Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Character Profiles: Wario

It's a brand new year. And with a brand new year comes Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, marking 20 years of Nintendo's platform fighting franchise. Everyone from every one of the previous Super Smash Bros. game is back for another battle, along with entirely new fighters to the series.

The game may be out in the wild, but with so many characters to choose from, Shacknews remains committed to taking a look at each and every one of the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate characters individually. And we are continuing to do so beyond the game's arrival date.

The final version is in the consumer hands, but these profiles should still not be considered final and can be updated at any time. Any guide that has been updated will be clearly marked.

Here's what we have up so far:
#01 - Mario
#02 - Donkey Kong
#03 - Link
#04 - Samus
#06 - Kirby (Updated 9/8/18)
#07 - Fox
#08 - Pikachu
#09 - Luigi
#10 - Ness
#11 - Captain Falcon
#15 - Ice Climbers
#16 - Sheik
#17 - Zelda
#21 - Marth
#23 - Ganondorf
#24 - Mewtwo
#28 - Pit
#31 - Snake
#32 - Ike
#33, #34, #35 - Pokemon Trainer
#38 - Sonic (Updated 9/3/18)
#40 - Olimar
#45 - Villager
#46 - Mega Man
#49 - Little Mac
#55 - Pac-Man
#61 - Cloud
#62 - Corrin
#63 - Bayonetta
#64 - Inkling (Updated 12/15/18)
#65 - Ridley
#67 - King K. Rool

Today, we look at a returning character from Super Smash Bros. Brawl, who may be hitting new heights as a combatant.

Who is Wario?

Wario has spent nearly three decades as an evil Mario counterpart. If you're a fan of those DC superhero shows on The CW, think of him as more of an Earth-2 Mario. Wario spent his first years purely as a Mario antagonist, but he's grown to be more than that over the past couple of decades. He's a keeper of great treasures and is willing to fight against anyone willing to take them from him.

But most recently, Wario has broken out as the master of the microgame. WarioWare is the ultimate in games for the ADHD crowd, with microgames lasting mere seconds. Wario is the main face of WarioWare, introducing an entirely new supporting cast across several games. And having successfully escaped his rival's shadow, Wario is ready to cement himself as the greatest fighter in Super Smash Bros.

Wario's Moves and Fighter Overview

Wario is a heavyweight fighter, but a bit of an oddball. While he's classified as a heavy fighter, he's got a smaller frame, which benefits him defensively. He's also got strange movement patterns, as he often moves around in a choppy fashion.

Ultimate's mechanical changes have boosted Wario significantly, giving him much greater mobility. He'll need it, because some of his most reliable weapons have been reigned in, as we'll get to.

Here are Wario's special moves:

• Chomp (Neutral B): Wario grabs a nearby opponent and chews on their head. In addition to dealing damage with every bite, he'll also heal himself for a tiny percentage.
• Corkscrew (Up B): Wario performs a spinning jump for multiple hits. This gets decent recovery distance, as well as moderate damage, with the last hit able to KO at higher percentages.
• Wario Bike (Side B): Wario jumps on his motorcycle and rides across the stage. He can run over an opponent for moderate damage or jump off and use the bike as a throwable object. The bike will be destroyed after taking enough hits, at which point the pieces become throwable.
• Wario Waft (Down B): Wario uses the power of his butt and blows his opponents away. Wario can build the power of his farts by using Chomp on projectiles or items, like food or pieces of his wrecked motorcycle. A fully-charged fart has KO potential and will launch Wario into the air. As Wario flies up, he can connect with a headbutt that can also KO.
• Wario Man (Final Smash): Wario eats a garlic clove and becomes the mighty Wario Man. This has been changed from previous Smash Bros. games, in that Wario will charge forward. If he connects, Wario will beat up his opponent, comic book-style, and KO them with a massive fart.

The Wario Bike has experienced quite a few changes. It has a much greater cooldown time, so you'd better know what you're doing before you deploy it. Fortunately, it's a more effective blunt object, since a thrown bike will inflict greater damage and is now a better finisher. But because of its higher cooldown, the bike is no longer the reliable tool it once was.

Fortunately, Wario has some better weapons at his disposal. His back-air is now a much better finisher, dealing greater damage while also more difficult to punish. Wario also has improved throws, which deal additional damage and have greater combo potential.

And what did the five fingers say to the face? SLAP! Wario's new forward-tilt is a big slap and it can do big damage. It's even an effective finisher at high percentages.

Esports Observations

The VGBootCamp crew is back, breaking down Wario. They point out how the jump-squat changes across the board for every Ultimate character has benefitted Wario arguably above everyone else. They also show off Wario's new tools, including a brand new dash attack and the aforementioned forward-tilt slap. But they also lament the long cooldown for the Wario Bike and point out how that can be a killer for this character.

If you're talking about Wario players, there's no better one in the world than France's William "Gluttony" Belaid. Gluttony has been terrorizing the EU scene since Ultimate's release, using all of Wario's improvements to his advantage. He recently had to earn every bit of a tournament win, going to the limit with Melee EVO World Champion William "Leffen" Hjelte. Recently-retired Adam "Armada" Lindgren offers up a full breakdown of this matchup, analyzing Gluttony's play in full.

Really, any Gluttony Wario play is a treat. Here he is just wrecking poor Tyrell "NAKAT" Coleman, finishing with killer back-airs and strategic air farts.

Meanwhile, let nobody claim that Gavin "Tweek" Dempsey isn't willing to adapt to a changing landscape. With Cloud and Bayonetta struggling in the new meta, Tweek has picked up Wario and has found great success so far. Here he is showing this character's great potential by knocking off Nairoby "Nairo" Quezada.

And here he is stunning Samuel "Dabuz" Buzby with a quick 3-0 sweep in the Winners Finals of that same tournament.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is out now on Nintendo Switch. We're still going through every single character, so be sure to check back in often for more profiles. For more details covering Nintendo's latest Switch brawler, be sure to head over to Shacknews' Super Smash Bros. Ultimate walkthrough and guide.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?