Video Game / Wario: Master of Disguise

Wario: Master of Disguise is a Puzzle Platformer developed by Suzak, published by Nintendo, and released in 2007 for the Nintendo DS.

One day, Wario was lounging on his sofa, watching TV, when a show called "The Silver Zephyr" came on. It was a show about a man named Count Cannoli who used his magic wand, Goodstyle, to transform into the eponymous master thief. After seeing him transform, Wario decided that he wanted in on the action, so he invented the Telmet, a device that allowed him to venture into the TV. Upon entering the TV, he landed right on Cannoli's head, causing him to drop Goodstyle. Wario, of course, being Wario, took Goodstyle for himself. Goodstyle proceeded to dub Wario his new master, and gave him his very own thief outfit.

Wario soon learns about the Wishstone, an artifact that, supposedly, can grant any wish. However, it was split into 5 pieces, which were then hidden in separate places. With this in mind, Wario makes it his goal to obtain the Wishstone pieces and recreate the Wishstone. However, this quest does not come without obstructions: Cannoli does not particularly enjoy having his wand stolen from him and will stop at nothing to get it back. If that wasn't enough, the Corrupt Corporate Executive Carpaccio also wants the Wishstone pieces, so needless to say, Wario has his work cut out for him.

The gameplay consists of traversing several different locations and using Wario's various disguises, each of which has its own special powers, to beat up enemies, solve puzzles, and search for treasure. The treasure chests require the player to win minigames to open, and consist of one of several different types of items, depending on the chest's color. Red chests contain treasures, which merely exist for the sake of 100% Completion. Purple chests contain area maps or important quest items. Green chests either contain Vita Mighties, which boost Wario's max health, or Guise Gems, which give him new disguises.

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Wario: Master of Disguise provides examples of the following tropes:

• Abandoned Laboratory: Carpaccio's Lab, which makes up for the ninth level in the game. It actually isn't abandoned, since Carpaccio still makes use of it to locate the remaining fragments of the Wishstone, but Wario's enemies cut the power to slow him down.
• Accidental Hero: Wario Steals Count Cannoli's magic wand to hijack his show and get a wish from the Wishstone, only to accidentally save both his world and the TV one by defeating Terrormisu over not getting a wish.
• Acrofatic: Wario, as usual. Especially in his thief outfit, since he runs faster and jumps higher in it than he does in any other outfit.
• Anime Hair: Exaggerated with the treasure "Pompadour of Legend", which is stated to stretch "almost nineteen feet in length". It also purportedly has an inner pocket with room for "loose change or small pets".
• Anti-Hero: Again, Wario. He steals the Transformation Trinket of the show's main hero, the phantom thief Count Cannoli, and goes up against both him and other baddies so that he can claim all the treasure for himself. After unwittingly unsealing Terrormisu, he defeats her only because she's worse than him.
• Aristocrats Are Evil: Count Cannoli. Most of his family's fortune was acquired through theft.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Ka-Bloom's description ends in this trope: "It symbolizes death. And bad cooking".
• Art Initiates Life: Arty Wario can make blocks and warp doors appear out of thin air by drawing them. After being upgraded, he can also draw hearts. Drawing a shape that the game doesn't recognize will result in Wario drawing poop.
• Artistic License – Economics: The treasures Wario finds would more than likely be worthless junk, save for a few collector's items. Instead, they're worth thousands of dollars each.
• Artistic License – Marine Biology: Stuffy the 64th is a dolphin, but he breathes water instead of air, and he is defeated by trapping him above water so he gasps like a fish.
• Attack Its Weak Point: All bosses except Ka-Bloom! and Stuffy the 64th. Cannoli and Carpaccio use machines that can be weakened by hitting or pressing certain buttons in them, Barfatonic Lavachomper's weakness is in the uvula, Poobah the Pharaoh has it in the crotch, and Terrormisu has a different one per phase.
• Awesome, yet Impractical:
  • The Royal Golden Tools, one of the treasures.
  "These golden tools were developed for a king. But since gold is one of the world's softest metals, they're pretty much useless. Fun to look at, though."
