Game Theory - The SECRET Family of Waluigi?! (Mario)

Episode Date: September 25, 2023

Join Game Theory Host MatPat as he takes on Mario's BIGGEST meme-lord Waluigi! CREDITS: Writers: Matthew Patrick, Tom Robinson, and Joey Lima Editors: Dan "Cybert" Seibert, Daniel Zemke, Warak, Brandon_n_motion, Dom Sealion, Koen Verhagen and Shannon (Bomb0i) Assistant Editor: Caitie Turner (Caiterpillart) Sound Editor: Yosi Berman

He has been called many things, a trickster, a villain, a meme god. But despite his many names, Waluigi, the final reflection in the fun house miramays of Mario doppelgangers. It's a man with no known point of origin. Like the rose in his teeth, he keeps others at a distance with sharp thorns of poor sportsmanship. Only his closest confidant, Wario, has ever been. been able to get past the thorns. But why? Why was he allowed to take a peek behind the petals when no others have? Is Wario simply a cherished friend to Wal Luigi? Or is he something more? A brother, perhaps? Maybe a lover? Despite all these questions, there is one thing we know for sure.

Wal-Louisji number one. Hello, internet. Welcome to Game Theory. The show that's always happy to Stomp on Mario. But not today, because today, Waluigi time. You know, it's crazy, but somehow I've never done a theory on everyone's favorite lean, mean, meme machine, Waluigi. For anyone not already intimately familiar with the Mario franchise's best boy, Waluigi was first introduced in Mario Tennis 64, just so Wario could have himself a doubles partner. They actually considered making a Wapech for him, but Shigero Miyamoto rejected the idea because he was afraid of what kind of girl Wario would date. Something that we would actually see a year later in Wario Land 4, ironically enough.

Gotta say, not bad, though I'm more of a Bouset man myself. Anyway, Waluigi was what they went with instead, and the rest is history. But we're not here to talk about the creation of Waluigi. We're here to talk about that sweet, sweet lore. Over the past 22 years, he's been snubbed by Nintendo over and over again. They won't give him a game. They won't make him playable in Smash. And as a result, his origins remain this big mystery.

All we're told about him prior to the events of Mario 10th 64 is that he trained in secret before challenging the Mario Bros to take the title of Superstar from them. Other than that, nothing. His origins are so ambiguous that his Mario Hoops' baller name is literally the question. His whole thing is being an enigma wrapped inside a majestic mustache. But no longer, I say, it's time Waluigi gets the attention that he deserves, and not just for his sick dance moves. This is game theory. I live for solving these kinds of mysteries. And today, it's time for us to look past the memes in order to figure out who Waluigi actually is.

And not only have we figured out a secret backstory, we even know who his dad is. Spoiler alert, someone that you're likely to see in that upcoming Mario movie. Now, when he first appeared on the scene, most people assumed that Waluigi was Wario's brother. And that makes a lot of sense, right? The evil counterparts to the Mario brothers would also be brothers themselves. Especially when you consider that they combine their names with the Japanese words Waurui, which essentially means bad. Bad Mario, bad Luigi.

Plus, there were a lot of direct sources just confirming the idea. When Mario Tennis was first released, Nintendo's website referred to Wario as Wau Luigi's big brother. Nintendo of Europe said it too. On the European website for the Mario Kart DS track Waluigi pinball, it says this, quote, Wario's weird sibling constructed this high-speed track inside of a giant pinball table. There's also a series of articles that appeared on Nintendo of Europe's website between 2001 and 2003 called Wario's Warehouse.

There again, Waluigi is referred to as Wario's brother. Naturally, I let Waluigi go first with a shopping. After my beanpole of a brother had slipped through, squealing with glee like an idiot, I followed and promptly got stuck. Now, these are things that Nintendo of Japan could have corrected, but never did over the course of three years. Of course, this is Nintendo we're talking about.

Nothing is ever going to be that cut and dry. There's a news brief in Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Game, that specifically says Wario and Waluigi aren't brothers. That's it. That is all it says. It is very direct. In Mario Super Sluggers, Wario refers to Waluigi as his, quote, sneaky pal. And that sort of terminology also matches what Charles Martinet, the voice actor for Mario, Wario, and Waluigi seems to believe. He said, once in an interview, quote,

I don't actually know if they're brothers or not. I don't think so. I think they're just two nice, evil guys who found each other. And then Nintendo just decided to own up to the confusion in Super Smash Brothers' Malay and Brawl. where Waluigi's trophies describe their relationship more ambiguously saying it's unclear or a mystery. So if they're not brothers, then who is Waluigi? Is he actor for hire Jimmy Papadopoulos?

