From a Green-Haired Copycat to a Ghostbusting Hero: The Evolution of Luigi in the Super Mario Bros. Universe

Is there any videogame character that better embodies the experience of Player Two than Luigi from the Super Mario Bros. series? If you speak to most gamers who grew up with Nintendo during the mid 1980s, they would tell you that the character of Luigi came to symbolise the plight of being a younger sibling. Whenever two brothers or sisters sat down together to play Super Mario Bros., inevitably the younger one had to go second, and that meant playing as Luigi.

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In the early days of the Super Mario Bros. franchise, the prospect of having to play as Luigi was pretty grim. Not only did you have to wait for your turn, but the character was little more than a cheap knockoff of the game’s real hero, Mario.

In the first instalment of the Super Mario Bros. series, which was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985, Luigi’s character was essentially a like-for-like copy of his older brother Mario. The key reason for this basic character design was due to the limitations of the technology available at the time. There was not enough memory to create a whole new character. Nintendo’s game designers came up with a simple solution to the problem: to distinguish between Mario and Luigi they would use two different colour schemes for the same figure.

Mario was already an established character in the videogame universe by the mid 1980s. He was known to most fans of Nintendo as the chief protagonist of the hugely successful arcade game Donkey Kong from 1981. Originally, Mario was named “Jump Man” in Donkey Kong, and instead of being a plumber, he was a builder. However, his trademark bushy moustache and red workman clothes were well-established visual markers for his appearance.

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When Nintendo’s designers set to work on Super Mario Bros., Mario remained in his red workman outfit and kept his brown hair. By contrast, his younger brother Luigi was given a white uniform and green hair. You read that correctly! When Luigi was first introduced into the Super Mario Bros.series, his trademark emerald green colour was not used for his hat, but for his hair.

It is bad enough that Luigi started life as a green-haired copy of Mario to help gamers distinguish between the two characters during multiplayermode. However, you may find it even more disappointing to learn why Luigi was assigned emerald green in the first place. According to Nintendo’s designers, that colour was already being used for the game’s green-shelled enemies known as shellcreepers. Reapplying the colour elsewhere in the game was relatively straightforward, and did not require much additional programming.

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Therefore, evenLuigi’s iconic emerald green was based on the design of another character from the Super Mario Bros. universe. It was not chosen to give Luigi a unique visual appearance, it was only chosen to make things easier for Nintendo’s designers.  

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Despite the indignation many younger siblings originally suffered in their role as the miscoloured plumber from Super Mario Bros., overtimemany players began to embrace Luigi as their character. He became Nintendo’s poster boy for Player Two.

The next evolution of Luigi’s character occurred with the release ofSuper Mario Bros. 2 in 1988. With the overwhelming success of the original Super Mario Bros. in 1985, fans of the game pleaded for a second instalment. Initially, Nintendo released a new Super Mario Bros.game in Japan that was basically a minor amendment of the original game, but with harder levels. When the new game was shown to executives at Nintendo ofAmerica, it was deemed to be far too difficult for American players. Nintendo’s game designers would have to develop something different to appeal to the interests of North American gamers. Eventually, the Japanese version of Super MarioBros. 2 would be released to Western audiences as the Lost Levels inSuper Mario All-Stars in 1993.

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With the disappointing decision from Nintendo of America that theJapanese version of Super Mario Bros. 2 would not work in the American market,Nintendo’s designers set to work on developing an alternative game. Luckily for them, one of their designers named Kensuke Tanabe had been working on a prototype for a new platform game that could be adapted into a Super MarioBros. adventure.  

Doki Doki Panic

The prototype was for Doki Doki Panic, a game that was set in a fictional Arabian world. When Tanabe was given the task of turning Doki Doki Panic into the North American version of Super Mario Bros. 2, many of the game’s original elements were retained. This is one of the reasons for why Super Mario Bros. 2 is stylistically different to otherMario-themed games. Unlike other Super Mario Bros. games, the second instalment is not set in the Mushroom Kingdom, but instead in a dream worldknown as Subcon. The main antagonist of the game is also a relic of Doki Doki Panic’s original gameplay. Rather than Bowser wreaking havoc in the world of Subcon, it is an oversized evil frog known as Wart.