  • The Arty Disguise. Arty Wario is very useful for creating extra platforms that can press switches, act as extra steps, and even defeat certain enemies and bosses. He can even restore his own health and create fast travel doors! However, using Arty Wario takes a lot of work. He has the most difficult design to draw and then when you do get him, you have to draw even more designs which could end up failing. What's worse is that Wario absolutely cannot move while using this disguise. That means whenever he is painting (which takes a few seconds by the way), he is at the mercy of any enemy/boss in the game that is in range.
• Battle Theme Music: There are four battle themes: the normal boss theme (which, funnily, isn't played until Wario fights the boss of the fifth level), Count Cannoli's boss theme, Carpaccio's boss theme, and the final boss theme. This is notable because, except for Wario World and Wario Land: Shake It!, all other Wario Land games use a common battle theme for regular bosses and another for the Final Boss.
• Big Bad: Count Cannoli and Carpaccio are Wario's main rivals in finding the pieces of the Wishstone, the former being a Phantom Thief known as the Silver Zephyr, and the latter is the head of Sigil Securities. Until Tiaramisu, the cute girl who has been helping Wario, reveals herself as the ancient demon Terrormisu that Carpaccio's been trying to stop.
• Big Bad Ensemble: Wario’s main rivals in finding the pieces of the Wishstone are Count Cannoli and Carpaccio, the former being a Phantom Thief known as the Silver Zephyr, and the latter being the head of Sigil Securities. Cannoli is much more prominent, appearing in nearly every episode to antagonize Wario in an attempt to get Goodstyle back, but Carpaccio is more competent and has better resources than Cannoli does. They team up halfway through the game until Wario confronts them in Carpaccio's Lab, after which Cannoli concedes defeat and Carpaccio seemingly becomes the sole antagonist until the very end of the last level, when Tiaramisu, the cute girl who has been helping Wario, reveals herself as the ancient demon Terrormisu that Carpaccio's been trying to stop.
• Big Boo's Haunt: Blowhole Castle. The ghosts are harmless initially, but they become hostile when the spirit switches are turned on.
• Bittersweet Ending: Wario defeats an ancient (presumably only fictional) demon, but he's unable to bring the fictional treasure he earned back to the real world.
• Black-and-Grey Morality: When Wario's your hero, you know that the opposition will have to be so much worse. Cannoli and Carpaccio both fall under gray, as while they're both unabashed thieves, Carpaccio has been secretly working toward the defeat of Terrormisu alongside the Pharaoh, and while Cannoli is clueless for most of the game, he helps Wario out at the end. Terrormisu is the only black-morality character in the game.
• Blackout Basement: There are several rooms throughout the game which are too dark to see in and require Sparky Wario to light them up.
• Boss Remix: The game has Count Cannoli's slow refined theme become fast and loud when he breaks out his giant robot. Also, Carpaccio's theme is remixed for his own fights.
• Bottomless Magazines:
  • Cosmic Wario's Ray Gun never runs out of shots.
  • Parodied with the treasure "Forever Tissue Box", which never runs out of tissues. The description claims this makes it a perfect gift for people with allergies or for "wussy little crybabies who sob during films when puppies get lost and have to wander home".
• Breather Episode: The sixth episode, technically. Ka-Bloom, the boss of this episode, has no connection to the plot or to any other characters. They're simply a wild creature protecting their home, and the Wishstone fragment was only in their possession because the pharaoh left it there for safekeeping.
• Breath Weapon: Dragon Wario can breathe fire.
• Brick Joke: Galley Cat's profile says he's a new crewman "eager to serve the ship's guests". Meanwhile, Pushy Cat is an embittered veteran crewman who hates his job. And the last line in his profile? "He gripes about the eager new guy under his breath".
• Bright Is Not Good: Tiaramisu, aka Terrormisu, looks like a beautiful princess, but is really a demon who destroyed an ancient civilization.
• Brutal Bonus Level: Upon completing the game for the first time, you'll unlock five levels based on previous destinations, but now with a tight time limit and very difficult minigames. There is little, if any, room for mistake.
• Build Like an Egyptian: Poobah the Pharaoh's Pyramid, the setting of Episode 5. It is an ancient, subterranean pyramid with a good dose of Schizo Tech where Wario has to make use of his Genius power-up to see and open invisible doors, as well as his Dragon powerup to lit torches that trigger setpieces like doors and platforms.
