Luigi (ルイージ, Ruīji^?) is a fictional character, featured in video games and related media released by Nintendo. Created by prominent game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, Luigi is portrayed as the slightly younger fraternal twin brother of Nintendo's mascot Mario, and appears in many games throughout the Mario series, frequently as a sidekick to his brother and the deuteragonist of the series.

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 Nintendo 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. Luigi has also appeared in every episode of the three DiC TV series based on the Nintendo Entertainment System and Super Nintendo Entertainment System games.

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.

Concept and creation[link]

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] Luigi's 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 simple palette 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 Japan-only version of Super Mario Bros. 2 in 1986 (later released in the west as Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels) 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; however, his movement was no longer identical. Luigi could now jump higher and farther than his brother, at the expense of movement response and precision.^[6]

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] In 1988, consequently, an alternative release was developed to serve as Super Mario Bros. 2 for western players (and later released in Japan as Super Mario USA); this version would play a key role in shaping Luigi's current appearance.^[4] The game was a conversion of Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic, with the graphics altered to represent characters and scenes from the Mario franchise. In this release, the character of "Mama", who had the highest jump among the original cast, served as the template for Luigi, resulting in his taller, thinner look, combined with his Marioesque outfit and ubiquitous green color scheme. Official artwork for Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World depicts Luigi with this new look; but Nintendo of Japan would not adapt his artwork differences to his look in-game until the 1992 game Super Mario Kart. Luigi's distinctive appearance from the Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic-inspired version of Super Mario Bros. 2 has been used ever since, even for remakes of games in which he was originally a palette swap.

This emblem appears on Luigi's hat and as a symbol for him in many game interfaces.

Actor portrayal[link]

Upon debuting on the Nintendo 64, Luigi received a voice, provided by Charles Martinet, who also voices Mario, Wario, Waluigi, and Toadsworth. Much like his appearance, Luigi's vocal portrayal has fluctuated over the years. When first introduced in Mario Kart 64, Luigi's voice was considerably lower in pitch than Mario's (although it was high pitched in the Japanese version^{[citation needed]}); however, in Mario Party, his voice has a much higher pitch, similar to Mario's voice (the same voice from the Japanese Mario Kart 64). He retained this higher voice in Mario Party 2. In Mario Golf, Mario Tennis, and Mario Party 3, his voice returned to a lower state. Since then, with the exceptions of Mario Kart: Super Circuit and Super Smash Bros. Melee, Luigi has consistently had a medium-pitched voice. In Mario Kart: Super Circuit, Luigi's voice was the same high voice from the Japanese Mario Kart 64. In Super Smash Bros. and Super Smash Bros. Melee, Luigi's voice is made up of clips from Mario's voice taken from Super Mario 64, with raised pitches. In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, he has his own voice (which is medium-pitched) instead of a pitched-up version of Mario's.

Characteristics[link]

Luigi is portrayed as the taller, younger brother of Mario, and he is usually seen dressed in green with overalls.^[7] Although Luigi is a plumber,^[7] like his brother, other facets of his personality vary from game to game. Luigi always seems nervous and timid but is good-natured and not as quick to anger as his more famous brother.

While it has not been made official, Daisy may be Luigi's romantic interest. They were a romantic couple in the Super Mario Bros. film^{[citation needed]} and in Mario Kart Wii they are seen in statue dancing together.^{[citation needed]} She was his caddy in NES Open Tournament Golf^[8] as Peach was to Mario. Also on Daisy's trophy in Super Smash Bros. Melee, it says that she is possibly Luigi's answer to Mario's Peach.^{[citation needed]}

Appearances[link]

