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Hey guys. I've been thinking about it for a while and I decided that I wanted to make a long winded post and vent my frustrations about a certain character many people on these boards and elsewhere are sold on and why it kind of infuriates me a little. So here's my case why I don't think Waluigi should be or will be in Smash.
Before you do read though if you choose to, I will offer some context why I'm posting this here. Our Geno thread has always felt more like a general discussion thread for Geno fans and I think the same can be said for the other character threads too. It was like that in the Brawl days which I was heavily involved in when I was a kid. I know this isn't specifically related to Geno and if I get a warning for being off-topic, so be it but I put a good amount of time and effort into this post and to be honest, this is the only place I really feel comfortable posting it and some of these feelings I have need to be said. So, with that being said...
tl;dr version:
F*** Waluigi.
Before you do read though if you choose to, I will offer some context why I'm posting this here. Our Geno thread has always felt more like a general discussion thread for Geno fans and I think the same can be said for the other character threads too. It was like that in the Brawl days which I was heavily involved in when I was a kid. I know this isn't specifically related to Geno and if I get a warning for being off-topic, so be it but I put a good amount of time and effort into this post and to be honest, this is the only place I really feel comfortable posting it and some of these feelings I have need to be said. So, with that being said...
First and foremost, I'm not going to cover the toxicity of a small minority of the Waluigi fanbase. Truth is, I know that there are a lot of kind hearted people that are fans of this character. Some people would view Waluigi's inclusion as rewarding abhorrent behavior like throwing fits or sending death threats to Sakurai but I don't see it that way at all. Every characters fanbase has their bad apples. We're no exception but I'm only going to be covering the merits, legacy and the current status of Waluigi in Smash and express my feelings why he shouldn't be in and why I'm convinced he won't be. Feel free to disagree. I'm open to these kind of dialogues.
Now, I want to be honest about my arguments and give credit where credit is due. Waluigi's resume is honestly quite rather impressive. He has appeared in over 60 games in the Mario franchise. That's more than most of the characters we have on Ultimates roster right now. Certainly more than Geno. Despite this though, we can't ignore that his appearances only consisted of second-rate titles and spin-offs as a playable character, unlockable skin and/or cameos. This is just my opinion but I know there are others than share this opinion too but regardless of how many games he's been in I don't believe that this many appearances is enough merit to warrant an inclusion on the roster. The number of games a character has been in doesn't matter to me. It's how the character is used in the games that warrants good merit and legitimacy.
Waluigi's inception was only conceived to fill a void. The first Mario Tennis released in 2000 was lacking in human characters and Wario was missing a partner and they wanted to highlight 2v2s. It's a tennis game after all. These are all fair plays on Nintendo's part and I don't see anything wrong with it. Hell, they were also proposing ideas of making a 'Wa' counterpart to Peach. I can only imagine the support that "WaPeach" would get if that concept ever came into fruition. We got Peach and Daisy, What would stop people from supporting another evil counterpart? I think this is the reasoning behind a lot of peoples support for Waluigi, not that there's anything wrong with that in my books. We got the Mario Bros. and Wario. Wouldn't it be a neat idea if the gang was all here? Well, no. I don't think so because the merit is not there in my eyes. Waluigi was only a filler character in the original Mario Tennis and that's it. That's his legacy. To just fill a void for equal balance.
I feel like a lot of people have different definitions of the word 'merit'. At times it can be a little vague, sure and when talking about video games and fictional characters it can get pretty subjective but I see it as something at the quality of being worthy to note by good standards and deserving praise. So far, the 4 DLC characters we've received so far in the Fighters Pass has a lot of merit and received critical praise with a solid legacy to back them all up to boot. It's obvious that Nintendo and Sakurai has high standards for the DLC characters this time around with these 4 alone. Piranha Plant is a weird one but I'm personally convinced that PP was never planned for base or the Fighters Pass. If you look at the culture of gaming today, pretty much 95% of games getting released have pre-order DLC bonuses. In Smash's case, if you registered your copy of Ultimate before the cut-off date, you got PP for free so I do honestly think that PP was always planned to be that FreeLC character because it would be rather odd that a huge game such as Smash wouldn't get a pre-order bonus when most AAA games and even indie games these days do. They wouldn't hand out Terry or Joker for free, but PP, sure. He's just a generic Mario enemy, so why not? (side note: I'm using the term pre-order a little loosely because you could still get PP without pre-ordering, but I do believe PP was intended to be considered under the pre-order category. When I purchased South Park: FBH, I didn't pre-order it but still got the pre-order bonus because it was a little slip of paper in the game case. The content was still considered pre-ordered DLC though. Like most pre-order DLC for other games, PP can still be purchased separately today.)
