Luigi
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Luigi Mario (ルイージ, ruīji) is Mario's younger (or twin) brother from Nintendo video games. He first appeared in Mario Bros. as the character controlled by the second player, and his role as the second player's character continued in Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3, and Super Mario World. It is believed by some that his full name is Luigi Mario, as he and Mario are refered to as the Mario Brothers. This theory has been supported by Nintendo of America. Luigi's name was inspired by a pizza parlor near Nintendo of America's headquarters in Redmond, Washington, called Mario & Luigi's. His name also serves as a pun on the Japanese word ruiji (類似), meaning "similar" (based on his original role as a copy of Mario). Luigi is voiced by Charles Martinet, the same person who voices Mario.
Game history
Template:Spoiler Because of software constraints of the time, Luigi initially appeared as a palette swap of Mario, identical except in terms of color. As technology improved, Luigi evolved into a physically distinct character, taller and thinner than his brother. He also can jump very high and is distinct by kicking his legs while jumping. This is at least in part due to the conversion of the Japanese game Doki Doki Panic to the American Super Mario Bros. 2, where Luigi's character replaced the thin, high-jumping Mama. Although Luigi is taller than his brother, he is actually the younger of the two.
Luigi's personality has also been developed over the years: he is depicted as being more nervous and panicky than his brother (a trait that spills over into gameplay; in some platform games Luigi is considerably harder to control). Other information states that Luigi is simply the smarter, more careful sibling. Other writers have sometimes suggested this is a complex related to being less famous than his brother. This has also been suggested in canon; one of the running jokes in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga is that almost none of the characters, not even Bowser, knows Luigi's name. Also, in Super Mario 64 DS, while playing as Luigi, Toads will comment on Luigi being less important than Mario.
As Mario's Sidekick
When Luigi originally appeared, he was simply Mario with a different color pallette. Aside from wearing green instead of red, playing as Luigi was the same as playing as Mario.
In America's Super Mario Bros. 2 (not to be confused with Japan's Super Mario Bros. 2), Luigi was one of the four characters that players could choose to play as. He was characterized in the game as having the highest jump of all four playable characters. This particular feature made him quite popular among fans of the series. He also co-starred with his brother in a 2003 game called Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga (a Mario RPG along the lines of Paper Mario) in which the player controls both Mario and Luigi to save Princess Peach. Luigi and Baby Luigi are also playable in the sequel Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time for the Nintendo DS.
The Game Boy Advance remake of Super Mario World for Game Boy Advance featured the same playability for Luigi.
These distinctions are also present in Super Mario All-Stars and Super Mario World for the Super NES.
Non-playable appearances
After Super Mario World, Luigi became less of a frequent character in Mario's platforming titles. In these more recent games, Luigi either has a minor role in which he is not a playable character, or he does not appear at all.
In Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, Baby Luigi was kidnapped by Kamek the Magikoopa. He was freed due to the efforts of many Yoshis who helped defeat Baby Bowser. He also garnered a minor role in Super Mario RPG, where his only actual appearance had him leading the parade in the end credits. However, he was also seen in the game's instruction booklet, offering comments on various aspects of the game. Also, one of the wishes on Star Hill is clearly his.
Luigi was surprisingly absent from Super Mario 64, but rumors immediately spread that he was hidden somewhere in there, most of them revolving on the inscription on the statue in Peach's castle's courtyard. In less than a year, many had made up various methods of how to unlock Luigi, and there were even fake screenshots of Luigi in the game, but they were all proved to be false. (Regardless, Luigi would show up as a playable character in the Nintendo DS remake, discussed below).
Nintendo Power noticed player outrage at Luigi not appearing in Mario 64, and printed a spoof article in which CEOs of Nintendo were asked about Luigi. Most of the responses were variations on "Who's Luigi?" Mention is made of several spin-off games, but Luigi is denied. The end of the article has a 'quote' that "Luigi is the big snowman, right? Yeah, he's getting his own game sometime next year!"
Six years later, Luigi was left out of Super Mario Sunshine, and this time was not even mentioned. A sly mention was made to Luigi's Mansion, however; one of the minor characters, working in a haunted hotel, asks Mario, "why doesn't someone come and suck [all the ghosts] up with a vacuum?". Some players stated that Luigi, having rescued Mario in the aforementioned Luigi's Mansion, should have been on holiday with him - or at least mentioned - but surprisingly, there was not as much controversy this time around.
