Waluigi

Waluigi (ワルイージ in Japanese) is a fictional character from the Mario series who appears in spin-off games, as opposed to main platformer titles. His most common appearances are in Mario sports games and the Mario Party series. He is Luigi's evil counterpart, although, because he has not appeared in a main Mario title yet, we have yet to see him do anything incredibly evil. He did try to steal the musical keys in Mario Mix and was an antagonist character in Mario Party 3. He is Wario's possible brother and one of Wario's few friends (not counting the WarioWare Inc. characters). He first appeared in Mario Tennis on the Nintendo 64. He was created by Camelot's Fumihide Aoki and is voiced by Charles Martinet, the same voice actor for Mario, Luigi, Wario, and several other characters in the Mario series..

Games

The Waluigi character was deliberately created to be a selectable character in various multiplayer games. He has appeared in several games, although none of them are main games in the Mario series. His first appearance was in Mario Tennis games for the Game Boy Color and Nintendo 64, as Wario's doubles partner. Later, along with Princess Daisy, he joined the Mario Party series's roster in Mario Party 3 and has been a playable character in every main entry in the series since. He's since also appeared in Super Mario Strikers, Mario Superstar Baseball, and Toadstool Tour. He'll also be appearing in Mario Hoops 3-on-3.

In The Thousand-Year Door, there are two Badges that Mario can wear to change his appearance. One of them is the L Emblem, which puts Mario in Luigi's clothes, and the other is the W Emblem, which puts him in Wario's clothes. When Mario puts on the W Emblem and the L Emblem at the same time, he changes into clothing identical to Waluigi's.

Waluigi plays his first role in a game plot in Mario Mix, in which he is one of the characters, along with Bowser, attempting to wreak havoc with the Mushroom Kingdom's music.

He is again a playable character in the Mario Kart Series, appearing at the start in Double Dash!! and as a secret character in Mario Kart DS.

Appearance

Waluigi has a hat and gloves with a "Γ" symbol. Mario's evil counterpart, Wario, wears a "W", which is also an upside-down "M". Likewise, Waluigi is noted as Luigi's evil counterpart, and this is most likely the reason that he wears a "Γ". Nintendo used the vertical mirror image of the "L," and the Γ is not Faux Cyrillic. Unlike Luigi's green hat and shirt, Waluigi has a purple shirt with black overalls, while his Γ symbol is yellow. Along with his boomerang-like mustache (which forms a W), Waluigi is taller and skinnier than Luigi. Super Smash Bros. Melee confirms that Waluigi is the same age as Luigi, which would make him younger than Mario and Wario.

Possible connections to Wrecking Crew

In Mario Mix, Waluigi's song is called "Destruction Dance". The song is a remix of the bonus game tune from the 1984 NES game Wrecking Crew, though the game itself did not feature Waluigi. Waluigi's special ball in Mario Superstar Baseball, the Liar Ball, splits up into a fake ball and a real ball. The fake one is an eggplant, again possibly referring to Wrecking Crew, because that had Eggplant Men as enemies. Also, in Challenge Mode of Mario Superstar Baseball, Waluigi must first obtain an eggplant before he can use this move. This also hints that the eggplant is Waluigi favorite food. Another thing in this game is the team logo for Waluigi Flankers - On it, Waluigi is wearing shades, and has a laugh just like Foreman Spike's laugh in Wrecking Crew '98. Also, In Mario Kart DS Waluigi's default kart was the Gold Mantis, a construction site crane.

Waluigi's name

Waluigi's name has a dual-meaning in Japanese. The Japanese word means "bad" or "evil" ("Warui" is also a condescending way of apologizing, as opposed to "gomennasai", or "sumimasen" which are more polite). This means that Waluigi's name is a portmanteau of "warui" and "Luigi" and essentially means "Evil Luigi". Many believe his name to be a cheap offshoot of Wario's name rather than being derived from Luigi's name.

Additionally, the name Waluigi would be pronounced in Japanese as waruiji, which rearranges the syllables of ijiwaru, the Japanese word for "mean-spirited".

Note that in Japanese, the same sound is used for L and R.

Relationship With Wario

Waluigi's relationship to Wario is unclear. It appears that they might be related since they share some facial and mental characteristics, but Waluigi's Super Smash Bros. Melee trophy says that it is indeed unclear if they are brothers or not. It can be inferred that they are at least good friends.

However, according to Nintendo of Europe, Waluigi and Wario are brothers:

Nintendo of Europe's "Wario's Warehouse" articles from a few years ago had Wario refer to Waluigi as "his dimwit brother." ^*
Nintendo of Europe's Mario Kart DS site has a description of the Waluigi Pinball course that refers to Waluigi as Wario's younger brother.

Nintendo of America also mentioned Waluigi and Wario's brotherhood:

Nintendo of America's old Mario Tennis 64 Page says Wario and Waluigi are indeed brothers.

Also, Wario and Waluigi's team name in Mario Party 5 - the "Wicked Bros." - also implies that they are brothers (However, Luigi and Yoshi's team name is "Green Bros.," and it could not be more obvious that they are not brothers).

It should be noted that Wario's relation to the Mario brothers is that he is possibly their cousin. About the time of Mario Kart 64's release, Nintendo Power had an article in the form of a letter to Mario from Wario signed with "Your Cousin, Wario." This would mean that Waluigi could also be their cousin. However, the evidence appearing in Nintendo Power or on Nintendo websites may or may not be considered part of the canon.

Although Nintendo adopted the use of the name "Mario" as a double for the characters' last name from the movies to make sense for why Luigi is a "Mario Brother." It is unclear if the same can be said for Wario & Waluigi, meaning they could also bear the Mario last name or even be "Wario Bros." or maybe even something else. The term "Wicked Bros." shouldn't be taken seriously at this time as their official last name, but more so as their personalities, seeing as Mario Party is but a mere spin-off series and, as with other spin-off titles, amounts to nothing in the main series.

Trivia

Although Waluigi was undoubtably created to be an evil character, in his debut game he does not commit any evil acts other than getting upset with Luigi, who refused to play a tennis game with him. The two growl at each other, but the conflict is broken up by Bowser oddly peaceful appearance. His first official evil act happened in the game Mario Party 3, where Waluigi stole the last Star Stamp, the Mischief Star Stamp. He then appears as an antagonist along with Bowser in Mario Mix by stealing the music keys.

It should also be noted that Waluigi's symbol (Г) is also a letter in the Russian alphabet and the Greek alphabet.

Waluigi appears to have a resemblance to Dick Dastardly.

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