Luigi is Mario's younger, taller twin brother and is a major protagonist of the Mario franchise. Throughout his life, he has lived in Mario's shadow, developing both cowardly and heroic tendencies. Despite this, Luigi has helped and fought alongside his brother on many occasions. Mario Bros. marks his first appearance in the Mario series and his debut in general. Originally a palette swap of Mario, Luigi was created to facilitate a second player option. Since the two-player mode was dropped from most main Super Mario games beginning with Super Mario Land, Luigi has gained his own identity and personality. This is especially noticeable in installments for the Luigi's Mansion and the Mario & Luigi series of games.
General information[]
Concept and creation[]
The arcade game Mario Bros. incorporated a multiplayer mode, but due to memory restrictions, the second player character needed to have a sprite identical to the first. The development team thought of differentiating the second character by giving him different colors, but the color palette budget was similarly limited.[18] As a result, Luigi was conceived as a twin of Mario to explain his resemblance and he was made green to recycle the color palette of the Shellcreeper enemy.[18]
Physical description[]
Compared to Mario, Luigi is slimmer and taller. His face is noticeably thinner, his eyes are slightly more bluish, and his hair is the same style as Mario's, but more of an auburn or dark maroon. Luigi's mustache is dark brown, sometimes black, and smooth, unlike Mario's ragged mustache.
Luigi also wears clothes similar to Mario, but his shirt and cap are green instead of red. Layered over the shirt is blue overalls, which are a darker blue than Mario's. He also has brown work shoes, again darker than Mario's, with tan bottoms that reach above his ankles. Artwork however sometimes shows Luigi with the same color of blue overalls and brown shoes as Mario.
Luigi's appearance does, however, tend to lend itself to heavy stylization. The Luigi's Mansion graphical team took it upon themselves to animate every part of Luigi to convey emotion,[21] resulting in such exaggerations to his body as head-expanding screams during boss cutscenes and complete flattenings by fake doors. The Super Smash Bros. series applies Luigi's cowardice to his actions, making most of his attacks look reckless and unwilling and giving him awkward movements, securing his official title as the series' "dreamy, comical poster boy."[22]
Luigi's appearance has changed quite a bit throughout the Super Smash Bros. series. In the original Super Smash Bros., Luigi's overalls are indigo, with his entire appearance being original. In Super Smash Bros. Melee, Luigi borrows his appearance from Mario Kart 64, right down to having a tan complexion; Luigi's overalls are now their standard navy blue color, though they receive denim textures and back pockets. In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Luigi uses his contemporary look, though his overalls have further pronounced textures, while his hair and other clothing receive simple detailing. In Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U, Luigi's model is sleeker and more vibrant, while his hair and clothing lose most of their detailing. In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Luigi receives simple detailing in his hair and clothing once again, albeit not to the same extent as in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
Luigi has a total of eight selectable costumes to date in the Super Smash Bros. series, with 4 in Super Smash Bros. and Super Smash Bros. Melee, 6 in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and 8 in Super Smash Bros. for 3DS / Wii U and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. In Smash 64 and Melee, Luigi had his first three costumes introduced; the first costume consists of green overalls and a white undershirt and cap, which are derived from Fire Luigi's colors; the second costume consists of blue overalls and a cyan undershirt and cap, resembling Mario's appearance on the American boxart for Mario Bros.; lastly, Luigi's third alternate costume consists of red overalls and a pink undershirt and cap, resembling his appearance in Wrecking Crew. In Brawl, Luigi's fourth and fifth alternate costumes were introduced: the former consists of blue overalls and an orange undershirt and cap, resembling Mario's appearance on the boxart for Pinball; the latter consists of dark indigo overalls and a purple undershirt and cap, based off of Waluigi's colors. In 3DS / Wii U, Luigi's sixth and seventh alternate costumes are intorduced: the former consists of blue overalls, a dark blue cap, and a garbage green undershirt; the latter consists of teal overalls, and a dull yellow undershirt and cap; neither of these costumes has inspirations.
Personality[]
Luigi is portrayed as timid and a bit of a coward. He is also extremely worrisome and is considerably self-conscious. However, he overcomes his fears and acts like a hero when necessary, such as when someone he knows is in danger or needs help. On the New Super Mario Bros. Wii website, it describes Luigi as "Mario's fearless brother". In keeping with his personality-based Power Flower, a sign in Big Boo's Haunt in Super Mario 64 DS describes Luigi as "wispy."