• Character Development: Throughout the game, Wario's answer to opening a thick, locked door is to ram it, hoping for it to fall down, only to be stopped by Goodstyle and is suggested to find a safer way to open it. By the final locked door, he assesses it and decides to find another way to open it.
• Chekhov's Exhibit: In the museum, Goodstyle stops a few times to comment on the exhibits, which at first seem pointless to Wario. However, later in the level, Wario must solve riddles involving said exhibits.
• The Chessmaster: Goodstyle, in order to defeat Terrormisu, allows himself to be stolen by Wario and lies to him about the Wishing Tablet so that she can be defeated and sent back where she came from.
• Chest Monster: Some of the chests are fakes, known as Treasure Pests. When Wario comes close, they reveal their single eyeball and then start jumping around. This typically makes getting all chests in a single run-through of a level impossible since it always replaces a random chest.
• Clothes Make the Superman: Wario has different powers depending on which disguise he's currently wearing.
• Collision Damage: Averted; neither Wario nor the enemies inflict it. You'll appreciate this in the timed special stages.
• The Computer Shall Taunt You: If you mess up as Arty Wario, he draws poop, which becomes animate and runs away as a failure sound effect plays, which initially looks like this trope. However, it turns out the poop does high damage to enemies, and is in fact required to fight the boss of Episode 7.
• Continuity Nod: In the game's manual, Wario refers to himself as a famous video game designer when talking about saving and auto-saving.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive:
  • Carpaccio is the owner of a company named Sigil Securities. He is also a thief.
    "We're hard at work watching your back... That way it's easier to pick your pocket!"
  • Implied with Count Cannoli, who is said to own "International Evil Concerns, Inc".
• Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Wario invents the Telmet in less than a minute so that he can venture into his television and become a Phantom Thief. The thought of making a fortune by just selling his miraculous invention never occurs to him.
• Developer's Foresight: In several instances, the dialogue for Wario encountering an obstacle (usually a gate) and the dialogue for him using the appropriate item to get past it are designed to flow perfectly one into the other, just in case you went and picked up the required item before triggering the cutscene where Wario first sees the obstacle.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: For a demon that destroyed an ancient civilization and had to be sealed away inside a stone, Terrormisu is defeated pretty easily by a fat guy with a talking magic wand.
• Dismantled MacGuffin: The Wishstone was broken into 5 pieces. Collecting them is the main point of the game.
• Door Slams You: Sarcopha Guys attack you this way, suddenly opening and closing their coffins when you're in range.
• Down the Drain: Ancient Waterworks, the setting of Episode 6, is a temple that features an internal watery passageway. It serves as the location of the third piece of the Wishstone (after Wario was told that it wasn't in the pyramid), and to reach it Wario has to find a way to cease the flow of a strong waterfall (for which he has to use stone statues to clog it).
• Dung Fu: When messing up a drawing as Arty Wario, an animate pile of crap will spawn and move to the right. Said crap can actually damage enemies, and is outright necessary for defeating one of the bosses.
• Durable Deathtrap: Subverted with a certain treasure named the Vengeful Robot Controller:

This remote allows you to summon a giant robot hidden deep within the bowels of the earth and unleash him on your unsuspecting enemies. But it's out of batteries.

• Easter Egg: On the title screen, touching one of the knobs on Wario's TV toggles the appearance of a hidden Nintendo logo.
• Edible Theme Naming: All the villains are named after Italian food. Namely Count Cannoli (named after an Italian dessert), Carpaccio (named after a meat dish) and Tiaramisu/Terrormisu (named after another dessert). They're named after Italian cooking terms in Japanese.
• Enemy Mine: Count Cannoli teams up with Carpaccio during the late game, but the latter calls off the alliance after the former fails to prevent Wario from storming the laboratory.
• Enter Solution Here: The third episode had an interesting variation: Wario had to answer sphinx riddles in at least three different places to complete the level; the solution to each riddle would be the name of an object in the museum's various display cases, which Goodstyle would read the names of when you reached the room. Getting the question wrong resulted in either being set back or killed.
• Eternal Engine: Carpaccio's Lab is a very sophisticated facility with giant batteries that can be recharged with Wario's Sparky disguise.
