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Luigi

This page is about the Nintendo character. For other uses of the name Luigi, see Luigi (disambiguation).

Luigi Mario is a video game character made by Nintendo. The famous game designer, Shigeru Miyamoto, made him. Luigi is the younger but taller fraternal twin brother of the Nintendo mascot, Mario. He is in many games all over the Mario series, almost always as an assistant to his brother Mario.

Luigi
Luigi's symbol
symbol of Luigi
Game series Mario
First game Mario Bros. (1983)
Created by Shigeru Miyamoto
Voiced by (English) Video games
Mark Graue (1994)
Charles Martinet (1997–present)
Julien Bardakoff (1998-2001)
Television
Danny Wells (The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!)
Tony Rosato (The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World)
Voiced by (Japanese) Video games
Charles Martinet (1995–present)
Ichirōta Miyagawa (1996-1998)
Anime
Yū Mizushima (Super Mario Bros.: The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach!)
Naoki Tatsuta (Amada Anime Series: Super Mario Bros.)
Live action actor(s) Danny Wells (The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!)
John Leguizamo (Super Mario Bros.)

The first game Luigi was in was Mario Bros. (Game and Watch) (1983) as a character seen working in a factory. He later appeared playable in the 1983 arcade game Mario Bros and was played by the second player. It was also done in Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, and other games. The first game in which he was present as the first character was Super Mario Bros. 2. In the Mario series, he is usually not the main character. However, he has his own games where he is the main character, like Luigi's Mansion and Mario is Missing!. He also appears in many spin-offs, such as Mario Kart, Mario Party and the Super Smash Bros. series. Luigi has also been in every show of the three DiC TV series based on the Nintendo Entertainment System and Super Nintendo Entertainment System games.

At first, he was made as a copy of Mario with a green color instead of red. Later in the series, he became his own character with his own personality and abilities. As his part in the Mario series progressed, Luigi became taller and thinner than his brother.

Nintendo called 2013 "The Year of Luigi" to mark the thirty years of the character's existence. The games released in 2013 brought attention to Luigi, such as Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, Dr. Luigi, and the level pack New Super Luigi U for New Super Mario Bros. U. In Super Mario 3D World, a Luigi version of Mario Bros. called Luigi Bros. can be unlocked.

Concept and creation

The events leading to the creation of Luigi began in 1982, during the making of Donkey Kong. The Nintendo designer Shigeru Miyamoto had created Mario (who used to be "Jumpman") hoping that he would be able to show the character in many different pars in future games.[1] Miyamoto had been given ideas by the game Joust to create a game where two players can play at the same time. This was the cause of his development of the game Mario Bros. in 1983, with Luigi as the brother of Mario and the second playable character.[2] The name Luigi is said to have been inspired by a pizza business near the head office of Nintendo of America in Redmond, Washington, called "Mario & Luigi's". Miyamoto noticed that the word ruiji means "similar" in the Japanese language and that Luigi was designed to have the same size, shape and gameplay as Mario.[3]

At first, in Donkey Kong, Mario was a carpenter. In Mario Bros., Mario and Luigi were designed as Italian plumbers by Miyamoto at the suggestion of a partner.[4] Software limits at the time—almost the same as those that gave Mario his special look in Donkey Kong—meant the first appearance of Luigi was limited to a simple color swap of Mario, designed to be the second player. The characters were in every way the same, other than their colors.[5] The green color for Luigi would be one of his physical characteristics in future releases.

After the success of Mario Bros., Luigi was shown to a wider market in 1985 with the release of the NES game Super Mario Bros. Once again, his part was limited to a color swap of Mario, acting as the second-player in almost the same way as Mario Bros. The Japan-only form of Super Mario Bros. 2 in 1986 (released in the west as Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels in the future) marked the start of Luigi becoming a separate character. As with his last appearances, Luigi was still a color swap of Mario. However, his moves were not the same. Luigi could now jump higher and a greater distance than his brother, at the cost of motion reaction and exactness.[6]

While this form of Super Mario Bros. 2 was released in Japan, it was thought to be too hard for the American public at the time.[4] In 1988, as a result, an alternative release was developed to be good enough as Super Mario Bros. 2 for western players (and in the future released in Japan as Super Mario USA). This would play a key part in forming the current look of Luigi.[4] The game was a conversion of Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic, with the art changed to be characters and places from the Mario series. In this release, the character of "Mama", who could jump the highest, was good enough for the model for Luigi. This caused his taller, thinner look, combined with his Mario-designed outfit and green color. There were appearances of Luigi being taller than Mario before - for example, in the 1988 Famicom Disk System game Famicom Grand Prix II: 3D Hot Rally and before that, in a very limited 1986 anime Super Mario Bros.: Peach-Hime Kyushutsu Dai Sakusen! (though in the anime, he had a yellow shirt and blue overalls). Licensed art for Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World shows Luigi with this new look. Nintendo of Japan would not change his art differences to his look within the game until the 1992 game Super Mario Kart. The appearance of Luigi from the Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic version of Super Mario Bros. 2 has been used ever since, even for games made again in which he was a palette swap to start with.

Voice

Much like his appearance, Luigi's voice has changed over the years. In Mario Kart 64, which voiced many characters for the first time, some characters had two different voices in relation to the region of the game. The North American and European versions of the game present a deep voice for Luigi, by Charles Martinet, who also voices Mario, Wario, Waluigi, and Toadsworth. The Japanese version uses a high, falsetto voice, by (then French translator at Nintendo) Julien Bardakoff. All forms of Mario Party present the high-pitched clips of Bardakoff from Mario Kart 64. Luigi kept this higher voice in Mario Party 2. In Mario Golf, Mario Tennis, and Mario Party 3 his voice returned to normal. Since then, in all games but Mario Kart: Super Circuit and Super Smash Bros. Melee, Luigi has always had a medium-pitched voice. In Mario Kart: Super Circuit, Luigi's voice was the same high voice as in the Japanese Mario Kart 64. In Super Smash Bros. and Super Smash Bros. Melee, Luigi's voice is based on Mario's voice (with clips taken from Super Mario 64), with a higher pitch. In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, he has his own voice clips instead of voice clips taken from Mario.

Playable appearances

Playable only in two-player:

Playable in one-player or two-player:

References

  1. ↑ Demaria, R: "High Score! The Illustrated History of Electronic Games", page 238. McGraw Hill-Osbourne, 2002
  2. ↑ "Mario Bros. Arcade". International Arcade Museum. Retrieved 2014-12-07.
  3. ↑ New Straits Times, 10 August 1986
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 McLaughlin, Rus (14 September 2010). "The History of Super Mario Bros". IGN. Retrieved 28 January 2015.
  5. ↑ "Nintendo's Shining Star: The History of Mario". Gamecubicle. Retrieved 2015-01-30.
  6. ↑ Hayward, Andrew. (2007-10-01) VC Update: Sin and Punishment, Mario: Lost Levels Archived 2011-06-29 at the Wayback Machine. 1up.com. Retrieved on 2015-02-18.
  7. ↑ "Link to Smash Bros. Dojo". Archived from the original on 2008-02-18. Retrieved 2008-02-15.


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