Mario & Wario (SNES) Playthrough

A playthrough of Nintendo's 1993 puzzle game for the Super Famicom, Mario & Wario. This video shows every stage, all stars collected. The bonus mode, "Mario & Wario Extra," begins at 2:41:39. Mario & Wario (マリオとワリオ, Mario to Wario - the "to" is pronounced like "toe") is a Japan-exclusive SNES puzzler from Game Freak, the Pokémon guys. It was the second Mario-themed puzzle game that the company had created for Nintendo, the first being Yoshi for NES (   • Yoshi (NES) Playthrough - NintendoComplete  ). It was also one of a small handful of SNES games to require a mouse to play, and two variants were sold: one with a mouse packed in, and the other without. In Mario & Wario, Mario and Luigi are taking a stroll through a fairy forest when Luigi wanders off and gets lost. Mario calls up Peach and Yoshi to form a search party, and they set out to find him. Unfortunately, Wario is intent on making life difficult, so he drops things on the heroes' heads to prevent them from seeing where they're going. (Mario is apparently too dumb to reach up and remove a bucket.) When you begin a world, you choose who you'd like to send into mortal peril - Mario walks at a regular pace, Peach is slower than molasses, and Yoshi is a speed demon - and the goal of each stage is to direct them to Luigi. Mario and friends automatically walk forward until they hit an obstacle, turn around, and continue on in the opposite direction, utterly oblivious to everything around them. To direct them, you control Wanda, a fairy/fancy mouse cursor who wields her wand like a cudgel. She can whack Mario's bucket (to make him change direction), enemies (to stun or kill them), coin blocks (to collect coins), and blocks (to activate switches or create pathways). 1-ups are earned by collecting 100 coins, a green mushroom, or all four stars in a stage, and the timer can be extended with red mushrooms. The general concept reminds me of Eek! The Cat and Rocko's Modern Life (SNES) and Sleepwalker (Amiga), but with more charm, more polish, and less frustration. There are a few rage-inducing moments to be found in the extra stages, and the timer feels like an unnecessary complication, but the ten worlds of the main game are fair in the ways they incrementally hike the difficulty. It's a fun gameplay loop, and it's one that's perfectly tailored to mouse controls. Even if the game had supported a controller, the d-pad wouldn't have been quick or precise enough to keep up with anything the late-game throws at you. Given Nintendo's fondness for touchscreens and that the entire game is in English, I'm a little surprised that Mario & Wario hasn't seen an update or an international rerelease. It's good, it's novel, and it's Mario. Seems like money left on the table to me. _____________ No cheats were used during the recording of this video. NintendoComplete (http://www.nintendocomplete.com/) punches you in the face with in-depth reviews, screenshot archives, and music from classic 8-bit NES games!