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"It's-a me, Wario!"
Wario, Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins Japanese commercial

A Super Mario Bros. Spin-Off and the original branch of the Wario franchise. Specifically, a spinoff of the handheld original Mario titles Super Mario Land and Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins. They largely supplanted the original handheld sidescrolling Mario series, which would not be revived until New Super Mario Bros., more than a decade later.

The Wario Land series centers on Mario's Evil Counterpart, Wario, in the search for treasure. The games play somewhat similarly to the Super Mario Bros. series, with a few notable exceptions. Wario is much stronger than the Mario Bros., so many of the games revolve around object manipulation and combat. Wario can pick up enemies and objects to attack and solve puzzles, and generally has butt-stomp and charge attacks to deal with enemies. While you can breeze through each level to reach the goal, usually every stage has a number of hidden treasures that must be found on alternate routes to reach 100% completion and the best ending. Instead of Mario, Wario's nemesis in these games is usually Captain Syrup, a Femme Fatale pirate captain and her army of goblin-like pirates.

Like Mario, Wario usually has a variety of power-ups which give him alternate abilities. Unlike Mario, Wario usually has to be hit by an enemy to "power up" and they are usually used for solving puzzles rather than getting from A to B.

The series thus far includes:

See also: WarioWare, Wario World, and Wario: Master of Disguise.


This series provides examples of:

  • Absurdly Spacious Sewer: Two in Crescent Moon Village in Wario Land 4: one in Arabian Nights in said game and one in the Golden Passage in the same game. Averted in 3: the sewer in one level is a single room.
  • Accidental Hero: Wario. Saving the world is just a fortunate side effect of his treasure-hunting. Of course, in Wario Land 3 and Shake It!, Wario is shown to be willing to lend folks a hand, as long as the price is good.
  • Achievement System: Shake It! has multiple challenges for each level and boss battle that can be optionally completed. Once all are completed for a level/boss battle, the music for said level/boss is added to the Sound Test.
  • Acrofatic: Wario is a far faster and more agile character than you'd expect from someone so overweight, being able to swing extremely high from bars and vines, jump rather high in normal and some other forms, and when shot from a machine in Shake It!, run fast enough to glide across water. Although in Wario Land II, 3, and 4, one enemy's Status Buff is to make you even fatter so you can break certain blocks by jumping on them.
  • Affectionate Parody:
    • Of the early Super Mario franchise as a whole. The Wario Land franchise takes a minor element of the original series — collecting coins for points and lives — and makes it the central aspect of its own — collecting coins for vast, unmitigated profit.
    • Wario's Power-Ups are another example of this. In the first game they work very much like the classic Super Mario ones with a much more thuggish theme — Wario's answer to the Super Mushroom is the Garlic Pot, his standard power-up form (Bull Wario) is obtained by obtaining a Bull Pot (or another Garlic Pot if already Normal-sized), and he also has Dragon and Jet forms. In the latter games, instead of being parodies of specific types of power-up, the series parodies power-ups as a trope, with many of Wario's special abilities being a reaction to some enemy's attack: Bouncy Wario (if walloped by a hammer), Crazy Wario (whose breath in the second game is so toxic it kills enemies), Fat Wario (who is so obese that he can shatter all but the sturdiest of floors), Flat Wario (if crushed by a giant weight), Hot Wario (in which Wario is literally set on fire, which eventually grows to consume his entire body), Frozen/Ice Skatin' Wario (encased in some foe's ice-breath), and Zombie Wario (guess) are all typical examples. The only real "power-up" by 3 is Vampire Wario, for which Wario still needs to be bitten.
  • Always Night: Crescent Moon Village, Uncanny Mansion, Hotel Horror, Arabian Night, Bad Manor, Boogie Mansion, Shake King's Shakedown Schooner. Generally averted in Wario Land 3, with its night/day mechanic, but the East side of the music box also fits this trope (until Wario collects the two sun fragments and allows the sun to rise on this side, at least).
  • Anti-Hero: Wario doesn't mind helping people out... as long as the price is right.
  • Auto-Revive: Recovery potions in Shake It!, which automatically refill Wario's hearts bar on a fatal hit.
  • Autosave: The game automatically saves when you beat a level or boss (in pretty much every game in the series).
  • Auto-Scrolling Level: The Subwarine levels in Shake It!, and a few in the original game.
  • Background Boss: The Genie in the first Wario Land, Demon Head in its Virtual Boy sequel, and the hidden figure in Wario Land 3. The second one is a minor subversion — Wario can jump behind it.
  • The Bad Guy Wins:
    • Wario succeeds in his quest to pillage the treasure of Kitchen Island and gets a castle of his own in the first game. How successful he is depends on the player, though.
    • Captain Syrup manipulates Wario all through Shake It!, and doesn't suffer any repercussions for it...unless unlimited wealth counts.
  • Balloon Belly:
    • 3 has Yellow Belly (later named Helio in Dr. Mario 64). He has an air pump inside him, and you defeat him by making him cough it up and pumping it until he pops.
    • The "fat" transformation in II, 3 and 4.
