Waluigi

Waluigi
Cosplay of Waluigi
Game series	Mario
First game	Mario Tennis (2000)
Created by	Fumihide Aoki
Voiced by	Charles Martinet (2000-2023) Kevin Afghani (2024-present)

Waluigi is a character in Nintendo's series of Mario video games. He is the villainous version of Luigi in the same way that Wario is the evil version of Mario.

Name and creation

Waluigi first appeared in the Nintendo 64 game Mario Tennis in the year 2000. He was created so that Wario could have a tennis partner and Luigi could have a rival. His name comes from mixing “Luigi” with the Japanese word “warui”, which means “bad”.

Appearance

Waluigi is very tall and thin. He wears black or dark overalls with a purple shirt, a purple hat with an upside‑down yellow “L” sign, white gloves, and pointed shoes. He has a big pink nose, a thin pointed moustache, and usually has a menacing face.

Personality

Waluigi is usually shown as a troublemaker and a villain, but in a silly and funny way. He is rude, likes to cheat, and often gets angry when he loses, sometimes saying other people cheated him. He and Wario are jealous of the Mario brothers, and a perfect example of this can be seen in the opening cutscenes of Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour and Mario Power Tennis.

Role in games

Waluigi appears mostly in spin‑off games, not in the main Super Mario platform games. He is a playable character in many Mario sports games, in most Mario Party games, and in several titles of the Mario Kart series since Mario Kart: Double Dash!!. He also appears as an Assist Trophy character in the Super Smash Bros. series, beginning with Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and Waluigi attacks other fighters by stomping them and then hitting him with his tennis racket (a reference to the Nintendo 64 title Mario Tennis being his first game appearance).

Mario Party series

Waluigi first appears in the Mario Party series in Mario Party 3 for the Nintendo 64. In this game, he is a new playable character in Party Mode and Duel Mode, and he also acts as the main villain in Story Mode, where he steals the Mischief Star Stamp and has his own board, Waluigi's Island.

After Mario Party 3, Waluigi returns as a playable character in almost every Mario Party game. He is playable in the numbered console games Mario Party 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10, as well as in Mario Party DS and later entries like Mario Party: Island Tour, Mario Party: Star Rush, Super Mario Party, Mario Party Superstars, and Super Mario Party Jamboree. Waluigi and many other Mario characters are not playable in Mario Party Advance, which is a Game Boy Advance spin‑off.

In Mario Party 7, Waluigi shares a special item called the Vacuum Orb with Wario, which lets him steal coins from other players. In Mario Party 8 and several later games, his winning poses often show him holding a rose, which became one of his visual trademarks.

In Super Mario Party Jamboree, Waluigi has his own dedicated Showdown Minigame titled Waluigi's Pinball Arcade, which is mostly just a simple game of pinball, though the theme is inspired by the Waluigi Pinball course from Mario Kart DS.

Mario Strikers series

Waluigi is a playable in every game in the Mario Strikers series that involves Mario characters playing soccer. He is in the Nintendo GameCube game Super Mario Strikers and its two sequels, Mario Strikers Charged for the Wii and Mario Strikers: Battle League for the Nintendo Switch. Waluigi is a defensive captain, which means he is good at movement and defense, but he is not good at passing the ball.

Waluigi's special move in Super Mario Strikers, known as a Special Strike, is the Drop Rocket. Mario Strikers Charged features a Mega Strike for each character, and Waluigi's is Snake Whip, where he jumps high in the air, pulls out his snake power and whips the ball, concluding with a gunshot sound.

In Mario Strikers Charged, Waluigi has a special ability called Wall-luigi, where runs while making a temporary wall that other characters cannot destroy. The wall lasts for several seconds. Waluigi trips if he runs into his own wall or gets hit. There is another move called deke, and Waluigi's involves him teleporting.

Relationships with other characters

Waluigi is Luigi's self‑proclaimed rival and tries to beat him in sports and other competitions. He is often shown working together with Wario, and the two act as partners in many games. Many other characters do not like Waluigi very much because of his bad behaviour and poor sportsmanship.

Notable appearances

• Mario Tennis
• Mario Power Tennis
• Mario Party 3
• Mario Party 4
• Mario Party 5
• Mario Party 6
• Mario Party 7
• Mario Party 8
• Mario Party 9
• Mario Party 10
• Mario Party DS
• Super Mario Party
• Super Smash Bros. Brawl
• Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U
• Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
• Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour
• Mario Kart: Double Dash!!
• Mario Kart 7
• Mario Kart 8
• Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
• Mario Kart DS
• Mario Kart Wii
• Mario Super Sluggers
• Super Mario Strikers (also known as Mario Smash Football)
• Mario Strikers Charged Football
• Mario Hoops 3-on-3
• Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games
• Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games
• Mario Tennis Aces
• Mario Tennis Open
• Mario Power Tennis

Reception

Waluigi was ranked in the tenth slot on GameDaily's top 10 Nintendo characters that deserve their own games. They also listed him as one of the top 25 videogame anti-heroes, saying that it was too bad that he has never had the spotlight.

However, he also ranked number one on the Top 10 Worst Mario Characters list from Game Daily, which said, "for every likable character there's one that continues to annoy us even years after we're done with the game they came from". Waluigi has been criticised by others as well. Cracked.com said that he was a lazy excuse to add a new villain to the spin-off games and even called him an "abomination".

Other websites

• Waluigi on Giant Bomb