At first, he was made as a copy of Mario with a green color instead of red. Later in the series, he became his own character with his own personality and abilities. As his part in the Mario series progressed, Luigi became taller and thinner than his brother.
The events leading to the creation of Luigi began in 1982, during the making of Donkey Kong. The Nintendo designer Shigeru Miyamoto had created Mario (who used to be "Jumpman") hoping that he would be able to show the character in many different pars in future games.[1] Miyamoto had been given ideas by the game Joust to create a game where two players can play at the same time. This was the cause of his development of the game Mario Bros. in 1983, with Luigi as the brother of Mario and the second playable character.[2] The name Luigi is said to have been inspired by a pizza business near the head office of Nintendo of America in Redmond, Washington, called "Mario & Luigi's". Miyamoto noticed that the word ruiji means "similar" in the Japanese language and that Luigi was designed to have the same size, shape and gameplay as Mario.[3]
At first, in Donkey Kong, Mario was a carpenter. In Mario Bros., Mario and Luigi were designed as Italianplumbers by Miyamoto at the suggestion of a partner.[4] Software limits at the time—almost the same as those that gave Mario his special look in Donkey Kong—meant the first appearance of Luigi was limited to a simple color swap of Mario, designed to be the second player. The characters were in every way the same, other than their colors.[5] The green color for Luigi would be one of his physical characteristics in future releases.
After the success of Mario Bros., Luigi was shown to a wider market in 1985 with the release of the NES game Super Mario Bros.Once again, his part was limited to a color swap of Mario, acting as the second-player in almost the same way as Mario Bros. The Japan-only form of Super Mario Bros. 2 in 1986 (released in the west as Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levelsin the future) marked the start of Luigi becoming a separate character. As with his last appearances, Luigi was still a color swap of Mario. However, his moves were not the same. Luigi could now jump higher and a greater distance than his brother, at the cost of motion reaction and exactness.[6]
While this form of Super Mario Bros. 2 was released in Japan, it was thought to be too hard for the American public at the time.[4] In 1988, as a result, an alternative release was developed to be good enough as Super Mario Bros. 2 for western players (and in the future released in Japan as Super Mario USA). This would play a key part in forming the current look of Luigi.[4] The game was a conversion of Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic, with the art changed to be characters and places from the Mario series. In this release, the character of "Mama", who could jump the highest, was good enough for the model for Luigi. This caused his taller, thinner look, combined with his Mario-designed outfit and green color. There were appearances of Luigi being taller than Mario before - for example, in the 1988 Famicom Disk System game Famicom Grand Prix II: 3D Hot Rally and before that, in a very limited 1986 animeSuper Mario Bros.: Peach-Hime Kyushutsu Dai Sakusen! (though in the anime, he had a yellow shirt and blue overalls). Licensed art for Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario Worldshows Luigi with this new look. Nintendo of Japan would not change his art differences to his look within the game until the 1992 game Super Mario Kart. The appearance of Luigi from the Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic version of Super Mario Bros. 2 has been used ever since, even for games made again in which he was a palette swap to start with.
