Wario's Nipples Debate

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About

Wario's Nipples Debate refers to the online conversation over whether or not the Nintendo video game character Wario has nipples. The debate started following the release for the video game Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 and is similar to the conversation surrounding Mario's Nipples.

Origin

On August 20th, 2019, the verified Sega Twitter account published a trailer for the video game Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. The trailer received more than 111,000 views, 3,800 likes and 1,700 retweets in three days (shown below).

『マリオ&ソニック AT 東京2020オリンピック™』11月1日（金）発売決定！誰でも本格的なオリンピック競技を楽しめる、オリンピック公式ビデオゲーム「マリオ&ソニック」シリーズ最新作にご期待ください！https://t.co/2cq5fzqMi7 #OfficialVideoGame #Tokyo2020 #Play2020 #MarioandSonic pic.twitter.com/2RCVBoEok7

— セガ公式アカウント (@SEGA_OFFICIAL) August 21, 2019

That day, Twitter^[1] user @antdude92 tweeted a screenshot from the game of Wario shirtless with the caption "Mario and Sonic at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games is gonna be wild." The tweet received more than 20,000 likes and 4,000 retweets in three days (shown below, left).

About one minute after making @antdude92 made the post, Twitter^[2] user @defenestraion tweeted, "So Mario and Eggman have nips but Wario doesn't? C'mon Nintendo." The tweet is the earliest known criticism of Wario's lack of nipples (shown below).

Precursor

The earliest known rendering of Wario's nipples was published by Drawception^[3] user meapselman on May 10th, 2017 (shown below).

Spread

Throughout the next 24 hours, others weighed in on the debate and joked about the design of Wario's chest. On August 21st, Twitter^[4] user @BigAl2k6 tweeted, "Where are Wario's nipples @NintendoAmerica The world demands answers." Within two days, the tweet received more than 3,600 likes and 950 retweets (shown below, left). Twitter^[5] user @peachythiccgal tweeted, "mario gets nipples. eggman gets nipples. where are warios nipples??" The tweet received more than 1,500 likes and 250 retweets in two days (shown below, center). Twitter^[6] @Hope_Corrigan tweeted, "Remember the hubub over Mario's nipples. I give you, the future of games discourse: Robotnik and Mario are from the same nipple universe or "nipple verse" if you will. Wario does not." Within two days, the tweet received more than 1,300 likes and 195 retweets (shown below, right).

On August 21st, Twitter^[8] user @roboplato tweeted, "Found a higher quality image and Wario does in fact have nipples!" Within two days, the tweet received more than 1,100 likes and 215 retweets (shown below).

In addition to Wario's nipples, some joked about his lack of chest hair. Twitter^[7] user @my2k tweeted, "wario not having a thick forest of italian body hair is some revisionist bullshit. come on, nintendo." Within two days, the tweet received more than 36,000 likes and 5,800 retweets (shown below).

Several media outlets covered the debate, including AV Club,^[9] Polygon,^[10] Comic Book,^[11] Games Radar^[12] and more. Twitter^[13] published a Moments page on the debate.