Long Live Wart!
Although I’ve not written about it in a hot second, I am a sucker for anything Super Mario Bros. 2. In one of the first posts I did here, I explained how there was a narrow window in early Mario mania when the aesthetic of this game dominated merchandise released in North America and Europe — where Mario clutching a turnip seemed more current than Mario holding a mushroom, and Shy Guys and Snifits seemed more of-the-moment than the Goombas and Koopa Troopas introduced in the first game. Without knowing where the series would go in future installments, those of us in the west had no idea that was going to be a short-lived thing. Not only that, but it was also never a thing in Mario’s native Japan, where our Super Mario Bros. 2 had been released as a wholly different game starring someone other than Mario.
Alas, it was during this brief period that we got our last official looks at Wart, the big bad of Super Mario Bros. 2., who’d be retired from all promotional merchandise once Super Mario Bros. 3 was released outside Japan. In fact, we’d only really see him again in any new way for the remake Super Mario Advance in 2001, where he got what seems like new official art for the instruction manual. The newest version we have of him actually comes from the Switch remake of Link’s Awakening, where he’s technically Mamu and it’s not entirely clear if he’s meant to be the same character, dream logic notwithstanding.
Wart, Super Mario Advance-era.
Mamu, per the remake of LInk’s Awakening.
Because I love Super Mario Bros. 2 and because Wart had a short time in the limelight, I’m protective of our bubble-spewing frog tyrant, and that’s actually the reason I got on eBay recently and purchased a Japanese children’s activity book featuring some strikingly on-model illustrations of him and some other Super Mario Bros. 2 baddies. Released in 1995, the book specifically is promoting Super Mario USA, the 1992 Japanese port of the American version of Super Mario Bros. 2, which had been released in Japan as Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic in 1987. I suppose Nintendo was still trying to make Japanese players accept Wart, Birdo and the like as Mario characters after having introduced them in a non-Mario-related game years before. Either way, 1995 is fairly late in the cycle of Wart’s popularity in the west or Japan, and this would be one of the final times we would see him drawn in the style of Yoichi Kotabe, if not actually by him.
The title, Super Mario Meiro Ehon 6 Mamū o Taose! (スーパーマリオ めいろえほん 6 マムーをたおせ), translates as “Super Mario Maze Picture Book 6: Take down Wart,” and I’ve scanned and assembled the pages here, so everyone can enjoy.
Classic vegetable-plucking and -chunking action! Featuring a pose for Wart that I believe is unique to this book’s cover and is not available on its own, unblocked my Mario’s hand. It’s a great rendition of Mario, at least.
I know it’s bad form to dunk on something made for children, but this maze… if we can call it a maze? It is maybe one of the easiest activity book activities I’ve ever seen. What child would need for than ten seconds to “solve” this?
It’s Mouser, everyone’s favorite rodent terrorist! Seeing the multicolored blocks that appear in boss rooms rendered this way, I now wonder if they’re meant to be the LEGO knockoff N&B Blocks that Nintendo began marketing in the 1960s. They also make a random cameo in Super Mario Land 2.
For whatever reason, Mario is only paired with Toad for this literary adventure. Luigi and Peach don’t show up. You have to wonder why.
Again, it’s a maze sure to challenge only the dumbest child, but it does give us what I’m pretty sure is unique artwork of a terrified Toad.
Okay, now we’re talking. This maze actually seems like it might challenge the dumbest child. Also, I’m surprised how much less menacing the illustrated version of Phanto looks compared to how demonic he looks in the game.
I will refer you to my guide to the origin of the names of the Super Mario Bros. 2 enemies for tidbits about these guys here. It is notable how the lowly Ninji went from being more or less forgotten alongside Panser and Porcupo only to get a comeback in the past few years.
At least Birdo is given a flower motif and an egg-shaped maze. My Japanese is not bad, but I think Birdo is telling Mario that she’s using the bathroom??
And finally we get a showdown with Wart and two of underlongs but weirdly not Tryclyde, who I assume was on vacaction. Note that this is the same Wart post the west got with Super Mario Advance. It wasn’t new art. just new to us and recycled from the release of Super Mario USA. As far as I know, however, that illustration of Wart getting bonked with a vegetable is unique to this book.
And we conclude with one more appearance by Birdo, plus a showcase of the other volumes in this series, which I will not be be buying because they lack references to Super Mario Bros. 2.
And that’s that. There does seem to be another similar book involving Wart, this one promoting Super Mario All-Stars. It’s titled Super Mario Adventure Game Picture Book 1: Take Out Wart's Gang! (スーパーマリオぼうけんゲームえほん 1 マムーいちみをやっつけろ), but I can’t seem to find any copies for sale online. If you can spot one, let me know and I’ll pick it up and scan it as well!
Miscellaneous Notes
Since this is an image-intensive post, it makes as much sense as any other post to announce that I’ve made a TTOOVG account on Instagram to help promote what I do here. Feel free to follow along if you’re at all inclined.
Technically, there was a later official-ish appearance by Wart in the 2020 edition of a Nintendo recruitment pamphlet that shows him talking to Daisy on the phone.
Not 100 percent sure on this, but I think the idea is that Daisy is speaking to Wart in a foreign language and Donkey Kong doesn’t understand what’s being said. Points for giving Wart a princess phone, however.
If you count Doki Doki Panic, Super Mario Bros. 2 might be the most remade Mario game or at least the one whose essential premise has been revisited by Nintendo under a variety of different manifestations that each have at least cosmetic changes. In order:
Doki Doki Panic (1987)
Super Mario Bros. 2 (1988)
Super Mario USA (1992)
The Super Mario All-Stars remake (1993)
BS Super Mario USA (1996)
Super Mario Advance (2001)
They’re all essentially the same game, although when you compare how far Super Mario Advance has gotten from the original, it’s clearly evolved a lot. But unless I’m mistaken, some form of this one game may have been re-released more times than Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3 or Super Mario World. I can’t tell if this underscores how much faith Nintendo has in Super Mario Bros. 2 or if they’re that eager to remind us that yes, this is *actually* a Super Mario game. Thoughts?
As I post this, we’re about to get both the Switch 2 and Mario Kart World. I’m very excited for this game, for a number of reasons but one of them being that it looks like a Super Mario nostalgia bomb. That said, I’m a little put off by the sparse representation for Super Mario Bros. 2 that we’ve seen so far. There’s not much, aside from Birdo being playable right from the get-go. In fact, it seems like we’ve maybe even gotten some erasure, what with the Shy Guy Bazaar track from Mario Kart 7 returning with references to SMB2 being replaced with ones to Super Mario Land, as if it’s been annexed into Sarasaland all these years later.
Daisy’s logo on that Arabian-inspired turret?? Imajin would be rolling in his grave!
Of course, as of now, we don’t know much about where Nintendo might take Mario Kart World in the future. The roster is padded out with a bunch of randos like the Sidestepper from Mario Bros. and two two different kinds of moles, and I have to imagine Nintendo would leverage the many non-rando Mario characters not yet playable as DLC. I do wonder if this would ever include Wart and other Super Mario Bros. 2 characters that haven’t seen the light of day in a long, long time. A guy can hope.
And finally, don’t forget that the western Super Mario Bros. 2 was actually made after Super Mario Bros. 3, which is why it has more detailed sprites despite coming out before, at least outside Japan. I have the pixel evolutions to prove it!