Going back to Waluigi's merit, it's virtually non-existent in my books. I mean, what world did he save? What world has he tried to rule? What game has he been the prominent face of or antagonist of? What narrative filled storyline or plot has Waluigi been involved in? What the hell has Waluigi done? He's danced, played sports, partied and just been a nuisance to his protagonist counter parts. That's literally it. Maybe we should hold off on the idea of him being playable until he gets a more prominent role in a video game before we start getting behind the idea of him getting an upgrade. I'd be more comfortable with his inclusion if he had a more prominent role, no doubt but the truth is, he doesn't as of right now. I know that people will bring up all sorts of these sort of "joke" characters like WFT, Duck Hunt, ROB or hell, even Pichu but I think an honest case can be made for all of these guys.
Wii Fit Trainer: Essentially acts as your main instructor as you play the game. Helps guide you through your workouts and is essentially to the gameplay. I may not be a huge fan of WFT's inclusion much but I can see the merit in that alone. She's just a fun inclusion in Sakurai's mind and I'm okay with him having a little bit of fun with his games.
Duck Hunt: Maybe the character itself isn't iconic, but the game definitely is. Most people that owned the original NES back in the day probably purchased the Mario Bros./Duck Hunt NES bundle that was packaged with the Nintendo Zapper, a very old but iconic peripheral. I know I did, and still own it to this day. Duck Hunts moveset also references games that also utilized the Zapper back in the day. The more representation of these IPs, the merrier in my books.
ROB: Pretty much the same deal with Duck Hunt in regards to being a peripheral. ROB was also heavily used in the Subspace Emissary story mode back in Brawl as a generic mook enemy and as one of the major antagonists in the story mode. (I'm forgetting the name of that cloaked figure that turned out to be ROB all along) They took this character and made something out of him to add more prominence to the storyline of SSE and his character, so in a way they added to the merit of ROB.
Pichu: Not as iconic as his evolutionary counterpart Pikachu but is the only representation we have of Gen 2, arguably one of the more favoured generations of Pokemon. A lot of people are pretty divided on the idea of clones/echos but we have to acknowledge that clones and echos are am essential part of Smash and have been since Melee. Pichu fits that bill of being a clone and as the years went on, a lot of us have come to terms of the concept of clones and echoes and Pichu fits that bill just fine. Maybe not so much merit behind Pichu as the others, but I personally think that being the pre-evolution of the most popular Pokemon of all time does speak volumes.
These are only just a small handful of examples, I could go on with others but I don't want to make this about other characters nearly as much as Waluigi. Again, I will admit when talking about merits in a video game character, it can get pretty subjective. Some of you may disagree and that's okay but there's something that bugs me a little bit more in the case of Waluigi than merit and legacy. It's the fact that he's a goddamn assist trophy and that's essentially where my feelings on this topic boil down to.
Now, I'm not convinced that spirits deconfirm characters. I've a Geno supporter for over a decade now, so obviously I don't buy it and maybe my bias is the reason for that. Back in Smash 4, trophies didn't deconfirm either. Lucas and Mewtwo is evident of that. I do believe that AT's do deconfirm for many reasons but mostly due to their role and impact to gameplay to those that actually have them active in battle. They're glorified items like Pokeballs. Pokeballs didn't stop Charizard from being playable, but the difference is that Charizard as a Pokeball item hasn't been a thing since Melee. Charizard was playable in Brawl, so they dropped the idea of making him appear as a Pokeball item once his inclusion with Pokemon Trainer. This was a good move on their part and it begs the question: why should a playable character be an item and a playable character? Little Mac is also another great example. His AT got scrapped when he got promoted to the roster in Smash 4 so why do we keep giving Waluigi a hard pass? It makes absolutely no sense to me why people are under the impression he's going to be the exception to the rule. No assist trophy should, otherwise they wouldn't be an AT in the first place. All it's going to do is just give false hope to fans of Shadow, Krystal, Isaac, Bomberman, and other characters with way more merit than Waluigi that unfortunately got beheaded by the AT guillotine. If he was going to be playable, he wouldn't be an AT right now and I firmly stand by that.
I understand that some people will probably bring up the argument like they could just turn off his AT when he's being played in a match, but if that's the case, what the hell was the point of wasting the time and the resources to make him return as an AT in the first place? Why would they waste the time and resources to shut off his AT when he is being used in a match? That's just adding more unnecessary work and as minimal as the time and resources may look or sound, it's still wasted time and resources. These don't sound like credible arguments. I hate to be blunt but they sound like excuses. Truth is, if someone is going to be an Assist Trophy, they should stay one. Sakurai gave them that role and we may not like it for some characters cases but that's how it is for Waluigi and others and it should stay that way. I'm sorry but I'm not convinced and the arguments I've heard and read so far lack credibility. Paragon and Fatmanonice both predict we'll get Waluigi eventually at some point of the DLC's lifecycle whether he's #5 or post-pass. I respect the hell out of both of them because they're good people but I'm convinced at this point regardless of any leaks or rumour based theories. It's way too farfetched to me.