    • The bubble boss in Wario Land II also counts, although in this case there's no pump - he just inflates when jumped on.
  • Bat Out of Hell: Bat enemies, and Catbat.
  • Batman Gambit: Syrup pulls off a nice one at the end of Shake It!, having manipulated Wario to save the Shake Dimension and gather treasure. She negotiated such that the Shake Dimension had to give her the Bottomless Coin Sack for her work, and she took Wario's treasure with it, knowing full well that his Greed would see him gather a huge amount of riches along the way while taking out the only thing between the BCS and her.
  • Bat People: One of Wario's transformations in Wario Land 4, Bat Wario, gives him purple skin and red eyes and turns his arms into membranous wings. Its predecessor in Wario Land 3, Vampire Wario, also gives him bat wings.
  • Beam Spam: The Shake King in the final form of the final battle in the Shake Dimension somehow has the ability to fire HUGE laser beams and lightning bolts pretty much everywhere. Which is somewhat unexpected, considering the character and what not.
  • Beat Them at Their Own Game: The bunny boss in Wario Land II and 3. In II, it's via an odd game of basketball. In 3, it's a game of football/soccer. In both cases, you must bonk him on the head to turn him into a ball and throw/smash him into the goal.
  • Bee Afraid: The bees in Wario Land II, Wario Land 3, and Wario Land 4 are very aggressive, attacking Wario the moment he gets underneath them. Getting stung turns him into Puffy Wario, whereupon he floats upwards until he hits something solid and deflates.
  • Big Bad:
    • Wario himself in the first game. C'mon, he's pillaging a whole island! ...Of pirates, but even so!
    • Captain Syrup in Wario Land II, getting even for the previous game.
    • Rudy in Wario Land 3 and Dr. Mario 64 (Though he's an Anti-Villain in the latter game).
    • The Golden Diva in Wario Land 4, as the one who cursed Princess Shokora and her kingdom.
    • The Shake King in Shake It!.
  • Big Boo's Haunt:
    • Uncanny Mansion in Wario Land II.
    • Forest of Fear and Castle of Illusions in Wario Land 3.
    • Three out of four of the Sapphire Passage levels in Wario Land 4 (with Fiery Cavern being a Lethal Lava Land level instead)
    • Bad Manor and Boogie Mansion from Shake It! - both are themed around stereotypical haunted mansions, and are full of undead enemies like Recapitators and Mummers.
  • Black-and-Gray Morality:
  • Boss-Arena Idiocy: The Minotaur, the cave master, Bloomsday/Scumflower, and others have either lava or water around the arena to fall into.
  • Boss-Only Level: The final boss of the third game has his own level, and every boss in 4 and Shake It! does this as well.
  • Broken Bridge: Certain levels in the original change when you beat other levels. 3 is all about collecting diverse MacGuffins that open new levels or areas in other levels.
  • Bullfight Boss:
    • The Shake King's first phase involves this, with the boss repeatedly dashing back and forth across the stage while you jump on their head to damage them.
  • Cartoon Bomb: Found a lot in Shake It!. Found with wings in the first game, except these try to latch on to your head...
  • The Casino: Glittertown, Neon City.
  • Cash Gate: The exits of most levels in 1 require a 10 Gold Coin to open.
  • Character Catchphrase: "HURRY UP!" It was even made into an emblem on the back of his biker jacket in Brawl.
  • Characterization Marches On: Wario himself started out as nothing but a jealous Mario wannabe, who hypnotised Mario's allies and tried to take his place. Starting from Wario Land, he eventually received different character traits, most notably his greed and lack of manners. He also Took a Level in Badass, as he'd now use more direct fighting moves and develop a tougher attitude. Strangely enough, this happened as he became less of a villain and more of an Anti-Hero.
  • Chekhov's Exhibit: The Shake Dimension globe. Lasts about four minutes in the museum in the intro cut scene.
  • Chest Monster:
    • Found in Boogie Mansion in Shake It! under the name of Treasure Chomps. Attempting to ram them like a normal chest will cause them to bite you; throwing a bomb into them, on the other hand...
  • Combo Platter Powers: Wario. Some powers are just plain bizarre, and most are still pretty unusual with no linked theme.
  • Complete Immortality: In Wario Land II and III, Wario cannot be killed by any means. Subverted in III during the Final Boss fight; his grab attack is deadly.
  • Contrasting Sequel Main Character: Mario is an All-Loving Everyman who jumps on his foes, gains powers through collecting items, and saves the princess out of wanting to do the right thing. Wario is a Jerkass Villain Protagonist who only cares about money and gold and about one upping Mario. He later becomes an Anti-Hero in subsequent games whereas he will save the day, but only if there's money in it for him. Wario has more horizontal and puzzle based gameplay as shown through his shoulder bash, compared to Mario being vertical and platform based, and Wario gains powers through his enemies rather than items. He's even been shown to care less about getting the girl than Mario as demonstrated by the end of Shake It!.
  • Cool Boat: The SS Tea Cup. Also the Shakedown Schooner in Shake It!, although it's only shown in a boss battle.
  • Cool Car: First shows up in the intro to Wario Land 4.
