Mario and Wario – A Character Comparison (Game Design Companion: A Critical Analysis of Wario Land 4)

December 16th, 2013



Wario is a product of the Super Mario phenomena. Influenced by R&D1’s subversive approach to design, Wario was created as an inverse of Mario’s character. Where Mario is an altruistic hero, Wario is a greedy villain. From the flipped “M” to mechanics and momentum, their opposing personalities are established both through context and through play. In order to understand what changes R&D1 made to Mario to create Wario, I’ve catalogued an extensive list of the differences below.

Contextual

Appearance

Mario’s clothes are primary-coloured. Wario’s are secondary. Mario’s moustache is curvy. Wario’s is a zigzag. Mario’s nose is a perfect, white oval. Wario’s is a bumpy, pink wart. Mario’s gloves are plain. Wario’s have a “W” print. Mario’s ears are curved. Wario’s are pointy. Wario has an alternate costume that he wears in the WarioWare series. Mario sticks to tried-and-true red and blue. Apart from their Italian heritage, portly physique, hat, and overalls, which group the pair in the same character mould, Mario and Wario are visual opposites.

Narrative

Mario pursues altruism, saving captive princesses, dinosaurs, the Mushroom Kingdom, and even the universe. Wario purses greed, hunting for treasure to increase his wealth. As a result of meeting their goals, both characters often succeed in the other’s too, to great irony. By saving Princess Peach, Mario amasses a bounty of coins. By finding more treasure, Wario indirectly helps others, such as Princess Shokora or the inhabitants of the music box in Wario Land 3.

In Wario Land 4‘s instruction booklet, Wario’s secret diary reveals that the antihero characteristically rejected altruism for greed by deciding to go to the Golden Pyramid on the basis of finding more treasure, not to save Princess Shokora. At the end of the game, if the player didn’t collect enough treasures, Princess Shokora will transform into an ugly baby or a cross-dressing clone of Wario and kiss Wario. This is a parody of the Mario games, where Mario is rewarded for his good intent with a kiss from a beautiful princess.

At the end of Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3, Mario takes the golden princess statue from Wario, whisking it away in his helicopter. This is perhaps the only example of Mario going against his do-gooder nature, much to Wario’s embarrassment.

In Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, Mario defeats Wario in battle. Wario has never been able to beat Mario. Both characters have semi-regular villains (Bowser and Captain Syrup) who steal from them, forming the narrative basis of each game.

Gameplay

Movement

Mario can accelerate into a run. Wario’s walk remains at a constant speed. He can instantly switch to a faster speed through the attack mechanics, but this process lacks the playfulness of true acceleration and momentum, the nuances that make controlling Mario so engaging. Wario’s momentum is restricted to CROUCH SLIDING and the DASH ATTACK, while his movement speeds are determined by mechanics (slow: CROUCH WALK, medium: WALK, fast: ATTACK, DASH ATTACK, and ROLL). Symbolic of either character, Mario’s movement is unified, dynamic, and, thus, inherently engrossing, where Wario’s is fractured, static, and, thus, not so engaging. Wario’s movement is also indicative of his larger size.

Jumping

The height of both characters’ default jump is determined by the duration of the button press, giving the player a natural sense of control. Mario only has one main horizontal movement mechanic (walk/run), while Wario has several (WALK, ATTACK, DASH ATTACK, ROLL, and CROUCH WALK). Since jumping forward is dependent on horizontal movement, Wario’s forward jumps splinter across the five horizontal movement mechanics. So, as Wario, the player has multiple not-so-dynamic jump mechanics. Yet, as Mario, the player has one jump mechanic with a lot of nuance from Mario’s running momentum.

Attacking

Jump doubles as Mario’s attack. Wario has a repertoire of attack mechanics which play to his aggressive personality, allowing him to ram, flatten, plough through, pick up, and throw enemies. The mechanics reveal the contempt Wario has for his enemies. Mario’s jump, on the contrary, is detached from aggression. The anger is diluted by the multifunctional nature of the mechanic, of which navigation is the primary function and attacking is the secondary function, and the fancifulness of jumping on an enemy’s head as an attack.

