Wario

Wario began as Mario's greedy, garlic-breathed shadow and quickly outgrew the joke. The franchise splits cleanly into two personalities. The Wario Land platformers, starting with Super Mario Land 3, hand you an invincible brute who solves levels through destruction and hoarding rather than agility.

Then there is WarioWare, one of Nintendo's strangest and most inventive ideas: hundreds of five-second microgames fired at you in escalating chaos, from the Game Boy Advance original through Smooth Moves, Gold, and Get It Together! It is the purest distillation of play as reflex.

Wario also turns up as a guest across Mario Kart, Mario Hoops, and the Super Smash Bros. games, but his own series is where Nintendo lets its weirdest instincts off the leash.

The Wario franchise spans 12 games in the CrossBinge catalog.