I spent a little too long going down this rabbit hole so sorry if this isn't novel information or interesting to anyone but me
While the Mario Wiki attributes this game to Banpresto, thetastates attributed it to both Banpresto and Togo. On the very same page of Game Machine issue 481 is a host of other Togo machines, most notably Paku Paku Kirby.
This machine is even MORE unfindable than Wario Busters because "Paku Paku Kirby" is the Japanese name of the "Gourmet Race" subgame of Kirby super Star released a year later, and nearly 30 years after this machine they made a different one themed explicitly to that subgame.
But the important part is the SHAPE of the cabinet. Same netting, angled sign, light, coinbox and bottom opening, and 4-light score board. Looking at older Togo games I also found Mad Saurus from 1992
Which has all the same similarities to the other two cabinets AND the protective rails around the figure itself. And while I can also find NO other photos or video of THIS ONE too, the connection to Togo who makes many games in this style (Hungry Animal II can be seen in the same spread as Wario Buster above, alongside a prequel, a seque, and at least one other) make me feel confident in saying the goal of this game is not to HIT Wario, but to toss armfuls of small light balls into his mouth as it opens and closes.
But now I started getting annoyed at why the only meager sources on Wario Busters kept linking it to Banpresto and not Togo? I mean, almost certainly just because Banpresto makes most Mario arcade machines, probably.
But! One machine in that list stuck out to me as different from the others, in the same way Wario Busters did. 1993's Koopa Taiji.
They're ball throwers, almost every other game is more digital where these two are the only ones that could be made completely mechanically. They also don't have a massive unmissable Banpresto logo like most of their machines do (Which could mean nothing!). And guess what!
IT'S A RESKIN OF ANOTHER TOGO GAME! 1992's Hop Step Kappa-Kun, and even Thetastates doesn't credit both companies like they did Wario Busters, so what the fuck right?
And like, none of this is sourced well and obviously I can't read Japanese but I can't help but feel like I've discovered something. I think this is just one of those things where someone got something wrong on the English-speaking side of the internet one time and with no other English-speaking sources it just never got corrected.
I'd almost guess that Togo and Nintendo had some sort of deal specifically to just re-theme some of their old games and it just fell through at some point, but there IS at least proof that Koopa Taiji got produced. It's very common for old physical arcade games to be underdocumented but with an IP like Mario/Kirby I have an easier time believing Koopa Taiji undersold and the deal got pulled last minute than there being zero proof of them in the wild, but that's of course just my speculation.
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