Author note: The screenshots I took were not of good quality so I am using press images here.
When the Switch 2’s mouse controls were revealed and shown off, there were a number of games people were hoping to see come to Nintendo Classics On Nintendo Switch Online. These included Mario Paint, which has indeed come, but another that gamers hoped for was Mario & Wario. Mario & Wario was an interesting SNES Mouse game only released in Japan, but with all the text in English, made by GameFreak and it is considered by many to be one of the best of the SNES mouse games. There were reports that the game was planned for release in the west and supposedly the game was advertised on kiosks in America, but at least we finally got it now.
Mario & Wario has a simple plot, Wario has dropped a variety of buckets on Mario’s head and you, as a fairy named Wanda, must guide Mario to safety. I say Mario, but Princess Peach and Yoshi are also characters to use for different speeds, with Princess Peach as the slow option and Yoshi as the fast option. Mario is the best choice to go for though, as his speed feels just right, but Yoshi is great for once you want more of a challenge, while Princess Peach is just too slow.
Mario & Wario is a game in the style of Lemmings, but faster and you need to be much more involved, both with the character you are guiding, and with the stage. This includes the blocks you need to click so Mario can move, while there are also enemies that you need to either click to defeat or help Mario avoid. The blocks do not all work the same way though, as many have different functions, such as a timer or based on colour, and learning how to navigate these is key to success.
Mario & Wario is an interesting puzzle game and I found the variety interesting if not challenging at the start. This is not to say that the game is too easy, just that the first worlds are more about the variety of puzzles than the challenges of the puzzles. It is not until the last two worlds that the challenge kicks in, and once it does, it can get quite vicious. At this point, Mario & Wario will throw all sorts of things at you like sticky substances and more challenging blocks, and this is a bit more satisfying truth be told.
I need to stress that Mario & Wario is not a typical puzzle game and in many ways, the puzzle elements feel like an aside in some stages. There is a goal to get stars for extra lives, and it feels to me that Nintendo and NST took some influence from this part of Mario & Wario for the latter Mario vs. Donkey Kong sequels, where the concept was applied better. Of course, I am not saying that Mario & Wario is a bad game, just that some of the ideas take a while to get going before the game really feels fun.
When you get to the really challenging and sadistic levels, Mario & Wario truly feels great. The levels take a while to figure out and the game just becomes more fun, and this raises a question for me, Why are only the last two worlds like this? If more of the game was like the last two worlds, Mario & Wario would go down as one of the absolute best of the Lemming inspired games.
The puzzles are much more thought out in these last two worlds, while the level variety is much better. You have to think about things quicker and be a lot faster on the click, and you will die a lot. Fortunately, Nintendo Classics on Nintendo Switch Online has save states so you will not need to replay the less challenging and dare I say it, duller levels. As for the controls, the mouse control function of the Joy-Con 2 controllers handled remarkably well and were extremely responsive during gameplay, which was good considering the type of game this is.
I enjoyed what I played of Mario & Wario overall thanks to the last levels and I feel, as I stated here, that this is a game that should be revived for a new entry on Switch 2 using the mouse controls. A new entry that reworks the duller aspects into something that is more compelling and has better puzzles overall, while having a better challenge for the majority of the game would be amazing. Perhaps if Mario & Wario does well enough on Nintendo Classics on Nintendo Switch Online, we will indeed get that. For now, we can finally enjoy this game in the west.