  • Cranium Ride:
    • Interestingly done with platforms that only enemies can walk on in Wario Land II.
    • Also happens in one instance in 3 in order to get a musical coin.
  • Creepy Circus Music: The battle against Chortlebot in Shake It! has this. It also gets faster as the boss becomes more and more damaged. Appropriately enough, it's a remix of the earlier Wario Land 4's Wonky Circus track.
  • Crossover:
    • Wario Blast: Featuring Bomberman!, which is really just the Western release of a Bomberman game with Wario added to increase sales. This doesn't stop the fans from attributing the game more to Wario than Bomberman. Top billing has that kind of power.
    • Dr. Arewo Shitain from the Game Boy game For the Frog the Bell Tolls is a recurring character in Wario Land 3 and 4.
    • Wario appeared as a helper in one game in The Legendary Starfy series.
  • Cut and Paste Environments: Secret levels in Shake It! reuse normal level graphics.
  • Damage Discrimination: Oddly enough, in Shake Dimension, it's positive towards Wario and rather cruel towards the enemies. Because you know, nothing instantly kills Wario, but nearly anything that hurts him, such as obstacles or boss attacks, will completely vapourise any enemy that's in the way. As will water, for some reason.
  • Darker and Edgier:
    • The humor and tone of Wario Land 4 is slightly more dark and surreal compared to some of the other games in the series.
    • Wario Land 3 is this compared to the relatively light and happy Wario Land II, with a more ominous villain and a moodier atmosphere.
    • The series as whole, when compared to the Mario franchise. A lot of the bright and happy cuteness is replaced with things that are downright grotesque and weird, and the series itself is meant to be a twisted parody of the Mario games, much like Wario himself is to Mario.
  • Death Course: Most levels, but the only explanation for Launchpad Labyrinth and the secret levels.
  • Decade Dissonance: In Shake It!, there's Neon City/Glittertown in the otherwise Wild West-themed Rocking Range stuff; this is on top of Ratl Ruins' mix of ancient Aztec type cities with Ancient Egyptian tombs, and Quiver Cliffs' combination of medieval Japan type villages with straight-up haunted mansions and who knows what else.
  • Dem Bones: Skeleton ghosts in Wario Land 4 and Recapitators in Shake It!.
  • Denser and Wackier: Even more bizarre and twisted than the Super Mario Bros. games.
  • The Dragon: Bobo in the first two games to Captain Syrup.
  • Drowning Pit: One of the Shake Dimension treasures mentions this happening to someone in a BOTTLE FACTORY.
  • Durable Deathtrap: Most stuff in temples, as well as Rollanratl. The locations' appearances and Rollanratl's emblem blurb imply that they're ancient, but they're still functioning just fine.
  • Early-Installment Weirdness: The original game and Virtual Boy Wario Land are more linear and contain more elements of its parent series (lives, shrinking down when hit, powerups from blocks, etc.) Starting with Wario Land II, the series dropped those elements and became more based on exploration. (And Wario wasn't killable again until Wario Land 4.) (Well, except for one attack from 3's Final Boss.)
    • Also, in both the first game and the Virtual Boy game, Wario wears a safari helmet by default, rather than his usual yellow cap.
  • Easily Conquered World: The Shake Dimension, which is taken over offscreen by the Shake King with seemingly little resistance from the native Merfles.
  • Easy Levels, Hard Bosses: Wario Land 4 and Shake It!, who have fairly easy levels but rather difficult boss encounters at the end of each 'world'.
  • Eternal Engine: The Mysterious Factory in Wario Land II and the Curious Factory from Wario Land 4. Also, 40 Below Fridge in Wario Land 4 is this mixed with Slippy-Slidey Ice World.
  • Everything Trying to Kill You: Everything. Cuckoo Condor being one of the most obvious examples. For those who haven't played the game: It's also a giant flying cuckoo clock. Which fires lighting and buzzsaws at you. The second form of the boss fires eggs at you, which will either explode if you catch them and hold them for too long, or hatch into ducklings, which will chase you and explode.
  • Evil Chef: Large Fry from Shake It! is a (self-described) world-famous chef, hat and all, who is fought in a kitchen. He also serves the Big Bad and likes eating his own minions.
  • Evil Counterpart:
    • The Shake King to Wario (Well, eviler). Both of them are Greed-driven treasure seekers with near-identical powers (the King is even a Mirror Boss to Wario in his first phase) and loose moral codes, but while Wario is an Anti-Hero with standards who's willing to help others out for a price, the Shake King is an openly evil pirate who conquers others to feed his own lust for treasure.
    • In the first game, Wario himself plays like an evil counterpart to Mario.
  • Evil Tower of Ominousness: Syrup Castle in the first two games is a HUGE skull shaped castle on a nearly-as-high mountain. So big a place, in fact, it's got a whole FIVE levels set inside it in the second game, and one of those is just finding the entrance.
  • Evil Versus Evil: Either this or Black-and-Gray Morality is the case for the story in each game, with Wario going against really, really evil threats in Wario Land 3 and after.
  • Excuse Plot: The story in every game in the series can be summed up as Wario trying to get as much money and treasure as possible while defeating any enemy creature that happens to get in the way.
