I missed New Super Mario Bros. U back when it first came out in that strange period between the Wii and the Switch (I think I remember people calling it a "weeyou" game?). So I picked up the Deluxe re-release for Switch, and have since played through both parts of the collection. But while my time with NSMBU was lighthearted fun, its expansion, New Super Luigi U, was a different story. From the very beginning, something was wrong. Very wrong.
Above is a screenshot of the opening scene of New Super Mario Bros. U. We see the Mario Bros. having cake at the castle with Peach and a pair of Toads, all smiles. Your typical banal setup for a 2D Mario game. Nothing out of the ordinary here.
Here is New Super Luigi U's version of the scene. Immediately, something is not right here. Mario Is Missing. But what's disturbing is not that we are expected to believe the Princess invited Luigi over for tea and cake without Mario. It's that Mario's hat is present and accounted for, but Mario himself isn't.
If you've spent any time with Super Mario over the past three decades, you know that he doesn't go anywhere without his hat. Mario and his hat are inseparable, and he has a strong compulsion towards keeping it on him at all times. In the Paper Mario series, Mario is shown to even sleep with his hat on. In Mario 64, Mario immediately chases after the thieving bird Klepto when it steals his hat, not resting until he gets it back. And in Mario Odyssey, Mario is visibly distraught by the destruction of his old hat at the hands of Bowser, and lasts about five minutes before finding a replacement.
Mario would not just take his hat off to go to the bathroom or something; nor would he ever be so careless as to dash off somewhere else and forget it. The presence of the empty cap in this scene suggests that the while the hat survives, its owner does not.
Now let's take a closer look at Luigi. He certainly isn't the most stable fictional character out there; I actually did a full psychological profile of him for a class once (lol). He is no stranger to delusion, having previously suffered a lengthy bout of dissociative identity disorder. Ostensibly, the Mushroom Kingdom of New Super Luigi U is the same as that of NSMBU, and the two games share the exact same map. The individual levels, however, are wildly different; different, in fact, in ways that do not seem quite real.
Here's New Super Luigi U's 1-1. This giant sign, which certainly didn't exist in the original game, is highly misanthropic and disturbing. Luigi took the time to replace the letters of Mario's name with his own, yet deliberately left the word 'Bros.' crossed out, still visible underneath a pair of angry paint slashes; he is directly writing his brother out of his life. Once you are done gazing at the sign itself, however, you notice a detail that doesn't quite make sense: namely, what is the sign being held up by? It's not the big tree, nor the mountain, both of which exist much farther into the background. If you jump up to the very top of the screen, you will see that the only thing above the ropes is open sky. This sign could not possibly hang as-is; in other words, it cannot be real.
Here's another peculiar detail from two levels later. Wow. Apart from being clearly megalomaniacal, the presence of this topiary also doesn't make any sense. Are we supposed to believe that a lone, 15-foot-high, incredibly-detailed monument to Luigi was commissioned and erected by a master craftsman, randomly in the middle of Acorn Plains? Or, is it more likely to be a warped illusion of Luigi's distorted mind?
In New Super Luigi U, Luigi teams up with Nabbit, an ignominious and wanted thief. In NSMBU, the Mushroom Kingdom regards Nabbit as an evil criminal, and Mario is rewarded for capturing him and turning him in; however, to Luigi, he is a perfectly germane and happy traveling companion. What made Luigi decide he belongs in the company of criminals?
By the way, have you noticed the timer in all these screenshots? Whereas in NSMBU, you are given plenty of time to explore and enjoy levels, New Super Luigi U gives every course a strict and pressuring 100-second time limit. Luigi is always on the run.
There is one more thing to unpack about these stages. Do you see the absurd number of Piranha Plants in this screenshot, and the one above it? Unlike NSMBU, which starts off fully relaxed and slowly adds an increasing, but manageable challenge, New Super Luigi U's courses are from the very start a hellish gauntlet of endless traps, obstacles, and enemies – far more firepower, in fact, than the Koopa Army is known to employ. Do these horrifying places really exist, all over the Mushroom Kingdom? Or, are they merely the guilt-riddled nightmares of a felon on the lam?
