Since February 1st, with the release of Piranha Plant, the first post-launch character added to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, players have been obsessing over the Big Question™ : When is Waluigi going to be in Smash? Waluigi has been a staple of the Super Mario line-up since Mario Tennis (2000) on the N64 and yet Nintendo seem more than happy to ignore this slippery, purple fan favourite. Upon the announcement that the final Smash character was going to be Sora from the Kingdom Hearts series, a note of sadness echoed throughout the community, though most knew that the battle had been long lost. This loss had been written in the stars; the prophecies foretold this tragedy all the way back in 1996.
Mario is a character designed by Shigeru Miyamoto. He was originally designed to be a grubby, crotchety old carpenter, as can be seen in the early arcade cabinet artwork of Donkey Kong (1981). He’s the sort of guy you would shift away from if you saw him sitting alone at the bar. Miyamoto admits that he originally created Mario as a character for an older generation. As Mario took off as a video game character though, something had to give. Mario had to become younger, more family friendly, and cuter. His cheeks became chubby and rosy, his physique became portly, his moustache became cartoonish. He suddenly became the kind of guy to give up his seat on the bus without being prompted. This change was largely headed up by Takashi Tezuka, a game designer with Nintendo, who loved all things cute. Though the changes were small and insignificant, over time Miyamoto became more and more disillusioned with his own creation. Mario was appearing on lunchboxes, pencil cases, backpacks; even the internal marketing team at Nintendo began to aim Mario at small children. Miyamoto may have lost the battle, but he was not to lose the war. And so, after the release of Super Mario 64 (1996), Miyamoto issued a company wide ban on Mario’s cutest gesture: the peace sign.
This was just one of the many protective measures Nintendo took in the 90s. The 90s were a good decade for Nintendo in general, but it did see a great number of failures with licensing. The despised Super Mario Bros. (1993) movie, multiple failed animated series, and the infamous Legend of Zelda CD-i games led to Nintendo cracking down on who could use their Intellectual Property and what they could do with it. Everything Nintendo produced had to follow a strict set of guidelines as to what it could and could not be which, while great for consistency, was stifling for innovation. When they did license out characters, it was strictly within the realm of video games which they themselves would publish. Which brings us to Camelot Software planning, Mario Tennis (2000), and the birth of Waluigi.
Camelot were a game development studio who had worked closely with Sega (former gaming juggernauts and parents of Sonic the Hedgehog) in the past; as they began to fade from the console scene, Nintendo decided to poach Camelot to develop Mario sports games. This began with Mario Golf (1999) which, being a roaring success, was quickly followed by Mario Tennis (2000). With Mario Golf you could chuck any characters in without so much as a second thought, but with Mario Tennis you had the unique challenge of pairing characters for doubles tennis. Of course, some pairings are obvious: Mario and Luigi; Birdo and Yoshi; Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr.. But what about Wario? Wario is a loathed man who bathes in gold and eats only garlic. He is a man whose greed is only matched by his flatulence. He is very clearly a libertarian. Who in the Mushroom Kingdom would play tennis with him? No one.
Enter Waluigi, a tetromino made man who was the perfect fit of Wario.
Like most great artworks, Camelot created Waluigi without fully understanding the power he would have. Since his introduction, Waluigi has received every reaction across the emotional spectrum: from fear to joy; from love to hate; from disgust to lust. While most of us harbour a nuanced, complex view of Waluigi, it is clear that Nintendo despises the purple sex symbol. Waluigi, for example, has never had his own spin-off like Wario (the WarioWare and Wario Land series’) or Luigi (Luigi’s Mansion). He has never been a playable character in non-sports Mario games like Bowser or Peach (Paper Mario series among others). Even Captain Toad got his own spin-off (Captain Toad’s Treasure Tracker). Yet Waluigi barely even makes a cameo in any of these.
In 2018 the outcry grew to a fever pitch and Reggie Fils-Amié, Head of Nintendo of America, was forced to make a comment. He washed his hands of Waluigi. He claimed that, ultimately, Waluigi’s inclusion was the decision of Masahiro Sakurai (director of Super Smash Bros Ultimate). Sakurai has never commented on Waluigi.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that Nintendo does not care about their fans. Waluigi is the ultimate example of this indifference.. He was created by an outside studio; it feels like he is destined to be condemned to the fringes of Mario Sports games and never welcomed into the inner-circle. This should have been clear with the banning of the peace sign in 1996: Miyamoto would ban one of Mario’s most popular gestures if it meant sticking more closely to his vision of who and what Mario should be. In many ways, introducing DLC characters with Piranha Plant was a statement of intent: Nintendo would rather make a minor enemy character they created playable than a fan favourite made by an outside studio. Yet, there is always a glimmer of hope. In 2017, more than 20 years after the banning of the peace sign, it returned in Super Mario Odyssey. When Mario collects a moon, he will do a random celebration animation, one of which is the classic peace sign. It seems clear that whatever ban was there has been loosened. It still feels too soon for Nintendo to jump all aboard the Waluigi express like the rest of us, but maybe, with a little more time, our sleek, slinky god will finally be allowed to smash.
