You know how I made that random Luigi reference in that last post. Total coincidence if I’m being honest. But hey, it’s a Luigi month! Frankly speaking, the man in green doesn’t get the respect that he truly deserves. So this month we will be looking at some of his highlights. So I thought that we would first start out with some good memes the man has created just with his presence in games over the years. Even though he may seem like he is overshadowed by his brother, in reality he is just trying not to steal the spotlight. Seriously, what a nice guy. At least, most of the time. Let’s look at a great meme that showed up during Mario Kart 8 known as the Luigi Death stare. For those of you who have not played the game, Mario Kart 8 can be a brutal and unforgiving game just like most of Nintendo’s party and competitive games. Only Nintendo could make go-karting feel so violent while also making it super family friendly. There are a multitude of items you can use to put yourself in first place and take out the competition. And then you will get blue shelled because the game decided that your time is over. All I’m trying to say is that things can get chaotic. That means places change a lot. The funny thing was that someone realized that whenever Luigi passed someone he had taken out, he would give them this murderous stare as if he was warning them not to get back up. It was pretty funny and just kind of blew up. Now if you want to find it you can look it up on YouTube if you haven’t seen it already. Go on, I’ll wait. You back? Okay, now doesn’t he look so menacing? You have to wonder why Luigi has all that anger inside him. Oh wait, I just realized he is playing Mario Kart 8 so that totally makes sense.
The next meme I want to talk about for a bit is one that I find to be an absolute classic. It is one that has once again resurfaced after the latest released game in the Mario Party series: Mario Party Superstars. It is quite honestly not adding much new to the table, but it is honestly one of the most fun Mario Party games in years, so I’ll think we’ll just let that slide. For those of you who are unaware, Mario Party is in the same line as Mario Kart in that there is no clear winner until the end. The biggest difference between the two series is that the former has a much heavier emphasis on luck. The goal of the game is simple. You just have to have the highest star count at the end of the game. You purchase them by getting coins around the map with the best way being minigames. These games are usually based on a bit of skill as well as a bit of luck. However, skill goes out the window once the AI is on easy mode. Someone abused this and gave rise to the meme: Luigi wins by doing absolutely nothing. It is a series of videos showcasing Luigi not moving at all while the three AI scramble to win the minigames while failing miserably to a man staring blankly into the distance. To be fair, most minigames avoid this problem by requiring at least one button press, but for some of the others the possibilities are endless. To be perfectly honest I am not sure why they chose Luigi for this bit, but it is possibly because of his usual low key nature. That and the fact that Nintendo usually doesn’t give him much to do anyway so it’s a perfect fit.
The thing that I hope you take away from this, other than Luigi is definitely the more entertaining of the Mario Brothers, is that you don’t see these kind of memes about Mario. When is the last time something like this happened to him? And Chris Pratt as Mario doesn’t count because the whole cast of that movie is going to be legendary. We are in for a beautiful train wreck next holiday season and I look forward to watching it in theaters. Tangents aside, Mario never really had anything unique about him. The most controversial thing he has ever done was kidnap a monkey and attack it’s child. I know that is pretty messed up but that was years ago. Mario and more importantly Nintendo would never be caught doing anything like that anymore. Luigi luckily doesn’t have as much spotlight on him as his brother and so he gets to have more interesting interactions with other characters. It is a shame but it seems that Luigi’s lack of attention actually gives better potential for memes. Personally, I am all for more memes of Luigi, but it feels as if he is only being picked because there are no better options. Since he has the most amount of wiggle room with his personality, there is a lot more that he can get away with compared to everyone else. It also feels more fun to interpret things differently because it’s Luigi. The death stare could very well be Luigi’s serious racing face for all we know. I hope it isn’t though because things are more fun that way. So if Luigi is our best way of producing quality memes, then let’s keep them coming. Although it might be hard to top the Charlie Day Luigi memes at the moment.
That Casual Gamer Guy 