Wario Land on Switch Online Finally Gives Us the Real Game Boy Library

I've written before about Nintendo's Switch Online additions being fine, but I'm still waiting for the real Game Boy library. The July drop is the closest we've come to that promise being kept.

Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 headlines the new batch, and it's not just a good game — it's a statement. This is the Wario that matters. The greedy, squat, mustachioed anti-Mario who steals coins, smashes blocks, and has a personality that's somehow more defined than most modern protagonists. He's not a hero. He's not even an anti-hero. He's a guy who wants treasure and will headbutt anything that gets in his way.

What we got:

• Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 (Game Boy)
• The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages (Game Boy Color)
• The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons (Game Boy Color)
• Mario vs. Donkey Kong (Game Boy Advance)

That's a genuinely good lineup. Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons are the best 2D Zeldas that aren't called Link's Awakening. They're interconnected in a way that still feels ambitious today — passwords that carry over, a linked story, two different approaches to puzzle design. Ages is about time manipulation. Seasons is about changing the environment. Together they form something bigger than either game alone.

Mario vs. Donkey Kong is the odd one out, but it's a welcome oddity. It's the game where Donkey Kong stopped being a villain and started being a misunderstood jerk. The puzzle-platforming is tight, the mini-Mario toys are adorable, and the difficulty curve has that perfect Nintendo ramp — easy to start, punishing to finish.

But let's talk about Wario Land specifically.

This is the game where Wario became Wario. The first Wario Land dropped the Super Mario Land name after the first level and never looked back. It's a platformer where the goal isn't to reach the flag — it's to get rich. You collect coins, find treasure, and the ending changes based on how much you hoarded. It's the same philosophy that would later power WarioWare, just applied to a traditional side-scroller.

Here's the connection nobody's making: Wario Land is the missing link between Super Mario Land 2 and the entire WarioWare series. It's the game where Nintendo realized that character can drive gameplay more than mechanics. Wario doesn't need a new power-up — he needs a reason to want the treasure. That's pure game design thinking. It's the same reasoning that made Shigeru Miyamoto design the original Donkey Kong around the idea of jumping over barrels instead of just avoiding them.

Who is this for?

This is for people who remember that the Game Boy wasn't just Tetris and Pokémon. It was a platform that birthed weird, wonderful experiments. Wario Land is weird. Oracle of Seasons is weird. Mario vs. Donkey Kong is weird. They're all games that took established formulas and twisted them into something new.

It's also for people who, like me, have been waiting for Nintendo to treat the Game Boy library with the same respect as the NES and SNES. We've gotten bits and pieces — Link's Awakening DX, the first two Mario Lands — but never a steady drip. This is the closest we've come to a real commitment.

The catch:

It's still too slow. Nintendo adds four games every few months. The Game Boy catalog has hundreds of titles. At this rate, we'll have the full library by the time the Switch 3 comes out. I understand curation — not every Game Boy game is worth preserving — but there's a middle ground between "all of it" and "four games a year."

Still, July's additions are good. They're really good. And Wario Land is the kind of game that reminds you why handheld gaming mattered before smartphones. It's compact, focused, and designed for short bursts that somehow turn into hour-long sessions.

If you have Switch Online, play Wario Land. Play it with the understanding that this is the game that made Wario a star. Everything else — WarioWare, the microgames, the weird golf games — traces back to this one greedy platformer.

Nintendo knows what we want. They just take their time giving it to us.

Is it enough? No. But it's a start. And for now, that start includes a mustachioed treasure hunter who would absolutely steal your wallet if you left it on the table. That's worth the subscription price alone.