He is the brother of Luigi, the titular protagonist, who is living together with their mother at the Mushroom City. Unlike his canon counterpart, who is a kind and selfless hero willing to rescue his friends and loved ones from his enemies, this Mario is a horrible jerk who picks on his brother all the time, coming up with sadistic humiliation ideas with Waluigi and Daisy when his mother forces him to go to Princess Peach's rescue with Luigi.
Luigi is Mario's younger but taller twin brother, the secondary protagonist of the Super Mario franchise, and the main protagonist of the Luigi's Mansion series. Throughout his life, he has lived in Mario's shadow, developing both cowardly and heroic tendencies. Despite this, Luigi has helped and fought alongside his brother on many occasions. Mario Bros. for the Game & Watch marks his first appearance, in which he is an exact copy of Mario. He went on to gain a different color and be used to facilitate a second-player option. However, as Luigi established himself throughout the Super Mario franchise, he gained his own identity as a character.
Since his debut in 1983, Luigi has been constantly developing. Gameplay differences between him and Mario were first seen in Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, which have been carried over into future games and have become standard for the character. After spending years as a palette swap of his brother, Luigi has consistently been given his own graphics since Super Mario Kart in 1992 to match his official appearance as Mario's taller, younger brother; though the American release of Super Mario Bros. 2 portrayed him in this way six years earlier. As he developed, Luigi gained more of a personality; it was as early as the DiC cartoons that Luigi was shown to be the more cautious of the two brothers, though it was not until Luigi's Mansion that this was truly and officially established.
In 2013, Luigi was the focus of the Year of Luigi, where in Nintendo released a number of themed games and merchandise and held events to honor the thirtieth anniversary of Luigi's first appearance in Mario Bros.
Luigi has had a substantial history since his debut in Mario Bros. due to being a protagonist of the franchise. Like Mario and all other characters, his appearances are not limited to the core series, appearing in many spin-offs, literature, and animation.
The arcade game Mario Bros. incorporated a multiplayer mode, but due to memory restrictions, the second player character needed to have a sprite identical to the first. The development team thought of differentiating the second character by giving him different colors, but the color palette budget was similarly limited.[8] As a result, Luigi was conceived as a twin of Mario to explain his resemblance and he was made green to recycle the color palette of the Shellcreeper enemy.[8]
Compared to Mario, Luigi is slimmer and taller. A pamphlet for Super Mario Bros.: Peach-hime Kyūshutsu Dai Sakusen! gives his height and weight as 158 cm (5 ft. 2 in.) and 62 kg (136 lbs.)[9] The Miis in Wii U version of Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games describe Luigi's mustache as "smooth", unlike Mario's "lumpy" mustache. Luigi's sideburn is also different, being a simple round shape while Mario's has an indentation, and his eyes are thinner than Mario's.
Luigi also wears clothes similar to Mario, but his shirt and cap are green instead of red. Layered over the shirt is blue overalls, which, starting with Luigi's Mansion, are a darker blue than Mario's. He also has brown work shoes, again darker than Mario's, with tan bottoms that reach above his ankles. He wears white gloves like Mario. Artwork however sometimes shows Luigi with the same color of blue overalls and brown shoes as Mario. The Luigi Cap is similar to the Mario Cap, being green instead of red and having an "L" replace Mario's signature "M"; the "L" was in italic from Mario Kart 64 to Luigi's Mansion for a few years. In some games, Luigi's cap does play some significance, such as in Super Mario 64 DS, where just like Mario's and Wario's caps, it can be stolen by Klepto and cause him to take extra damage so long as he is not wearing it. However, this does not occur in other games, such as Super Mario 3D Land and New Super Mario Bros. 2 after collecting the maximum number of lives.
The Mario & Luigi series up until Dream Team consistently depicted Luigi with overalls short enough to reveal his red-and-white striped socks in artwork, though the Nintendo 3DS remake Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr.'s Journey still shows these socks when his shoe falls off at the beginning of the game. Additionally, the green coloring on his clothing had more of a turquoise/teal color scheme. In Mario & Luigi: Brothership, the new cel-shading style gives Luigi some shades of blue around his shirt and hat, matching the shading used in artwork.
