Mario Kart 8

Hit the dirt in Wario Stadium, where tight turns, huge jumps, and bone-rattling bumps make for an action-packed race. Like Mario Kart Stadium, this track feels like it was always meant to be a racetrack. There are large stands full of spectators, giant billboards and spotlights, and Mario Kart TV camera vans filming the action. It’s a speedway-style course packed with mud that evokes images of an Arenacross stadium.

Wario is greedy and materialistic, so it’s little wonder he would want to create a big, over-the-top racetrack like Wario Stadium. There are hints of a huge, exaggerated Texas rally here – but I doubt they have spinning wheels of fire like Wario Stadium does. I can imagine that Wario included them to make the races here more exciting for the crowd… at the cost of being more dangerous to the racers themselves. But I doubt Wario ever really concerns himself with health and safety.

There’s also a random chain-like road that extends vertically above one section of the track, while a glide at the end has flameflowers on either side, which serve not as obstacles but as aesthetic setpieces. Why? What’s the point of these? Nothing, really. But they fit Wario’s extravagant, chaotic nature, and they presumably make the races more thrilling to watch. Whatever brings in more spectators and therefore more money is a win in Wario’s eyes. This is, after all, his very own loud, gaudy, self-branded arena.

Wario first appeared as the final boss in Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, which was released in 1992 for the Game Boy. With his pointy, zig-zagging moustache and a ‘W’ on his hat and gloves – an upside-down ‘M’, of course – he looked and acted like Mario’s opposing force; an ‘anti-Mario’, if you will. Like an evil twin, Wario represented a ruder, cruder version of the famed protagonist. His name is a combination of ‘Mario’ and the Japanese adjective warui, meaning ‘bad’ – therefore, a ‘bad Mario’.

Official Nintendo lore states that Wario was a childhood rival of Mario and Luigi, who later became jealous of their success. Whereas Bowser likes to kidnap princesses and attempt to take over the Mushroom Kingdom, Wario simply wants more money and bigger castles. He can be a hot-headed buffoon at times, but despite his bad temper, Wario is a capable anti-hero in his own right. Not only does he frequently appear in various Mario sports games (where he is often comically paired with Waluigi), but he is also the main protagonist of the Wario Land platformer series and the WarioWare party game series. Unlike Bowser, who is still doing the same villainous things he’s been doing for 40 years now, Wario has successfully forged his own path.

Next time, it’s off to the chilly world of Sherbet Land – home to Snowmen, Freezies, and ice-skating Shy Guys.