Luigi has long since moved on from being a palette-swapped second player to a fully-fledged hero in his own right – heck, he even has his own series of video games these days – but he sadly isn't a playable choice in Super Mario Odyssey, the most recent mainline Mario title.

However, while he merely plays a bit part in the Switch exclusive, he very nearly sported a 'drastically' different look.

Speaking in The Art of Super Mario Odyssey, character art lead Sho Murata said:

Luigi hosts the Balloon World minigame. We wanted players to feel welcome in this minigame, so we gave him a cheerful and casual attitude, like a performer passing out balloons on the street. We wanted to make it seem like he came directly from the Mushroom Kingdom, so in contrast to the sticker-laden Odyssey, his satchel sports only stickers from the Mushroom Kingdom. One of the stickers is actually out of circulation…

We considered a drastic costume change for Luigi at first, but we ultimately went with a simple look, since it would work well against the background of this game’s world. I wonder… including the Luigi green, did you notice his balloons are the same colors as Super Famicom controller buttons? To the many fans who were looking to his appearance in the game, know that the designer in charge put a lot of effort into Luigi’s development.

Do you think Luigi would have looked right with a completely different costume, or are you glad that the designers ultimately decided to stick with tradition? Post a comment to share your thoughts.

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[source nintendoeverything.com]