20 years ago this week, Mario Tennis was released for the Nintendo 64 in Japan. Excluding 1995's similarly named Mario's Tennis for the Virtual Boy, Mario Tennis was the very first in the series we know and love today, but it also introduced something far, far more important.
Yes, Mario Tennis introduced Waluigi to the world, Wario's mischievous pal and arch-rival to Luigi. Since then, he's gone on to appear in countless Mario spin-off titles - you'll find him in most sports games, the Mario Party series, and the Mario Kart series - and while he's never truly starred in a main series game, you'll still often find little cameos such as the Waluigi outfit that appears in Super Mario Odyssey.
The character has had a pretty mixed reception over the years, with some critics originally believing him to be a cheap, unimportant 'knockoff' of sorts from the main cast, but he's also gained something of a cult following. Overly passionate fans have been singing Waluigi's praises for years, and while some have taken things way too far in recent times, Nintendo has described Waluigi fans' passion as "fantastic".
Either way, it'd be weird to see a Nintendo sports game without him nowadays, and the relationship between Mario, Luigi, Wario, and Waluigi is one we'll never fail to enjoy.
Here's to another 20 years of Waluigi madness. Wah.
Comments 50
Give Waluigi a game of his own, or heck, make a new Wario Land game with Waluigi as part of the story.
WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
yeahhh... Waluigi is a cheap knockoff. A mistake Nintendo can't take back. Which is fine as long as he will not be added to Smash, or any oncoming game for that matter.
Where's the Waluigi 20th anniversary Direct?
I remember seeing him for the first time, and thinking that the concept of Waluigi was a bit of a stretch. Wario makes perfect sense, but Waluigi always made me wonder 'Why bother?'
20 years later, though? Now I have come to embrace his lanky darkness, forever selecting him in Mariokart, and lamenting his absence from the Smash roster.
Even 20 years ago, Waluigi was stylin'
Imagine being the rival of Luigi. Nobody has ever gone; "Oh no, I am in trouble, someone quickly call Luigi!" I pity Waluigi; his self esteem must be rock bottom. No wonder all he says is "Waaah!"
@SoapMonkey Troll, even though I kinda agree with you
All we need now is a Watoad; an evil, moustache wearing Toad who shouts out 'I'm the worst!' when he comes first place in Mario Kart.
It still irks me it's not Waigi or Wawigi. It's not Wamario is it!?
In the same way that we got Wario Land games, we should now get Waluigi's Mansion, or Wario is Missing where you're in control of Waluigi.
The guy has so much personality, I wish he was seen more.
He was hilarious in the newest Mario tennis.
He is always my main in Mario Kart and Mario party at a friends house.
I always say let him be in smash as a playable character but I know they will never add him but it would be really funny for him to be added as the final character in the smash season 2 dlc.
@Kalmaro Yep, he is brilliant in Mario Tennis and always gives me a laugh. He definitely deserves his own game.
Yes, if you exclude the very first game in the series, than the second game becomes the very first game in the series.
Shadow Link, Dark Samus, Wolf, Dark Pitt, Daisy, Shadow The Hedgehog, Ken Akuma and Dan, Jeanne, Pretty much all the Mortal Kombat Ninjas and Funky Kong.
Waluigi and Wario win the Most Effort for a Video Game Doppelgänger award by some margin.
@DoomTurtle haha! 😀
It'd be cool if he was added to Smash Ultimate as DLC character 2.
It's always irked me that his name isn't "RUIGI", because the whole flipping the "M" of Mario upside down to create Wario. It would seem, to me, that if you flip the "L" of Luigi upside down, you would get the lowercase "l", therefore "ruigi"...
I wish Waluigi got a costume on Luigi or added as an echo fighter. Rather that than some anime fighter. Gengar should get some love :3
Waluigi is Nintendo’s favorite least favorite creation
@Falco1863 It actually makes more sense than Wario. I explain myself:
Wario comes from the fusion of "Mario" and "warui" (Japanese for "bad"), which is an OK idea, but...
Waluigi comes from "warui" and "Luigi", and given that Japanese people pronounce our "L" and "R" just the same, "Luigi" sounds like "Ruigi" when spoken by a Japanese, thus making for an even better idea the "Warui/lui+gi" thing.
Of course, it works much better in Japanese, because as you point out, it's hard to see the joke in Waluigi's name after seeing that with Wario they just "flipped" the M.
he might just be a meme but I stillreally like Waluigi
I still remember when Waluigi first arrived on the scene back in 2000, though we first knew about him in 1999 when the game was previewed. And before that, he was profiled in a Nintendo magazine (which I believed was a misprint at first).
Honestly, I think just about every Nintendo fan thought this was a big joke. The name sounded completely goofy, he had no backstory and no obvious reason to exist in the game at all. We all just laughed about it.
But if you had asked me back then whether Waluigi would become as widely known/'memed' as he is today, I wouldn't have given him a chance. It's quite incredible that the character has, literally, become a satire of itself.
Daniel Day Lewis played Waluigi in Gangs of New York.