[edit] Mario series

Luigi's first appearance was in the 1983 arcade game Mario Bros.^[7] as the character controlled by the second player. He retained this role in Wrecking Crew. He later appeared in Super Mario Bros.^[7] for the NES, and again in Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, Super Mario Bros. 2, Super Mario Bros. 3, and Super Mario World. Super Mario Bros. 2 introduced Luigi as the taller of the two brothers, as well as the better jumper. Super Mario Bros. 3, and Super Mario World returned to featuring Luigi as a reskinned Mario. He made a minor appearance in his baby form in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. Beginning with Super Mario 64, Luigi made no appearances in main Mario titles, including the sequel Super Mario Sunshine. However, the Nintendo DS remake of Super Mario 64 features him as a playable character alongside Mario, Yoshi, and Wario. He received his own starring role in the Nintendo GameCube video game Luigi's Mansion, where he wins a mansion from a contest he never entered, and saves Mario from King Boo. Luigi became playable in the Nintendo DS game New Super Mario Bros. as a hidden character, and as a hidden character in the Wii game Super Mario Galaxy. In its sequel, Super Mario Galaxy 2, the player can switch out for Luigi throughout the game.^[9] He also appears as a playable character in New Super Mario Bros. Wii, where four players can play at once cooperatively as Mario, Luigi, and two Toads. He will star in the upcoming Luigi's Mansion 2.^[10] He also appears in Super Mario 3D Land as a playable character.

Appearance in other games[link]

Luigi appears in all of the Mario spin-offs, including Mario Kart, Mario Party, and Mario sports titles. He also appears in all installments of the Super Smash Bros. series as an unlockable character in each.

Luigi has appeared in every Mario role-playing game. While he originally made a cameo appearance in the end credits of Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, he appears more prominently in the Paper Mario series. He is a non-playable character in the original Paper Mario. In the sequel Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, he appears yet again as a non-playable character, going on a separate adventure from Mario's. Super Paper Mario features him as a playable character after he is initially brainwashed into working for the antagonist under the name "Mr. L". The Mario & Luigi series features Luigi as a main protagonist; the events of the game focus on him and his brother Mario. He has appeared in all three Mario & Luigi games, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, and Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story.

Other media[link]

Luigi made his animated debut in the 1986 Original video animation Super Mario Bros.: The Great Mission to Save Princess Peach. In the film, he was voiced by Yū Mizushima and had a different color sceme than he has today, sporting a blue cap, blue overalls, and a yellow shirt. This was because he was not yet given a consistent color scheme. In the OVA, Luigi was very greedy and even left Mario at one point to look for coins. He was also a little more serious than his brother Mario, who constantly would daydream about Princess Peach, although he is not as brave as Mario.^{[citation needed]}

Luigi later made an appearance in the third of a trilogy of OVAs released in 1989, in which the Mario characters acted out the story of Snow White. He appears at the end of the video to save Mario and Peach from the Wicked Queen, portrayed by Bowser (called "Koopa" in Japan).^{[citation needed]}

Luigi regularly appeared in The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, airing from 1989 to 1990, which cast Danny Wells as both his live-action portrayal and voice. Like his brother, Luigi's voice actor changed in later cartoons, in his case to Tony Rosato. Even though he was not the starring character in the show, Luigi appeared in every episode of the three DiC Mario cartoons (ninety-one episodes in total), in one of which Mario himself did not appear.^{[citation needed]}

Luigi played a different role in the Super Mario Bros. film, where he was portrayed by John Leguizamo.^[11] He was a more easy-going character in contrast to the cynical Mario (played by Bob Hoskins^[11]) in the film.

Luigi has also appeared in several Robot Chicken sketches, always alongside Mario.^{[citation needed]} In one sketch, he and Mario accidentally appear in Vice City, from the Grand Theft Auto series, while another features them competing in a Cannonball Run-styled car race.^{[citation needed]}

Reception[link]

Since his appearance in Super Mario Bros., Luigi has received generally positive reception. Nintendo Power listed Luigi as their fifth favourite hero, citing his dependability while describing him as being an underdog. They also listed him as having one of the best mustaches.^[12] GameDaily listed the "neglected guy" as one of their top 25 video game archetypes, citing Luigi as an example and stating that he lacks the charisma of his brother Mario and that he should get another starring role.^[13] They also listed Luigi's Poltergust 3000 from Luigi's Mansion as one of the top 25 Nintendo gimmicks.^[14] UGO Networks ranked Luigi at #16 on their "25 Most Memorable Italians in Video Games" list, ranking him over Mario himself.^[15]

