Project M, the unofficial lovechild of Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Melee, has been abandoned by its developers, but fans are still churning out content for the popular mod. As of last Sunday, our favorite conniving Mario underdog has earned his own—again unofficial—Smash character in Project M. Waaahaaahaa.
Currently in Smash, Waluigi exists as a trophy in Melee and Brawl. But for the past five years, an Australian 3d artist named Marioking64DS been developing a fully playable Waluigi character for Project M along with a few programmers.
“Nintendo isn’t giving him enough appreciation,” Marioking64DS told me. “He deserves more. They’re not doing much with him.” He added that the real reason he’s created the character is fan demand.
Marioking64DS’s Waluigi isn’t just an official character wrapped in a Waluigi skin, like the viral Dragon Ball Son Goku Smash 4 mod. The new Waluigi character has his own move set, including some fun aerials befitting his string-bean physique. Waluigi’s Up-B has him twirling like a screwdriver. He also uses a tennis racket, a la Mario Tennis.
And just as Luigi is Mario’s gameplay counterpart, this Waluigi mod is now Wario’s. Marioking64DS’s Waluigi improves on Wario’s deficiencies and is gimped where Wario shines: “When it comes to as in how he feels as a fighter in Smash I wanted him to play out the extreme differences. Wario in Brawl is noted to have one of the best aerial movements in the game so with that I made it that Waluigi has one of the worst. Most of Wario’s weakest moves are done by his legs, [while] Waluigi’s arm attack are his weakest while his legs being the better kill moves,” Marioking64DS wrote on a Smash forum.
Marioking64DS says his next Project M mods will be King K. Rool from Donkey Kong and Black shadow from F-Zero.
Project M was formally discontinued last December under unclear circumstances, although download links for the game are still available for the Wii’s SD card. Its fan community even continues to regularly host tournaments. The Waluigi mod is available for download here.