  • Expy:
    • Bloomsday (Scumflower in British English) to Roger the Potted Ghost. Both are bosses rooted in pots which must be pushed off of their arena platform into the bottomless pit behind it (or in Bloomsday's case, the pool of water surrounding the arena).
    • The Shake King is essentially a greedier Thor from Norse Mythology, right down to the Viking-like appearance and use of electrical powers.
  • Extended Gameplay: Secret levels in Shake It!.
  • Fake Difficulty: All over Wario Land II and 3. When the hero can't die, all you can really do is annoy him. In particular, most of the bosses have a way to kick Wario out of the fight and make him start over... and over... and over...
  • Fat Bastard:
    • The greedy, overweight Wario himself - and then there's Fat Wario.
    • The Shake King, Wario's pirate captain Evil Counterpart in Shake It!. He's at least thrice Wario's girth, which is impressive in itself.
    • The Rudy, resident Monster Clown and Sealed Evil in a Can of 3.
  • Feed It a Bomb: You have to feed bombs to both the evil treasure chests and the boss Large Fry in Shake It! to defeat them.
  • Fiction 500: He's got his face on the moon.
  • Flight: Possible with various transformations, including Jet Wario, Vampire Wario, Puffy Wario, and the Shake Dimension Rocket Buckets.
  • Fire-Breathing Weapon: The Dragon forms.
  • Floating in a Bubble: Found in a few of the games, such as Wario Land 3 and 4. Wario Land II actually had a bubble boss which did this to throw Wario out the arena.
  • Fluffy the Terrible: Bobo in the first two games, the guard and look out of the SS Tea Cup.
  • Flunky Boss: Many bosses in Shake It! and some in Wario Land 4. Maybe other games too.
  • Foe-Tossing Charge: Wario's primary means of attack.
  • Forced Transformation: In 3 and 4. In 3, the entire population of the Music Box world was turned into the monsters Wario beats up throughout the game by the Big Bad. In 4, Princess Shokora was transformed into the Black Cat by the Golden Diva after she lost in a magic duel. In both cases, the transformations happen before the events of the games, and are undone when Wario kicks the Big Bads' asses.
  • Foregone Victory: Wario Land II and 3 had the unique feature of Wario never dying, but simply being pushed away (off a high-up platform, away from a boss...). This did have one exception; being crushed by the Final Boss in Wario Land 3 would kill you, complete with Game Over screen.
  • Frictionless Ice: In Shake It!, ice blocks when punched on ice don't stop, but interestingly, many of the puzzles require you to stand in front of them and jump on them while they're moving to reach higher platforms.
  • Frothy Mugs of Water: In Wario Land II, penguins throw "crazy balls" - or beer in the Japanese version. Wario Land 3 averts the trouble in both versions by changing it to a spun-around "dizzy" Wario.
  • Frying Pan of Doom: Large FRY from Shake It!.
  • Gangplank Galleon: SS Tea Cup in the first two games.
  • Genie in a Bottle: Subverted in a treasure, played straight in the first two games.
  • Giant Hands of Doom: The genie in the Virtual Boy game, and Rudy in Wario Land 3. (Unlike everything else in 3, getting caught by his clap attack can kill you.)
  • Gigantic Moon: The moon in Crescent Moon Village is absolutely huge in the sky, about a bit bigger than many background buildings, or double the size of Wario and the pirate ghost.
  • Gimmick Level: Many, doing the same thing twice in a row is rare, but Launchpad Labyrinth is pretty much THE example in Shake It!.
  • The Goomba: Wanderin' Gooms, Mask-Guys, Pirate Gooms, Spearheads, Spear-Masks and Bandineros.
    • The aforementioned Wanderin' Gooms take this trope up to eleven; they cannot harm Wario in any way whatsoever. They don't inflict any damage, and upon collision they'll be knocked back, so they can't send Wario into a pit either!
  • Goomba Springboard: A very common tactic for reaching high ledges and items.
  • Greed: Wario in both this and WarioWare, and every major villain in the series (except in 3) has this as a defining trait.
  • Ground Pound: A standard move in many of the games in the series, with Wario Land 4 and Shake It! also having a powered up version if you use the move from a higher enough place.
  • Hard Levels, Easy Bosses: The first three games (four if you count the Virtual Boy one). The bosses aren't all easy, but many of them are, and compared to the maze like levels they're found in, the battles are the least of your troubles.
  • Heart Container: Purchasable in Shake It!.
  • Helpful Mook:
    • Many enemies cause transformations that are needed to solve puzzles. In Wario Land 3, every type of enemy is helpful to you at some point, either through said transformations or as ammunition.
    • Arewo Shitain-hakase/Mad Scienstein in Wario Land 3 and 4. In 3, he's one of the few enemies that cannot actually hurt you, and he throws you a potion that turns you invisible, which is always needed to progress through whichever section he appears in. In 4, he's once again harmless, and whenever he appears, you need to use him as ammo, a Goomba Springboard, or a Cranium Ride to get to a diamond.
