Wario World’s Terrible Portraits
In Wario World, weird enemies and wild boss fights are part of the fun—but few are as creatively spooky as the Terrible Portraits.
Creepy, Creative, and Totally Skippable
Where You’ll Find Them: The Mirror Mansion
The side portraits each have white arms that reach out of the frames to attack, while the middle one is the main threat. The whole setup feels like something out of a twisted art museum—only with more fireballs and fewer curators.
How the Terrible Portraits Attack
These portraits aren’t just creepy decorations—they’re deadly too. The Terrible Portraits use a mix of elemental attacks to keep Wario on his toes:
- 🔥 Fireball: A homing flame that follows Wario around the room.
- ⚡ Electric Bolt: A fast-moving electric blast that zips in a straight line.
- 🪨 Crushing Boulder: A massive rock that slams into the ground—step wrong and Wario gets flattened.
- ❄️ Giant Ice Ball: Freezes Wario solid if it connects.
The central portrait also creates Barrel Busters, which Wario can grab and Piledrive under the side arms to deal damage. Timing is everything in these battles, and success requires dodging chaos while setting up the perfect counterattack.
Can You Skip Them? Yes—With Some Tricks
In the international versions of Wario World, both Terrible Portrait fights can actually be skipped using some clever techniques:
- The first battle can be bypassed using a glitch called the Super Jump.
- The second can be skipped by jumping around the level’s outer edge—but doing so locks the camera at an awkward angle.
While these skips aren’t required to complete the game, speedrunners and curious players often use them to breeze past the Terrible Portraits entirely.
One of Wario World’s Most Unique Boss Designs
Attribution: This post includes content adapted from the Super Mario Wiki, which is available under a Creative Commons license. Please refer to the original article and its list of contributors for full attribution.