Solo appearances
Luigi played the starring role of two completely serarate games, the first of which was the edutainment title Mario Is Missing!, released for the NES, SNES, and PC. It was a fairly lackluster game, involving Luigi traveling throughout the world and answering questions related to well-known lands he was visiting (e.g., Japan and Russia). Mario Is Missing! was not produced by Nintendo and remains one of the few Mario games created and developed entirely by an American third-party developer.
His second and more prominent starring role was in Luigi's Mansion, the launch title for the Nintendo GameCube, in which Luigi must brave a ghost-filled mansion that he supposedly won (in a contest that he didn't enter) to save Mario.
Waluigi and Daisy
With the debut of Mario Tennis for the Nintendo 64, Luigi also gained his own rival, Waluigi. (Waluigi is a counterpart to Wario). Waluigi has appeared since in the Mario Party series, Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, Mario Power Tennis, and just about every other game featuring Mario's all-star supporting cast.
Mario Tennis also saw the return of the long-unused character Daisy, who is now believed by some to be Luigi's counterpart to Mario's Princess Peach. There has also, however, been speculation that Luigi, like Mario, is in love with Princess Peach. A cutscene in Mario Power Tennis when players win any tournament with Princess Peach, shows her blowing kisses to both Mario and Luigi, who both hover a little and swoon. This belief is reinforced by older forms of media involving the Mario Bros. and Princess Peach.
Luigi in the Smash Bros. games
Luigi is also a hidden character in the N64 hit Super Smash Bros. and its GameCube sequel Super Smash Bros. Melee. His style of fighting is separate from Mario's due to his one-hit powershots instead of Mario's combo-friendly attacks. Luigi also jumps significantly higher and has a larger hangtime, at the expense of his traction and speed. His fireballs are green, have shorter range, but neglect gravity.
Although he was very similar to Mario in the original Super Smash Bros., he was given a completely different set of physical attacks in the sequel Super Smash Bros. Melee, including some extremely powerful aerial attacks. He was also given the Green missile attack, similar to Pikachu's Skull Bash, though Luigi's technique occasionally malfunctions and sends him careening uncontrollably across the stage. The game itself claims the chances of such misfire occurring are 1 in 8. Luigi is the most slippery character in the game, which is condusive to wave-dashing.
Luigi in the RPGs
Luigi shows up as a supporting character in Paper Mario where he often complains about "being left out of Mario's adventures." Despite this, he is a strong supporter of Mario, even arranging a marching band parade (with himself as Drum Major) in Mario's honor when he returns victorious. Under a "spin jump" panel in the Mario Brother's room can be found a secret room where Luigi has been keeping a personal diary, full of funny adventures.He also has references in Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. One of them is within the stars containing wishes in Star Hill (One of them says "I wish to be a great plumber, just like my brother Mario") the second one is at the end of the game, he is the one leading the parade.
Luigi in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
Luigi makes an appearance in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, released for the Nintendo Gamecube. He appears in the audience of the battle sequences a couple of times and can periodically be found in the game's central city where he is willing to recount tales from an adventure of his own that he is apparently undertaking. Ironically, his "adventure" storyline follows many of the elements of the main game's plot.
Mario & Luigi RPG series
In Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, as well as Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, Luigi plays a more prominent role, sharing his role with his brother (these games are actually the first that put both brothers working together in order to solve certain tasks).
Luigi in Super Mario 64 DS
In Super Mario 64 DS Luigi has high triple-jumping abilities (which is no surprise considering his reputation for high jumps) and a backflip that's nearly as high as his triple jump, but allows him to cover great horizontal distances by spinning with his arms outstretched. Luigi also has a scuttle jump ability that slows his descent. He can also run on water for a few moments. This makes him one of the more useful characters in the game. In this game, Luigi can obtain a Power Flower, with which he becomes invisible, allowing him to walk through enemies, as well as some walls.
Baby Luigi
Baby Luigi is a character in Nintendo's Mario series, similar to Baby Mario. He is the infant version of Luigi, although he has appeared in Mario Kart: Double Dash!! alongside his older self. It is generally accepted that these games do not have storylines and merely offer extra playable characters for greater variety. Baby Luigi first appeared in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island where he got kidnapped by Kamek, only to be rescued by his brother Mario and Yoshi later on. Like his older self, Baby Luigi is voiced by Charles Martinet.
Baby Luigi more recently appeared in Yoshi Touch & Go, where Yoshi must rescue Luigi by throwing eggs in order to hit the Toadies carrying him. In the multiplayer mode, the second player's Yoshi will be carrying Baby Luigi instead of Baby Mario.
