Young Cricket

Young Cricket is a major character in the WarioWare series, first appearing in WarioWare: Smooth Moves. He is a martial artist and a WarioWare, Inc. employee who is obsessed with meat dumplings, and is the devoted apprentice of Master Mantis. When he was first introduced, he appeared to be a rather serious character, shown training in difficult conditions, but it is later shown that he fits in with the rest of Wario's employees. His name may be a play on the phrase "patience, young grasshopper", originating from the 1972 television series .

WarioWare: Smooth Moves
Young Cricket makes his debut in WarioWare: Smooth Moves. While walking down Park Street, Young Cricket's stomach growls and he says that he is hungry. Soon, he smells 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., he runs the Assembly Dojo alongside Mantis. He also appears as a comic stamp.

Game & Wario
Young Cricket also appears in Game & Wario, where he hosts the Kung Fu minigame. His training routine and love for dumplings are addressed once again, with his 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.

Like other WarioWare characters, he has an entry 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 Cricket.

WarioWare Gold
In WarioWare Gold, Young Cricket is the host of the fourth stage of the Touch League, with the Sports theme. His design is slightly changed; while he retains his black eyes from Game & Wario, his hair is longer in the back, and his pants are smaller. In his story, he is shown 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, and he tells Lulu to get off of him, which shocks her. He then proceeds to the next trial, the "Trial of the Lost Child", as Lulu (still clinging onto him) tells him to "giddyup, horsey."

He is later seen at Club Joe alongside Mantis, Jimmy T, Mona, Kat, Ana, Dr. Crygor, Penny, Mike, and Fronk, where his fighting moves end up attracting a large crowd to the club.

At the end of the game, Cricket is 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, Cricket uses 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.

Young Cricket also hosts the Battle Time multiplayer game mode alongside Master Mantis.

WarioWare: Get It Together!
Young Cricket appears in WarioWare: Get It Together! In the game's story mode, he appears in the opening cutscene, eating dumplings alongside Master Mantis. He, along with the rest of the WarioWare, Inc. employees, gets sucked into the game world due to Wario's actions. His hair is slightly changed, with it being less longer in the back, and with some hair tips being more to the side rather than an outline.

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 appears in the intro of Jimmy T's stage where he does an aerobics performance with him, Mantis, 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. When they soon remember other people were left behind in the game world, Cricket suggests that everyone return to the game world to rescue their friends, which they do immediately.

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. He excels in microgames where action at lower areas is prioritized (e.g. Roll Cake and A Moving Experience, the 2 microgames that deems him 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, he is inadequate in most microgames (e.g. Gondola Lift, the only microgame deeming him a bad fit). Young Cricket has the most number of microgames deeming him an average fit (154), along with 32 above-average fits and 23 below-average fits.

WarioWare: Move It!
Young Cricket appears in the upcoming game WarioWare: Move It!. His level has him on a snowy mountain, fighting an unknown person, thing, or object; segments of a health bar are used as lives.

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, albeit younger, and without the white tips in his hair. Here, he is seen punching and kicking a ball back and forth, paired with a girl who is dressed similarly to him. Though the two are unidentified in the game itself, a promotional video for WarioWare Gold establishes that the male character is Young Cricket, as well as implying the female one to be Mona.

Rhythm Heaven Megamix
Young Cricket makes an appearance in the Wario... Where? version of the Munchy Monk minigame in Rhythm Heaven Megamix, where he is seen 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.

Physical description
Young Cricket is shown to be either an older teenager or an adult, and has a tall build. He has black hair with white tips and oval eyes. He wears a blue martial artist jacket with white buttons in the front, along with a white stripe wrapping around the bottom of his jacket, with two short stripes on the sides of his body. Along with this, he wears blue loose-fitting pants that somewhat flare out at the bottom, with blue and white shoes and silver martial artist armbands.

