happens when you play a game where your hero can never die? Only Wario knows for sure.
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Artwork for this episode by Greg Melo and editing thanks go to Greg Leahy.