Young Cricket

Young Cricket & Master Mantis are two characters from the WarioWare series, first appearing in WarioWare: Smooth Moves. They are martial artists and WarioWare, Inc. employees who like meat dumplings. Master Mantis is an elderly teacher of martial arts, while Young Cricket is his devoted student. When they are first introduced, they appear to be rather serious characters, shown training in difficult conditions, but it is later shown that they 'fit in' with the rest of Wario's friends.

WarioWare: Smooth Moves
Young Cricket & Master Mantis make their debut in WarioWare: Smooth Moves. While walking down Park Street, Young Cricket's stomach growls and he says that he is hungry. The two smell dumplings being served at a nearby food stand. Cricket starts running on the Park Street Residents' heads to the front of the line. Eventually, he reaches the front of the line and asks for two dumplings, only to find that the people he stepped on are all angry at him. He apologizes and runs on their heads again to get back to Master Mantis, telling him that they should get in line.

WarioWare: D.I.Y.
In WarioWare: D.I.Y., they run the Assembly Dojo. They also appear as comic stamps.

Game & Wario
Young Cricket & Master Mantis also appear in Game & Wario, where they host the Kung Fu minigame. Their training routine and love for dumplings are addressed once again, with their game combining both as the player controls Young Cricket through a series of obstacle courses to reach Master Mantis, collecting dumplings along the way to regain energy.

Young Cricket is also depicted on a bowling pin in the Bowling minigame, alongside other major characters from the game.

Both characters have entries for the Miiverse Sketch Masterpiece Collection, videos uploaded by the official Nintendo of Japan YouTube account showcasing drawings made with the Miiverse Sketch mode. The sixth video has "Bee" as its theme and features commentary by Young Cricket; Master Mantis provides commentary for the eighteenth video, whose theme is "Stag Beetle."

WarioWare Gold
In WarioWare Gold, Young Cricket & Master Mantis are the hosts of the fourth stage of the Touch League, with the Sports theme. In their story, they are training in Diamond City Amusement Park. Cricket analyzes how dangerous two rides are, and then decides he is ready to prove himself. Mantis leads him to a merry-go-round known as Precious Prancers, where Cricket is ready to start his trial after overreacting about how dangerous the attraction is. After Cricket survives the trial, Lulu, who mistakes him for one of the horses, jumps on his shoulder, which Mantis then notices. Cricket tells Lulu to get off of him, which shocks her. Mantis then proceeds to the next trial, the "Trial of the Lost Child", as Lulu (still clinging onto him) tells him to "giddyup, horsey."

They are later seem at Club Joe alongside Jimmy T, Mona, Kat, Ana, Dr. Crygor, Penny, Mike and Fronk. Cricket's fighting moves end up attracting a large crowd, while Mantis' dancing techniques have the opposite effect. Thankfully, Penny's singing attracts hundreds of people into the Club.

At the end of the game, Cricket & Mantis are among the group who demands Wario to pay them for the microgames they designed for the Wario Bowl. After Wario trips and lets his money briefcase fall, Mantis tells Cricket to use his newly learned technique, the "Precious Prancing Pounce", to stop Wario from escaping further. All of Wario's friends then decide to split the remaining money equally between them as Cricket holds off Wario from interfering. The player is then rewarded the 10000 coins they were given at the beginning of the game to buy their admission into the Wario Bowl.

WarioWare: Get It Together!
Young Cricket & Master Mantis appear in WarioWare: Get It Together! In the game's story mode, the duo appears in the opening cutscene, eating dumplings. They, along with the rest of the WarioWare, Inc. employees, get sucked in the game world due to Wario's actions.

Young Cricket is the second character to be unlocked following Wario, as he joins Wario in the first level alongside 18-Volt. After beating Wario's stage, 18-Volt recognizes the game bug that sabotaged Wario's stage, and Cricket hypothesizes that destroying the game bugs will fix the game. Throughout the various pre-stage cutscenes, Cricket is shown pushing 18-Volt due to the latter's inability to move.

Young Cricket & Master Mantis appear in the intro of Jimmy T's stage where they do an aerobics performance with him, Lulu, and Joe.

