Developed by Nintendo Research & Development 1 (R&D1), "Wario's Woods" is noteworthy for being the last officially-licensed NES game in North America, released at the end of the console's life. It is also the only NES game to receive a rating from the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB), which was inducted several months before the game's release. In Japan, the game was released alongside a re-release of "The Legend of Zelda" to coincide with the release of the Famicom AV, a redesign of the Family Computer, the Japanese equivalent of the NES.