• Everything Trying to Kill You: This game's enemy selection includes demonic kitchen utensils, disgruntled cruise ship employees, pissed off statues, killer plants, enraged seagulls, and even treasure chests.
• Evil All Along: The girl who flirts with Wario at Sweatmore Peak and helps him at Blowhole Castle is actually the Big Bad.
• Explosive Breeder: Seed Weeds constantly scatter seeds that immediately sprout into more Seed Weeds.
• Exposition Fairy: Goodstyle is a sentient, mustached wand with magical attributes that help Wario gather the fragments of the Wishstone before Cannoli and Carpaccio do. During the game's ending, he's revealed to be the original member of the Cannoli clan, and the one who originally sealed Terrormisu. He guides Wario to reassemble the Wishstone so he can defeat Terrormisu for good.
• Extendo Boxing Glove: Genius Wario's upgrade gives him a boxing glove as a weapon.
• Fartillery: There is a gorilla enemy in Sneezemore Cave called Mr. Cheeky who attacks with farts.
• Fat Bastard: Wario, whose only motivation to find the fragments of the Wishstone is to get rich, and won't mind insulting allies and enemies alike.
• Final-Exam Boss: The final battle against Terrormisu tests a lot of abilities for battling.
• Flavor Text: The game has humorous flavour text for every piece of treasure you collect in the game, such as "Grizzled Prospector Candy: These lovingly handmade candies contain large pieces of real gold. Give them to your beloved and watch the teeth fly." and "Ghost Potion: One sip and you'll turn into a ghost... Wait, isn't that just poison?"
• Flight Is the Final Power: The final disguise Wario learns is Wicked Wario, which gives him the clothes of a winged devil and allows him to fly upward, while an upgrade allows him to move sideways during flight. Both skills are obtained in the penultimate chapter.
• Fluffy the Terrible: A quite literal example implied in Fluffy the Dolphin's profile:
  A young Dolphinian with succession rights to the throne. Expect a fierce bout of regicide when the magic day finally comes.
• Flunky Boss: Ka-Bloom summons Seed Weeds during their fight, and Stuffy the 64th spawns Fluffy the Dolphin.
• Foreshadowing: In the final level, there's a room with a portrait of a beautiful lady in it, and when you turn into Genius Wario, her face changes and she looks homely. As you learn in the final showdown, this is Tiaramisu's true form, the demon Terrormisu. The beautiful face is her mask, which falls off at the end of the fight to reveal the homely face to be the real one.
• Forgotten Theme Tune Lyrics: The title theme in the Japanese version has lyrics, which were removed in international releases.
• Foul Flower: One boss, Ka-Bloom!, is a giant flower that steals a piece of the Dismantled MacGuffin. It starts out with an innocent face, complete with cat smile, but when it is damaged, it gains a much scarier face.
• Four-Leaf Clover: One of the treasures is a seven leaf clover. The description claims it blows four leaf clovers out of the water, and warns you to "try not to explode with luckiness".
• Frictionless Ice: The ice in Sneezemore Cave is so slippery that Wario cannot stop sliding once he walks on it until he gets off of it. His dragon costume is immune to this, though.
• Gadgeteer Genius: Wario quickly builds the Telmet in his back room so he can journey into his television.
• Gambit Pileup: Wario and Carpaccio are after the Wishstone, while Count Cannoli keeps trying to get Goodstyle back, and Carpaccio offers him to join forces only to ditch him when things don't work out. A mysterious character named Tiaramisu appears late into the story and gives Wario advice for unknown reasons. In reality, Carpaccio wants to prevent the Wishstone from being restored because he knows it is actually a Sealed Evil in a Can, and Tiaramisu helps Wario because her true form is the sealed demon in question. Meanwhile, Goodstyle is The Chessmaster who got Wario involved to begin with so he defeats Terrormisu for good once she is unsealed.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: Very slightly. During the cutscene before the race against Carpaccio, he takes a head start, after which Wario calls him on it before running over to catch up, but when gameplay resumes, he's still at the very beginning of his lane.
• Ghost Leg Lottery: One of the chest minigames consists of a maze of lines, with a gem at the central exit that Wario must reach. The player must draw lines so Wario follows a path to the gem. Late game, the puzzles feature explosive red lines that will cause an instant loss if Wario runs into them, forcing the player to design a path avoiding them.
• Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: Ka-Bloom! is the only boss in the game with absolutely no connection to the plot whatsoever. Poobah is very important to the game's backstory, the Barfatronic Lavachomper was set up by Count Cannoli and Carpaccio to impede Wario's progress in Sweatmore Peak, and Stuffy the 64th is an ally of Cannoli.
• Guide Dang It!: You can use Arty Wario to hinder Carpaccio in the race. Good luck figuring that out. In fact, it is almost impossible to beat Carpaccio without using Arty Wario to block Carpaccio's path, as he has no obstacles.
• Haunted Castle: Blowhole Castle. In addition to Bedsheet Ghosts, it's also haunted by ghost dolphins.
• Heart Container: Vita Mighties boost Wario's maximum health every time he acquires one.
• He Knows About Timed Hits: Goodstyle gives a tutorial whenever Wario acquires a new disguise.
• Homemade Inventions: Wario invents a device in his back room that lets him warp into his TV so he can appear on a Show Within a Show and become a Phantom Thief.
• Intrepid Fictioneer: Wario invents the Telmet so he can be on TV and become a master thief. The whole game takes place inside the TV.
• King Mook: Stuffy the 64th, the boss version of the ghostly dolphins fought in the eighth chapter.
• Lava Is Boiling Kool-Aid: As long as Wario has the Sweatmore Hotpants or is wearing the Dragon Wario disguise, lava behaves exactly like water. Even if he isn't, the only functional difference from water is that it hurts him every few seconds, and he can even stand in it for a second or two without taking any damage. This is easily observable at the beginning of Sweatmore Peak, before you've collected the Hotpants, you can repeatedly jump in and out of the shallow lava pool and it's just like splashing in water.
• Leitmotif: Cannoli and Carpaccio's respective themes, which are also Boss Remixed for their respective Battle Theme Music.
• Lethal Joke Item: Arty Wario draws poop when he messes up. At first this looks like the game is just making fun of you. Then you realize it damages any enemies it hits, and it's pretty strong to boot. It's also required against the boss of Episode 7.
• Lethal Lava Land: Sweatmore Peak is an active volcano that serves as the setting of Episode 7. There's an item called the Sweatmore Hotpants that allows Wario to dive into the lava without taking any damage, but he has to keep an eye on an enemy that can take them away from him, thus forcing him to find another pair of Hotpants before the lava depletes his energy completely.
• Lone Wolf Boss: Ka-Bloom has no affiliation whatsoever with Cannoli, Carpaccio or the Greater-Scope Villain Terrormisu, nor is he knowingly guarding the fragment of the Wishstone found in the Ancient Waterworks. He just happens to have grown there and is very territorial, so Wario has to defeat him in order to retrieve the Plot Coupon.
• Luck-Based Mission: The special episodes have you track down chest after chest under a time limit. The thing is, the timer doesn't stop during the chest minigames, so how much leeway you have depends on what minigame you get. Lotsa Dots will be over in an instant if you're good at it, but Trash It will eat about a full half minute no matter what.
• Marathon Level: Most of the levels in the game take at least an hour to complete the first time through. Going through them again won't be nearly as long once you get all the upgrades and gained knowledge of the levels, but most of them will still be longer than your average video game level. Since there are only ten levels (not counting the 5 special episodes that reuse maps), it makes sense.
• Master of Disguise: An ironic aversion, considering the game's title. Wario is not an actual Master of Disguise, he just wears various outfits that give him special powers.
• Mini Mook: The mini Munchelangelos in the third episode.a
• Monster Compendium: The coffee-table book contains profiles for every enemy in the game, including bosses.
• Mooks Ate My Equipment: The Snackerals in Sweatmore Peak will bite off Wario's Sweatmore Hotpants if they come into contact with him, causing him to take damage in the magma until he replaces them. A purple chest containing a replacement for them will spawn in place of a regular chest if this happens.
• Musical Spoiler: At the end of the seventh episode, there's a cutscene of Count Cannoli talking to an offscreen character. However, the music playing during the cutscene is Carpaccio's theme.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Terrormisu.
• Nebulous Evil Organization: The game alludes to this kind of organisation with the company mentioned as owned by Count Cannoli, International Evil Concerns Inc. Although the only thing it's shown to do is build robots to try and kill Wario.