  • Here There Be Dragons: The Shake Dimension's map has locked words covered in clouds, while the uncharted space between the continents are covered in drawings of sea monsters. For bonus points, it's an olde worlde map showing a train, circus, a Las Vegas type city, and the Shake King's pirate ship as hand drawn images.
  • Hidden Depths: Wario might be a poultry farmer in his spare time, if the "Return the hen to its nest" and its intro from II are any indication.
  • High-Speed Battle: Hot Roderick Race from Shake It! is one long boss battle fought between two cars.
  • Hub Level: Wario Land 4 has the Golden Pyramid, and Shake It! has Wario's... Garage.
  • Human Cannonball: Cannons in Shake It!.
  • Human Snowball: Snowman Wario after stepping on a slope. Yep, he doesn't even need to be skiing or going fast to become an out-of-control giant snowball, just standing on any slightly sloped ground will do until he hits a wall.
  • 100% Completion: Achieved by gathering all the treasures.
  • Idle Animation: Found in Wario Land 4 and Shake It!. Wario will (in the case of WL 4) pull out a skipping rope and begin skipping on the spot, or begin doing curls with a barbell; if interrupted, he lets out a unique line. For the latter, Wario idly flexes his fingers and mutters "Come on, pick it up and play!" if left alone.
  • Indy Escape: Common in the first game and Shake It!. Whoopsy Desert is probably the most obvious example of the latter, as you have to outrun a toppling model of the Shake King's head.
  • Interface Screw: The aforementioned Crazy Wario meanders back and forth and is difficult to stop.
  • Iron Butt Monkey: Wario. In fact, it's even used as a game mechanic; you have to do some pretty crazy things to your character to get past some obstacles in the second, third, and fourth games.
  • It's the Journey That Counts: Every bit of subtext in the games imply this; as the page quote illustrates, the background and scenery are very mellow backdrops for Wario's adventures, and his endless quest for money is often either fruitless or a Pyrrhic Victory (well, except in 3 and the better endings of 4). Wario, however, is far too tenacious to ever take the implied lesson to heart.
  • Jungle Japes: Monsoon Jungle and Mystic Lake in Wario Land 4; the entire area of Jiggle Jungle in Shake It!.
  • Large and in Charge: Averted by Captain Syrup in the first games, pretty much defined by Rudy and the Shake King in the later games, and used to a degree by the Golden Diva and Black Jewel in some of the other games.
  • Lethal Lava Land: Stove Canyon in the first game and Fiery Cavern, the third level of the Sapphire Passage in Wario Land 4.
  • Level Goal: A skull-marked door in the original and a door with flashing star symbols above it in Wario Land II.
  • Load-Bearing Boss:
    • The Golden Diva from Wario Land 4; when destroyed, the pyramid collapses.
    • Rollanratl, probably the literal embodiment of this trope taken to the extreme. He fights while holding up the roof of his temple, and you can guess what happens when he loses.
  • Losing Your Head: The Recapitator enemies in Shake It! THROW their heads like a boomerang as an attack and the robots that throw their heads along the floor in Wario Land 4, as do the zombies in Wario Land II.
  • Luck-Based Mission: Found in Glittertown and Neon City in Shake It!, which require you to keep winning at a certain slot machine to meet the required coin amount for 100% completion.
  • MacGuffin Delivery Service:
    • The twist ending of 3. The banished devil Rudy, in the guise of the spirit of the temple, talks Wario into retrieving the 5 magic music boxes and using them for escaping the music box world. The hidden figure obviously tries to use them to free himself.
    • Wario has a long history with this trope. In the first game, he destroys Castle Syrup to reveal the Golden Peach statue, only for Mario to appear and snatch it right then and there. Wario even cries afterwards. Poor guy.
    • In Shake It!, Syrup swipes the Bottomless Coin Sack literally out of Wario's hands after tricking him into diving in to find it.
  • Made of Iron: One of the awesome things about most of the Wario Land games is that to solve many of the puzzles and levels, Wario has to get some sort of condition, like being lit on fire or stung by an insect which puffs him up. It's meant to be an opposite to Mario being able to smash every enemy he comes past.
  • Magical Clown: Rudy from Wario Land 3, a Sealed Evil in a Can monster who turned the inhabitants of the world where the game takes place into monsters.
  • Malevolent Architecture: Most levels, but Crescent Moon Village and Hotel Horror are obvious examples.
  • Malevolent Mugshot: The Shake King's symbol from Shake It! is nearly everywhere, including the flag, the boat front, and the intruder alarm in each level.
  • Man-Eating Plant: Cractus from Wario Land 4 and Bloomsday/Scumflower from Shake It! And a few plants in the levels of the latter game, which will snap shut on Wario and slowly damage him if he stands on them for too long.
  • Man on Fire: Required to solve puzzles throughout Wario Land II, 3, 4, and Shake It!; some blocks can only be broken by Wario running into them while on fire.
  • Mascot Mook: Downplayed. Pirate Gooms, Caprain Syrup's basic lackeys, went on to inspire the Spearheads of 3 and the Bandineros of Shake It!
  • Meaningful Name:
    • Practically all the character, enemy and boss names, but the most glaringly obvious has to be Catbat from Wario Land 4... which is pretty much a cat/bat hybrid. Or the Shake It! level called Mount Bighill.