I would totally love it if a new Mario & Luigi game would be made but also implementing Wario & Waluigi into it as well.
Waluigi is stupid, and fun, and full of personality, and I think he’s great.
@Bearzilla823 The legend is the Mario Land team was really unhappy about being forced to work on an IP they didn't make and so made Wario as an insult/jab at Mario as a character.
@Paperboy it’s coming out next week. The games include:
Super Waluigi Bros
Super Waluigi 64
Super Waluigi Odyssey
Super Paper Waluigi
Waluigi and Wario: Waluigi Jam
Here's to many more years of more wahness.
@jsw-8 Strictly speaking it should be 7uigi ... kind of.
@georgesdandre still better than Waluigi 😂
Every hero, even Luigi, needs an evil doppelganger to face at some point. It's tried and true tradition! I for one love Nintendo's take on these "waru" versions of our favorite Italo-American plumbers.
I sincerely hope Nintendo does the right thing and adds Waluigi to the Smash Ultimate roster in the latest batch of DLC slots.
Eh. I subscribe to the mirror theory. You place a plane mirror in front of Mario and one underneath of him. Each mirror produces a virtual image (Luigi and Wario). Then you reflect one of those virtual images in the other mirror and you get nothing of any importance. Waluigi is to the Mario series what Larry was to Pinky and the Brain (a filler character they added in for one episode as a joke because some idiot executive thought the show needed a third main character).
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VorIn2ISK6w
@MS7000 they should have made new super mario bros 2,New super wario bros 2. They go round collecting coins, thats Wario's MO
It’s the year of Waluigi then! This is gonna be fun!
@jsw-8 @georgesdandre
In Japan, it's a great name, but sadly it doesn't translate.
Warui means bad or evil. Combine that with Luigi (phonetically, Ruiji) and you've got a mix of the names Wario and Luigi along with a play-on-words that spells out his only distinguishing characteristic: he's an evil Luigi. How could they pass that up?? ...in Japan that is. In other countries it comes across a little stupid and more than a little lame. Ah well.
On another note.. how does one pronounce Гuigi?
Edit: Sorry @Moroboshi876 I didn't see that you'd already explained it!
I think a 3D platform with Wario and Waluigi should be a great idea!
Wario and Waluigi need to show up in a Mario and Luigi RPG game. I still don't know why that hasn't happened yet.
@SSJW
I'm sure Luigi has faced his corrupt mirror universe self many times on the tennis court and other sports, right? Why not give Waluigi some credit?!
Evil clone or not, he's a fairly established character at this point and I would welcome more games with him.
He and Wario are perfectly great puns of the Mario Bros. names in Japanese, and have story potential! Some day when Bowser gets tired of losing, he'll team up with the Wario Bros to finally exact his revenge. Nintendo may even debut some kind of Wapeach ultimately, a la the trio of comical badguys in all the Time Bokan anime series shows, popular in Japan for many years, that certainly influenced the creation of Wario and Waluigi.
Can Nintendo even make a character like Waluigi anymore? After what was talked about during the Paper Mario release can we even expect to see Luigi with the reversed L again?
@Thwomp_Stomper
Excellent gif there, and even better avatar!
(I'm suddenly feeling guilty for never having an avatar here in 5 years.)
Thank you for the laugh XD
@SSJW
Truthfully I have never played a Mario Tennis game other than the free trial on NSO a year or two ago. You seem much more well-read than me on the context behind the games with Nintendo and Camelot, too. I don't even know who Syrup and tanned Peach characters are.
That said, I think visually at least, the Time Bokan series villains like Donzura and Boyakki from Yatterman certainly HAD to factor in to the look of Wario and Waluigi. For Waluigi especially, the resemblance is uncanny, plus those trope-y Time Bokan villains were quite well-known to kids growing up in Japan in the 70s and 80s. I can only say this as a casual gamer who lived in Japan for 8 years in the late 90s, though - don't cite me.
Ultimately it just boils down to people's preferences. I like Waluigi as a comical villain for Luigi, who always was my preferred Mario Bro, given the choice. I hope to see him scrunched up and sneering outrageously in baby-buggies in Mario Kart for a good long time.
And hasn’t Camelot’s creation been such a nightmare since...
@SoapMonkey What a petty opinion. Waluigi’s great.
@SSJW We got Rosalina and Bowser Jr as permanent additions to the main cast. Both of whom are more interesting and better thought out.
@Teksetter 😂 Thanks!! It never gets old.
Here’s a suggestion for your new avatar 😆
hope to see him in smash and maybe his own game you could say that is a pipe dream, get it. waaaaaaaaaaa
@Thwomp_Stomper
Oh fantastic suggestion! Thank you so much!
In honor of his Wahness’ 20th Birthday I will proudly adopt that avatar!!
Wah is the Snively Whiplash to Weejee’s Dudley Do-right, and there must be symmetry in the universe.
Please, Sakurai-san, for the sake of cosmic balance... Waluigi for Smash!
I find it so strange why people love Waluigi so much. I personally think it is because Waluigi Stadium is the best Mario Kart course ever.
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