Game of the Week #45

[The Passion of the Mario]

Wario's Woods (NES & Super NES, 1994)



In this "falling block" puzzle game starring Wario and Toad, the player takes control of Toad. Toad exists within the Tetris-like playing field, and he must arrange falling monsters and bombs in such a way as to clear them from the screen. This is accomplished by arranging monsters and bombs of the same color in vertical, horizontal, or diagonal rows of three or more "blocks". The NES version is somewhat stripped down, and boasts fewer features, yet it seems to have become the prevalent version over the years; the NES version is playable in Animal Crossing for GameCube, and is also available for download from the Wii's Virtual Console.

Wario's Woods was the last officially licensed game to be released for the NES in North America. It is also the only NES game to ever be given an ESRB rating.

Here's a gameplay video:

Click to view video.

Oh, and two things about the video:

1. No, that is not Tatanga in the "VS Com" box to the upper left. It's some guy named Katsini.

2. That fairy you see floating at the top of the screen during gameplay is Wanda, who first appeared in Mario & Wario, unreleased outside of Japan.