    • Wario's name is meaningful as well, a portmanteau of the Japanese word warui, meaning "bad", and Mario. The most approximate translation would be "Bad-io." (English gamers who aren't familiar with "warui" are more likely to think that Wario's name indicates a war-like nature, or an inverse Mario by flipping the M to a W.)
  • Mini-Boss: The first game has one in the final level. There's a Knight that walks around back and fourth that you have to hit 3 times to kill before you can move on to the final boss, and the first two times you hit him he charges after you for a little bit.
  • Mini-Game: Found in all games bar Shake It!.
  • Mirror Boss:
    • The Shake King in his first battle stage is essentially a bigger version of Wario, using many of the same techniques. He even has his own version of Wario's signature Ground Punch and Dash Attack.
    • The Minotaur is also this to a lesser extent, using only Wario's Grabbing/throwing move.
  • Monster Clown: The Rudy from Wario Land 3 is a literal Monster Clown. Chortlebot from Shake It! is a monster robot clown.
  • Mook Maker: Hoggus in Wario Land 4 and some of the bosses in Shake It!. Scumflower is the most notable of the latter, as the Mooks he creates are critical to beating him.
  • Multiple Endings: What new home the genie creates for Wario at the end of the original game is determined by your amount of coins and treasures collected.Wario Land II has several, but most aren't any better than each other. You also get some bonus images for collecting all the treasures in Wario Land 3. How many of the treasures you earned for quickly beating the bosses at the end of Wario Land 4 determines what form Princess Shokora takes, and what bonus images are received at the end of the credits and what vehicle Wario is driving during them is determined by the difficulty level of the file.
  • My Little Panzer: Wario's merchandise tries to kill him.
  • Mythology Gag: Wario sometimes uses an Ultra Hand as a special attack (in Shake It!, Master of Disguise, and Mario Tennis) because Nintendo engineer Gunpei Yokoi invented the device.
  • Nerf:
  • Nigh-Invulnerability: Wario is pretty much made of diamond in every aspect, amplified by Wario Land II & 3 which made him COMPLETELY invincible to damage or being killed. Most damage also won't do more than one heart of damage to him in the games with a health bar, instant kill obstacles are completely nonexistent after the first game, and hey, anything that transforms him, like being set on fire, frozen solid, squashed flat, or the like, is completely harmless to him. Actually, it IS possible to die in Wario Land 3, but you simply have to be caught by the hands of Rudy. But that just takes you back to the world map. It could freak you out to think it's a real game over, especially after it saves after the scene. Even in the first game, the only things that can actually hurt Wario are the sharp parts of the enemy (ie: if he bumps into a spear-wielding Goom from behind, he will stun it as opposed to taking damage), and fire/plasma-based substances. In fact, 90% of all things that actually CAN hurt you in this series fall into either category. For a character in Mario's universe, that's still very resilient.
  • Nintendo Hard: Gurgle Gulch and Launchpad Labyrinth in Shake It!, among others.
  • Numbered Sequels: Wario Land II, 3 & 4.
  • Obviously Evil: Quite a few villains, but the Shake King pretty much defines this image for comparison.
  • Oddly Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo: VB Wario Land and Shake It! are the only instalments that aren't numbered.
  • Odd Name Out: All of Shake It!'s worlds are named with Added Alliterative Appeal in mind (Ratl Ruins, Wiggly Wilds, Rocking Range, Jiggle Jungle, Shakedown Schooner) except for the penultimate one, Quiver Cliffs.
  • Oh, Crap!: How Wario initially reacts when he finds his treasure missing or his castle taken over in Wario Land 2. Also, how the pirate gooms react when they see Wario chasing after them.
  • Ominous Latin Chanting: The escape music in Bad Manor and Boogie Mansion in Shake It! have some of this.
  • Orcus on His Throne: Captain Syrup in the first game, although averted in Wario Land II, as well as the Shake King in Shake It! They basically do a whole lot of evil stuff (sometimes off camera/in cut scenes), send hordes of minions after Wario, and personally just sit around in the darkness waiting for Wario to walk through the door for the final boss battle.
  • Our Monsters Are Weird: See Everything Trying to Kill You.
  • Outside Ride: Train levels in the first game, II, and Shake It!.
  • Palmtree Panic: Palm Tree Paradise and Rice Beach.
  • Paper-Thin Disguise: Treasure in Shake It!.
  • Pirate: Two of the villains/Big Bads so far, Captain Syrup and the Shake King, are both type 1 evil pirates.
  • Pirate Girl: Captain Syrup.
  • Pointy Ears: Wario.
  • Power-Up Food: Garlic gives Wario different effects depending on the game. Most of the time, it restores health. However, garlic in the first game restores him to normal after being shrunk from a hit, if he's already big then it gives him the Bull form. In Wario Land 3, it's a one-off treasure that permanently powers up his bashing attack. In others, eating too much turns Wario into "Fat Wario," who can defeat any enemy by touching it and break through hard blocks.
  • Promoted to Playable: This is where it all really started for Wario, though he'd been playable once before in Wario Blast: Featuring Bomberman!