Starting with his debut in WarioWare: Smooth Moves, he is shown to have brown eyes. After the art style changes in Game & Wario, his eyes are changed to black. His eyes stay black in WarioWare Gold, but his pants are also changed to be less wide. In WarioWare: Get It Together!, his armbands are removed during the Sports intro cutscene, revealing that his arms are somewhat muscular. In addition, his hair is slightly altered; it is shorter in the back, and the white tips on the sides of his hair are more to the side rather than all around it. In one of the character gallery artwork, he is shown to be wearing a black shirt and a wraparound under his jacket.

His child self wears a blue sleeveless shirt, blue shorts, and blue shoes. In this form, he doesn’t have white tips on his hair. In his character trailer, he wears a white belt, but in his character gallery artwork, he is shown wearing a red belt.

Personality
Young Cricket is heavily devoted to martial arts, training in difficult environments. He is also shown to be a big fan of meat dumplings throughout his appearances in the WarioWare franchise, like his WarioWare: Smooth Moves stage and the Kung Fu minigame in Game & Wario. Also, the Meat Dumpling Prezzy in WarioWare: Get It Together! is one of his most favorite, and his spirit in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has a dumpling Item Tidal Wave, referencing his favorite food. In WarioWare Gold, his serious personality remains, but for comedic effect, as he even goes as far as to "train" at the Diamond City Amusement Park, and also appears to have a tendency to overexaggerate. At least in WarioWare: Smooth Moves, he is shown being a little naïve.

Powers and abilities
Since Young Cricket is a martial artist, he knows a variety of kung-fu moves, including the Precious Prancing Pounce and We-Yu-Ken. In addition, he has excellent jumping abilities, being able to jump several feet high, as shown in both the Kung Fu game mode in Game & Wario and WarioWare: Get It Together! In the latter, he is also shown to be an excellent runner as well.

Relationships
Master Mantis has been Young Cricket's mentor since he was a child. In every WarioWare game they appear in, the two have been seen together, and they share their stages in games where they have them.

In a comment on the WarioWare: Smooth Moves Japanese blog, Jimmy T reveals that he gave Young Cricket one of his spare phones after he stated that he did not have one. Both of them have been shown together in WarioWare Gold, where Young Cricket visits Joe's club along with Jimmy T in order to fill it up. Young Cricket is also shown working out alongside Jimmy T in the Sports intro cutscene in WarioWare: Get It Together!

Lulu is shown to have an obsession with Young Cricket, leading her to jump on his back in his story's ending cutscene in WarioWare Gold. Young Cricket later asks her to get off, shocking Lulu. Her adoration for Young Cricket continues in WarioWare: Get It Together!, in which her description states that she is "an adoring fan of Cricket (whether he likes it or not)."

Japanese website profile
Name: Young Cricket Occupation: Apprentice! Hobby: Practice! Special talent: Wee fist! Still an apprentice Ssu. One word: My master, Master Mantis, is really strong! I've never seen him fight, but... 

Game & Wario character card
-Master Mantis's apprentice -Student of We-Yu-Ken -Recently mastered We-Ken -Loves dumplings

Character cards

 * 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.

Japanese website bio
''The work of Mantis. A serious student who likes performance and seeks strength. I love comics.''

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."

Portrayals

 * Unknown (2006 - 2013, starting with WarioWare: Smooth Moves)
 * Robbie Daymond (2018 - present, starting with WarioWare Gold)
 * Ryota Suzuki (2018-present, starting with WarioWare Gold, Japanese version)
 * Paolo De Santis (2018-present, starting with WarioWare Gold, Italian version)

Quotes

 * "Good to meet you! People call me Young Cricket. As part of my kung-fu training, Master Mantis and I travel around in search of new stances." &mdash; WarioWare: Smooth Moves
 * "Hey! I'm Cricket! I'm a kung fu apprentice! Master Mantis has taught me some new jumping techniques, so I made a game out of it!" &mdash; Game & Wario
 * "Whuh? Oh, I didn't notice. Little girl... get off." &mdash; WarioWare Gold
 * "I believe that's my cue." &mdash; WarioWare Gold
 * "I'm on it! Precious Prancing Pounce!" WarioWare Gold
 * "Time to join forces. It's the only way! C'mon, let's tag team our foe!" &mdash; WarioWare: Get It Together!
 * "Cricket crush!"
 * "Take that!"
 * "TKO!"