Wario

Wario (Japanese: ワリオ) is the titular main protagonist of his own series and a recurring character in the Super Mario franchise. He is portrayed as an self-righteous anti-hero and the evil and greedy version of his arch-rival Mario. He made his first appearance in Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins as the main antagonist.

Why He's EXCELLENT!

 * 1) Despite him literally being created to serve as the bad counterpart to Mario, he quickly grew to become his own person and built his own life outside of antagonizing Mario. Many of the games that Wario stars in barely feature his red-clad rival, some have him absent entirely. In the WarioWare series, Wario even ditches the overalls for his own self-styled biker fit.
 * 2) Similar to Mario, he's good at many areas: he's an amazing treasure hunter and explorer, a successful video game developer and owns an entire mountain and gold mine according to some Mario Kart games.
 * 3) While he may be greedy and self-serving, these traits are presented in a really goofily entertaining manner that makes him easy to root for, much like Robbie Rotten, or Dick Dastardly. It can also be considered a breath of fresh air from all the "goody-two-shoes" heroes.
 * 4) While his gross and crass side may be considered a bad quality to some, it is an important part of his character, and helps add to his rascally charm that's unique the the rest of the Mario world's cast. In a way, this makes him similar to Shrek.
 * 5) While his motivation for going on treasure hunts may be gaining cash, he enjoys the adventure along the way. The credits of Wario Land 4 have him think back of moments through the game and WarioWare Twisted shows that he keeps the music box from Wario Land 3 and a picture of the Golden Pyramid from Wario Land 4, around his house, as mementos. This love of adventure is similar to Scrooge McDuck's, but unlike Scrooge, Wario doesn't hoard his gold, but rather blows it all on castles, buffets, and even balloons, showing that he isn't stingy.
 * 6) When he isn't adventuring or scheming, Wario can be a pretty chill guy. Jimmy T is rumored to be his childhood friend. Mona is stated to have helped him adventuring, look up to him and have a crush on him (with one moment in WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$! stating he finds her cute). He trusts Dr. Crygor enough to help with fixing his machines and creating his bike. His A-Rank card in WarioWare Gold states he never locks his door so his friends can come and go as they please. Starting with WarioWare Gold, he also keeps a picture of everyone with him. While he may use them for cheap labor, it's clear that Wario considers them close friends.
 * 7) *Surprisingly, in Wario Land II, it is revealed that Wario has a pet hen. The hen appears in the first story of Chapter 2 (the SS Tea Cup): Return the hen to her nest. The cutscene before this stage depicts the three Pirate Goom soldiers of the Black Sugar Gang dashing away with Wario's treasures and startling the hen. Wario follows closely behind in pursuit of his loot. However, when he sees his pet fly away, he temporarily puts his quest on hold, as he loves his hen even more than he does money.
 * 8) Unlike most fat characters in fiction, Wario actually has a muscular physique to show off. That said, he does display a high amount of physical strength on par with some of said characters, being capable of defeating multiple genies and demons in combat, lifting weights and dumbbells, and piledriving dinosaurs far larger than he is with minimal effort.
 * 9) He's easily one of the toughest and most persistent Nintendo characters: Like most of them, he can survive getting crushed flat, unlike them however, he has the habits of setting himself on fire, eating bombs and even literally turning into a zombie (all purposefully, by the way) in order to progress levels in the Wario Land games. He can practically come back from anything. According to himself, this apparent immortality is because he just doesn't feel like dying.
 * 10) Charles Martinet's performance is just as charming as his portrayal of the Mario Bros., being at its best in WarioWare Gold.

Rotten Qualities

 * 1) Because of his different portrayals, there has been a divide amongst fans, between those who prefer the "goofy crass rascal" side of Wario and those who prefer the "macho treasure hunting brute" side of Wario.
 * 2) He is pretty much the opposite of what makes him fun and memorable in Super Mario 64 DS.

Trivia

 * His name is a portmanteau of "warui" (悪い), meaning "bad" in Japanese, and Mario's name; hence, Wario is a "bad Mario".
 * He was created by Hiroji Kiyotake, who also desgined Foreman Spike from Wrecking Crew and various Metroid characters (including its protagonist).
 * Yoichi Kotabe, the artist who designed Wario, has said that his design was inspired by Bluto from Popeye the Sailor, and also partially based on Stromboli, the evil circus owner in Disney's Pinocchio.
 * In the Japanese version of Mario Kart 64 as well as in all versions of Mario Party and Mario Party 2, Wario is voiced by German translator Thomas Spindler and speaks two lines in German, most notably "So ein Mist!" (German for "oh crap!"). According to a comment left by Spindler, Wario was envisioned to be German by Nintendo staff and he was directed to voice Wario accordingly. Charles Martinet has stated on November 6, 2020 that he did record a "Doh! I missed!" voice clip for Wario. Though Spindler recorded Wario's lines for the Japanese market after being told Wario was originally thought of as German, Martinet did not receive this information when recording Wario's lines for English and portrayed Wario as Italian similar to Mario and Luigi.
 * Despite this aspect of Wario's character having been ignored since the release of these games and Charles Martinet taking over the role, with Martinet's portrayal adopting a thick Italian accent similar to Mario and Luigi's, Wario's theme song in Mario Strikers Charged is in a style reminiscent of Germanic folk songs.