• Nepharious Pharaoh: Poobah the Pharaoh starved his subjects in exchange for a wish from the demon Terrormisu, only for her to double-cross him. 5000 years later, his undead self is Laughing Mad from waiting so long, and fights Wario to prove his worthiness.
• Never Trust a Title: Wario is less of a "master of disguise" than he is a "master of superpower costumes." Wario never attempts to fool anyone with his disguises, not that anyone with a functioning brain would fall for them anyway. The problem? "Wario: Master of Costumes" doesn't sound as good.
• Non-Indicative Name:
  • The Superfantastical Money Tree, one of the game's treasures.
    "Sure, it sounds fancy. But it's just a plant. A boring old potted plant. Slap anyone who tries to tell you otherwise."
  • The Wishstone. It doesn't actually grant a wish, it's a Sealed Evil in a Can, and by assembling it, the demon Terrormisu is unsealed.
• Non-Standard Game Over: Losing to Carpaccio at his race results in him and Cannoli forcefully taking Wario's Wishstone pieces.
• Old Shame: The treasure "Failed Teenage Romance Diary" is stated to contain memories of failed romances, and the description even ends saying "you can relive the awkwardness of yesteryear... today!"
• One-Hit Kill: Fail to answer any of the questions the Sphinx asks you at the end of Episode 3, and Wario will be zapped to death instantly. And you have to answer three questions correctly in a row.
• One-Winged Angel: Carpaccio developed a morphing technology that lets him turn into Head Honcho Carpaccio, an enormous blue head resembling the Snow Globe and Blow Globe enemies. Notably, he only uses this form in the first battle against him — the second time, he challenges Wario to a Racing Minigame instead of a fight.
• Our Ghosts Are Different: The Dolphin Ghosts in Blowhole Castle.
• Our Slogan Is Terrible: One of the antagonists is a Corrupt Corporate Executive named Carpaccio. His company's slogan is "We're hard at work watching your back... That way it's easier to pick your pocket!"
• Paper-Thin Disguise: No matter which disguise Wario is wearing, it's still obviously Wario. Then again, he never tries to fool anyone in the first place, he is merely wearing the disguises for their powers.
• Phantom Thief: Count Cannoli (The Silver Zephyr), but at the beginning of the game, Wario steals his magic wand, Goodstyle, and becomes a Phantom Thief himself (The Purple Wind). The game's Japanese title, Kaitou Wario the Seven, really spells this out — kaitou is Japanese for phantom thief, and the "seven" part suggests two classic examples, Lupin III and the Fiend of Twenty Faces (seven being how many costumes Wario has, besides the basic thief).
• Playable Epilogue: Beating the game unlocks five bonus episodes that take place after the main adventure.
• Playing with Fire: Dragon Wario can breathe fire and is Wario's only form that can survive in magma without the Sweatmore Hotpants.
• Plot Coupon: The Wishstone pieces are the main driving force of the plot.
• Poor Communication Kills: After learning at the beginning of the finale that Wario still believed the Wishstone was Exactly What It Says on the Tin, Carpaccio had a few chances to inform him before he obtained the last fragment that this wasn't the case and it was actually a Sealed Evil in a Can. However, he probably figured that Wario wouldn't believe him anyway.
• Pronouncing My Name for You: After Wario mangles Carpaccio's name several times, Carpaccio enunciates it for him:
  Carpaccio: "Car", as in "car", and I got a nice one. "Pac", as in "posh", which my mansion is. "Cio", which rhymes with "B.O.", which is what YOU got! Seriously bud, shower much?
• Punny Name:
  • A lot of the enemies' names are this. Spoonatic ("spoon" + "lunatic"), DaVincheese ("Da Vinci" + "cheese"), Ramenses II ("Ramses II" + "ramen"), Snackeral ("snack" + "mackerel"), and Sarcopha Guy ("sarcophagus" + "guy"), to name a few.
  • The bosses mostly avert this, with the exception of Ka-Bloom, a flower that attacks with explosive seeds.
• Puzzle Boss: The bosses in this game require you to switch between disguises and use your powers in various ways to hit their weak spots or counter their attacks. The bottom left corner of the top screen hints as to which disguise you need at the moment, but you must still figure out how to use it against the boss.