  • Red Boxing Gloves: In Shake It!.
  • Red Sky, Take Warning: Boogie Mansion in Shake It!.
  • Required Spinoff Crossover: Mario makes a brief cameo in the ending of the original game.
  • Respawning Enemies: In Shake It!, averted in other games.
  • Ribcage Ridge: Common in Shake It!
  • Ridiculously Cute Critter: The Brown Sugar Pirates / Black Sugar Gang.
  • Ring-Out Boss: The Minotaur and the cave master.
    • Inverted in II and 3, where the bosses try to ring you out while you defeat them normally.
  • Rule of Cool: Cuckoo Condor, Large Fry, Hot Roderick, and Chortlebot pretty much define this trope.
  • Rule of Fun: Just like the Mario series it was based on, pretty much. There's also very little plotline in most of these games.
  • Samus Is a Girl: Captain Syrup.
  • Save the Princess:
    • The goal of Shake It!, though of course only because he's promised endless treasure at the end and quickly throws the princess out of his face.
    • Also happens unintentionally in 4.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can: The hidden figure in 3 is revealed to be a Monster Clown that the common enemies were trying to stop you from releasing.
  • Secret Level: A staple of the series.
  • Self-Parody: The series can be seen as a spoof of Nintendo's own Super Mario Bros.
  • Sequential Boss: The Shake King in Shake It!.
  • Shell Game: The Virtual Boy game had one where Wario could gamble what coins he's collected. He had to choose the right container to get more coins out of two, three or four—the more containers he had to choose from, the higher the payout if the right one was chosen.
  • Shifting Sand Land: Arabian Night in 4, Whoopsy Desert and Disturbing Tomb in Shake It!
  • Slasher Smile: Cractus and Spoiled Rotten, both from Wario Land 4. Wario himself for that matter.
  • Sliding Scale of Realistic vs. Fantastic: Between Fantastic and Surreal, usually borderline. Of course, it depends on the level and game. Some early games are fairly standard fantasy, and then you've got The Big Board, the Very Definitely Final Chapter, Doodle Woods and Fiery Cavern. You've got the fairly usual scale in enemies too, pirates and man eating plants? Fantastic or Unusual. Cuckoo Condor, Aerodent, Large Fry and Killer Dolphins? Definitely Surreal. That's without counting Wario's Woods or Wario Blast...
  • Sliding Scale of Silliness vs. Seriousness: It doesn't just fall on the silly end, it pretty much defines it. Don't honestly expect ANYTHING to be treated dramatically, and expect some really, really weird characters and places.
  • Slippy-Slidey Ice World:
    • Sherbet Land in the first game.
    • The Frigid Sea in the third.
    • The escape portion of Fiery Cavern in the fourth.
    • 40 Below Fridge in Wario Land 4 mixes this with Eternal Engine.
    • Slipshod Slopes and Freezing Fields in Shake It!.
  • Smooch of Victory:
    • Given to Wario by Princess Shokora in Wario Land 4.
    • He would have received one in Shake It!, but instead he pushed the queen out of his way to grab the infinite coin bag.
  • Spikes of Villainy: The Shake King in Shake It!.
  • The Spiny: There's literally an enemy almost exactly like the Mario series Spiny in 4 and Shake It!. Interestingly enough, if you look closely, the ones in Wario Land 4 look a lot like yellow Kirbys with spiky helmets.
  • Spring Jump
  • Stalked by the Bell:
    • In Wario Land 4 and Shake It!, finishing a level required hitting a switch then running back to the level's start. 4 had a timer to get back, and if it ran out, your coins would be rapidly leeched away; if those ran out, the level ended in failure. Shake It! just gave you bonuses based on how quickly you got through the level.
    • The first game also had a timer, but it was large enough that it almost never runs out in a casual run.
  • Stealth Pun: Rollanratl's name is derived from a certain song title.
  • Stepping-Stone Sword: In Shake It!, throwing a spork-headed Bandinero at a wall will conveniently provide a similar boost.
  • Stopped Numbering Sequels: Happened with Shake It!, the fifth game in the series (not counting the Virtual Boy title), though it happened one game earlier in Japanese where Wario Land 4 was simply called "Wario Land Advance". A separate issue is that the first Wario Land briefly continued the numbering of the Super Mario Land games before Wario Land II dropped it (meaning that, very technically, Wario Land 4 is also Super Mario Land 6).
  • Story to Gameplay Ratio: Very low in most of the games. Heck, in Shake It!, you don't have to see the intro or ending more than once, and after the first time it's just an optional extra to be viewed in a media room.
  • Super Drowning Skills: Unlike what you would expect of a Super Mario Bros. spinoff, most land enemies do not like water.
  • Super Not-Drowning Skills: It's a Super Mario Bros. spinoff, hence in all games, Wario can breathe underwater forever.
  • Theme Naming: The Shake Dimension's continents are all named after synonyms for "shake" (e.g.: "shakedown", "quiver", "jiggle", "rocking", "wiggle", and "rattle").
  • Timed Mission
    • The stages all have a timer in the first game, as it is closer to a more traditional Mario platformer.
