Luigi (ルイージ Ruīji) is a fictional character, featured in video games and related media released by Nintendo. Created by prominent game designerShigeru Miyamoto, Luigi is portrayed as the slightly younger fraternal twin brother of Nintendo's mascot Mario, and appears in many games throughout theMario series, frequently as a sidekick or deuteragonist to his brother.
Luigi first appeared in the 1983 arcade game Mario Bros. as the character controlled by the second player, and retained this role in Super Mario Bros.,Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, and other titles. The first game where he was available as a primary character was Super Mario Bros. 2. In more recent appearances, Luigi's role became increasingly restricted to spinoffs such as the Mario Party and Mario Kart series, though he has been featured in a starring role on two occasions: first in the 1991 educational game Mario is Missing, later in Luigi's Mansion for the Gamecube in 2001 and in Luigi's Mansion 2 for the 3DS. In both of these games, he is called upon to act as the hero because Mario, the usual hero within the franchise, is in need of rescue.
Originally developed as a palette swap of Mario with a green color scheme instead of red, Luigi has since developed a personality and style of his own. As his role in the Mario series progressed, Luigi evolved into a physically distinct character, taller and thinner than his brother. Although as kindhearted as Mario, Luigi is portrayed as timid and sometimes cowardly, especially in the presence of ghosts or when faced with seemingly impossible tasks to accomplish.
The events leading to Luigi's creation began in 1982, during the development of Donkey Kong, where the Nintendo designer Shigeru Miyamoto had created Mario (then known as "Jumpman") hoping that he would be able to recast the character in a variety of different roles in future games.[1] Miyamoto had been inspired by the game Joust to create a game with a simultaneous two-player mode, which led to his development of the game Mario Bros. in 1983, with Luigi filling the role of Mario's brother as the second playable character.[2] In accordance with Nintendo's marketing policy of naming and promoting individual characters,[1] the new character was given the name Luigi. The name is said to have been inspired by a pizza parlor near Nintendo of America's headquarters in Redmond, Washington, called "Mario & Luigi's".[2] Miyamoto observed that the word ruiji means "similar" in the Japanese language, and that Luigi was designed to have the same size, shape and gameplay of Mario.[3]
While Mario was originally portrayed as a carpenter in Donkey Kong, the duo of Mario and Luigi in Mario Bros. were styled as Italian plumbers by Miyamoto, on the suggestion of a colleague.[4] Software constraints of the time—similar to those that gave Mario his distinctive look in Donkey Kong—meant Luigi's first appearance was restricted to a simplepalette swap of Mario designed to represent the second player. Graphically and in terms of gameplay, the characters were completely identical, except for their color schemes;[5] the green color scheme adopted for Luigi would remain one of his defining physical characteristics in subsequent releases.
After the success of Mario Bros., Luigi was introduced to a wider audience in 1985 with the release of the console game Super Mario Bros. Once again his role was restricted to a palette swap of Mario, functioning as the second-player in a similar fashion to Mario Bros.. The subsequent release of Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels in 1986, however, marked the beginning of Luigi's development toward becoming a more distinguished character. As with his previous appearances, Luigi remained a palette swap of Mario. While this version of Super Mario Bros. 2 was released in Japan, it was deemed to be too difficult for American audiences at the time,[4] leading to the development of an alternative release for the latter; this version would play a key role in shaping Luigi's current appearance.[4] In 1988, consequently, a version of Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic with the graphics altered to represent characters and scenes from the Mario franchise was released in the United States as Super Mario Bros. 2. In this release, the character of "Mama" served as the template for Luigi, resulting in his gaining a taller, thinner look, complete with his ubiquitous green color scheme. Official artwork for Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World depict Luigi with this new look, however Nintendo of Japan would not adapt his artwork differences to his look in-game until the 1992 game Super Mario Kart. Luigi's distinguished appearance from the Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic-inspired version of Super Mario Bros. 2 has been used ever since, even in remakes of games where he was originally a palette swap.
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