Thanks to PushDustIn and Wolfman for helping with edits and research. 

Mario’s social circle is an eclectic bunch composed of heroic figures like Diddy Kong and Rosalina. He also pals around with some of the Mushroom Kingdom’s less savory citizens, the least savory of whom we’re going to interrogate today. 

Waluigi, seen in last year’s Super Mario Party (Image: Nintendo)

While he initially entered Mario’s competitions by himself, Wario made a friend on July 21, 2000 – exactly nineteen years ago today. Similar to Wario, this fellow was an ill-mannered hooligan who happened to hold a grudge against the kingdom’s other plumber.

Waluigi’s History 

Camelot, following up on its earlier successes with the Mario license, was developing a tennis game starring the versatile mascot for the Nintendo 64. However, issues arose when comprising its roster: the Mario universe hosts a diverse pool of characters, but the nature of this sport limited Camelot to characters who had hands, inspiring a desire for more human participants (future Mario Tennis games would find innovative ways around this). As Wario lacked a doubles partner and Luigi an arch-rival, a newcomer was created whose presence would solve both predicaments (curiously, a 4koma manga previously explored the concept of such a character). Character designer Fumihide Aoki was tasked with designing this stranger, with Mario brainchild Shigeru Miyamoto and series artist Yoichi Kotabe aiding in the process. Just as Wario’s cartoonish obesity was a caricature of Mario’s plump physique, Luigi’s Bizarro would be a rail-thin exaggeration of his leaner build. Various names were tossed around during his inception, but Waluigi – a portmanteau of Luigi’s Japanese name “Ruiji” and “warui,” which translates to “bad” – was ultimately settled upon. And like the three adventurers he’s derivative of, voice actor Charles Martinet assumed the role of Waluigi. 

Camelot had also asked Nintendo about providing Wario and Waluigi with girlfriends, an idea Miyamoto seemingly rejected. (Image: Nintendo)

That same year, Waluigi hit the courts again in the handheld iteration of Mario Tennis, and he revisited Nintendo’s aging console by crashing Mario Party 3. Thus, Waluigi was affirmed as a spin-off staple, appearing in nearly all of Mario’s races, competitions, and parties, as well as merchandise and supplemental media. Wario and Waluigi are portrayed as a bumbling duo harboring aspirations of besting their foils but lack the integrity and adroitness to successfully do so. Camelot has a knack for highlighting Waluigi’s camaraderie with Wario, seen in their GameCube titles Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour and Power Tennis; studio writer and president Hiroyuki Takahashi even named the pair as his favorite characters, citing their “detestable heel personalities.” In terms of interesting curios within the purple picaro’s résumé, Mario Tennis: Power Tour is the one competition he entered without Wario, and Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix saw the pinnacle of his villainous endeavors. Last year’s Mario Tennis Aces and Super Mario Party are Waluigi’s latest playable appearances, and between his plans to get a PhD, visit Tokyo, and revisit the racetracks, his drive to usurp Luigi clearly hasn’t faltered.

While Waluigi’s yet to venture outside his comfort zone, other titles periodically reference him. Some works that honor him do so by calling upon his likeness for cosmetic getups, such as Poochy & Yoshi’s Woolly World, Minecraft, and a handful of Mario games. WarioWare Gold, the sole Wario title to give Waluigi a nod, granted those who scan his amiibo a crude in-game drawing of him. Waluigi’s endurance also earned him a place in Super Smash Bros. from Brawl onward as an Assist Trophy, and Luigi and later Mario gained palettes modeled after his. Some are dissatisfied seeing Waluigi typecast as an Assist, however; after Ultimate’s formal unveiling, his disconfirmation was covered by mainstream news outlets, and certain individuals – potentially as few as only two or three – harassed Smash creator and director Masahiro Sakurai over the decision. Consequently, Reggie Fils-Aimé was asked why his company “hates” Waluigi, responding by saying Nintendo doesn’t.

Costumes modeled after the callous competitor could be earned in Super Mario Maker and Odyssey, the closest Waluigi’s ever gotten to the core Super Mario series. (Image: Nintendo)

So, what’re my thoughts on Waluigi? 

Waluigi was promoted heavily prior to the release of Mario Tennis (Nintendo briefly hosted a website dedicated to him), but I found him off-putting. There was an unnerving visual disconnect between him and Wario, starkly contrasting how well Mario and Luigi synchronize together. Wario’s hat and W logo are stylized; the W’s tips extend beyond the cap’s white oval, and the brim of his hat has a white border and underside. Waluigi’s hat may be cut from the same cheap cloth, but it forsakes those touches (bringing it structurally closer to Mario’s and Luigi’s hats) while his yellow Γ is surrounded by a purple outline, a trait exclusive to his emblem. Meanwhile, Wario dons a yellow undershirt and purple overalls, prominently utilizing vibrant complementary colors to communicate his brazen, off-kilter nature. Waluigi, following Luigi’s model, matches Wario’s yellow top with a purple one (albeit a deeper shade), but his overalls are black, a different color entirely. While his palette’s strong in isolation, it breaks from the example set by Luigi (whose overalls are traditionally a darker shade of Mario’s), nor does it emulate Wario’s palpable discord. Additionally, the colors of Waluigi’s shoes and buttons fail to coordinate with Wario’s (the latter further skewing his attire towards the Mario Bros. standard), and Wario later distinguished himself further by permanently converting to short sleeves. These are details most won’t notice or care about, one can find Waluigi’s design charming in spite or because of them, and some will argue he’s intended to look inharmonious with his cohorts. Although Waluigi does match a number of Wario’s intricacies, others are exclusive to him or counterintuitively shared with the men he was created to antagonize. There’s an incohesiveness to Waluigi’s veneer, and he suffers for it. 

