[[quoteright:240:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gba_wario_land_4_mar23_16_59_52_5.png]]
[[caption-width-right:240: [[TurnsRed Like]] [[NightmareFace that!]]]]

VideoGame/{{Wario}}'s search for treasure often runs him into [[NightmareFuel "treasure" and creatures that must not be seen]].

!!''VideoGame/WarioLandSuperMarioLand3''
* The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oFczADqrGU commercial]] for the game had Wario up to the same tricks he used in the ''VideoGame/SuperMarioLand2SixGoldenCoins'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhB8XG9_5Rc commercial]], trying to hypnotize the player into being greedy and evil like him.
--> [[MemeticMutation Obey Wario, destroy Mario!]]
* Bobo's design in the first game, especially if you've played ''II'' first, where his design is ''very'' toned-down. To illustrate: [[https://www.mariowiki.com/images/7/7c/WL2_Bobo.png This]] is his design for ''II'', while '''[[https://www.mariowiki.com/images/7/7c/BoboWL1.png this]]''' is his original design.

!!''VideoGame/VirtualBoyWarioLand''
* In ''VideoGame/VirtualBoyWarioLand'', the final boss is the "Demon Head," and if you ever wondered what [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Mr. Burns]] would look like if he turned into a demon, well, [[http://www.mariowiki.com/images/c/c0/VBWL-Demon_Head_Screenshot.png this is it.]] Whether it's creepy to begin with or {{Narm}}y depends on the player, but his [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViM9hFkWqVA introduction]] is really creepy, and that SlasherSmile ain't too pretty either.
* The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYkpbMTt_Xc advertisement]] for this game is also nightmarish; beginning with Wario lurking in a deep cave -- that, as a bonus, is interspersed with skin-crawling closeups of [[SnakesAreSinister snakes]], [[ScaryScorpions scorpions]], [[SwarmOfRats rats]] and [[SpidersAreScary tarantulas]] crawling through it -- while hidden by shadows, then revealing himself rendered [[RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver completely in red and black, looking far more sinister than usual]] and with [[NightmareFace most of his face obscured by darkness]]. It ends with Wario bearing a nasty grin, while gleefully cackling [[Film/Batman1989 "Wait 'til they get a load of ME!"]]. And yes, that ''is'' him channelling ComicBook/TheJoker.

!!''VideoGame/WarioLandII''
* Earn all the treasures and complete the map in ''VideoGame/WarioLandII'' (that's a OneHundredPercentCompletion) to unlock The Really Final Chapter. Its only level is [[http://i.imgur.com/ETQseY3.png this]]... [[http://i.imgur.com/ArHfNjg.png monstrosity]]. The enemies are petrified inside bubble gum with disembodied, realistic eyes, ears and mouths everywhere. The music does not help one bit. Worth noting that this level directly inspired both the music for Forest of Illusion and the design for The Warped Void, both from ''3''. While greatly toned down, both elements are still trippy and unsettling.

!!''VideoGame/WarioLand3''
* In ''VideoGame/WarioLand3'', [[NighInvulnerability nothing can kill you]]. Being hit by enemy attacks causes some kind of inconvenience, such as knockback or a status effect (being set on fire, for example, causes Wario to run uncontrollably until he touches water or until the fire envelops him, giving you a short time to walk around, invincible and able to use the fire to solve certain puzzles, at least until it reduces him to a pile of cinders. Which he walks out of completely unharmed, being indestructible). After retrieving the {{Plot Coupon}}s, you return to the temple holding the being that has advised you over the course of your quest to find out that, on top of simultaneously being the TreacherousAdvisor, the BigBad, and a MonsterClown, he is the only thing in the game that can kill Wario. Seeing the Game Over screen after a whole game without it can render some kids unable to finish the game. Lastly, just to rub it in, the game saves right before the Game Over, which can lead to paranoia.[[note]]Fortunately, it saves only to skip the pre-battle cutscene.[[/note]]
* The Forest of Fear and the Warped Void are [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t07UF1hYKP4 incredibly]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ry7hruSxXK8 nightmarish]] for such a comical game.
* That ghost thing in The Vast Plain. It does not look harmful, but if you get close enough to it, it actually zooms down on top of you and makes the screen around Wario and the ghost all black, all the while closed-eye grinning. And the only way to reverse it is to bump into a wall or something similar.
* The giant snakes in some of the levels. After the snakes rise from their urns, their heads turn red, make a cacophonic hissing and spew fire from their mouths.
* The Robo-Mouse guard in The Stagnant Swamp and The Peaceful Village. Think of it as a less deadly version of the Ultimate Chimera from ''VideoGame/{{Mother 3}}'' but don't think that makes it any less frighting. It doesn't kill you and doesn't appear in many levels, but if you touch it at all its alarm goes off and it dumps you outside, and another comparison to ''Mother 3'''s Ultimate Chimera is that it can't be killed, and it's a hell of a lot startling when the thing catches you and scares the hell out of you when you've tried to avoid it when and/or you get caught by it and haven't expected it especially if you thought you were safe.
* The Zombies, while technically a holdover from ''II'', are bringing their A-game this time around. In ''II'', they would give themselves away by having their heads poking up above ground like fallen skulls and were slow and easy to avoid; ''here'', they're skittish, unpredictable, and give no warning before they pop out of the ground like daisies.