    • Getting out of the levels in Wario Land 4 after hitting the switch, also the boss fights in said game.
  • Time Keeps On Ticking: In the pre Final Boss cut scene in the first game, and the cut scene in between both phases of the battle vs. the Shake King in Shake It!.
  • Trademark Favorite Food: Wario loves garlic, and it's the main health food from Wario World onward, though WarioWare makes this more pronounced.
  • Traintop Battle: Various levels in the original and Shake It!.
  • Tremor Trampoline: Happens every time the screen shakes. Even Wario himself is capable of doing this to most of his enemies by Ground Pounding. However, in 3, he can't do this after first obtaining the ability to Ground Pound; he has to collect a certain power-up later on before being able to bounce his enemies like in the original and II.
  • A Twinkle in the Sky:
    • Exactly what happens to the second boss, Hot Roderick in Shake It!. Courtesy of a boxing glove to the face from Wario's unicycle.
    • This also happens to Captain Syrup and her cronies in most of the Wario Land II endings.
  • Underground Level:
    • Some of Rice Beach in the original game, some of Stove Canyon, some of Sherbet Land.
    • There's also Fiery Cavern in Wario Land 4, various in Wario Land 3, pretty much the entire Virtual Boy game and the aptly named Lowdown Depths in Shake It!.
  • Under the Sea:
    • Ruins at the Bottom of the sea in Wario Land II.
    • Also a few levels in the original (Sherbet Land for an ice-themed variant, and SS Tea Cup levels as a mix of this and Gangplank Galleon), and Wario Land 4 had Mystic Lake, which despite not being the sea, had the kind of wildlife more likely found in a Pacific Ocean coral reef.
  • Unnecessarily Creepy Robot: Chortlebot in Shake It!. Even for a robot clown (a pretty creepy concept in itself), this thing is way creepier than probably needed and has enough weapons to take down an army (like the flamethrower or sometimes-flaming saw discs it fires). And laughs manically as it attempts to kill Wario.
  • Unexpected Shmup Level: In Shake It!, the Subwarine levels.
  • Unusual Ears: Wario.
  • The Very Definitely Final Dungeon:
    • Syrup Castle of the first two games, which is shaped like a skull.
    • Subverted in Wario Land II, in which there is a "Really Final Chapter" after the skull-shaped castle.
  • Video Game Cruelty Potential:
    • One of the possible missions in the levels of Shake It! is to clear the stage without killing any enemies. While directly killing them counts as a fail, the game has no problem with, say, knocking them out and leaving them on top of carnivorous plants.
    • In the first game, you can throw any of the smaller Mooks underneath a "Pouncer" or into a lightning bolt, and you'll get 10x the coins for your trouble.
  • Video Game Flight: Several effects can induce this.
  • Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: Rudy in 3. The rest of the game is about as tame as you'd expect from the series up to this point, but Rudy is a full-fledged Monster Clown with blood-red eyes and teeth, his main attack is the only thing in the entire game that can kill Wario, and, when he Turns Red, he looks like his face turned inside out.
  • Villain Protagonist: In the original game, as his motivation was to steal the statue of Princess Peach back from Captain Syrup so he could hold it for ransom. The later games make him more of an Accidental Hero or Anti-Hero.
  • Violation of Common Sense:
    • Most transformations, especially setting Wario on fire and the like to solve puzzles.
    • The Final Boss of 4. When the Diva's face is crying and throws spiked hammers, you must wait for the hammer to retract its spikes, pick it up, throw it in the air and hit yourself in the head with it to turn yourself into Bouncy Wario. Only then is Wario in a state where he can damage her. If you figured out on the first try that this is what you had to do, without doing it by accident, you're lying.
  • Waddling Head: Gooms, Pirate Gooms, bird type creatures and Bandineros.
  • Walk on Water: Wario can do this in Shake It!.
  • Water-Triggered Change: Getting hit by certain enemies' attacks can result in Wario becoming a zombie, a vampire, overweight or drunk. Touching a droplet or a body of water will cancel the transformation and revert him back to normal.
  • Warmup Boss:
    • Rollanratl in Shake It!. His attacks are slow and obviously telegraphed, while his weakspots are both easily accessible, meaning that he's relatively easy to defeat.
    • Spoiled Rotten in 4 is fought and finished in the introductory area of the game, and is noticably less difficult to defeat than the rest. Becomes a Wake-Up Call Boss if you're playing on the hidden S-Hard mode; the allotted time is cut to a mere 15 seconds. It's possible to win without items, but it may take a few tries.
  • What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: Mentioned on a treasure in Shake It!.
  • World of Chaos: This is by far not a series that makes a whole deal of sense. Basically take the Hollywood Atlas, the Super Mario Bros. stuff and various randomness that makes it nearly a Quirky Work in some respects, throw it into a blender, and you've got what's in some of the Wario Land games.
  • Wutai: Mount Bighill and Bamboozle Village.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Rudy to Wario in 3. Upon being freed by the music boxes, he no longer needs Wario, and attempts to "crush [him] like a bug." Subverted when Wario defeats him in self-defense.

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