For nearly two and a half decades, Nintendo fans have been trying to verify that Mario’s brother Luigi was somehow hidden away in the files of Nintendo 64 classic Super Mario 64. Thanks to this weekend’s so-called “Gigaleaks”, Luigi’s Mario 64 files have been verified, finally proving one of the longest-running gaming myths to be true. How good does that feel?
Very good, judging from internet fan reactions.
Mario 64 was supposed to have multiplayer. Mario and Luigi running about together in three dimensions was supposed to be a thing, but as Mr. Iwata and Mr. Miyamoto discussed in 2009, Nintendo wasn’t able to pull it off back then.
But how can there be a modern, 3D Mario game without Luigi? That’s the question that drove countless fans to hunt for the plumber’s taller, greener brother in Mario 64 for all of these years. Driven by their passion for Mario’s player two, and a strange statue appearing in the game that may have read “L is Real 2401”, fans tried everything they could think of to unlock Luigi.
Where decades of searching failed, this weekend’s Gigaleaks succeeded. Files and textures for Luigi were found among this weekend’s Nintendo 64 leaks. Skimming through the textures from the leak, fans discovered the green L that rests atop the better brother’s hat, along with special images representing Luigi’s moustache and sideburns. He was in pieces, but fans rebuilt him. They had the technology.
He’s beautiful, isn’t he? Here’s a shot of him next to his brother. Not a huge difference, of course. It’s mainly a body stretch, color swap, and switching out that scalloped mustache for something a bit more well-groomed.
And so, after nearly a quarter of a century, L is real. CuckyDev on YouTube has a video of Luigi wandering about Mario 64 as if he owns the game and everything.
Luigi fans around the world are taking to Twitter to celebrate this most wondrous of revelations.
Some are just shocked that something good has actually happened in 2020.
But over the past couple of days, I’ve also seen spectacular new fan art.
I’ve read speculatory comics. (It probably didn’t happen this way, but we can’t really say it didn’t, either.)
And taken weighed in on Luigi-only beauty pageants.
Others celebrated via the magic of dance.
And someone even took Luigi camping.
It truly is a celebratory moment for longtime Nintendo fans. They kept believing L was real. And he was.
I have yet to find anyone celebrating with an elaborate Luigi cake, but surely it’s only a matter of time.