• Racing Minigame: There's an A-to-B race against Carpaccio. He is aware that he stands no chance at beating Wario in a physical battle, and instead challenges him to a race. Though he starts out walking at a mockingly slow pace, Wario's path is rigged with all sorts of obstacles to hinder him, and Carpaccio will begin to sprint at a surprisingly fast speed once the end is near. Even after you realize you need to think like Wario to win (as in, cheat), it's quite difficult.
• Recurring Boss: Cannoli is fought three times. Carpaccio subverts this; the second fight is a race, not a battle at all.
• Red Boxing Gloves: Wario can use a red boxing glove attached to a spring as part of his Genius disguise.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Wario is the red, Goodstyle is the blue. Wario is brash, impatient, and prefers trying to solve everything with brute force, while Goodstyle is calm and always thinks of rational solutions to the obstacles they encounter.
• Reflecting Laser: Cosmic Wario's upgrade makes his lasers bounce off walls.
• Replay Mode: Not only can the player replay the minigames unlocked in the main campaign, but also the variations thereof (for instance, Traced Memory alone comes in twelve forms, so if he or she wants to play them all, each has to be unlocked individually).
• Required Secondary Powers: The Forever X-Ray Glasses.
  This amazing treasure lets you look through absolutely everything... which means that you end up seeing NOTHING AT ALL! Think about it.
• Respawning Enemies: They do whenever Wario leaves the corresponding room and then returns.
• Riddle of the Sphinx: The third-level boss has the player answering a sphinx's riddles, the answers being objects you saw during the level (including the "man" riddle). Miss a question and you die instantly.
• Riddling Sphinx: The sphinx in Episode 3. It gives Wario riddles relating to the exhibits in the museum.
• Role Called: Wario, although in-game he's more of a "master of superpowered costumes" than an actual Master of Disguise.
• Save-Game Limits: The game autosaves whenever you exit a level. If you need to take a break while in a level, you'll either have to find a Save Point or use a suspend-save from the pause menu. However, if you have a suspend in play, you can't play a different save slot without losing it.
• Saying Too Much: A unique example in that it has to happen twice before it actually gets the character in question into trouble. After the Sphinx gives Wario the information he promised, Wario mentions that the museum's previous visitor was a thief, alarming the Sphinx. But it's not until Wario then lets it slip that he is a thief as well that the Sphinx refuses to allow him to leave, requiring him to solve three riddles first.
• Screw the Rules, They Broke Them First!: You can use this trope in the race against Carpaccio. Your lane is rigged with plenty of obstacles while his is not— unless you turn into Arty Wario and cheat back by placing blocks in front of him.
• Sea Hurtchin: The game features an urchin enemy called Lurchin. it is described as a pitiful creature that hurts everyone it touches, no matter how hard it tries not to. It spends each night sobbing from nearly unbearable loneliness.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Terrormisu turns out to have been sealed inside the Wishstone.
• Secret Test of Character: It seems that Goodstyle helped Wario along to see if Wario is the one who could finally defeat Terrormisu for good.
• Sequential Boss: Stuffy the 64th and Terrormisu both have three phases to their boss fights.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: The treasure "Scones of Sadness". They were baked with loving care... for someone who turned out to be allergic to scones.
• Ship Level: S.S. Caviar, the luxurious cruise ship where the first two episodes take place.
• Shock and Awe: Sparky Wario can attack enemies with lightning, reactivate machines and light up pitch-black rooms.
• Shout-Out: Terrormisu's One-Winged Angel form resembles a certain pink princess. She also attacks using magical masks that give her different emotional powers.
• Slippy-Slidey Ice World: Sneezemore Cave is a frigid area filled with Frictionless Ice located inside a perpetually snowy mountain. It serves as the setting of Episode 4, and to get its fragment of the Wishstone Wario has to gather four crystals to open the way to it.
• Sorting Algorithm of Threatening Geography: Played straight for most of the game, starting off in relatively mundane locations like a cruise ship and a museum before moving on to more threatening locales like an ice cave and two Temples of Doom. After that, the game ups the ante even further with a volcano, a Haunted Castle, and a villainous laboratory. However, after the villain lab, the final level takes place in a pristine hanging garden. It's no less threatening than the preceding areas level design-wise, but setting-wise it is noticeably more serene than what came before it.
