Luigi

Luigi is Mario's brother who first appeared in Mario Bros. for the Arcade(and later,on the NES). He wears green and he is taller and younger than Mario.

Luigi first appeared in Mario Bros. but in Donkey Kong (Game) we see two Marios. Fans suggest that, that Mario is Luigi.

In Super Mario Bros., Luigi could be played when you selected the 2-player mode. The second player controlled Luigi. He had all the same abilities as Mario, and he looked exactly the same except he wore white and green.

However, this was fixed in Super Mario Bros. 2, where Luigi actually looked taller than Mario. His best ability in Super Mario Bros. 2 was his jumping. He also jumped higher than Mario in Super Mario: The Lost Levels (Super Mario Bros. 2 in Japan).

In Super Mario Bros. 3, however, the characters were once again the same size and had the same abilities. And once again, Luigi could only be played with the 2nd controller. The same thing happened in Super Mario World for the SNES.

However, in SMW2: Yoshi's Island, Luigi is not playable at all. Baby Mario and Yoshi go through the whole game and rescue Baby Luigi at the end. The two Mario Bros. are brought to Mr. and Mrs. Mario by the Stork. The final screenshot is Mr. and Mrs. Mario holding their sons. Even though this would seem to prove that Luigi and Mario are twins, all other games say that Mario is the older brother.

Luigi never appeared throughout Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, except for in the ending credits. However, a star on Star Hill says I wish I could be a great plumber like my brother Mario. Clearly, it's Luigi who made this wish.

Luigi didn't appear at all in Super Mario 64. A statue supposedly said L is Real 2041, but nobody knows what this means. Most people now agree that the statue actually says "Eternal Star," which makes much more sense. In Paper Mario, Luigi was just in his house for the whole adventure. However, Mario can look at Luigi's Diary in his basement by Spin Jumping a panel in his house.

But in the first Mario game on the GCN, Luigi finally got his own game!(aside from Mario is Missing) In Luigi's Mansion, Luigi wins a mansion in a contest he never entered. However, Mario is nowhere to be found and there are ghosts inhabiting the mansion. Luigi meets Professor E. Gadd, who gives him the Poltergust 3000 vacuum to suck the ghosts up. As the game progresses, Luigi finds that King Boo has trapped Mario in a portrait. Luigi battles King Boo in a Bowser suit and saves Mario.

Luigi didn't appear in Super Mario Sunshine, but on Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, Luigi was the main character of the game along with Mario. They used co-operative moves to get through the game and defeat the evil Cackletta and Fawful. He later appeared in Mario and Luigi: Partners In Time.

Luigi actually had an adventure while Mario had his adventure in Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door. Partners of many different species joined Luigi's party, just as they did with Mario. Unfortunately, you can not actually play Luigi's adventure. Instead, you can find Luigi in various places around Rogueport and he tells you his story. You can also buy 5 Super Luigi Books from the Item Shop, which tell Luigi's story in more detail.

Luigi will later appear in New Super Mario Bros. as the second player.

Luigi is also playable in the Mario Party and Mario Kart series, as well as the Mario sports games.

Luigi's voice
Unlike Mario, whose voice has remained basically the same since its debut in Super Mario 64, Luigi's voice has fluctuated between high and low-pitched varieties throughout games. When his voice was first introduced in Mario Kart 64, its was considerably lower in pitch than Mario's, however, in Mario Party, he possessed a much higher pitched voice which was similar to Mario's. He retained this higher voice in Mario Party 2 and also had a high voice in Super Smash Bros. In Mario Golf, Mario Tennis, and Mario Party 3, however, his voice returned to a lower state. Since then, with the exceptions of Mario Kart: Super Circuit and Super Smash Bros. Melee, games have consistantly given Luigi a low-pitched voice.

Luigi's age in relation to Mario's age
Luigi is now generally accepted as the younger (yet taller) brother of Mario, though in the game Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, he was said to be his twin brother. This was possibly either a mistake, or a fact that was later changed, as the remake of that game (Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3) does not refer to Mario and Luigi as twins, but rather as brothers.

Luigi outside of the games
Though Luigi has become less prominent in the games lately, he would accompany Mario in all of his jumps to other forms of media, with the exception of the Saturday Supercade.

His film debut came in the obscure 1986 Mario anime movie, The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach, where he was voiced by Mizushima Yu. He does not appear in the three Super Mario Bros. 3 OVA films until the end of the Shirayukihime story, where he saved the day. Afterwards, he was a regular on The Super Mario Bros. Super Show, which cast Danny Wells as both his live portrayal and voice actor. Like his brother, Luigi's voice actor changed in later cartoons, in his case to Tony Rosato. Notably, on The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3, Luigi starred in "Life's Ruff", the only Mario cartoon episode where Mario did not appear.

When Mario made the jump to comics in 1990, Luigi made the jump with him. Oddly enough, in the Nintendo Comics System, Luigi did not play the role of Mario's sidekick as frequently as in the cartoons, to the point that in one story Mario referred to Toad as his sidekick.

Luigi played quite a different role in the Super Mario Bros. movie, where he was portrayed by John Leguizamo. There, Luigi was a more easy-going character in contrast to the cynical Mario of the film.