Luigi has been featured in many "Top Sidekicks" lists. Machinima placed Luigi as the best sidekick on gaming on their "Top 10 Sidekicks in Gaming" list.^[16] He was also listed as the best sidekick in video games by Maximum PC.^[17] IGN ranked him at #2 on their top 10 list, commenting "No pair illustrates brotherly love like Mario and Luigi".^[18] Luigi is also ranked at #2 on ScrewAttack's top 10 list, where they comment that even though does everything Mario does, he gets none of the glory.^[19] WhatCulture listed him at #5 on their top 20 list, adding that a Mario game doesn't seem like a Mario game without Luigi.^[20] Maxim listed Luigi as the second most underrated sidekick.^[21]

References[link]

External links[link]

	Book: Mario series characters
Wikipedia books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print.

	Mario portal
	Fictional characters portal

• Luigi at the Internet Movie Database
• Nintendo's official website
• Mario Bros. at the Killer List of Videogames

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (October 2008)

Super Mario World is an American animated television series loosely based on the Super NES video game of the same name. It is the third and thus far last Saturday morning cartoon based on the Super Mario Bros. NES and Super NES series of video games. The show only aired thirteen episodes due to Captain N: The Game Master's cancellation on NBC. The series is produced by DiC Entertainment and Reteitalia S.P.A in association with Nintendo, who provided the characters from the game.

Format[link]

The series centers on Mario, Luigi and Princess Toadstool, now living in Dinosaur Land (sometimes also called Dinosaur World) with Yoshi, who was depicted on the show as a curious child-like dinosaur with a large appetite and several phobias. King Koopa (otherwise known as Bowser) and the Koopalings were also around, having followed the Super Mario Bros. and the Princess to Dinosaur Land.

Unlike in the game, Dinosaur Land was depicted as being populated with cavepeople, including a pre-adolescent caveboy named Oogtar, who replaced the role of Toad (Oogtar even had the same voice actor as Toad, John Stocker). Some episodes revolved around Mario trying to introduce a modern invention to the cavepeople in an attempt to make their lives easier, only for the Koopas to twist it into an evil scheme. It is unclear whether the characters had traveled back in time (in the episode "Rock TV", King Koopa mentions "there's no TV here in the Stone Age [because] it hasn't been invented yet"), or if Dinosaur Land was simply a "lost valley"-esque island that the characters had come to (in the flashback episode "Mama Luigi", Luigi simply mentions that he and the others came to Dinosaur Land without any mention of time travel).

The show was originally aired on Saturday mornings on NBC in the 1991-92 season, the last year the network programmed an animated children's block before the launch of a Saturday edition of Today. It was featured in a half-hour time slot with a shortened version of Captain N: The Game Master, titled Captain N & The New Super Mario World (also erroneously titled Captain N & Super Mario Bros. World in the commercial bumpers). Episodes of Super Mario World were later shown as part of the syndication package Captain N and the Video Game Masters. Afterwards, the series was split up from Captain N altogether and shown in time-compressed reruns on as part of Mario All-Stars on Family Channel, and later USA Network. In the United Kingdom, however, the show was still broadcast as Captain N & The New Super Mario World.

Unlike the previous two Mario cartoons, the show was not widely distributed on home video in the NTSC region, where its only release was the inclusion of the show's Christmas episode on the 1996 VHS release Super Mario Bros. Super Christmas Adventures. Meanwhile, two PAL tapes were released in the United Kingdom. More recently, the series was released on DVD in Australia. This series is the most short-lived of the three American Mario animated series.

Differences between the series and the game[link]

The show takes place in Dinosaur World where Yoshi lives with a preadolescent caveman named Oogtar. In addition, Yoshi's Island is populated with cavemen instead of Yoshis. Several names were changed from the game as well: Forest of Illusion was called Enchanted Forest, and Vanilla Dome was referred to as the Lava Pits.^[1] Furthermore, enemies featured in the game were rarely called by their in-game names on the show, and Bowser was called King Koopa. He also had his all-green appearance from the first cartoon. Mario, Luigi and the Princess all retained their original NES designs as well: red and green overalls for Mario and Luigi, and red hair for the Princess. Another notable fact was that Luigi found Yoshi, and when he hatched Yoshi was small and was not born with his red shell, as revealed when Luigi told him the story of how Yoshi was born. Also, the Koopalings were still referred to by their nicknames.

