What’s Wrong With Luigi?

luigiwhatswrong

Mario is one of the biggest characters in gaming history, this can not be disputed by any fanboy or hater. Mario is a short, fat hero who has saved the princess and the mushroom kingdom countless times. His courage is great and his strength seemingly unlimited, he’s conquered hordes of koopa troopers and goombas, and has traveled everywhere from ice mountains to Bowser’s fire filled castle. Yes, Mario is an icon in gaming history but what about his brother? Let us take a look at who is the brother of this legend and what has his role been in the video game world.

The first memory many of us have of Luigi is from the original Mario Bros. here he was literally Mario’s clone except in green as opposed to his brothers red clothes. This model was used again in Super Mario Bros, he was no different from Mario. But then we got a slight change in Super Mario Bros. 2. Here he was distinctly taller than Mario and was able to jump much higher. This general form of the younger brother becomes his standard look later on in future games. Oddly enough in Super Mario Bros. 3 Luigi went back to being Mario’s clone, being exactly like Mario in size, shape and abilities. However after the NES, the Mario Bros. 2 design of a tall and lanky Luigi stays with the character. He then later appears in a few SNES games with nothing special about him other then the fact that he was simply Mario’s younger brother, but then things started getting strange.

One of the early signs was in the Super Smash Bros series, in the title every character had a taunt, Mario would grow in size as if he got a mushroom, while others would strike a pose or do something intimidating. Luigi’s taunt was him putting his hands behind his back and kicking the ground like a little kid. Not very intimidating or does it make much sense but it doesn’t stop there. One of his attacks was him running at his opponents and flailing his hands around in the spirit of a schoolgirl. Another attack is that he uses his ass against his opponents. Let’s think about this for a moment, he throws his ass out to attack people, something is wrong here. Furthermore he has another trick where he can launch him self like a bullet, he charges up this move by squatting down like he’s got to let out a mean fart. Now this might seem normal it is after all a Nintendo fighter, so things can get a little goofy but when has Luigi been capable of this, how does he do it? On top of all this a few of Luigi’s celebration moves also border on the side of the strange. Where Mario does a cool trick with a fireball or Link shows off his sword after a victory from a match. Luigi is depicted falling over with his hands to his side, another has him throwing wussy punches at the air and then breathing hard. Anyone think this is strange yet? What were the designers thinking of when they decided on all this: Hey you know what lets have him fight like a girl!

A true ass
A true ass

Then there’s the other aspect of Mario’s unappreciated brother Nintendo has given: he his an idiot who should not be taken seriously. In the gamecube title Paper Mario and The Thousand Year Door, Mario goes on an adventure to collect the star pieces, and save the world. He gets the help of the locals in the places he travels characters like a goomba, koopa trooper join Mario in the hopes of going on an adventure and helping out their hero. Later on the adventure Mario comes across Luigi at several points through out the game with partners of his own, it is here where the young brother tells him that he’s also on an adventure to save the waffle kingdom’s princess eclair. The problem is that Luigi is a terrible adventurer he ends up hurting his partners or screwing them over in some way. One character, a blopper tells Mario that his brother tripped and pushed the poor creature in lava! freaking lava! That’s one of the most messed up things anyone can do to anyone! Another character, a bob-bomb tells how he is scarred by the sight of seeing Luigi dressed as a bride, the brother having done this to setup a sneak attack on an evil boss. I have no comment for this particular story. The story goes on and on with Luigi being unaware of his actions to his partners. My question is why is Luigi being made into this fool of a character? He’s not taken seriously in the least bit.

Even when Luigi gets his own game to star in he is a scared and seemingly weak character. In Luigi’s Mansion, Mario is captured by Bowser and it’s up to Luigi to save him. The brother walks around a haunted house with a flashlight and vacuum cleaner, shaking and calling out for his brother. He jumps in fear when any of the wacky looking ghosts pop out, very unhero like. At the end of the game Luigi finally saves his brother who had been trapped in a painting. The painting with Mario is then put through a machine that brings him back to normal form, the poor brother is spat out from the contraption dazed and confused. Does Luigi go up to Mario and help him up? No he points and laughs at his brother who seems to be suffering massive head trauma! check out the video Not only is Luigi a scared wuss, he is also an ass!

Through the years Luigi has went from being Mario’s clone to a very distinct character. One who fights like a little girl, gets scared like one, and is an ass. Interesting traits for gaming’s biggest icon’s brother but Nintendo needs to stop this nonsense with the young plumber, he needs to be taken a little more seriously, he deserves this much.

Author

  • Aykut D.

    [Editor] I'm a big fan of Nintendo. I enjoy almost all video game genres but my favorites are action adventure and rpg's.

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Aykut D.
Aykut D.
[Editor] I'm a big fan of Nintendo. I enjoy almost all video game genres but my favorites are action adventure and rpg's.

8 COMMENTS

  1. Well actually, all of the games I know where Luigi is a character, Mario is always there, too … He is the younger brother of Nintendo’s official mascot, Mario. In most games of the main series where a two-player mode is available, Luigi always fills the role of the second player’s character. To make this short, I think the problem is that Luigi has always been relegated to Player 2.

  2. I can see where you’re coming from and you use perfect examples to state your opinion, but hey! I feel bad because he’s always number two. Check out, “It Sucks To Be Luigi” on Deviant Art, they’re really funny and true! XD

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