Adding to my apathy was a feeling that Waluigi’s creation was unnecessary; the individualistic Wario generally worked alone (occasional allies like Tatanga notwithstanding), making him appear as someone who shouldn’t have and wouldn’t want a Luigi parallel. Because Camelot took care to reintroduce Super Mario Land refugee Princess Daisy, I would’ve preferred if her corresponding abductor accompanied Wario rather than a superfluous newcomer. Someone from Wario’s own supporting cast would also have been stellar. Nevertheless, there was a glimmer of intrigue or optimism on my end – I figured if Nintendo was establishing a new sidekick for Wario, they would flesh him out into a significant fixture in the universe he inhabits. Nintendo can be open to evolving doubles partners beyond shallow beginnings, seen previously with Luigi and recently with Toadette.

To Waluigi’s credit, some contemporary games depict his overalls as a dark indigo, attempting to match Luigi’s example, and I like how he adds a distinctive body shape to Mario rosters. (Image: Nintendo)

Nearly two decades and over sixty games later, Waluigi’s affirmed himself as Wario’s most recognizable partner, but their alliance has barely been explored – even the exact nature of their relationship is ambiguously-defined (Martinet imagines they’re unrelated). Mario spin-offs are enough to portray Waluigi as Luigi’s Wario, but they’re insufficient venues to show him operating as Wario’s Luigi, let alone much else. The latter dynamic is worth examining; Toadstool Tour and Power Tennis persist as the two games where I genuinely enjoyed Waluigi’s inclusion, speaking to the comedic potential his rapport with Wario possesses. Martinet expressed interest in seeing Waluigi headline his own game, but I’d champion integrating him into Wario Land or Ware. It’d be easy to insert him in the latter (plus it’d be nice if Wario gave his companion a job), whereas the former could provide richer opportunities to further Waluigi as Luigi’s antithesis as it differentiated Wario from his sanitized namesake. 

Although I don’t consider Waluigi to be a compelling individual unless he’s playing off his superior, I respect why others would. Between his crude conduct and eagerness to cheat, the skinny sportsman channels classic mustache-twirling, perennially ineffectual cartoon villains like Dick Dastardly. Waluigi’s more eccentric, however; the inordinate nature of his flamboyant theatrics, like his Strikers crotch chop, fail to amuse me, but nobody else in Mario’s inner orbit is as unapologetically boisterous, something I understand the appeal in. Accentuating his wackiness is how Waluigi’s skillset and aesthetic preferences are less explicated than those of his peers; he’s free to swim, summon vines, pose with roses, set up camp on a trap-laced island or pinball machine, or invent new material whenever the need arises. It’s also satisfying to root for an underdog, and Waluigi plays the inferior and inverse to the anxious Luigi, gaming’s definitive second fiddle. 

Waluigi’s presence in Mario’s events has become so assured it’s shocking when he isn’t sent an invitation, with Mario Kart 7 being one such outlier (although it did feature his racetrack, seen above). (Image: Nintendo)

Waluigi’s personality and actions are informed by self-pity. According to Martinet, Waluigi believes everyone was dealt a better hand than him, and that stance isn’t entirely unfounded; Waluigi’s treated as an alien by the Mario and Wario franchises, permitted to pad out the former’s spin-offs but never allotted significant limelight in either. The Nintendo EPD teams tend to gravitate towards in-house creations when developing the Super Mario games (Miyamoto once accredited Wario’s absences in them to different art styles). Kensuke Tanabe, who’s overseeing the Luigi’s Mansion series, has no authority over Waluigi, making it unlikely he’ll rear his head there either. Meanwhile, Wario’s conception was allegedly an allegory for Nintendo R&D1’s frustration in being mandated into developing titles starring a character they bore no attachment to. While that claim is dubious, Waluigi himself was created by outsiders, so from that perspective, it’s sort of fitting he’s treated as one by the Wario series. Though it should be noted that as much as it would be nice for his character to be explored, Waluigi doesn’t inherently “deserve” further development, any more than any other fictional character.

However, even if the tumultuous troublemaker never migrates to Wario‘s world or becomes a major player in Mario’s, he’s made out well. Waluigi’s fans harbor a lot of affection for the guy and produced impressive works in his honor: his eccentricism was a highlight in the Brawl in the Family webcomic, he’s headlined fan games like Psycho Waluigi, and Smash Bros. mods have implemented him as a fighter. Most importantly, Waluigi appears in multiple games every year, and he’ll continue to have a place in the Nintendo empire for as long as Mario hosts socials.

Congratulations, Waluigi! Keep trying hard! 

It’s kind of ironic the maladroit Waluigi is predominantly associated with the color purple, because that’s the color associated with royalty. (Image: Nintendo)

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Cart Boy

Cart Boy wants to be the very best, like no one ever was. When the stars align properly, he also writes articles, edits his peers' work, and helps run Source Gaming's social media.

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