Baby Luigi rides along with Baby Mario in Mario Kart: Double Dash!! in a converted baby carriage and appears in Mario Superstar Baseball as unlockable character with speed ability.
Baby Luigi also stars in Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, along with Baby Mario, his older self, and Mario. His abilities in battle appear to be identical to those of Baby Mario. The game explains the co-existence of the two sets of brothers in this game by saying that Mario and Luigi are sent back in time after an experiment with Princess Peach goes terribly wrong. They must battle the evil Princess Shroob to restore order to the shattered past of the Mushroom Kingdom. Template:Endspoiler
Luigi's voice
Unlike Mario, whose voice has remained basically the same since its debut in Super Mario 64, Luigi's voice has fluctuated between high and low-pitched varieties throughout games. When his voice was first introduced in Super Mario Kart, its was considerably lower in pitch than Mario's, however, in Mario Party, he possessed a much higher pitched voice which was similar to Mario's. He retained this higher voice in Mario Party 2 and also had a high voice in Super Smash Bros. In Mario Golf, Mario Tennis, and Mario Party 3, however, his voice returned to a lower state. Since then, with the exceptions of Mario Kart: Super Circuit and Super Smash Bros. Melee, games have consistantly given Luigi a low-pitched voice.
Luigi's age in relation to Mario's age
Luigi is now generally accepted as the younger (yet taller) brother of Mario, though in the game Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, he was said to be his twin brother. This was possibly either a mistake, or a fact that was later changed, as the remake of that game (Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3) does not refer to Mario and Luigi as twins, but rather as brothers.
Luigi outside of the games
Though Luigi has become less prominent in the games lately, he would accompany Mario in all of his jumps to other forms of media, with the exception of the Saturday Supercade.
His film debut came in the obscure 1986 Mario anime movie, The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach, where he was voiced by Mizushima Yu. He does not appear in the three Super Mario Bros. 3 OVA films until the end of the Shirayukihime story, where he saved the day. Afterwards, he was a regular on The Super Mario Bros. Super Show, which cast Danny Wells as both his live portrayal and voice actor. Like his brother, Luigi's voice actor changed in later cartoons, in his case to Tony Rosato. Notably, on The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3, Luigi starred in "Life's Ruff", the only Mario cartoon episode where Mario did not appear.
When Mario made the jump to comics in 1990, Luigi made the jump with him. Oddly enough, in the Nintendo Comics System, Luigi did not play the role of Mario's sidekick as frequently as in the cartoons, to the point that in one story Mario referred to Toad as his sidekick.
Luigi played quite a different role in the Super Mario Bros. movie, where he was portrayed by John Leguizamo. There, Luigi was a more easy-going character in contrast to the cynical Mario of the film.
Luigi also regularly appears in the unofficial web comic series Neglected Mario Characters. In the earlier comics, he was portrayed as fed up with having to play second fiddle to Mario all the time and often defected to the Koopas. When he did this, he assumed his alter ego Darth Butch. In this form, he has mastered the power of the Worse and represented the "Slightly-Black Side." In modern comics, he is portrayed as the "unsung hero," often has weird dreams, and is very gullible. He is also quite taken with Celes and Daisy. He was one of the Mario Busters along with Toad, Stanley the Bugman, Dr. Donez, and Lemmy the Lemming. He is also one of the few characters to appear in multiple Deathmatches and remain undefeated. Another running gag with Luigi is to not put him in comics and then have him complain about it at the end.
As with that strip, Luigi is usually portrayed in fan-made Internet material as being bitter towards his brother, such as in "The Colour of Envy", where he enlists Wario to help him conquer the Mushroom Kingdom and imprison Mario. Ultimately, Mario becomes Fire Mario, KOs Wario and rescues Toad, who has been severely wounded.
The most notable exception, however, is Randy Solem's Rise of the Mushroom Kingdom Flash series on the Video Game Director's Cut website. In this series, Luigi is shown avenging Mario's death in an extended dream sequence in which he storms Bowser's castle with a bloodthirsty army of Yoshis and Toads. Upon finding out that it is in fact Wart who is responsible for Mario's murder, Luigi wakes up just in time to find out that Wart's now committing the deed for real. Luigi manages to save Mario, but in the process dies himself. While Mario storms through Subcon in a quest for vengeance, Princess Peach ventures to find a 1-Up Mushroom with which she uses to restore life to Luigi, who then flies to Subcon himself to help Mario defeat Wart.
See also
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