I guess maybe I just need convincing, so my question to everyone that took the time to read this is: why? Why is Waluigi the exception to the rule of being playable and an AT? Why was he brought back as an AT in the first place if he was going to be playable eventually? Why Waluigi and not Isaac or Bomberman or Krystal? Why, oh why are so many people buying this? If you dislike what I have to say, you can call me misguided, ignorant or just a flat out asshole all you want but what I really want to know is why?
Thanks for reading!
Now, I want to be honest about my arguments and give credit where credit is due. Waluigi's resume is honestly quite rather impressive. He has appeared in over 60 games in the Mario franchise. That's more than most of the characters we have on Ultimates roster right now. Certainly more than Geno. Despite this though, we can't ignore that his appearances only consisted of second-rate titles and spin-offs as a playable character, unlockable skin and/or cameos. This is just my opinion but I know there are others than share this opinion too but regardless of how many games he's been in I don't believe that this many appearances is enough merit to warrant an inclusion on the roster. The number of games a character has been in doesn't matter to me. It's how the character is used in the games that warrants good merit and legitimacy.
Waluigi's inception was only conceived to fill a void. The first Mario Tennis released in 2000 was lacking in human characters and Wario was missing a partner and they wanted to highlight 2v2s. It's a tennis game after all. These are all fair plays on Nintendo's part and I don't see anything wrong with it. Hell, they were also proposing ideas of making a 'Wa' counterpart to Peach. I can only imagine the support that "WaPeach" would get if that concept ever came into fruition. We got Peach and Daisy, What would stop people from supporting another evil counterpart? I think this is the reasoning behind a lot of peoples support for Waluigi, not that there's anything wrong with that in my books. We got the Mario Bros. and Wario. Wouldn't it be a neat idea if the gang was all here? Well, no. I don't think so because the merit is not there in my eyes. Waluigi was only a filler character in the original Mario Tennis and that's it. That's his legacy. To just fill a void for equal balance.
I feel like a lot of people have different definitions of the word 'merit'. At times it can be a little vague, sure and when talking about video games and fictional characters it can get pretty subjective but I see it as something at the quality of being worthy to note by good standards and deserving praise. So far, the 4 DLC characters we've received so far in the Fighters Pass has a lot of merit and received critical praise with a solid legacy to back them all up to boot. It's obvious that Nintendo and Sakurai has high standards for the DLC characters this time around with these 4 alone. Piranha Plant is a weird one but I'm personally convinced that PP was never planned for base or the Fighters Pass. If you look at the culture of gaming today, pretty much 95% of games getting released have pre-order DLC bonuses. In Smash's case, if you registered your copy of Ultimate before the cut-off date, you got PP for free so I do honestly think that PP was always planned to be that FreeLC character because it would be rather odd that a huge game such as Smash wouldn't get a pre-order bonus when most AAA games and even indie games these days do. They wouldn't hand out Terry or Joker for free, but PP, sure. He's just a generic Mario enemy, so why not? (side note: I'm using the term pre-order a little loosely because you could still get PP without pre-ordering, but I do believe PP was intended to be considered under the pre-order category. When I purchased South Park: FBH, I didn't pre-order it but still got the pre-order bonus because it was a little slip of paper in the game case. The content was still considered pre-ordered DLC though. Like most pre-order DLC for other games, PP can still be purchased separately today.)
Going back to Waluigi's merit, it's virtually non-existent in my books. I mean, what world did he save? What world has he tried to rule? What game has he been the prominent face of or antagonist of? What narrative filled storyline or plot has Waluigi been involved in? What the hell has Waluigi done? He's danced, played sports, partied and just been a nuisance to his protagonist counter parts. That's literally it. Maybe we should hold off on the idea of him being playable until he gets a more prominent role in a video game before we start getting behind the idea of him getting an upgrade. I'd be more comfortable with his inclusion if he had a more prominent role, no doubt but the truth is, he doesn't as of right now. I know that people will bring up all sorts of these sort of "joke" characters like WFT, Duck Hunt, ROB or hell, even Pichu but I think an honest case can be made for all of these guys.