Cast[link]

• Walker Boone as Mario
• Tony Rosato as Luigi
• Andrew Sabiston as Yoshi
• Tracey Moore as Princess Toadstool (Peach)
• John Stocker as Oogtar, Magikoopa, Monty Mole, and Chargin Chuck
• Harvey Atkin as King Bowser Koopa
• Tara Strong as Lemmy "Hip" Koopa and Iggy "Hop" Koopa (credited as "Tara Charendoff")
• Tabitha St. Germain as Wendy "Kootie Pie" Koopa (credited as "Paulina Gillis"^[2])
• James Rankin as Larry "Cheatsy" Koopa
• Dan Hennessey as Roy "Bully" Koopa, Green Dinosaur, and Purple Dinosaur
• Michael Stark as Ludwig "Kooky" Von Koopa
• Gordon Masten as Morton "Big Mouth" Koopa
• Catherine Gallant as Mama Fireplant
• Stuart Stone as Additional Voices

UK and USA VHS history[link]

• Video Collection International (1992–1994)

DVD release[link]

On November 13, 2007, Shout! Factory released a Complete Series DVD set of Captain N & The New Super Mario World in Region 1. The series has also been released in Australia (Region 4) by Roadshow Entertainment. nCircle Entertainment (under license from Cookie Jar Entertainment) has also released the series in two volume sets.

Episodes[link]

Broadcast Stations[link]

United States[link]

• USA
  • NBC (September 14, 1991 - July 25, 1992)
  • Family Channel (1992–1994)
  • Syndication (1992–1993)
  • USA Network (1995–1997)
  • PAX Network (January 2,-December 26, 1999)

International broadcast[link]

• Canada
  • YTV

• UK
  • CITV (1 August 1992 - 30 January 1993)
  • The Children's Channel (30 November 1992 - 6 July 1996)
  • Channel 4 (1993–1995)
  • POP! (2004–2010)
  • ITV1 (2005)
  • KidsCo (2011–present)

• Australia
  • Nine Network (1992)
  • Disney Channel (1996–2001)
  • KidsCo (2009–present)

• Ireland
  • RTE Two (Den 2) (2002–2004)

• Spain
  • TVE2 (1993)
  • KidsCo (2010–present)

• Greece
  • New Channel (1998)
  • Nickelodeon Greece (2013–present)

• Portugal (as "O Mundo de Super Mario")
  • RTP1 (1992–1994)
  • SIC (15 October 1994 - 8 June 1999)
  • KidsCo (2010–present)
  • Nickelodeon Portugal (2013–present)

• Brazil
  • TV Globo

• Italy
  • Antv

• Finland
  • YLE TV1, YLE FST5
  • Toon Disney
  • Disney Channel

• Sweden
  • SVT

• Malaysia
  • RTM TV1

• Philippines
  • Net-25

• Chile
  • Megavision (1993)

• Japan
  • TV Tokyo
  • NHK (2000–2007)

• South Korea
  • KBS1
  • Boomerang (South Korea) (2010–present)

• Germany (as "Super Mario Welt")
  • RTL Television
  • Super RTL

• France
  • TF1 (1 September 1998 - 30 June 2000)
  • KidsCo (2012–present)

• Croatia
  • RTL 2

Syndication[link]

Unlike the first two series, Super Mario World is rarely ever edited, except on the syndicated series Super Mario All Stars. On the episode "Ghost R Us", the entire scene, where Yoshi faces the Big Boo after entering the Haunted House, was cut due to the scene was too long. No songs were ever replaced in this series since these songs aren't copyrights.

Production controversy[link]

In 2007, one website called The Abysmal Super Mario World Cartoon mentions "This cartoon suffered a great deal compared to Super Mario Bros. Super Show and The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3". It even describes there were massive incorrect colorings, the cave people ruin modern technology in most episodes, the animation was worse for wear, and cave people spoke in baby-talk interspersed with modern slang. Although, it did mentioned "The introduction sequence, obviously animated by another studio, looks far superior to the actual cartoon".

References[link]

External links[link]

• Super Mario World at the Internet Movie Database
• Super Mario World at TV.com