Mario & Wario

Mario & Wario is a puzzle-platformer game released for the Super Famicom in 1993. It was designed by Satoshi Tajiri and developed by Game Freak. It is one of the few Mario games to utilize the Super Famicom Mouse accessory.

The game was initially planned to be localized for the North American market (as shown by it being previewed in the September 1993 issue of Nintendo Power and a Canadian ad for a contest, which featured a tentative box art), but ended up being a Japan-exclusive title. Despite this, the game itself contains no written Japanese whatsoever; it is entirely in English. Mario & Wario had also been featured in magazines from the UK, Germany, and Brazil. Most prominently, it was featured on the front cover of the November 1993 issue of VideoGame Magazine in Brazil with a full feature, which indicated that a release was near.

Story
Translated from the instruction booklet

''This is Yōsei no Mori. Within the forest's depths lives a fairy, and those who behold it find happiness, as the tale goes. One day, Mario sought the fabled fairy by coming to the forest. Peach, Yoshi and Luigi were together......or should have been, but alas, Luigi's visage was unseen. Mario's group of three had decided to look for lost little Luigi.''

''Then, the sky was overcome with a suspicious engine's sound. What was that? It was Wario riding his personal plane, the Bulldog, and he threw a bucket from the sky.''

"Here you go!"

Uh oh, the bucket landed right over Mario's head.

"Uwagh, I can't see in this thing!"

''Watching was the forest's fairy, Wanda. She somehow wanted to help, but the small fairy did not have the ability to remove the bucket. Thus, Wanda decided to use her magic wand on Mario to send signals, guiding him to Luigi......''

Gameplay
The main gameplay involves guiding Princess Peach, Mario, or Yoshi to the goal, where Luigi awaits. The player can select one of the original eight stages at the start. Once they are cleared, the final stages become available. At the beginning of every stage except EXTRA, Wario drops a random item on the character's head, making them unable to see where they're going.

The player uses the Super Famicom Mouse to control Wanda the sprite and alter the environment to make it safe for the character, making it somewhat similar to the Mario vs. Donkey Kong series. The character will walk left and right on their own, so the obstacles must be manipulated accordingly to allow the character to safely navigate through the level. There is a time limit for each level, and bonus points are given for any excess time. Each character has a set speed; Peach is slow, Mario is medium, and Yoshi is fast. At the end of every stage, there's a bonus mini-game where Wanda can whack Wario with a hammer. Every time the player hits Wario on his plane, the player will earn one coin. After forty hits, the plane will malfunction in Wario's face, but he will also flee if enough time has passed.

Development
After Game Freak's successful collaboration with Nintendo on Yoshi, Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi requested Game Freak to develop a new game that would make use of the Super Scope accessory. As Yoshi was a big commercial success but was not a self-owned property, there was a desire internally at Game Freak to develop titles using the company's own characters. After brainstorming with employee Akihito Tomisawa, Game Freak president Satori Tajiri settled on the idea of making a horror-themed game inspired by ''.

The original concept was that the player would attempt to capture a monster living inside a "western-style building" by firing a net with the Super Scope and capture it with a trigger. Though a prototype was produced and the project was coming along smoothly, it had become obvious the Super Scope was a commercial failure so the game was retooled to use the more recent Super NES Mouse. The concept shifted to guiding a character inside a maze using the mouse. Eventually, Nintendo suggested to include Nintendo characters in the game, a suggestion Game Freak agreed to as they thought it would make the game sell better. However, at the last minute, Game Freak requested to keep a character created for the earlier versions of the game, Wanda (designed by artist Ken Sugimori.

References in other media

 * Pokémon Red and Blue: In one character's house, the protagonist can interact with a Super Nintendo Entertainment System connected to a TV, which is described as displaying "a game with Mario wearing a bucket on his head." Both Mario & Wario and Pokémon Red and Blue were developed by Game Freak.
 * Kirby Super Star and Kirby Super Star Ultra: One of the treasures that can be obtained in the Crystal area of the The Great Cave Offensive main game is a Bucket almost identical to the one in Mario & Wario. However, the "M" in the Bucket is orange instead of purple.
 * Mario and the Incredible Rescue: In chapter 8, Wario attacks with buckets.
 * Super Smash Bros. Melee: The bucket Mario wore on his head appears as a trophy. It mentions that "the bucket's M looks like a W when turned upside down".
 * Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story: One of Junker's attacks is dropping a bucket on Mario or Luigi's heads and they walk back and forth, using a similar animation to the ones in Mario & Wario.
 * Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: Wanda appears as a spirit.