You don’t need me to tell you how prominent the Mario franchise is. Nintendo’s iconic plumber is inescapable. In the many years since he first showed up in arcades around the world, Mario’s influence has spread into countless spinoffs and adaptations. Along the way, the cast of characters accompanying him on his adventures has only grown. One of the more bizarre additions to the Mario roster is Wario. This is a sort of arch-rival to the iconic hero, who appears as his twisted reflection. While Wario was originally created to oppose Mario and act as an antagonist and foil, he has since branched out and received his own games. One of the earlier titles to feature Wario in a frontline role is Wario’s Woods, a 1994 puzzle game for the NES.
Wario’s Woods Premise
This puzzling little spinoff stars the diminutive hero Toad, a mushroom-shaped fellow who appears throughout the franchise but rarely gets time in the spotlight. The mushroom man must liberate the Peaceful Woods from Wario, who has used a magic wand to turn the forest creatures into horrible monsters. Toad must venture through the woods, defeating Wario’s minions and eventually overthrowing the tyrant himself. Along the way, he is aided by Birdo, a former foe of Mario and friends who debuted in Super Mario Bros. 2. He is also aided by a sprite, one of the fey creatures who watch over the woods.
To clear the woods of monsters, Toad must match their colors to those of the bombs that the sprite drops from the top of the screen. Toad must move the monsters and bombs around the bottom of the screen to create a group of three or more combining both bombs and monsters of the same color. This follows a similar format to another of Nintendo’s classic puzzle games, Dr. Mario. While Dr. Mario gave you control over where the pills were dropping, however, Wario’s Woods makes you manage the position of entities that have already landed, while new items drop uncontrollably. You also must contend with a timer; when it expires, Wario will appear and spawn new enemies for you to deal with.
Wario’s Woods Main Characters
Even though no one would call the Mario franchise the most story-focused of series, it still has a wide roster of lovable characters. Only a few of them show up here, but they’re still worth highlighting, as are the wide array of minibosses on display in this game. Here are some of the colorful characters you will encounter in your journey through Wario’s Woods.
- Toad: The protagonist of Wario’s Woods is a series mainstay who first made his appearance as an individual character in Super Mario Bros. 2. This lovable little mushroom is a constant companion to Mario and friends. While you can rarely play as him, you can often encounter him popping up to offer a helpful item or hint on your journey. A green version of the character also appears in 2-player versus mode.
- Sprite: This helpful fairy drops bombs from the top of the screen. Their teamwork is what allows Toad to progress and liberate the Peaceful Woods from Wario’s control.
- Birdo: Birdo is a strange saurian creature with a funnel-shaped mouth. She first appeared in Super Mario Bros. 2 as a miniboss, wherein she would shoot eggs at the protagonist. In Wario’s Woods, she seems to have had a change of heart, as she spends the game encouraging and instructing Toad, as well as keeping an eye out for Wario.
- Wario: The antagonist of the game is a sinister, evil version of the beloved Mario, featuring twisted and exaggerated versions of all of Mario’s greatest traits. His greed and megalomania leads him to take over the Peaceful Woods, using magic to twist it into a place of evil and danger befitting his cruel nature.
- Thwomp: There is a Thwomp at the top of each level in Wario’s Woods. Whenever Wario appears to cause trouble, this Thwomp gets lower and lower, making things harder for Toad and his allies.
- Pidgit: This mischievous bird replaces your sprite companion whenever Wario interferes. Instead of helpful bombs, Pidgit rains more enemies down from above, making it that much harder to clear the level and progress.
Wario’s Woods Games In The Series
Even though Toad is the protagonist, the title of Wario’s Woods firmly identifies it as a Wario-affiliated game. The Wario subseries has had a variety of entries, but the grotesque antihero is best known for the WarioWare titles. These games compile several microgames, brief challenges that take a matter of seconds to complete. Their brief, entertaining nature and emphasis on multiplayer make them ideal for parties. While the full list of Mario games would be too long to recount here, you can still check out the complete history of Wario-centric releases.
- Mario & Wario (1993)
- Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 (1994)
- Wario’s Woods (1994)
- Wario Blast: Featuring Bomberman! (1994)
- Virtual Boy Wario Land (1995)
- Wario Land II (1998)
- Wario Land 3 (2000)
- Wario Land 4 (2001)
- WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgames! (2003)
- Wario World (2003)
- WarioWare: Twisted! (2004)
- WarioWare: Touched! (2004)
- WarioWare: Smooth Moves (2006)
- Wario: Master of Disguise (2007)
- Wario Land: Shake It! (2008)
- WarioWare: Snapped! (2008)
- WarioWare D.I.Y. (2009)
- Game & Wario (2013)
- WarioWare Gold (2018)
- WarioWare: Get It Together! (2021)
- WarioWare: Move It! (2023)
Wario’s Woods Cheat Codes
There is only one cheat you can use in an unaltered version of Wario’s Woods. By holding left on the D-pad and pressing Start when selecting VS COM from the main menu, you will unlock a significantly harder difficulty than whatever you actually select. This code is nice for anyone who wants an extra challenge, but it won’t do much for you if you want to exploit or take advantage of the game. For that, you’ll have to turn to third-party hardware. Gamemite presents this list of codes you can use with an Action Replay peripheral, and these should also work for any emulator that supports them as well. Using these codes, you can make the process of defeating Wario as easy as taking a stroll through the woods.
- 7F24FC09: Unlock infinite lives.
- 7E081223: Gain infinite time.
- 7E1B8703: Guarantee victory on every level.
- 7E1BABC0: Disables the CPU, preventing it from taking any actions.
- 7E1B8800: Prevents the CPU from ever winning a level.
- 7E1B8B63: Gain a life from one coin instead of 30.
- 7E011100: Make the music keep playing when the game is paused.
- 7E184911: Prevent Wario from lowering the Thwomp.
Wario’s Woods Cheats FAQ
Is Wario’s Woods the last NES game? Wario’s Woods was launched at the very tail end of the development cycle for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Because of this, it does indeed hold the distinction of being the very last officially licensed NES game released in North America. The game did survive the end of this illustrious console, however, as an expanded version was launched for the SNES with more levels and minibosses for players to confront. This makes it a considerably more substantial release, and arguably a better choice for any dedicated Wario’s Woods fans out there.
How long is Wario’s Woods? This question is arguably a bit subjective. Wario’s Woods is a puzzle game with a lot of different modes, some of which are functionally endless. However, the main story is very much on the shorter side. If you focus in closely on that aspect of the game, you’ll probably only spend about five hours playing Wario’s Woods. If you enjoy your time with the story mode, however, there will be plenty more content for you to enjoy.