Sorry for the double post, but I needed to revive this thread, and what better way than to make a long essay of sorts?
***WARNING! LONG READ AHEAD!***
After delving into much thought, reasons for commonly associating Waluigi with the Bomb-Omb is perhaps having to do with Wrecking Crew.
On that note, Waluigi appearing in the WarioWare series as a foreman makes perfect sense, looking something on the order of this:
You might be wondering, what could I possibly be talking about? Well, let me tell you a little story…
You see, there was an old game called Wrecking Crew, which was a game that starred Mario that came out before Super Mario Bros. and his adventures in the Mushroom Kingdom. In this game, Mario had to break blocks with a hammer on a demolition site.
So what does this have to do with Waluigi? Well, I’ll have to show it all one step at a time.
-First, I need to introduce Foreman Spike, the antagonist of the game.
This man is commonly believed to be the prototype character of Wario and Waluigi, not unlike Pauline being the prototype for Princess Peach. Given that like Wario, he was essentially a “bad Mario” in design, this theory makes sense. However, his original appearance is not what is important to Waluigi.
What IS, however, is his redesign for the Japan-only sequel of the game, Wrecking Crew ’98.
He not only changed in overall body shape (being fit and muscular instead of rotund) and clothing, but his facial features changed as well, sporting a curved mustache and bright nose VERY comparable to a certain guy in purple. It is quite possible that the concept of Waluigi’s facial features were inspired by this design. Him twirling his mustache in that image (as well as in the first cutscene for the game) definitely gives off a Waluigi vibe as well…
-Spike was given yet ANOTHER redesign later on in another Japan-only game, Mobile Golf. However, this design goes back to some of the older concepts, namely being rotund and bearded.
You’re probably thinking that this design would fit Wario more than Waluigi, right? Well, it can’t really be said that this was inspiration for Wario, since Wario existed before this redesign.
However, there is something important about this particular image. Look at what he’s driving; an excavator.
Do you remember what Waluigi’s default vehicle in Mario Kart DS was? The Gold Mantis?
Yep, it was an excavator too. Seemingly random for Waluigi unless it was meant to be a reference to Foreman Spike, who ironically, was wearing quite a bit of purple in the Mobile Golf design.
Also worth noting that each and every design of Spike had a pointed nose that curved downward. It could simply be coincidence that Waluigi has this kind of nose as well, or it might be more reference for Spike, his assumed prototype.
-Now for a non-Spike related correlation, remember the music that played when you had a dance-off with Waluigi, Destruction Dance?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7S7WEkopK8k
It’s a remix of the Bonus Stage from Wrecking Crew.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hX2JJYOti6E
Seems strange that a theme for Wrecking Crew would be used for Waluigi instead of something like the music from Waluigi Stadium in Mario Kart: Double Dash, given that Bowser uses the Bowser’s Castle theme from it.
-Now we’ll get into Waluigi’s association with eggplants. I’m actually having a hard time figuring out how he’s associated with them outside of the Whiskered Eggplant item used for his Liar Ball in Mario Superstar Baseball, but for a while, it seemed random to make him associated with the vegetable. Then it dawned on me; the Eggplant Men from Wrecking Crew.
They were common enemies in the game that even got a trophy in Melee as well as one appearing as a NPC in Chibi-Robo under the name Kid Eggplant. Waluigi using an eggplant item as a weapon is possibly another throwback to Wrecking Crew!
-Now, I’ll get to my original statement on his fixation of Bob-Ombs. At first, I thought this was just people exaggerating the fact that Waluigi sometimes has Bob-Ombs in his repertoire alongside Wario. But then, I saw this:
As well as the image used in the opening post of this thread.
Wario’s counterpart artworks emphasize his love of treasure and money. Does that mean that Waluigi really IS heavily associated with Bob-Ombs, then?
That can ALSO be attributed to Wrecking Crew, as bombs were frequent in levels of the game, and Mario could hit them to help break blocks within the platform he was currently on.
So what does this all mean? It means that Waluigi is one big reference to Wrecking Crew, and will very likely continue to be one so long as he keeps appearing (we still don’t have any reference to the Gotcha Wrench enemy). So, if he does appear in WarioWare, he should essentially be the new Spike and be a foreman that has a team of Eggplant Men and Gotcha Wrenches.
Unlike the image above, Waluigi should wear an orange jacket and dark orange shirt. Why? It’d be a bigger throwback to the original game, as Spike wore orange in that. Also, it would help with the opposite color pattern that all four plumbers have shown. Mario and Luigi are red and green, both being opposites on the color wheel. Wario and Waluigi are yellow and purple, both being opposites on the color wheel. Wario in his WarioWare appearance is primarily blue, and the opposite of blue is orange.
Hope this has been an interesting read for anyone that cared enough to read on through. I apologize for the length.
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