10 True Video Game Endings You Gave Up On
8. Wario Land - Buying the Moon
Long before Animal Crossing's Tom Nook brought the joys of indentured servitude to video games, Wario was introducing wide-eyed Nintendo fans to the perils of capitalism and grind culture.
Wario Land was a platformer on the original Game Boy that tasked gamers with amassing enough wealth to buy the portly entrepreneur a new house. And yes, that really was the entire plot of the game. Not so much "Your Princess is in another castle", more "Your mortgage payments draw ever nearer".
To assist Mario's spiky-moustached nemesis in his quest, players had to find coins throughout the levels. The more coins you had, the more upmarket the home Wario could afford at the end. And if you amassed a whopping 99,999 coins, you could buy the moon.
Unfortunately, while the sight of Wario staring lovingly at his celestial abode was amusing, the grind required to get it was not. Getting the required amount of coins necessitated replaying coin-rich levels obsessively, and hoping you lucked out on the "double or nothing" mini game that ended each stage.
Terrible game design, or a clever plan to discourage impressionable children from emulating Wario's money-grubbing ways? You decide!
Speaking of money-grubbing...