With Luigi’s Mansion, the youngest Mario brother became the most endearing

Tucked away in Nintendo’s 2001 role-playing game Paper Mario is our first glimpse of Luigi’s unshakable inferiority complex. He doesn’t spill his guts in a tear-jerking monologue or a heart-to-heart chat with his famous brother. No, our window into his fractured psyche is a diary that Mario surreptitiously reads in the secret basement Luigi built below their home—specifically to hide his innermost thoughts from his high-and-mighty brother. It’s pitiable stuff, a man’s excitedly professed hopes and dreams dragged down by self-doubt and a meekness born from years of perceived inadequacy. These diary entries contain the groundwork for Luigi’s character going forward. One even hints at the future starring role that would bring all of these implied neuroses to life:
I heard a rumor that I actually have lots of fans. Wow! What great news! To live up to their expectations, I want to play the lead in an adventure! Of course, my name would have to be in the title. That’d be sweet… But I know it’ll never happen…
It did happen. Luigi’s Mansion was released later that year alongside the GameCube. For the second time ever, Luigi was the one and only star. Just like his last shot at the limelight, he was out to save Mario, who’d this time been kidnapped by the ghosts haunting a creepy mansion. The game was a technical showpiece for Nintendo’s little lunchbox that could, but its fancy lighting tricks and dust particles are nowhere near as impressive as the ambitious, considered creation that is Luigi himself. The details of his exaggerated movements and actions were carefully drawn from the same relatable quirks laid out in his Paper Mario diary. Without much dialogue to lean on, they paint Luigi as a lively, flawed human hero, the likes of which are more endearing than his iconic brother could ever be.