Wii Fit Trainer: Essentially acts as your main instructor as you play the game. Helps guide you through your workouts and is essentially to the gameplay. I may not be a huge fan of WFT's inclusion much but I can see the merit in that alone. She's just a fun inclusion in Sakurai's mind and I'm okay with him having a little bit of fun with his games.
Duck Hunt: Maybe the character itself isn't iconic, but the game definitely is. Most people that owned the original NES back in the day probably purchased the Mario Bros./Duck Hunt NES bundle that was packaged with the Nintendo Zapper, a very old but iconic peripheral. I know I did, and still own it to this day. Duck Hunts moveset also references games that also utilized the Zapper back in the day. The more representation of these IPs, the merrier in my books.
ROB: Pretty much the same deal with Duck Hunt in regards to being a peripheral. ROB was also heavily used in the Subspace Emissary story mode back in Brawl as a generic mook enemy and as one of the major antagonists in the story mode. (I'm forgetting the name of that cloaked figure that turned out to be ROB all along) They took this character and made something out of him to add more prominence to the storyline of SSE and his character, so in a way they added to the merit of ROB.
Pichu: Not as iconic as his evolutionary counterpart Pikachu but is the only representation we have of Gen 2, arguably one of the more favoured generations of Pokemon. A lot of people are pretty divided on the idea of clones/echos but we have to acknowledge that clones and echos are am essential part of Smash and have been since Melee. Pichu fits that bill of being a clone and as the years went on, a lot of us have come to terms of the concept of clones and echoes and Pichu fits that bill just fine. Maybe not so much merit behind Pichu as the others, but I personally think that being the pre-evolution of the most popular Pokemon of all time does speak volumes.
These are only just a small handful of examples, I could go on with others but I don't want to make this about other characters nearly as much as Waluigi. Again, I will admit when talking about merits in a video game character, it can get pretty subjective. Some of you may disagree and that's okay but there's something that bugs me a little bit more in the case of Waluigi than merit and legacy. It's the fact that he's a goddamn assist trophy and that's essentially where my feelings on this topic boil down to.
Now, I'm not convinced that spirits deconfirm characters. I've a Geno supporter for over a decade now, so obviously I don't buy it and maybe my bias is the reason for that. Back in Smash 4, trophies didn't deconfirm either. Lucas and Mewtwo is evident of that. I do believe that AT's do deconfirm for many reasons but mostly due to their role and impact to gameplay to those that actually have them active in battle. They're glorified items like Pokeballs. Pokeballs didn't stop Charizard from being playable, but the difference is that Charizard as a Pokeball item hasn't been a thing since Melee. Charizard was playable in Brawl, so they dropped the idea of making him appear as a Pokeball item once his inclusion with Pokemon Trainer. This was a good move on their part and it begs the question: why should a playable character be an item and a playable character? Little Mac is also another great example. His AT got scrapped when he got promoted to the roster in Smash 4 so why do we keep giving Waluigi a hard pass? It makes absolutely no sense to me why people are under the impression he's going to be the exception to the rule. No assist trophy should, otherwise they wouldn't be an AT in the first place. All it's going to do is just give false hope to fans of Shadow, Krystal, Isaac, Bomberman, and other characters with way more merit than Waluigi that unfortunately got beheaded by the AT guillotine. If he was going to be playable, he wouldn't be an AT right now and I firmly stand by that.
I understand that some people will probably bring up the argument like they could just turn off his AT when he's being played in a match, but if that's the case, what the hell was the point of wasting the time and the resources to make him return as an AT in the first place? Why would they waste the time and resources to shut off his AT when he is being used in a match? That's just adding more unnecessary work and as minimal as the time and resources may look or sound, it's still wasted time and resources. These don't sound like credible arguments. I hate to be blunt but they sound like excuses. Truth is, if someone is going to be an Assist Trophy, they should stay one. Sakurai gave them that role and we may not like it for some characters cases but that's how it is for Waluigi and others and it should stay that way. I'm sorry but I'm not convinced and the arguments I've heard and read so far lack credibility. Paragon and Fatmanonice both predict we'll get Waluigi eventually at some point of the DLC's lifecycle whether he's #5 or post-pass. I respect the hell out of both of them because they're good people but I'm convinced at this point regardless of any leaks or rumour based theories. It's way too farfetched to me.
I guess maybe I just need convincing, so my question to everyone that took the time to read this is: why? Why is Waluigi the exception to the rule of being playable and an AT? Why was he brought back as an AT in the first place if he was going to be playable eventually? Why Waluigi and not Isaac or Bomberman or Krystal? Why, oh why are so many people buying this? If you dislike what I have to say, you can call me misguided, ignorant or just a flat out asshole all you want but what I really want to know is why?
Thanks for reading!
tl;dr version:
F*** Waluigi.
