Wanda

Wanda is a fairy who first appeared in the Japanese-only Super Famicom game Mario & Wario. In the game, she is the fabled subject of a mythical forest, but when Mario is attacked by Wario in her domain, she takes it upon herself to guide the former to safety. She was designed by Game Freak employee Ken Sugimori.

Mario & Wario
In the game Mario & Wario, the player controls Wanda using the Super Famicom Mouse, providing a safe pathway for the aimlessly-wandering Princess Peach, Mario, and Yoshi, who have had buckets and other objects dropped on their heads by Wario and were all separated from Luigi. Her role is to create safer pathways by utilizing her magic wand to alter the surroundings of the environments and obstacles that were in the way of the blinded heroes. If she does not clear the obstacles in front of the blinded characters, the level would not be able to be completed as the blinded characters would not be able to reach their target destination. During the bonus minigames after every ten courses, she uses a hammer to hit Wario's plane for coins. In the ending, Wanda is seen presenting the "THANK YOU" message on the screen as the heroes defeat Wario and celebrate her success.

Super Mario-kun
Wanda appears in volume 9 of the manga series Super Mario-kun. Bowser, however, crushes her, and they fuse together for the rest of the Mario & Wario arc.

Wanda makes a notable appearance in the eleventh volume, in the Wario's Woods arc, replacing the Sprite character. In this issue, Wanda arrives to Peach's Castle Garden and searches for help in order to support her as she tries to stop Wario and his plans. Eventually, Wanda finds the heroes Mario, Luigi, Toad, and Yoshi throughout her search and the four agree to help her on her quest to stop Wario. The same character replacement also happens in Kodansha's manga adaptation.

Super Mario
Like stated above, Wanda does appear in the KC Deluxe manga adaptations of Mario & Wario and Wario's Woods, in which she replaces the Sprite.

In the first story arc, she helps Mario, Peach and Yoshi in saving Luigi from Wario's clutches by filling the pits with blocks and saving the heroes from fatal falls.

In the Wario's Woods story arc, she is shown to be a potion maker, hoping to create one day a potion that makes her as big as a human. However, every single potion she makes always have the same result: they explode. This causes the rage from the fairy elder that eventually, in the second act of the story, will banish her from the Fairies album. With her explosive concoctions (which replace the Bombs), she helps a young Mario in saving a young Peach and Birdo from a young Wario that just freed Fauster, a demon sealed ages ago by a Toad hero whose helmet was given to Mario by the Fairies.

In the second act, set years later the first, Wanda is banished from the Fairies' album by the elder due to another explosive potion of hers. This is revealed to be a saving grace, as Fauster is once again freed by Wario and uses the power given to him by having an infant Luigi sacrificed to him to turn all the fairies into stone, except for Wanda. In their journey to defeat Fauster, Wanda and Mario are accompanied by Peach and Birdo. After defeating Goro, the group split up and Wanda goes with Mario, who gets hypnotized by Mad's mermaid voice. The fairy attempts to free his friend from the trance by creating a potion that should wake him up, but as usual it explodes. Luckily, the explosion frees him from the mermaid spell. After Fauster completely regains his power and fuses with Luigi into a giant Luigi-esque demon, Wanda attempts to create an exploding potion and, ironically, finally manages to create the desired growing potion and becomes a giant. Wario, however, re-writes her name on the Fairies' album, and she is instantly petrified. Distraught by the situation, Wanda cries a tear that lands on Mario, making him bigger and leading him to defeat Fuaster, saving the world, the petrified fairies, and Luigi.

In the Wario's Woods arc, Wanda is showed to have two unnamed Fairy friends, which always console her when the elder scolds her.

Super Smash Bros. Melee
While Wanda herself does not appear in Super Smash Bros. Melee, the description for the bucket trophy mentions her role in Mario & Wario.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Wanda appears in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as a Novice-class support spirit. The spirit boosts the power of the user's magic-based attacks. In its battle, the player has to defeat a tiny Palutena, who is accompanied by Mario, Peach, and Yoshi.

The core extracted from Wanda's spirit can be combined with Princess Shokora's core to summon the Sprixie Princesses' spirit, or with Smeargle's core to summon Elline's spirit.

Perfect Ban Mario Character Daijiten
''' ワンダ 出身 妖精の森 性格 世話好き 登場ゲーム M&W ''' 魔法のつえでみんなを守る妖精ワンダ 「私の役目は、バケツをかぶせられ前が見えないマリオたちを魔法のつえで誘導すること. ワリオのいたずらにも困ったもんね」

' Wanda Place of origin: Fairy Forest Disposition: Caring person Game appearances: M&W ' Wanda, the fairy who protects others with her magic wand "My job is to guide Mario and his friends, who are covered with buckets and can't see what's ahead, with my magic wand. I'm also stuck in the middle of Wario's pranks."

Trivia

 * In preview material for the canceled international release, Wanda was nicknamed "Barrio".
 * Additionally, it states that the reason for the blocks during gameplay is because "Psychic Potential Block Fields" can be sensed by fairies.
 * Wanda was originally created for the earlier, monster-themed versions of Mario vs. Wario. Game Freak requested to keep the character when the game shifted to using Super Mario characters.