Wario's first go of things as a protagonist is only part of the Super Mario Land series because he hadn't yet proven he didn't need the connection.
Fight, Magic, Items: The History of Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and the Rise of Japanese RPGs in the West is available now, and I spoke to the author about it and JRPGs.
When is pretty good not good enough for some?
"Rod Land" is a thing you can name a video game, yes.
A Wario and Bomberman crossover event that made a whole lot of sense for everyone involved.
Metal Gear? On the Game Boy Color!?
A Super Famicom-exclusive game that used the system's mouse peripheral, where Wario stars as a plane-riding villain.
A cross between revisiting a world and characters you already know with planted seeds that wouldn't begin to sprout for some time yet.
A good game in its own right, but also the birthplace of Wario.
The last of the SNES Mega Man X titles is a worthy sendoff that would also end up on 32-bit successor consoles.
Not everything in E.V.O. works like it should, but it's still a fascinating experiment that deserves a second chance. Or third chance, as it were.
Here's to 20 years of time traveling and also dual-wielding shotguns
