The Year of Luigi

The Year of Luigi was a special event that was held in 2013 and continued in 2014 in commemoration of the 30th anniversary of Luigi's debut in Mario Bros., which was first released in 1983. Therefore, released during the event were several games, collectibles, and downloadable content with Luigi as the main focus. The Year of Luigi was originally announced during the February 2013 Nintendo Direct, and in early December, Reggie Fils-Aime stated that it would continue into 2014, which was confirmed by Satoru Iwata in the Nintendo Direct on December 18, 2013. As announced by Shigeru Miyamoto on February 18, 2014, the Year of Luigi officially ended on March 18, 2014.

Nintendo 3DS

 * Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon
 * Mario & Luigi: Dream Team

Wii U

 * New Super Luigi U
 * Luigi Bros. in Super Mario 3D World
 * Dr. Luigi
 * Super Luigi Bros. in NES Remix 2 and NES Remix Pack

Console special editions

 * A Luigi-themed Nintendo 3DS XL with Mario & Luigi: Dream Team pre-installed on the 4GB SD card. (Available for retail in Japan and North America, and exclusively via Nintendo's official online store in the United Kingdom. )

Merchandise

 * Japan Club Nintendo members can get a copy of The Year of Luigi Sound Selection. It contains 30 songs from Luigi's Mansion to Mario & Luigi: Dream Team. It costs 400 points, but members who have purchased and registered any Year of Luigi games can get the CD for only 200 points.
 * Exclusive merchandise is available in Japan.
 * US and Canada Club Nintendo members who purchased the New Super Luigi U DLC from the Nintendo eShop by August 1, 2013 and completed the surveys within four weeks after downloading had a chance to win 1 of 980 Luigi pins.
 * A Year of Luigi coin was made available with a small green bag for 1500 and 1250 stars in the European and Australian Club Nintendo websites, respectively.
 * A Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon diorama is available on the American Club Nintendo site for 1500 coins, and the European Club Nintendo for 7000 Stars.
 * A Year of Luigi poster as part of a three poster set as an optional Platinum reward for Club Nintendo members who ranked the status by July 2013.
 * A Luigi Nendoroid tying in with the Year of Luigi, was released in July 2014.

Special elements to applications

 * Five drawing competitions in Miiverse were held, the themes of each contest being related to elements from Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon. The drawings were chosen by MariChan, who was in charge of the Luigi communities.
 * A New Super Luigi U scrapbook, with screenshots of Miiverse, the screenshots being chosen by MariChan.
 * Four Miiverse communities were opened, and remained open only during the duration of the event:
 * A general community for the Year of Luigi.
 * A Developer's Room dedicated to the Year of Luigi.
 * A community for Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon.
 * A community for Mario & Luigi: Dream Team.
 * Six Miis of Nintendo employees sent out to players' StreetPass Mii Plazas wore dark green clothes and Luigi's Cap for the event:
 * Shigeru Miyamoto
 * Satoru Iwata
 * Hideki Konno
 * Takashi Tezuka
 * Koichi Hayashida
 * Kensuke Tanabe
 * A Year of Luigi stationary was released for Swapnote.
 * Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka sent out notes on Swapnote about the Year of Luigi.

Other

 * The Wii U Summer Tour, which brought Wii U and Nintendo 3DS booths to major US cities for a limited time, featured Year of Luigi games.
 * Every course in New Super Luigi U features Luigi sightings, as do most courses in Super Mario 3D World, some courses in Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, and some challenges in NES Remix 2.
 * A short video was created by Nintendo of America called Finding Luigi - Legend of Parkour.
 * One of Chicago's Brown Line L-Trains was decorated for one day to promote New Super Luigi U and the Year of Luigi.
 * For a time, the North American Club Nintendo website was changed to a Luigi theme, including changing the Mario hat logo to a special Luigi hat logo.

References in later media

 * Mario Kart 8 Direct - When Luigi is shown losing a race in one segment, one of the announcers comments that "the Year of Luigi truly is over."
 * Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U - Luigi's character trophy mentions that the attention from the Year of Luigi made him "even more shy and awkward." In Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, during the Palutena's Guidance conversation about Luigi, Pit mentions that "he even had his own year."
 * Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam - When Luigi is alone in Gloomy Woods, Starlow encourages him. One thing she mentions is that Luigi even had a year named after him.

Trivia

 * Although Iwata claimed that Luigi's debut was in the Mario Bros. arcade game, he actually appeared earlier in the Mario Bros. Game & Watch game. He also claimed that the arcade game was released on July 14, 1983 when its actual release date was on June 21, 1983.
 * The logo is similar to that of the logo used for the 25th anniversary of Super Mario Bros.
 * In the Luigi-theme special edition of the Nintendo 3DS XL, at the back of the system, a Mario silhouette can be spotted surrounded by Luigi silhouettes.