Waluigi's Epilogue (4/5)
Waluigi starts off with, "It happened a few years ago where we're discussing the development of Wario World 2, the sequel to Wario World on the Nintendo Gamecube.".
5-Volt added, "Yep. It was clear that we had to develop a sequel to a 3D platforming game due to the need to expand the library of games for WarioWare, Inc.".
Mona commented, "Ideas were thrown around the development team between WarioWare of America and WarioWare of Europe…I remember that you've proposed to Wario about wanting to make an open-world game despite Nintendo already having an open-world game. It's called: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.".
Waluigi explained, "Well...the reason why we need to make an open world game is because of the sales of Grand Theft Auto 5. It was the #1 best selling game in the USA for the decade of 2010s from the few unbiased news sources that I could find. It sold 120 million copies across the platform and I wanted to make sure that Wario is well-known and give him more love by the fans, so I suggested that idea to Wario.".
Mona exclaimed, "Yeah! It's an awesome idea and Wario LOVED that idea...he did want to extend the levels that the people had previously criticized when Wario World was released and thought that the open-world idea might help add substance to it. When we started to develop that game however…".
5-Volt finishes off with, "We got into troubled productions during the development of Wario World 2 for the Nintendo Switch.".
Waluigi cited, "First off, Wario wanted to make sure that he's in the game as a protagonist of the story. He wanted us to make sure that Wario's clearly a hero in the game, no questions asked.".
5-Volt commented, "Yeah, Nintendo wanted us to make sure that the protagonist is clearly a hero for the sake of getting their games rated A or B...in Japan. Here, we need to make sure that our game is rated E or rated E +10. Nintendo wanted to be open to everyone playing the game, making sure that they had fun in the end...".
Mona agreed and added, "Wario and to an extent, Nintendo clearly doesn't want his portrayal of himself to have any morals that involve him going to the gray areas as a part of his life...it would've helped Wario a lot if we are allowed to developed his character in a way that involves him trying to understand the possibilities of understanding life, and made him relatable to a certain extent on some of the people…".
Waluigi sighs and replies, "Yeah, unfortunately, Wario didn't allow that. It would've been a lot better if his character can show some major, relatable flaws that he's experienced before and...he's not too honest on the portrayal of himself. The result that we've got is that people think that we've made him out to be like a 'Marty Stew' or a 'Gary Stew'. I don't know what those mean, but the only imperfection of Wario in the game is the gamer's input themselves…that's not good character development and I certainly don't like the portrayal either.".
Mona agreed and added, "To be fair, it did show that Wario has a lot more personality when compared to Mario. Mario didn't have a lot of personality, but when players played through a game perfectly with Mario, he could be a 'Marty Stu' or 'Gary Stu', except that he didn't have much personality to begin with, at least publicly.".
Wlauigi answered, "That's true...Mario didn't have much personality to begin with, thus their series is rated E or E +10. What I wanted to do is raise the game's age rating up to Mature because gamers are getting older everyday, 75% of best-selling games are rated M, and the legacy of the Grand Theft Auto series…".
5-Volt then said, "...We also have design problems when trying to develop Wario World 2…it seems clear that Wario wouldn't want to hurt innocent people, which I get if it's one thing, but it's another that we can't those gameplay elements aren't allowing you to experience the consequences, possibly becoming a detriment to the game in some degree...".
Mona nods and adds, "When Wario decided that it wouldn't be like Grand Theft Auto, we ended up in a long debate about the design philosophy for the development of Wario World 2 and...".
Waluigi finishes off with, "To be concise, Wario's team in Europe won the design philosophy over the American ones due to wanting it to be 'kid-friendly' with the addition of Wario-Man flying over the sky and beat-em ups…".
Mona commented, "It definitely does suck that Wario doesn't want to do some experimentation on the development of Wario World 2. I get it that we're trying to finish the game from simpler ideas that can be implemented quickly, but we weren't allowed to add mature features such as blood, guns, 'sexy features', etc. I'm worried that we aren't pushing the design boundaries out of the Mario series where the branding of the Wario series isn't really gonna stand out from the Mario series in the long run.".
5-Volt said, "Yeah, Wario is playing it too safe. Sure, the gameplay is great. It's tight and smooth and it sold well. However, the game itself looked like it came from Super Mario Odyssey cause the reviewers online were comparing it to the point where the entire visuals of Wario World 2 looked very similar from that same game.". Mona and Waluigi nodded to 5-Volt.
5-Volt stops for a moment before continuing on with, "I do worry that the 'Wario' series brand would end up losing out on a lot of money thanks to the perception that the Wario series is becoming synonymous with the Mario series. The brand itself went after young children nowadays that meant no deeper storyline, minimal family-friendly violence, sacrificing sharper visuals, etc.".
