The Super Mario universe may not be built around a single cohesive narrative, but it's full of interesting characters anyway. The unflappable Mario and anxious Luigi make for fun contrasts to one another, while Bowser serves as a mighty but oftentimes funny antagonist to pit them against. Super Mario multiplayer games do the best job of representing the spectrum of characters inhabiting the Mushroom Kingdom, though. These are the games where we can most often compare rarer characters to each other and get a more casual look at their personalities and roles in the franchise, such as Wario, Princess Daisy, and of course, Waluigi.
Waluigi, of course, is something of an odd man out in this world. Unlike his peers, Waluigi was created specifically to participate in party games—to be specific, he was created as a doubles partner for Wario in Mario Tennis for the N64. To date, he still hasn't been given the opportunity to star in his own game. This is in contrast to Waluigi's massive popularity online. No Super Mario character holds quite the same meme power as Waluigi, whose exaggerated personality and movements have earned him a lot of fans. Nintendo surely knows by now how much people love Waluigi, so it should at least try to make a game based on this Super Mario underdog.
Waluigi's Enthusiastic Fanbase
Waluigi's support can't be underestimated. Although not everybody liked this self-proclaimed rival to Luigi when he first appeared 20 years ago, he now has a major following of fans that want to see him succeed. For instance, many demanded that Waluigi appear in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as a playable fighter, but unfortunately he was merely relegated to Assist Trophy status as usual. Others have even gone as far as to make Waluigi fan games, such as the famous Psycho Waluigi, where Waluigi lands in a land called Unconcia and starts to conquer its kingdoms using his newfound psychic powers.
In spite of all this support for the character, Nintendo simply hasn't given Waluigi a game to star in. He may be an antagonist in a handful of Super Mario spinoffs and serve as a playable character in franchises such as Mario Party and Mario Kart, there isn't a game specifically about Waluigi yet. That's in contrast to his best friend Wario, who has seen a lot of success with the Wario Land and WarioWare franchises. Waluigi's Internet fame makes him ripe for starring in a new Super Mario spinoff. Odds are good that, simply because they love him so much, Waluigi fans will undoubtedly give any game about him a try, no matter what genre Nintendo drops him into.
Potential Waluigi Games
The most obvious candidate for a Waluigi game is simply a platformer of some kind. A 2D platformer would attract fans of the mainline Super Mario games, and it could also serve as a spiritual successor to Wario Land if it borrows some of its mechanics, focusing on puzzle-solving and exploration. An inventive platformer about Waluigi on a journey of his own could be a hit just like Psycho Waluigi. Alternatively, Nintendo could lean into his party game identity and create Waluigi Tennis. A new Mario Tennis game where Waluigi is the main character of the story mode and somehow impacts all of the game's other modes would be a pretty funny way to celebrate his introduction to Super Mario and his overarching legacy.
Waluigi doesn't have to become the new star of the Super Mario franchise, but Nintendo certainly ought to give him some more acknowledgment. While it may not view Waluigi as an important part of the Mushroom Kingdom, there's a lot of Super Mario fans out there who feel differently. Making a Waluigi game would be a great way for Nintendo to connect with the Super Mario fanbase, and it could be a breath of fresh air for the franchise too. Waluigi deserves to stand in the spotlight for once, and neither he nor his fans would complain if Nintendo gave him the opportunity to do so.