Arguably, Luigi's most apparent trait is his seeming cowardice. Though he showed several instances of cowardice in early non-game media such as The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, his cowardly nature was not actually shown in-game until Luigi's Mansion (aside from a few hints in Paper Mario), and has carried over to almost all of Luigi's subsequent appearances. Although Luigi's phasmophobia is his most overbearing fear, he usually reconsiders at the mere thought of any monsters or trials, especially in the Mario & Luigi series. However, Luigi can be quite brave, and has saved the Mushroom Kingdom alongside his brother multiple times. Super Paper Mario especially glimpses into Luigi's more courageous side, showing him boldly rushing into dangerous situations and rarely even implicating his infamous cowardice. In addition, the ending for Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon also hinted that he overcame his phasmophobia, or at the very least takes exception to Polterpups and makes friends with the ghosts of Evershade Valley. In Simon Belmont's reveal trailer for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Luigi is clearly scared of all the creatures in Dracula's Castle, though he attempts to ward them off with the Poltergust's flashlight, as well as a toilet plunger.
Another strong element of Luigi's personality is his apparent complex of being overlooked. Although his Superstar status has earned him many fans, including an entire fan club led by Toadia and multiple supporting Toads (one of which claims to be his biggest fan in Super Mario 64 DS), even Bowser and the Koopa Troop have occasional trouble with remembering his name (as seen in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga), and he appears to be almost unknown in the Beanbean Kingdom. Although Luigi's biggest reactions to his frequent overlookings in the Mario & Luigi series are a few "…"s and face-faults, his inattention was played up for comic relief in Paper Mario, with the snarky man in green complaining about being left behind and perpetually training for that elusive next adventure. Luigi's bio in Mario Party 5 states that he has been gaining popularity in recent years.
Luigi's state of being in the shadow of his brother shows strongly in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. An example would be the way Luigi is almost never happy, how his commentary is very monotoned, and how one of his taunts is a bashful kick of the ground. Also, his Final Smash, Negative Zone, seemed to have developed because of living in his brother's shadow forever. Additionally, whenever the crowd cheers for Luigi, not too many people are heard cheering for him and when the announcer says Luigi's name, he sounds a little surprised. Snake's codec conversation even has the Colonel refer to Luigi as the "kid brother" and "king of second bananas", despite Snake's protests. Despite this, however, Masahiro Sakurai did not intend to play up Luigi's overshadowed status, instead aiming to make him "everyone's favorite man in green."[22] Luigi's state in the shadow of Mario is present in other Super Smash Bros. games, since the original Super Smash Bros. addresses him as the "eternal understudy" when he's unlocked; Super Smash Bros. Melee also refers to him in a similar manner, and his cinematic in the game's Adventure Mode shows him Footstool Jumping Mario, signifying his tiredness of being number two. In Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, whenever a Palutena's Guidance conversation is activated when fighting against Luigi, Viridi and Palutena are quick to point out Luigi's status as "number two" in relativity to Mario, even though Pit held him in a higher regard.
The Super Smash Bros. games make Luigi a comical, yet depressive figure, which is evident by his aforementioned unhappiness, his violent taunt, quiet commentary, and origin of Negative Zone, yet, several other actions show Luigi behaving childishly. These include: his dash attack, where he swings his arms aimlessly while keeping a humorous panicking expression; his neutral attack, where he hits opponents with his butt for the third hit; his up tilt, where he "paw swipes" the opponent with his fists while closing his eyes; the aftermath of his Super Jump Punch, where he falls upside-down; his idle poses, where he scratches the back of his head sheepishly or humorously pulls his nose before wincing in pain; and his victory poses, which have him do the following: breathing heavily with his eyes half-closed, falling stiff and planking on the ground (also one of his taunts), or childishly making finger pistols and pretending to shoot his opponents (which is supported by him saying "Bang, bang!").
He is also shown at times to be clumsy, as evidenced in the ending of New Super Mario Bros. Wii, where he accidentally locked himself out of the hot air balloon that Peach and Mario were on while waving goodbye to the Toads, and also ended up collapsing while trying to enter the hot air balloon, due to it having flown off.
Overall, Luigi's personality is hard to determine and changes depending on appearance. Very few games have portrayed him with a personality that lasts throughout the subsequent release. Overall, however, Luigi can be described as timid and cautious, yet kindhearted, brave, and willing to protect his homeland with Mario's help, though can have his flaws at times.
