[Playing…] Mario & Wario

Today I am going to talk about Mario & Wario, a Super Nintendo game developed by Game Freak in which, pAs its title seems to indicate, we do not control any of the characters mentioned., but a new character, a fairy named Wanda, who has only appeared in a couple of Nintendo games.

This game is relatively unknown, mainly due to two factors: the first is that it was not released outside of Japan (despite being completely in English) and the second, that to play it you need the Super Nintendo mouse (in fact the game was sold alone or in a special pack with the mouse and the mousepad). At the time, some Western magazines published this game as a future release, something that did not happen for reasons unknown to me, as it would surely have been a title well received by console users.

I was lucky to discover Mario & Wario in a video store more than 20 years ago and since then I have always been replaying it from time to time, since it is one of those games that forces you to concentrate totally on it, making time fly by, something that is always a good sign.

The story of this game tells us how Wario (after having been defeated by Mario in Super Mario Land 2) takes revenge on the plumber by throwing a bucket at him from his plane, leaving the object stuck in Mario's head, who will walk completely disoriented and blind.

The style of play is similar to a lemmings although simpler: With the mouse we will control the fairy and we will have to guide our character (which can be Mario, Yoshi or Peach) so that he reaches the finish line safely, where Luigi is waiting to remove the object that prevents him from seeing.

With Wanda we can kill enemies, break blocks, activate other types of blocks, and get coins, actions that

We will have to carry it out quickly while we take a look at the character who is walking blindly so that he does not fall into a spike trap or be hit by an enemy. We can't stop the character in any way, although we can hit him to change the direction he is going. At certain times we will need him to remain still for a few seconds while we wait for some danger to pass. The only way to achieve this will be to hit the character who is going blindly repeatedly so that he turns from one side to the other without moving from his spot.

The first levels are very simple, as you only have to activate some blocks to overcome it, but as we progress, the complexity and size of the levels will increase considerably, forcing us to think carefully about what to do and how (fortunately we can take a look at the entire level before starting it).

Time will also be a fierce enemy to take into account, as it runs out quickly, so we will have to lose as little as possible, trying to go the shortest way and look for mushrooms to increase it. If we run out of time on some level, it is because we have to be more skillful when playing, find a faster way to reach the goal or perhaps change characters, since the only difference between them is the speed they have when walking, Peach is the slowest, Yoshi is the fastest and Mario is of intermediate speed. Obviously, if we select the fastest character, we will also have to be much more skilled at playing to prevent him from dying.

Mario & Wario It consists of 10 worlds, each with its 10 relevant levels. At the end of a world we will participate in a minigame where we have to hit Wario with a hammer to obtain coins and thus achieve extra lives. Once we have completed all the worlds, more bonus levels will appear for the most expert.

At the beginning of the game we can choose any of the first 8 worlds, but because the difficulty increases gradually, it is advisable to start with the easiest ones to increase the number of lives (using coins or collecting stars in the levels) in order to be able to face the difficulty of the final worlds, where a mistake will be paid for with one less life.

Summing up, Mario & Wario It is an ideal game for lovers of games like Lemmings, The Humans, Troddlers and the like. It is very fun and quite atypical if we compare it to other games starring Mario.