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There were other important changes made to Super Mario Bros. 2 that were the result of the game’s awkward adaption from Doki Doki Panic. In the original Super Mario Bros. from 1985, players only had two playable options: Mario and Luigi. By contrast, in Doki Doki Panic players had four character options to choose from.

To simplify the programming for Nintendo’s designers, a decision was made to superimpose characters from the Super Mario Bros. franchiseover the existing Doki Doki Panic figures. Princess Toadstool (later renamed Peach) and the popular mushroom man Toad joined Mario and Luigi as the other new playable options. They continue to appear in later instalments of the series.

Luigi’s physical appearance transformed as a result of the game’s layered design. His stature was adjusted to fit over the character of Mama from Doki Doki Panic, who was taller and leaner. Luigi also gained one of his most iconic features in Super Mario Bros 2, which is his fluttering feet. The rapid movement of Luigi’s footwork gives him the ability to jump higher and hover in the air for longer periods of time. It is a feature that is distinct to Luigi and helped to further differentiate him from Mario. Since its introduction in 1988, Luigi’s fluttering feet has become synonymous with the character.

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With this evolution of the Luigi in Super Mario Bros. 2, he was no longer a green-haired knockoff of his older and cooler brother, Mario.Now, Luigi could make powerful jumps into the air and reach higher platforms, or drift over difficult terrain with ease. It was a crowning moment for the character, and if you were ever forced to play as Luigi in the original SuperMario Bros. game, now you got your comeuppance. The character experienced an incredible transformation that included an amazing new skillset. And if you were tired of playing as Luigi altogether, you also had the option to choose either Princess Toadstool or Toad.

With the new version of Luigi unleashed into the gaming world, alongside Princess Toadstool and Toad, the role of Player Two was no longer such an uninviting prospect for Super Mario Bros. enthusiasts. Suddenly, younger siblings everywhere experienced a newfound sense of freedom. However, it was not all sunshine and rainbows. With the expansion of new player options in the game, Player One was also able to choose a different character, and was not restricted to only using Mario. With their pick, Player One could even select the new high-flying Luigi as their character and still be given the privilege of playing first. Player Two could hope that old allegiances to Mario would hold firm, but more often than not they received the short-end of the joystick!    

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Nintendo Power

Super Mario Bros. 2 was also the mainfeature of the first issue of the popular magazine Nintendo Power, which was launched in July of 1988. Many gamers remember the cover of this issue because it included the first three-dimensional rendering of Mario. Up until this point, fans had only seen two-dimensional versions of the character. The feature article on Super Mario Bros. 2 provided a detailed summary of the game, with maps of each level and useful tips. This was invaluable information for players during an age when walkthrough videos were not accessible via websitessuch as YouTube. Often a player would have a friend or sibling read-out information from an article while working through a level. It is a different kind of cooperative gameplay, where Player 2 was routinely given the less fun task of reading the magazine aloud instead of playing the game.  

For many years Mario continued to be the face of Nintendo’s most popular series. Luigi was usually a playable option in most Mario-themed games, but he remained second banana to his older brother. It was not until the release of the often-forgotten Mario is Missing from 1993 that Luigi ascended to the role of the main protagonist in a game. It was supposed to be Luigi’s moment to be the star. Unfortunately, the game did not have a multiplayer option, and Player Two was out of luck.

Mario is Missing is an educational gamethat teaches players all about travel and geography. It was also designed to teach problem-solving skills. Even though Mario is Missing is a singleplayer game, its design invites cooperative play through indirect participation. While one person had the responsibility of operating the game’s controls, any number of people could help the player solve the puzzles from the sidelines. Due to the educational nature of the game, Mario is Missing received mixed responses from gamers. While it grossed over 7 million dollars through sales, the game did not create a strong enough platform for the character of Luigi to shine.