A rogue taco chef? A manifestation of Luigi's own insecurities? Luigi and Waluigi are the same person. No, no. Hold on there, Brian David Gilbert. Let's not jump to conclusions. Because while Nintendo's words may say conflicting things about Waluigi, there's one part of him that's undeniable and unchanging.

his design. That's right, theorists. It's time for my favorite Mario lore-solving tool, genetics. Let's talk about some traits that we've talked about a lot on this channel before, eye color. If these two were intended to be brothers, well, it expects some key elements of their designs to be the same. So let's look at exactly that. Both Wario and Waluigi have blue-gray eyes. If one of them had brown eyes, which is the dominant gene, well then the chances of them being related would go way down. So the fact that they have themselves the recessive blue-gray eye tends to strengthen the the idea that they could be related. They also have the same blue rim around their eye socket as though they haven't gotten sleep for the last week, which, hey, I feel that. Admittedly, this is a

weird connection and it's unclear whether it's genetic or not, but you know what? I'm not going to turn down any evidence, no matter how random it might be. That's not the only thing either. Their noses also scream we're related. Obviously, the shapes are very different, with Waluigi's having a sharp point and Wario's being much wider and rounded. Then again, both of them are hot pink, as though they got themselves the worst case of rosacea ever. That cannot be a coincidence. I mean, I challenge you to come up with someone else in this franchise who has a pink nose. Really?

Burdo is the long-lost relative of Wario and Waluigi. You know what, not a bad idea. I'm going to write that one down for a future theory. But in all seriousness, with almost no other character in the series having the same nose as them, seems pretty obvious that there might be some kind of a connection there. Also, while researching, I stumbled across this cursed image, where Wario and Waluigi don't have. have the pink noses.

Cannot unsee! That said, the cherry on top of our genetics Sunday is, as it usually is in these sorts of videos, the ears. They both have themselves detached earlobes, which is noteworthy because most characters in the Mario franchise have earlobes that are attached to their face. That means that they're more likely to be related to each other than anyone else.

But that wasn't the most interesting part here. What really caught my attention was the fact that both characters have pointed ears. This appears to be an exaggerated form of a rare congenital deform called Stahl's Ear, which gives the ear a pointed elf-like appearance. That's why nicknames for this condition include Elf's Ear and Spock's Ear. Rough estimates put it at occurring in less than one in 6,000 children. Because of how rare it is, there's actually very little research available on the condition, but the general consensus is that it's likely hereditary,

as evidenced by studies that were done on identical twins. Now, obviously this doesn't prove that Wario and Waluigi are family, but the rarity of pointed ears, combined with the eyes and the hot, pink nose heavily implies that they're closely related, like brothers, rather than just some distant cousin or a pal that they met one day at villain's school. So, while not 100% confirmed, it does seem most likely that Wario and Waluigi are in fact brothers, just like Waluigi's initial announcement said on that Mario Tennis website. But if you thought I was just going to leave the theory there, then clearly you haven't been watching this channel for very long. Now,

well, it's certainly cool that we can show a lot of evidence suggesting that Wario and Waluigi are brothers, it's not exactly mind-blowing, so I'm gonna take it a step further. What if I told you that I can not only prove that Wario and Waluigi are siblings, I can also prove who the father is? Here's a hint. He's done more than his fair share of smashing. Need another hint? He's going to appear in the Mario movie. Still now? All right, last one. He actually has his own demolition company, a wrecking crew, if you will. And if you got that last reference, well done, you're either a Super Mario nerd or you're old. I believe that Waluigi's father is none other than the forgotten Mario rival, Foreman Spike, from the classic NES game, Wrecking Crew.

In the game, Mario works as part of a demolition team, and Spike is the boss. Trying to knock Mario off a platform, or trying to hoard all the money for himself, presumably so Mario can't afford a lawyer in order to sue for the constant OSHA violations. Spike's entry in the great Mario character Encyclopedia suggests that his greed may even be worse than Warios. So, he's greedy, and he resorts to sabotage. I mean, what other character does that remind you of? Now, admittedly, that is some pretty weak sauce evidence. Sure, they share some personality traits, but that doesn't really prove anything.

He doesn't even look anything like Wario or Walooigi, and you'd be right. Provided, you were just talking about his first appearance. However, the original wrecking crew isn't the only time that we see our buddy Forman Spike. In 1998, Japan got the imaginatively titled Recking Crew 98. And of course, our boy Forman Spike makes his triumph in return, only this time he looks a little bit different. Check out the nose. Nintendo decided to make it bright pink, thereby making him the only other character in the franchise with that design style.