Mario and Luigi's color preferences are reflected throughout the land in the form of various enemies, such as Koopa Troopas and Cheep Cheeps, who also come in red and green varieties. These foes even reflect the brothers' personalities, with red ones being more aggressive and green ones acting cautious. In fact, Mario and Luigi are not the only known red and green brothers, with similarly color-coded siblings including Cork and Cask, the Red and Green bridge guards, The Iron Adonis Twins, Massif Bros., Elder & Junior Shrooboid and Gigi and Merri. When tattling the younger of The Iron Adonis Twins, Goombella theorizes that it may be some sort of rule that younger brothers must wear green, offering a possible explanation for Luigi's trademark green shirt and cap.
However, Luigi has not always chosen to wear his usual green and blue clothes. Mario Bros. originally dressed Luigi in a black shirt and green overalls, although artwork showed his shirt to be red. Shigeru Miyamoto stated that the green color of clothing for Luigi was inspired by the enemy Shellcreeper.[10] Wrecking Crew gave him a magenta pair of overalls and helmet, seemingly leaving him shirtless. Even Super Mario Bros. gave its Luigi a green shirt and white overalls (although Super Mario Bros. Deluxe replaced this with a less aberrant brown shirt and green overalls, leaving his original colors to Fire Luigi, who usually has an inverse scheme), even though his usual palette and appearance had emerged in artwork. Fire Luigi's palette in Super Mario Bros. uses the color scheme used by Fire Mario. In both Super Mario Adventures and Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, Luigi wears Princess Peach's dress as a disguise.
Luigi's appearance does, however, tend to lend itself to heavy stylization. The Luigi's Mansion graphical team took it upon themselves to animate every part of Luigi to convey emotion,[12] resulting in such exaggerations to his body as head-expanding screams during boss cutscenes and complete flattenings by fake doors. The Super Smash Bros. series applies Luigi's cowardice to his actions, making most of his attacks look reckless and unwilling and giving him awkward movements, securing his official title as the series' "dreamy, comical poster boy."[13]
In The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Luigi's appearance receives a few changes. He has more detail on his clothing and hair, and his head is more realistic. In addition, his overall buttons are smaller, similar to Mario.
Luigi's appearance has changed quite a bit throughout the Super Smash Bros. series. In the original Super Smash Bros., Luigi's overalls are indigo, with his entire appearance being original. In Super Smash Bros. Melee, Luigi borrows his appearance from Nintendo 64-era artwork, right down to having a tan complexion; Luigi's overalls are now their standard navy blue color, though they receive denim textures and back pockets. In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Luigi uses his contemporary look, though his overalls have further pronounced textures, while his hair and other clothing receive simple detailing. In Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U, Luigi's model is sleeker and more vibrant, while his hair and clothing lose most of their detailing. In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Luigi receives simple detailing in his hair and clothing once again, albeit not to the same extent as in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
Luigi has a total of eight selectable costumes to date in the Super Smash Bros. series, with 4 in Super Smash Bros. and Super Smash Bros. Melee, 6 in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and 8 in Super Smash Bros. for 3DS / Wii U and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. In Smash 64 and Melee, Luigi had his first three costumes introduced; the first costume consists of green overalls and a white undershirt and cap, which are derived from Fire Luigi's colors; the second costume consists of blue overalls and a cyan undershirt and cap, resembling Mario's appearance on the American boxart for Mario Bros.; lastly, Luigi's third alternate costume consists of red overalls and a pink undershirt and cap, resembling his appearance in Wrecking Crew. In Brawl, Luigi's fourth and fifth alternate costumes were introduced: the former consists of blue overalls and an orange undershirt and cap, resembling Mario's appearance on the boxart for Pinball; the latter consists of dark indigo overalls and a purple undershirt and cap, based off of Waluigi's colors. In 3DS / Wii U, Luigi's sixth and seventh alternate costumes are introduced: the former consists of blue overalls, a dark blue cap, and a garbage green undershirt based on Mario's appearance on the cover of the Game & Watch version of Donkey Kong Jr. and one of the ScareScraper colors in the multiplayer mode of Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon; the latter consists of teal overalls, and a dull yellow undershirt and cap based on the boy on the cover of the Game & Watch game Manhole.
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