Wario's Woods

Wario's Woods is a puzzle game released for both the NES and SNES in 1994. It was also one of the many playable NES games in Animal Crossing for the Nintendo GameCube.

The game is notable for being the last US NES release given Nintendo's official license. It is also known for being the only game that has Toad with the main starring role (despite the fact that he has been playable in many games since Super Mario Bros. 2). This is also the first Mario game to not feature Mario (he does not even make an appearance in this game).

Story
The Story from the Instruction Booklet (NES):

The Peaceful Woods were once a friendly home for sprites and gentle creatures. Since the invasion of Wario and his band of monsters, though, this quiet community has been turned upside-down. Now it is Wario's Woods and peaceful creatures are not welcome.

Toad, the Mushroom Kingdom hero, has made his way to Wario's Woods in order to quiet the sinister lout and win the woods back for the sprites. The sprites can create bombs. It's Toad's job to take the bombs and line them up with the enemies of the woods so that the enemies go down in defeat.

If Toad clears enough monster-packed sections of the forest, he'll go up against the mighty Wario himself.

Overview from the SNES version

The plot of the game is that Toad was taking a walk to a place he thought was Toadstool's Garden, but he was in fact in Wario's Woods and gets stuck in them. It is then revealed that Wario's monsters are invading the Mushroom Kingdom. Wanda, and Birdo (all misfit characters at the time) set out to help Toad to defeat the monsters. However, the antagonist Wario is not ready to give up his plan so easily and throughout the battles, Wario appears at various points in an attempt to stop the heroes.

Gameplay
The game plays similarly to Tetris. Toad is the main hero, and Birdo and Wanda would help Toad by giving him encouragement and bombs to destroy the monsters (respectively). If Toad took too long to complete a level, the rascal Wario would replace Birdo and replace Wanda with a Pidgit. The Pidget would then throw more monsters instead of bombs at Toad. Wario would body slam the side of his box to make the Thwomp ceiling descend, destroying enemies would make the ceiling rise up again.Many enemies unique to this game appear. Along with them were several mini-bosses who would attempt to block Toad's path from getting to Wario. Toad would also have to fight Wario several times throughout the game (though most end up just being False Warios).

In the end of the game, Wario himself appears to fight against Toad alone. Oddly, Wario appears at a gargantuan size in this battle. Eventually, Toad defeats him, causing him to shrink back to his original size and therefore his powers were also reduced (it was also revealed that Wario had infact used an airpump to inflate himself to a much bigger size in order to battle Toad). Toad then proceeds onwards by chasing the antagonist out of the Woods. However, in the SNES version, Toad does not chase Wario out of the Woods but instead bombs his castle; thus, announcing the defeat of the antagonist. In conclusion, once Wario is defeated, all the creatures who were under the nightmare that Wario had cast upon them had awakened, allowing the woods to finally be restored back to peace.

Game Modes
The NES version has modes: Round game, Time Race, VS, Lesson, and Option. Round Game is the basic game with 100 levels (this is much like the story mode of the game, featuring the bosses and events within the game). The levels increased in difficulty as the player progressed, starting with more monsters and more kinds of monsters. It also has an A and B game mode. Time Race has three levels of difficulty and has players racing against the clock. VS is the two player mode (the second player has the option of choosing a green Toad as his/her character). Lesson teaches the game basics. The Option menu gives the options such as name change (of the player), data clear, and rankings.

The SNES version has 6 game modes: VS Com, VS 2p, Round Game, Time Race, Lesson, and Option. Most are the same as their NES counterparts, but more robust. VS Com allowed the player to play against an AI player in three Modes of difficulty, and added colorful characters to play against like Katsini. Round game added an overworld map with different locations like Underground Caves and Wario's Castle. Many more mini-bosses were added to the game with the bosses varying from each level in the game (ie aquatic creatures were the bosses of the underwater levels, while the more powerful ones were located in Wario's Castle). Like in the NES version, they would attempt to decline Toad's attempt of saving the Mushroom Kingdom. Upon defeating all the bosses within the Round Game, Toad would soon meet Wario himself in person and the two would then duel in an intense fight that would determine the fate of the woods.

Protagonists

 * Toad
 * Wanda (referred to as a sprite in the NES version)
 * Birdo

Antagonists

 * Wario
 * Thwomp
 * Pidgit

NES Exclusive Bosses

 * Akuman
 * Meidou
 * De Buu
 * Goura
 * Dorago
 * Shiisa
 * False Wario

SNES Exclusive Bosses

 * Katsini
 * Galrog
 * Sam Spook
 * Aqualea
 * Razor
 * Tad Rock
 * Parrator
 * Sven
 * Monsieur Boo
 * Sarissa
 * Thak
 * Mangylox
 * Lizardon
 * Dedar
 * Harley Quin
 * Carlton
 * Harry Hare

Enemies

 * Fuzz
 * Spud
 * Squeak
 * Beaker
 * Scram
 * Dovo
 * Spook

Satellaview Versions
Wario's Woods was released on the Satellaview in two different versions. These versions are exclusive to the Satellaview.

The first version was called ワリオの森 爆笑バージョン (Wario's Woods Burst Of Laughter Version). In this one many of the character graphics were replaced with caricatures of Japanese Celebrities.

The second version was called ワリオの森 再び (Wario's Woods Again) This version lacks the edited graphics, making it more similar to the standard release. However, there are also other removals, such as the round-game-style Single Player mode and Story Mode Dialog.

References to Other Games

 * Super Mario Bros.: Coins are used in this game to rally up the points that Toad earns in each round.
 * Super Mario Bros. 2: Toad carries and throws opponents in a similar way to this game. Additionally, his superhuman strength also originated from this game. Enemies such as the Spud resemble various items from this game.

Trivia

 * This is the last game that featured Toad with superhuman strength.
 * In the VS mode of the game, the second player would use a green colored Toad as their character which possibly makes a reference to Mario and Luigi as Toad is represented with a red color like Mario while the green Toad references Luigi with his green color, though this might just be a coincidence.
 * This is the only game to feature Toad as the lone playable protagonist.
 * This is the only ESRB-rated Mario NES game. It is rated E for Everyone.
 * As Mario, Luigi, Peach, and even Bowser are absent in this game, it could be possible that this game took place in the events of Super Mario World when the aforementioned characters went to distant lands for the events of this game. Being that Toad was absent in Super Mario World, this would have made him the last known protector of the Mushroom Kingdom if he had indeed remained in the Kingdom (hence his given title as the Mushroom Kingdom Hero in the game). Additionally, non Super Mario World characters like Wario and Birdo also appear in this game. However, this theory has yet to be confirmed or proven.