He may have also noticed that he's lost that magnificent beard of his from the first game, revealing instead a cleft chin just like Wario, making him the perfect candidate for these guys' father. Foreman's Spike even has a hint of stalls ear going on. If you take a closer look at his sprite art from the game, you can see that the top of his ear has been made slightly pointier. Heck, he even has their signature laugh. This guy is basically what you get him.

if Wario and Waluigi did a fusion dance with the personality to match. And the connections here aren't just skin deep either. In 2001, Spike appeared in the Game Boy Color game Mobile Golf. In it, he has himself two profiles, and they use almost the exact same wording as Waluigi's character profile, both stating that they trained in secret and that they're actually hard workers. Bear in mind, Mobile Golf was made by Camelot, the same company that made Waluigi himself, so them sharing descriptions is hardly an accident. They even, even give Spike the same color scheme that they gave Waluigi and Mario Tennis on Game Boy Color.

Beautiful, beautiful purple. Waluigi also seems to have carried on the family business of construction. Mario Party E was a board game for the Game Boy Advance that came out back in 2003. What made it unique is the fact that it used the E-reader accessory, which would scan in real-world cards to affect what was happening on the screen. In this title, there's a mini-game called Waluigi's Rain, where our favorite meme lord is operating something that resembles construction equipment, all while surrounded by steel girders and beams.

His level is a construction site. More importantly, though, is Waluigi's island in Mario Party 3, where his crew of piranha plants has seen demolishing Luigi's property in order to make room for Waluigi posters. Notice that the Waluigi emblem is on the purple hammer in the upper right corner of the board, suggesting that Waluigi owns this equipment, construction and demolition equipment, just like his dear old dad. And that's not all.

Nintendo of Europe's website description for the Waluigi Pinball Trouble Trouble, rack in Mario Kart DS states that Waluigi constructed it himself. And to top it off, his signature cart in Mario Kart DS is the gold mantis. It's not even a go-kart. It's an excavator. And not just any excavator either. One that is almost identical to spikes in his mobile golf concept art. That's right, my friends.

Waluigi is canonically forklift certified. Even his dance moves are secretly telling us that Waluigi comes from a construction family. In DDR Mario Mix, do you want to guess what his theme song is? It's a track called Destruction Dance, a remix of the Wrecking Crew bonus stage theme. Take a listen. Coincidence? I think not.

Honestly, this is just scratching the surface of Waluigi's connections to Spike. I have myself a dump truck full of other smaller details. But then I realized that all of this evidence is actually highlighting a bigger issue. While Waluigi clearly shares strong connections with Form and Spike, outside of the nose, cleft chin, and large frame, Wario seems to share very little. Luigi and Spiker in construction. Wario is into farming.

His unlockable signature cart, Mario Kart DS was the Dragonfly Tractor. The fire attack cutscene in Game and Watch Gallery 4 shows Wario Farming Tomatoes. And in that cutscene, he's accompanied by his pet chicken. He loves so much that one time he prioritized her over retrieving his stolen treasure. Wario also seems to have himself some kind of German origin. Speaking German on multiple occasions. Oh, I missed. Even his Super Mario Striker's theme is Germanic in nature.

Plus, the big question still remains. If they're in fact brothers, why would Wario not realize this? Well, for that, we turn to one particular game. Yoshi's Island DS. In it, Bowser goes back in time to kidnap babies from all over the world in search of the seven-star children. Even going so far as to kidnap a baby version of himself, among those kidnapped children is none other than Wario.

By the end of the game, all the babies are returned by Storks to their families, with one exception. Wario. Wario overpowers historic and instead sits on a row. raft full of treasure that was stolen from Bowser's castle. Gotta give it to Nintendo on that one. Way to keep it consistent there, guys. But all of this means that Wario never returned home.

His greed drove him to find treasure elsewhere and he never found his way back. This is why Wario's great encyclopedia entry lists his place of origin as unknown, despite the fact that he has a Ma'a that we hear him talk to as part of a blooper cutscene from Mario Power Tennis. And above everything else, this would explain why Wario doesn't call Waluigi his brother. He doesn't know. Neither of them do because they were separated at birth. That night when Kamik comes to find the star children, he took Wario and left Waluigi behind. No wonder Waluigi has issues. Can you imagine Kamik trying to collect every baby in the world in order to find the star children?

But he takes one look at you and just says, no, not that one. Waluigi, once again getting passed over. A trend that would then continue for the rest of his life. Anyway, Wario's obsession with greed means he never returns home, thereby growing up on a farm with some German lady while Waluigi were home with his father Foreman's Spike, eventually grown up to take over the family business. But just like Mario was drawn to Luigi by their brotherly bond, so too were Waluigi and Wario drawn together, without ever truly understanding why.

But hey, that's just a theory. A game theory! Thanks for watching!