Mechanical Composition

The prior three paragraphs allude to a fundamental difference between the two characters. Mario is focused on movement and simplicity. So his navigation mechanics are naturally engaging and multifunctional. This makes Mario playful, inoffensive, and easy-to-control. Wario is focused on attacking. So he has a variety of attack mechanics, two of which—thanks to their multifunctional nature, fast movement speed, and Wario’s lack of acceleration—come to dominate all areas of gameplay. This makes Wario binary, more complicated, and less organic.

Power-ups and Transformations

In the Mario games, power-ups hidden in blocks grant Mario new abilities and more health. With the exception of Starman, Mario retains a power-up until he gets hit by an enemy. Holding onto a power-up as long as possible offers an extra layer of challenge, and so long as the player has enough skill, they can keep the reward with them for the entire game. In games like Super Mario Bros. 3 and New Super Mario Bros., excess power-ups are stored in an item bank and the player can obtain power-ups by doing various things on the world map.

In the Wario games, transformations change Wario’s form and mechanics for nearby puzzle/navigation arrangements. Specific enemies and hazards attack, flatten, fatten, stretch, and zombify Wario in humorous ways. Transformations are limited by either use, time, movement, or area of reach so that it’s hard for the player to continue using them outside of the closest arrangement.

Mario takes advantage of power-ups. They empower him, making him look like a hero and encouraging the player to be that hero by maintaining the upgrade for as long as possible. Transformations are inflicted upon Wario. They disempower him, turning him into a comical caricature and replacing his core abilities with new mechanics and properties relevant to the task at hand.

Swimming

In water, Mario sinks, while Wario floats. Mario’s paddle sends him upwards, holding left or right on the d-pad pushes him in either direction. Vertical ascent is fast. Horizontal movement and vertical descent is slow. This imbalance as well as the alternate inputs (pressing the buttons, holding the d-pad) gives the player interesting constraints to work around, which makes swimming engaging. Mario’s movements underwater generally follow the shape of a sine wave.

Wario has a comparatively sophisticated set of swimming mechanics. The d-pad allows him to SWIM SLOWLY in any direction, while UPWARD STROKE and FORWARD STROKE offer faster movement along each axis and double as attacks. To balance out the extra control the player has over Wario, the waterways tend to squeeze more enemies within a tighter space. This leads to more confrontations, further defining Wario as a brute.

The sinking dynamic and the artificial constraints on Mario’s swimming mechanics help retain the playfulness of his movement above ground. Wario’s swimming mechanics, like his land mechanics, are all about power and choice.

Rolling

When Mario slides down a slope, he’s only sent a short distance from its base. Wario, on the other hand, ROLLS off the incline, clearing any enemies or blocks in his path until he hits a wall. Players can use Mario’s slide to build momentum for jumps. Wario’s sets up tests of reflex skills. Mario’s roll reaffirms his playfulness and Wario’s his aggressiveness.

Conclusion

Mario and Wario were cut from the same cloth. Where they diverge though, they are defined. Mario’s clothes are primary-coloured. Wario’s are secondary. Mario pursues altruism. Wario pursues greed. Mario’s mechanics encourage the player to engage with acceleration and momentum. Wario’s give them a variety of ways to defeat enemies and solve puzzles. Mario takes advantage of power-ups, while Wario is inflicted with transformations.

Using Mario as a template, Wario was created by inverting his appearance and backstory, adding attack mechanics, and removing the nuances of movement. This formed Wario as he was in Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land. In Wario Land 2 and 3, transformations fleshed out the self-deprecating aspect of his personality. Wario Land 4 added to the continual adjustments before the character was given a partial reboot in the WarioWare series.

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