Luigi is Mario’s younger brother and is portrayed as timid, frail, clumsy, self-conscious, and a bit of a coward who is most afraid of ghosts but is kind-hearted and heroic. He overcomes his fears and acts like a hero when necessary, such as when someone or his homeland is in danger or needs help. A recurring element of Luigi's personality is his apparent complex of being overlooked compared to Mario. Luigi's state of being in the shadow of his brother shows strongly in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
Despite this, however, Masahiro Sakurai did not intend to play up Luigi's overshadowed status, instead aiming to make him "everyone's favorite man in green. "He is also shown, at times, to be clumsy. Luigi often trades his jumping skills with slippery traction. He is also accident-prone, as evidenced in the Mario & Luigi games and in the ending of New Super Mario Bros. Wii, where he accidentally locked himself out of the hot air balloon that Peach and Mario were on while waving goodbye to the Toads and also ended up collapsing while trying to enter the hot air balloon, due to it having flown off.
In Luigi's Mansion, Luigi is informed that he has won a mansion in a contest he never actually entered. Before his arrival, Mario was observed entering the mansion by the elderly ghost researcher Professor Elvin Gadd, or E. Gadd for short, but never returned. Upon his arrival at the mansion, Luigi realizes his brother is nowhere to be found and is nearly captured by an orange ghost before being saved by E. Gadd. The professor escorts Luigi to his laboratory near the mansion and offers him a crash course using the Game Boy Horror and Poltergust 3000, a modified vacuum cleaner capable of sucking up ghosts and other objects. With his Poltergust in tow, Luigi musters the courage to re-enter the mansion to find his missing brother.
Upon delving deeper into the mansion, Luigi unwillingly unleashes a wave of captured Boos, including their leader King Boo. He must reclaim them before being able to face the king himself. On his way to recapture the Boos, Luigi discovers that King Boo has captured Mario and trapped him in a painting. In the final confrontation, the king attempts to stop Luigi using a lifelike Bowser costume. However, Luigi ultimately succeeds in capturing King Boo and rescuing his caught brother, freeing him from his painting prison.
In Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, E. Gadd takes his studies to a new venue, Evershade Valley, and makes peace with various friendly ghosts in the area to assist in his research. Unbeknownst to anyone, King Boo escaped his portrait prison and shattered the titular Dark Moon. This large floating crystal typically has a pacifying effect on the ghosts of Evershade Valley. With the Dark Moon destroyed, the friendly ghosts turn hostile and start causing chaos, prompting E. Gadd to retreat and recruit Luigi to help recover the shattered fragments.
Along the way, Luigi acquires some new tools for his new Poltergust 5000, including the Dual Scream, the Strobulb, and the Dark-Light Device, as he travels to five distinct mansions to recover the Dark Moon fragments. Along the way, he and E. Gadd discover that Mario has been captured in a painting again, and in one final illusion, he confronts King Boo and defeats him in his illusion. With Mario saved and the Dark Moon restored, the ghosts become friendly again, and Luigi returns home with a new pet, Polterpup, in tow.
In Luigi's Mansion 3, Luigi, Polterpup, Mario, Peach, and a few Toad assistants have been invited to vacation at a luxurious high-rise hotel, The Last Resort. Its proprietor, Hellen Gravely, assists the group in checking into the hotel and escorts them to their rooms. That night, Luigi hears Peach cry out in terror and leaves his room to investigate, only to find the hotel's initially warm and inviting presence to be an illusion. Hellen Gravely appears to personally introduce Luigi to the returning King Boo, whom she managed to set free once again to vow revenge on Luigi. With the others trapped in portraits, King Boo tells him that he plans to finish his collection with a unique Luigi portrait.
However, Luigi narrowly escapes through a laundry chute and finds himself on the hotel's bottom floor. Upon being awakened by Polterpup following his fall, Luigi discovers the new Poltergust G-00 and climbs to the lobby to discover that Professor E. Gadd was also captured in a painting. Upon freeing him, the two retreat to the basement, and Luigi is introduced to two new tools, the Virtual Boo and Gooigi, that will aid him in his trek up the 17 floors of The Last Resort to save his friends and stop King Boo once again.
​
“I’m-a Luigi, number one!”
(Taunt)
“Yay for me!”
(Victory)
“Let’s-a go!”
(Catchphrase)
“Okey Dokey!”
(Catchphrase #2)
“Oh, this looks bad.”
(Tea Spilt)
“Nothing can hurt us… as long as we’re together!”
(Talking to his brother, Mario)
“MARIO!!!”
(Instinctual cry for help)
-
Before Ultimate, Luigi's portrait on the full character selection screen was always directly adjacent to Mario's.
-
Luigi has always been portrayed as being slower at dashing compared to Mario in the Super Smash Bros. series. However, aside from certain games, such as the Mario & Luigi series, Mario is generally the slower runner of the two.
-
Luigi's floatiness in the Super Smash Bros. series is similar to his mobility physics that debuted in Super Mario Bros. 2.
-
Oddly, Luigi has had shallow airspeed in every installment in the Super Smash Bros. series. In contrast, in Super Mario games where his mobility differs from Mario's, his air speed is rarely slower, and when it is so, only slightly.
-
Coincidentally, "Luigi" translates from Italian as "famous warrior," which is ironic or apt given the circumstances. Luigi is often portrayed as being the "lesser brother" and a coward, although he is an iconic video game hero as well.
-
The Japanese pronunciation of Luigi (ルイージ, Ruīji) is also comparable to a Japanese word for similar (類似, ruiji), which is pronounced almost identically, save for a shorter "i" sound. This coincidentally matches Luigi, having been created as a color swap of Mario.
-
On the first page of the Nintendo Power magazine for Luigi's Mansion, Luigi is mistakenly called Mario's older brother.
LEVEL: 0 | HP [2/2] | STR [+0] | DEF [+0] | AGI [+0] | ACU [+0] | LCK [+0]
​
BASIC ATTACK POWER: ✦✧✧
​
SMASH ATTACK POWER: ✦✦✧✧
​
SPECIAL ATTACK POWER: ✦✦✦✧✧
​
SKILL ATTACK POWER: ✦✦✦✧✧
​
FINAL SMASH POWER: ✦✦✦✦✦✧✧
​
MECHANIC(S):
​
[HAUNTING]
-
When Luigi finishes combat he will inadvertently absorb a soul.
-
Luigi can choose to keep the soul or release the soul after Completing Combat a second time.