Waluigi finishes off with, "Yeah, Wario doesn't realize that if the designs ended up looking similar to the Mario series, people will think it's related to that when he said that they're trying to DISTANCE themselves from their series...Wario sounded like a hypocrite…".
Mona commented, "Yeah...what's worse is that his 'wife' thought that's a good idea to begin with...she is literally a 'yes man' to him too...I wish she could tell him that this isn't a good idea and could've started over on the development…".
5-Volt agreed and added, "Yeah, I get why she doesn't want to start an argument with him at work...we need to keep the business going in general. If we have trouble with game development, it's best that we have to try to simplify anything that becomes complicated. To be fair, everytime I looked at Wario's 'wife', she looked like a spoiled child when she became involved when producing a game…".
Mona gave 5-Volt a nasty look and exclaimed, "5-VOLT! Come on! Really!?". In response, 5-Volt just shrugged at her without a second thought.
5-Volt then goes off with, "It begins after the release of Paper Mario: Sticker Stars and the New Super Mario Bros. series onwards that got aimed for younger children…".
Waluigi defended, "To be fair, when it comes to entertainment in Japan, there isn't a stigma around their family-friendly video games as being 'Just for kids and kids only!' because the way they produce media for kids is that if the adult likes how the story's been told, then the kids will too.". Both of the women nodded in agreement with Waluigi.
Waluigi then continued, "Nintendo often does that with the Mario Kart series due to its family-friendly features on racing. It's been on the top 20 list of best-selling games for the 2010s in America...however, I don't think the Mario Kart series will be on the top 10, 25, or 50 list of best-selling games in the coming decades forever...the video game market definitely has shifted for the last half of the century when it comes to children's approval of video games. Nintendo is not like Disney where the former doesn't have to change too much moral values while the latter can shift their values to the current times in order to reach the market of the masses.".
Mona agreed and said, "Yeah, I feel like Nintendo should naturally shift their values to the modern times in America. Otherwise...they're gonna end up like a YouTuber who does the Mario plushies video that involved Mario, a kid with a blue helmet, a Brooklyn Doctor-".
Waluigi interrupted, "Stop. Stop. I get it. I don't want Nintendo to go in that route either...it's clear that the video maker makes it for kids even though the creator denies it. It does NOT help the brand at all in the long run. We really can't make games for PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X at all because the company that Wario has is related to the Mario series. Wario and I have different ideas on how to distance the Mario series and I remember how long we've ended up arguing after the story suggestions of Wario World 2 have been made…".
Mona remembered and said, "Yep. It was the time that we've gone into development of Wario World 2 and everyone in the team was suggested to write a story for the open-world platformer game when Wario World 2 is still developing…".
5-Volt also remembers that. She said, "Yeah, I submitted a story to Wario for Wario World 2. It's about the follow-up of the original. It didn't go through, Wario said that he wanted to make sure that the game felt new so...new story, new game, didn't want to be like Mario to a certain extent. I understand since the Mario series has always had King Koopa taking Princess Peach away from the castle and the Mario Brothers has to go rescue her.".
Waluigi agreed and said, "That's the story for the New Super Mario Bros. Series anyway... ". 5-Volt nodded and Waluigi turned to Mona. He asks, "What story did you submit Mona? I wanna know your vision of Wario World 2.".
Mona agreed and added, "I did try to write a story for Wario World 2 that's similar to 5-Volt's story. I've pulled out the sources from the Wario Land series, hoping that we could have consistency in the series while making sure that the new plot doesn't feel old like, here's how the story goes: Wario decides to go to a museum and he found out that the place has been robbed by Captain Syrup and her minions in order to sell it to a black market. Wario then realized that he could sell artifacts to the museum to earn some money and so he set out on an adventure to go hunt these artifacts down while defeating Yarikuris along the way.".
Waluigi nodded and said, "I guess it's good that you've tried to make a balance between what's established and what is contemporary for the Wario series. Captain Syrup is a noticeable villain for the Wario series and that's a good idea to have her while I'm glad that the plot is not 'Wario grabs the treasures here and there', like the Mario series does with Peach, King Koopa, and Mario...writing stories does help avoid using the same tropes over and over unlike Nintendo…".
Mona questioned, "What story did you submit to Waluigi?".
Waluigi answered, "The story that I've written is a very long one to Wario…".
What story did Waluigi write? Will it reveal the true reason why Waluigi lost so much respect to Wario? Find out next time on this fanfiction!
Thanks for reading!