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Game Cube

In 2001, Nintendo released the Game Cube console. It was the successor to the Nintendo’s N64 console, which was originally released in 1996. Nintendo sold over 21 million Game Cubes before the product was discontinued in 2007. Much like its predecessor, the Game Cube had four controller inputs for multi-player mode. To attract players to the new gaming system, Nintendo’s designers produced Luigi’s Mansion, a supernatural adventure starring Luigi. For the first time in its history, Nintendo was relying on Luigi and not Mario to market its flagship console.  

In the game the player must investigate a haunted mansion to saveMario from a group of mischievous ghosts led by the infamous villain, King Boo. Armed with the Poltergust 3000, a vacuum-like contraption supplied by a scientist named Professor E. Gadd, Luigi moves throughout the property capturing ghosts on route to finding his older brother.  The artwork and feel of Luigi’s Mansion are rather different to other Mario-themed games. With its darkened environs and slower pace, Luigi’s Mansion offered a different gaming experience to players, which helped to separate it from the more colourful and action-packed adventures in the original Super Mario Bros. series.

Luigi’s Mansion was a raging success, selling over 3 million copies worldwide. It is the fifth highest grossing Game Cube game of all time. After years of being Nintendo’s number two, Luigi was finally garnering the attention he so obviously deserved. His personality also began to grow as a result of his leading role in Luigi’s Mansion. Instead of being a bumbling sidekick to Mario, Luigi was a hero. Even thoughLuigi’s character is comically terrified throughout the gameplay, he manages to overcome his fear and save his older brother from the spooky bad guys. This was a great story and message for any younger sibling who spent their formative years playing Super Mario Bros. as Player Two. Finally, Luigi would save the day!

On the 30^th anniversary of Nintendo’s arcade classic MarioBros. from 1983, the legendary inventor of the Super Mario Bros. series Shigeru Miyamoto declared 2013 to be the year of Luigi. He wrote, “Luigi has been one of our characters for many years, but we've never really had much in the way of games that have Luigi in the starring role.” It was not until the release of Luigi’s Mansion that the character successfully grabbed the mantle of the charismatic protagonist in a game. Sure, Luigi had been the sole playable character in earlier titles like Mario is Missing. However, his performance in the game never felt like that of a starring role.

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To kickstart Luigi’s celebration, Nintendo released a special expansion pack for their highly popular game, New Super Mario Bros U. The expansion pack, which was titled New Super Luigi U., focused on Luigi as the main character, with Mario demoted to the role of Player Two. The story line for the game remained the same, but the levels were redesigned to be shorter and more difficult to complete.

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Luigi’s big 30^th anniversary also included the launch of Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon, which was a sequel to the 2001 game. With the new and improved Poltergust 5000, and support from his old friend Professor E. Gadd, Luigi once again embarks on a supernatural journey to save his brother Mario from the clutches of his old ghostly nemesis, King Boo. For Nintendo lovers everywhere, the Year of Luigi in 2013 allowed fans to revel in the company’s greatest Player Two option of all time.

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Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon was originally designed for the Nintendo 3DS, which was a highly popular handheld console released in 2010. Dark Moon, as it is usually known, retained all the elements that made the first instalment of Luigi’s Mansion so joyful to play in the first place. It is a light-hearted ghostbusting adventure, where players get a chance to be paranormal investigators. Over time it became a cult classic, and due to popular demand, Dark Moon was remastered and released for the Nintendo Switch in 2024. Nintendo also produced Luigi’s Mansion 3 in 2019, which is another incredible game. It is regularly picked as one of the best ever videogames from Nintendo’s vast catalogue.

So, there you have it. A history of Luigi that traces his humble origins as a green-haired knockoff of Mario, to a starring role as a ghostbusting investigator in a blockbuster videogame series of his own. That’s quite a journey for our emerald green friend, which took 40 years to complete. Despite Luigi’s incredible transformation over the decades into a leading videogameicon, he will forever remain a champion for every Player Two.  

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