• Super Drowning Skills: Enemies will not go in the water unless they are water enemies. At least not willingly. However, in Sneezemore Cave, there is a segment with a Mr. Cheeky running around on top of breakable ice platforms above a body of water. It is possible to break these platforms by hitting them from below. By doing this, the Mr. Cheeky can be dropped into the water, which kills him instantly.
• Super Not-Drowning Skills: Breathing underwater is typically not a problem for Wario; this game is no exception.
• Temple of Doom: The respective settings of the fifth and sixth chapters. The former is set in a pyramid where Wario is looking for one of the Wishstones, and has to tackle assets like invisible platforms (which can be seen with the Genius powerup) and torches that open doors and activate ladders; when Wario defeats the boss, the latter confesses that the Wishstone isn't there but in the Ancient Waterworks (Chapter 6), a temple in ruins located in a waterlogged jungle.
• Timed Mission: The special episodes. In each one, Wario must traverse previously explored levels and collect three treasures before time runs out (and the timer doesn't stop during the treasure chest minigames).
• Toggling Setpiece Puzzle: As Wario explores Blowhole Castle in Episode 8, he'll find ghostly enemies that are harmless at first, as well as certain seemingly-useless blue flames located near areas with spots that are out of reach. However, when Wario presses a Spirit Switch (with the Cosmic Wario Laser), the ghostly enemies become actual threats and the blue flames solidify to transform into blocks. Pressing the Spirit Switch again (or simply pressing another one) will revert the states to default. Wario has to make use of this feature to solve navigation-based puzzles (for example, some blocks may help him reach previously-inaccessible spots, while others may obstruct usually-open areas; and in both cases, the ghostly enemies have to be accounted for) and make his way to the end of the level and meet the boss (Stuffy the 64th).
• Toilet Humour: Prevalent. Certain enemies fart at you, Wario's constantly making crude jokes about his thief name, and poop appears outright in several minigames and when you mess up a painting as Arty Wario.
• Unexpected Shmup Level: Downplayed with Sweatmore Peak. While you can switch to other disguises as needed, you'll spend most of the level in submarine form, torpedoing and dodging enemies, obstacles and projectiles.
• Unique Enemy: There are eight enemies that only show up once each: Spoonatic, Slaughterfork, Jack the Knife, Stankulus, Tooty Kamen, Blamses, Mellow Kitty, and Stuffy the 5th.
• Unstoppable Rage: Stuffy the 5th, according to his profile:
  "The fifth king of the Dolphinian empire had a short yet troubled reign, so his people commemorated him with this angry, angry statue".
• Use Your Head: Wario attempts this on a heavy door in the fourth episode, and only succeeds in hurting himself. He learned his lesson; during the next episode, he encounters another door and reassures Goodstyle that he won't try forcing it open this time.
• Varying Tactics Boss: Count Cannoli fits the Eggman mold, coming after Wario in three separate mechanical contraptions over the course of the game.
• Vehicular Assault: Against Cannoli, who seems to get a lot of inspiration from Doctor Eggman.
• The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: The deceptively serene Allergia Gardens, played in Episode 10. It is here where the last fragment of the Wishstone is found and, once Wario finds it and the treasurede relic is assembled, Tiaramisu reveals her evil side and serves as the Final Boss.
• Video Game Flight: Wicked Wario can fly. At first, he is limited to flying straight up, but the upgrade (which is obtained in the same episode as the guise itself) allows him to fly left and right as well.
• Walk, Don't Swim: Wario simply walks underwater unless he's wearing the Captain Wario disguise.
• Womb Level: In the fourth episode, Carpaccio turns into a giant bubble creature and swallows Wario. The ensuing boss fight takes place inside of him.
• Would Hit a Girl: Wario has no issues with beating the living crap out of Terrormisu, the true form of Tiaramisu, especially not when she's planning to bring doom to the world.
• X-Ray Vision:
  • Genius Wario can see otherwise invisible doors and objects.
  • Deconstructed with the treasure "Forever X-Ray Glasses". According to the description, these glasses let you see through literally everything... So you end up seeing nothing at all.

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