Waluigi

If you follow me on Twitter or Mastodon you may have noticed I started writing a Waluigi story a few weeks ago. His disclusion from Smash Bros. is a disillusion on my part. I mean, I can identify with the guy. Not the mean, nasty parts–well, not all of them–but his self-pitying feeling that everyone does better than him. If he can just find something to give him an edge, that one thing to give him a boost (which for him is usually cheating), he can show the world that he’s the greatest and then lord it over everyone who said he’d never make it!

Of course, I’d never do that, noooo.

Anyway, if you follow anything Nintendo you’ve probably heard of the memes, the rotten memes, the harassing, but maybe you’ve also heard of the more artistic, good stuff. This is none of that. This is more of a look at Waluigi. I was talking with a friend about him the other day and thought the resulting discussion was interesting.

Some people wondered if fans would hate or love if this were real. I’d love it because it’s an actual acknowledgment of Waluigi, and it fits really well. (I actually framed the Waluigi story I started that Waluigi is the lowest employee on the totem pole at WarioWare and has never been able to succeed there.) A lot of people say they want Waluigi to have his own game, but I can’t actually see that happening. Giving him a chance in WarioWare seems like the most likely pathway to him being in more than a Mario sports/party/sometimes kart/dance game, although either the WarioWare team doesn’t want him in, isn’t allowed to have him in, or has been made unaware of his existence. I suppose if Waluigi were to have his own game they could make it a spin-off of WarioWare, make it like a cheap download-only where Waluigi makes his own goofy games, maybe if Nintendo wanted to embrace indie they could hire some indie people to make it and say WaluigiWare is the indie version of WarioWare, although I guess WarioWare D.I.Y. was kind of just that anyway?

Never forget that Koopa Troopa got in over Waluigi. Though Koopa has its own huge discussion about how Nintendo doesn’t seem to know if all Koopas are bad or not. Seriously, when they first showed up in Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam I thought they’d be nice because old Paper Mario made the mean koopas have shades and… well, anyway.

Waluigi’s rival, Luigi, starred in one game before Luigi’s Mansion, and I don’t think Mario is Missing! is gonna add anything to this disucssion. M…Maybe Waluigi is secretly good at geography and his day job is a teacher? But really, Luigi’s Mansion is Luigi’s first real starring appearance, and it seems in development Mario was the star originally. As they developed it they focused in the lighting and shadows, turning it into a haunted mansion, and they swapped to Luigi as the star for a character who’s cowardly. Thus, if Waluigi starred in a game it would more likely start from a concept that Waluigi would fit in. Unfortunately, Waluigi is a cheater, and Nintendo is well-known to hate cheaters and Gamesharks, so I don’t actually expect them to make a game where your abilities are Moon Jump and Walk Through Walls.

That’s Luigi, but how did Wario get a game? The discussion got me looking into the team that created Wario and made Super Mario Land 2, as well as Camelot, who made Mario Tennis and thus Waluigi. Apparently “Wario’s design arose from Super Mario Land’s design team’s distaste of making a game based around someone else’s character. The creation of Wario allowed them a character of their own to ‘symbolize their situation’.” So Wario came about because the team didn’t want to make a game with someone else’s character, and now that they had their own character that opened the way to them making a game starring him, Wario Land. If that hadn’t been their motivation, it’s possible, even likely, that Wario would not have gotten his own game either. Maybe if Camelot made a Mario-related platformer instead of just Mario sports games they would have it star Waluigi–although they didn’t make Waluigi because they didn’t like using someone else’s character, so maybe not. They made Waluigi to give Wario a partner, so it would have to be a game where Wario needs a partner.

You know, like Wario & Waluigi: Zuperztar Zaga.

DO IT, ALPHADREAM

Of course that still wouldn’t be a starring role so much as a partner role, but that’s kind of what I said earlier on, I don’t see Waluigi getting a game all by himself. If he’s partnered with Wario, sure. Maybe as a Luigi’s Mansion villain–Luigi discovers Waluigi started a crooked ghostbusting business where some ghosts he works with haunts a place, he shows up to take them away, then they go and do it again elsewhere, so when they meet up Waluigi tries to impede Luigi or tries to suck up the ghosts first and by doing so first results in the ghost being dumped in another room Luigi has to go to. Maybe King Boo helps Waluigi with his business as a trick to further his own goals and this results in King Boo capturing Waluigi near the end, Luigi has to save him, and then Waluigi does something that helps or saves Luigi, inadvertently or as revenge against King Boo. After all, Waluigi may be a Bad Luigi, but that doesn’t make him totally evil.

Waluigi is a reflection of reflections, after all, and though those reflections have their own games, Waluigi has a better chance of being in their games than his own game yet. I mean, I’m pretty sure Waluigi has never appeared in any game with Luigi’s or Wario’s names in them.

The funny thing about Wario’s Wario Land origins though, of the team being bitter and jealous of having to make a game with someone else’s character, is that’s way more fitting as an origin story for Waluigi. Waluigi’s bitter and jealous! Well, maybe Wario is jealous, too.

Which leads to a fun topic:

SEVEN DEADLY WA

I decided this would need to be viewed from a direction of what Mario and Luigi aren’t. Mario isn’t slothful–he’s always happily jumping and running about. Luigi isn’t envious–he’s happy for Mario’s wins and wants him to succeed, he just wants to tag along more. Mario isn’t greedy–probably. Luigi isn’t lustful–um, I’ll just leave that there.

So Wario is greed and sloth, and Waluigi is envy and lust. Wario is also gluttony (even if Mario is kinda fat, Wario is very fat). They both might be wrath, though, and I would actually peg Wario as more pride than Waluigi.

Actually if I tried to divide them evenly I’d say Wario is greed, sloth, and gluttony, Waluigi is wrath, envy, and lust, and then they’re both pride because they think they’re better than everyone else.

Well, I think that’s enough of that.