After beating Anything Goes, Young Cricket goes back to the real world alongside most of the other WarioWare, Inc. employees and chases after Wario after it is revealed their predicament was caused by his poor programming. However, they soon remember other people were left behind in the game world, including Master Mantis. Cricket suggests that everyone must return to the game world to rescue their friends, which they do immediately.

Master Mantis appears in the post-game story where he is bound to a rope in the Super Hard tower. When Wario and co. reach the tower, they free Mantis and he joins the rest of the employees chasing down the mysterious object who initially kidnapped him. Upon clearing the Showdown stage, Wario complains about having ended up without any treasure, to which Master Mantis replies that the end that Wario may have seeked was "Treasure not the gold but the journey it inspired."

As a playable character, Young Cricket is controlled with the moving him left and right. Pressing makes him jump, and the height of his jump can be increased by holding. Master Mantis is controlled in the same way, but with the additional ability to walk upside-down on any ceiling, if he jumps high enough. Both characters excel in microgames where action at lower areas is prioritized (e.g. Roll Cake and A Moving Experience, the 2 microgames that deem them a good fit). However, there are very few microgames that involve action near the ground, and most microgames involve action at higher areas. Due to this, they are inadequate in most microgames (e.g. Gondola Lift, the only microgame considered a bad fit for both characters). Master Mantis's additional ability gives him more potential to complete microgames in higher areas. Because Young Cricket & Master Mantis have the most amount of microgames where they are considered an average fit (154 and 148 respectively), they are overall considered to be generally balanced, with very few microgames deeming them unfit.

Super Smash Bros. series
In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Young Cricket appears as a Sticker that raises a player's attack by three.

In Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Young Cricket can be seen on the sketchpad in one of the randomly generated layouts for the Gamer stage.

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Young Cricket appears as a spirit.

Rhythm Heaven Fever


Young Cricket appears in Rhythm Heaven Fever in a Two-Player Endless Game called Kung Fu Ball. Here, he is seen punching and kicking a ball back and forth, paired with an unnamed girl who is dressed similarly to him. Though unidentified in the game itself, a promotional video for WarioWare Gold establishes that the character is Young Cricket.

Rhythm Heaven Megamix
The pair makes an appearance in the Wario... Where? version of Rhythm Heaven Megamix. The set's version of features Master Mantis in place of the monk and Young Cricket riding a cloud in the background.

Tetris 99
From September 17 to September 21,  ran the 24th Maximus Cup which featured a WarioWare: Get It Together! theme, where Young Cricket is represented by the "J" tetromino.

Personality
Young Cricket and Master Mantis are heavily devoted to martial arts, training in difficult environments. In WarioWare Gold, their serious personality remains, but for comedic effect, as they even go as far as to "train" at the Diamond City Amusement Park; and Young Cricket also appears to have a tendency to over exaggerate.

Young Cricket
-Master Mantis's apprentice -Student of We-Yu-Ken -Recently mastered We-Ken -Loves dumplings

Master Mantis
-Master of countless martial arts -Popular with the ladies -Has his own fan club -Loves dumplings (a bit too much)

Young Cricket

 * Rank C – This young man is devoted to training under Mantis. He desires mastery. And craves meat dumplings.
 * Rank B – Cricket is often seen at a Chinese restaurant in Diamond City. He spends a lot on food there.
 * Rank A – Cricket obeys his master so fully that when Mantis says training must happen at a fancy café, he hops to it.

Master Mantis

 * Rank C – Mantis is a master of the martial arts. He's extremely strong. Trains with his dutiful student, Cricket.
 * Rank B – Uses a martial-arts technique known as Wii Form Style, though increasingly interested in Quick Switch Style.
 * Rank A – Believes that training can happen anywhere, usually where he wants to be. Fairly recently, at a lovely café.

European website bio

 * "The dumpling-loving kung fu student uses his skills to dash across the screen and jump super-high."

Character description

 * "This devoted student of the martial arts diligently trains under Master Mantis. He likes meat dumplings. A lot."

Character description

 * Intro description: "A master of martial arts and Cricket's teacher, he is said to be very strong...though no one has seen him fight."
 * Break Room description: "A master of martial arts and Cricket's teacher, Mantis is said to be very strong...though no one has ever seen him fight."