A lot has happened since we last saw Baby Wario. The toddler made his first and only appearance in Yoshi’s Island DS, way back in 2006. Since then he’s been MIA, but we now know where he’s been and what he’s been doing with his time. He’s been away at medical school, earning his doctorate!
That’s right! Baby Wario is coming to Dr. Mario World, the modern mobile adaptation of the NES classic. It’s unknown yet just what his role will be or who in their right mind gave a baby a medical degree, but we’ll find out in just a few days!
Given Wario’s popularity in the Mario-verse, it’s odd that this particular version of him has only popped up once in the character’s nearly 20-year history. Popular culture is seriously lacking in villainous babies and villainous doctor babies are non-existent.
That’s assuming, of course, that he will act as an antagonist. Maybe he’s turned over a new leaf? He did become a doctor, after all, which means that he must have taken the Hippocratic oath. He sure looks evil in the above picture, but maybe that’s just the way he looks. He’s got a face only a mother could love.
Dr. Mario World is part of Nintendo’s now short-lived foray into mobile gaming. It was a bit of a big deal when they released Super Mario Run and announced their intentions to start dabbling in the $77 billion mobile market. Unfortunately, the company’s mobile efforts haven’t done as well as the company had hoped. On top of that, Animal Crossing: New Horizons has now sold almost 14 million copies. These two factors combined have clearly motivated Nintendo to refocus their efforts on their own platform.
That being said, Dr. Mario World is available for Android and Apple devices. There’s no reason to believe Nintendo will cease support of its mobile operations any time soon. They’re simply scaling way back, which essentially means new mobile titles.
So where does that leave Baby Wario? Well, with his new career, he must have plenty of options. Hopefully, Dr. Mario World will shed some light on what specific field he’s practicing in. He’s clearly equipped with a giant magnet, and while that has no medical application that I’m aware of, I have to admit that I simply don’t know that much about medicine.
It’s important to note that the game also features Dr. Donkey Kong, Dr. Diddy Kong, and a doctor that’s just a stack of goombas in a white coat. I wonder what sort of insurance they accept?
