Luigi
Luigi (Japanese: ルイージ, ruīji) is Mario's younger brother from Nintendo video games. Luigi's full name is believed to be Luigi Mario, while his brother's full name is believed to be Mario Mario. (This is generally accepted as canon. According to the Mario Bros. movie, Shigeru Miyamoto and television series, their surname is Mario, but this has never been officially supported by Nintendo). He first appeared in Mario Bros. as the character of player two, and his role as player two's character continued in Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3, and Super Mario World.
Luigi's name was inspired by a pizza parlor near Nintendo of America's headquarters in Redmond, Washington, which was called Mario & Luigi's. His name also serves simultaneously as a pun of the Japanese word 類似 (ruiji), meaning "similar" or "analogous" (based on his original role as a copy of Mario).
Because of software constraints of the time, Luigi initially appeared as a palette swap of Mario, identical except in terms of color. As technology improved, Luigi evolved into a physically distinct character, taller and thinner than his brother. This is at least in part due to the conversion of the Japanese game Doki Doki Panic to the American Super Mario Bros. 2, where Luigi's character was the thin, high-jumping Mama. Luigi's personality has also been developed over the years and he is depicted as being more nervous and panicky than his brother.
In America's Super Mario Bros. 2 (not to be confused with Japan's Super Mario Bros. 2), Luigi was one of the four characters that players could choose to play as. He was characterized in that game as having the highest and longest jump of the playable characters. This feature made him quite popular among fans of the series. Luigi has starred in two games, the first of which was the edutainment title Mario Is Missing!, released for the SNES and PC. It was a fairly lacklustre game, involving Luigi traveling throughout the world and answering questions related to well-known lands he was visiting (e.g., Japan and Russia). The game was not produced by Nintendo and remains one of the few Mario games created and developed entirely by an American third-party developer. His second starring role was in Luigi's Mansion, released for the Nintendo GameCube, in which Luigi must brave a ghost-filled mansion to save Mario. He also co-starred in a 2003 game called Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga (a Mario RPG along the lines of Paper Mario) in which you control both Mario and Luigi to save Princess Peach yet again.
In Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, Baby Luigi was kidnapped by Kamek the Magikoopa. He was freed due to the efforts of many Yoshies after the defeat of Baby Bowser.
In the remake of Super Mario World for Game Boy Advance, Luigi is slightly more integral, as you have a choice between Mario or Luigi. Luigi can jump higher and run faster.
Luigi is also a playable character in the Mario Party series, for the Nintendo 64 and the Nintendo GameCube.
With the debut of Mario Tennis for the Nintendo 64, Luigi also gained his own rival, Waluigi. (Waluigi is a counterpart to Wario.) Waluigi has since appeared in the Mario Party series, Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, and Mario Power Tennis. That game also brought back the long-unused character Daisy, who is now believed to be Luigi's answer to Mario's Princess Peach.
Luigi is also a hidden character in the N64 hit Super Smash Bros. and in the GameCube sequel Super Smash Bros. Melee. His style of fighting is similar to Mario's but Luigi jumps significantly higher, has immense hangtime, but has less traction and speed. Although he was very similar to Mario in the original, in Melee he was given a completely different set of physical attacks, including some extremely powerful aerial attacks.
Luigi makes an appearance in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. He appears in the audience a couple of times, and he has own adventures that mostly hinge on his making poor choices.
Luigi makes another appearance in Super Mario 64 DS for the new handheld Nintendo DS. He has high triple-jumping abilities (which is no surprise considering his reputation for high jumps) and a backflip that's nearly as high as his triple jump but that allows him to cover great horizontal distances by spinning with his arms outstretched. Luigi also has a scuttle jump ability that slows his descent. This makes him one of the more useful characters in the game. In this game, when Luigi gets a Power Flower, he becomes invisible, which allows him to walk through enemies as well as some walls.
In the 1993 feature film Super Mario Bros., Luigi was played by John Leguizamo. In cartoons, he was voiced by Danny Wells and then Tony Rosato. Currently, he, like Mario, is voiced by Charles Martinet.
Baby Luigi
Baby Luigi is a character in Nintendo's Mario series, similar to Baby Mario. He is the infant version of Luigi, although he has appeared in Mario Kart: Double Dash!! and various other Mario sport games alongside his older self. It is generally accepted that these games do not have storylines and merely offer extra playable characters for greater variety. Baby Luigi first appeared in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island where he got kidnapped by Kamek, only to be rescued by his brother Mario and Yoshi later on.
Baby Luigi more recently appeared in Yoshi Touch & Go, where Yoshi must rescue him by hitting the Toadies carrying him with eggs. In the multiplayer mode, the second player's Yoshi will be carrying Baby Luigi instead of Baby Mario.
Baby Luigi rides along with Baby Mario in Mario Kart: Double Dash!! in a converted baby carriage.
He will also star in Mario & Luigi 2 with his brother, his older self, and his brother's older self. His abilities in battle appear to be identical to those of his older self. The game explains the co-existence of the two sets of brothers in this game by saying that Mario and Luigi are sent back in time to a period when they were still babies.