!!''VideoGame/WarioLand4''

* ''VideoGame/WarioLand4'' features some pretty messed up bosses, with [[DerangedAnimation most of them looking horrific due to the game's cartoony art style.]]
** Spoiled Rotten takes the cake. Once you get her health down to a certain point, she suddenly gets a disturbingly detailed face and huge, razor-sharp teeth (represented as this page's [[SarcasmMode pleasant]] image above).
* The Golden Diva is quite an eerie character design, with tons of little details adding up to make her one of Wario's most unsettling foes:
** There's a ScareChord as soon as you enter her room (If you don't use items that is) with her nowhere to be seen, the room is very dark, there's this mist with her slowly floating down with haunting music with her creepy laugh. Suddenly, before the fight properly begins, the black cat appears and attempts to strike the Diva. Her attack has no effect, so the Diva just magically absorbs her. The presentation makes the cat's fate ambiguous, but the final phase of the fight reveals that the Diva attempted to ''swallow her whole;'' she ends up having to be retrieved from the Diva's disembodied lips.
** The fight with the Diva is conducted with a DarkReprise of the "Hurry Up" theme. Before building up to the "Hurry Up" motif, the song starts with a quiet, ominous segment led by some bell-like synths. They try to be elegant-sounding, but there's always a pervasive feeling of something being wrong, especially when the bells randomly speed up or distort.
** After destroying her fan, her mask goes through various expressions with each hit she takes, varying from silly to [[NightmareFace downright menacing]]. It's also clearly undersized for her, creating an off-putting juxtaposition between the relative softness of the mask and the massive, misshapen true face beneath. The latter is stretched out almost unnaturally, and it only gets ''much worse'' from there when you damage her two more times.
* Some of the enemies in ''Wario Land 4'' are pretty disturbing. In particular, several enemies in an early lake level tend to have huge fangs suddenly appear on their mouths as they try to bite you.
* In general, most of the audio and sound effects in ''Wario Land 4'' are [[HellIsThatNoise incredibly bizarre]] at times. Then, there's the "HURRY UP" tune.
** It's worse when you ''do'' run out of time, there's this frantic beeping as Wario runs out of coins and the backgrounds turn grey, once you run out of coins, Wario gets kicked out of the stage while a creepy clock echos even when you see Wario just landing outside.
** The jingle that plays when a timer starts up is demented and creepy as all hell. When you press a frog switch and activate the timer, you get to hear discordant church bells accompanied by an ominous sound of a ticking clock. The boss version of the jingle is ''even worse'', keeping to its usual octave only to [[ScareChord suddenly shoot up in pitch]]. There's also one for when the timer reaches about 10 seconds - a ticking clock, accompanied by timpani, that speeds up as what little remaining time trickles away.
* The creepy imagery in the sound room.
* This is one of the more overlooked moments, but in the instruction booklet, Wario says that there's a rumor that no one who's entered the Golden Passage has come out alive, leaving the comment "Scary!" It's quite a creepy foreshadowing considering what the Golden Passage is like.

!! ''VideoGame/WarioLandShakeIt''

* Chortlebot in general. It's a flying, robotic [[MonsterClown clown]] head that tries to kill Wario with a flamethrower, and laughs maniacally while doing so! And it can be a pretty tough boss too, if you don't know what you're doing.
* Bad Manor and Boogie Mansion. The former is your stereotypical haunted mansion, but the latter turns the background blood-red and adds a new undead enemy that can rebuild it. It can make completing the game much more scarier as it is the final level in the game.
* The last few seconds on the timer has the music switch to the Shake King's theme. If you do not make it, your money is shaken out of you and you're thrown to either the beginning or the checkpoint. It's especially creepy if you happen to get this game over in either Ratl Ruins or Quiver Cliffs, since the Shake King seemingly teleports you from ''nearly halfway across the world'' to his ship, then proceeds to shake you down and toss you out of the level [[CurbStompBattle without any chance to defend yourself.]]
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