Videos by ComicBook.com
There are very few concrete facts widely known about Waluigi, other than that he hates Luigi for vague reasons, he probably has a crush on Princess Daisy, and Nintendo stubbornly refuses to put him as a playable fighter in Super Smash Bros. But we’ve gone down in the depths of Waluigi lore, with some interesting findings that even the most devoted Mario fans may not know.
1) Waluigi (Sort Of) First Appeared In A Manga
Technically, this first factoid is a bit of a stretch, but in a manga adaptation of the Game Boy title Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, which had Wario’s first appearance, a character named Waluigi appeared, ahead of Waluigi’s proper debut several years later.
However, this iteration of Waluigi is a result of Luigi giving into his “dark side” rather than being an original character. His design is also quite different, lacking the L-shaped mustache and featuring a W and L on his hat rather than an upside-down L.
2) Waluigi Has An AI Phenomenon Named After Him
The rising influence of AI and large language models (LLMs) in our real-life society has broken everyone’s brains, and there’s one phenomenon twisted enough that it’s actually named after Waluigi. The so-called “Waluigi effect” refers to when an LLM or chatbot “goes rogue” and behaves in ways against its original intention.
It’s hard to track exactly who coined the phrase, but it’s a well-known enough theory that it has its own Wikipedia page. Waluigi always strives for popularity, but this probably isn’t how he imagined he would reach it.
3) Wario And Waluigi Aren’t Brothers
The relationship between Wario and Waluigi has been up for debate for as long as anyone can remember, but it’s becoming increasingly clear that they have no familial relationship. Comments from developers, flavor text from various official games, and even offhand pieces of dialogue from the games have confirmed that they aren’t brothers.
So how did Waluigi emerge, and why does he hang out with Wario all the time, other than their shared dislike of the Mario brothers? Do the two even like each other? These are questions that perhaps will never be answered.
4) Waluigi Cameo’d In A WarioWare Game
Waluigi infamously has never appeared in a mainline Mario or Wario game, but he does appear in a WarioWare game in some form. One of the “souvenir” extras that players can unlock in WarioWare Gold for the Nintendo 3DS is Wario’s amiibo Sketch. Wario offers to paint any character based on what amiibo you scan on your 3DS, and Waluigi is one of the many ones you can scan.
It’s a rather crude drawing of Waluigi, barely capturing the proper shape of his mustache, but it does accurately depict his height and sniveling nature. To be fair, the rest of Wario’s character drawings look as bad, too.
5) Waluigi Has One Role As A Main Villain
One spin-off game that Mario fans probably jettisoned from their memory is Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix, which is exactly what you think it is. This dancing game from Konami features a story mode, and the inciting incident has Waluigi break into the Truffle Towers to steal some Macguffins known as the Music Keys.