One final detail makes the true nature of New Super Luigi U most obvious. In the Toad Houses throughout the game, Luigi is granted the exclusive opportunity to obtain a 3-Up, appearing in the form of a smiling crescent moon.
In the Tarot, the Moon Arcana symbolizes "dreams, madness, illusions, fear, fantasy, the subconscious, and trickery". The meaning is clear. The world of New Super Luigi U is not reality. It is a fantasy world – a warped and illusory nightmare of a deeply-troubled man, struggling to come to terms with having committed the unthinkable.
In conclusion, this post provides my indisputable proof of how New Super Luigi U is the harrowing adventure of a delusional Luigi after he murdered his brother in cold blood. In light of such damning evidence, do you agree with my conclusion? Disagree? Can you find a way to fit Bowsette into all this?
Above is a screenshot of the opening scene of New Super Mario Bros. U. We see the Mario Bros. having cake at the castle with Peach and a pair of Toads, all smiles. Your typical banal setup for a 2D Mario game. Nothing out of the ordinary here.
Here is New Super Luigi U's version of the scene. Immediately, something is not right here. Mario Is Missing. But what's disturbing is not that we are expected to believe the Princess invited Luigi over for tea and cake without Mario. It's that Mario's hat is present and accounted for, but Mario himself isn't.
If you've spent any time with Super Mario over the past three decades, you know that he doesn't go anywhere without his hat. Mario and his hat are inseparable, and he has a strong compulsion towards keeping it on him at all times. In the Paper Mario series, Mario is shown to even sleep with his hat on. In Mario 64, Mario immediately chases after the thieving bird Klepto when it steals his hat, not resting until he gets it back. And in Mario Odyssey, Mario is visibly distraught by the destruction of his old hat at the hands of Bowser, and lasts about five minutes before finding a replacement.
Mario would not just take his hat off to go to the bathroom or something; nor would he ever be so careless as to dash off somewhere else and forget it. The presence of the empty cap in this scene suggests that the while the hat survives, its owner does not.
Now let's take a closer look at Luigi. He certainly isn't the most stable fictional character out there; I actually did a full psychological profile of him for a class once (lol). He is no stranger to delusion, having previously suffered a lengthy bout of dissociative identity disorder. Ostensibly, the Mushroom Kingdom of New Super Luigi U is the same as that of NSMBU, and the two games share the exact same map. The individual levels, however, are wildly different; different, in fact, in ways that do not seem quite real.
Here's New Super Luigi U's 1-1. This giant sign, which certainly didn't exist in the original game, is highly misanthropic and disturbing. Luigi took the time to replace the letters of Mario's name with his own, yet deliberately left the word 'Bros.' crossed out, still visible underneath a pair of angry paint slashes; he is directly writing his brother out of his life. Once you are done gazing at the sign itself, however, you notice a detail that doesn't quite make sense: namely, what is the sign being held up by? It's not the big tree, nor the mountain, both of which exist much farther into the background. If you jump up to the very top of the screen, you will see that the only thing above the ropes is open sky. This sign could not possibly hang as-is; in other words, it cannot be real.
Here's another peculiar detail from two levels later. Wow. Apart from being clearly megalomaniacal, the presence of this topiary also doesn't make any sense. Are we supposed to believe that a lone, 15-foot-high, incredibly-detailed monument to Luigi was commissioned and erected by a master craftsman, randomly in the middle of Acorn Plains? Or, is it more likely to be a warped illusion of Luigi's distorted mind?
In New Super Luigi U, Luigi teams up with Nabbit, an ignominious and wanted thief. In NSMBU, the Mushroom Kingdom regards Nabbit as an evil criminal, and Mario is rewarded for capturing him and turning him in; however, to Luigi, he is a perfectly germane and happy traveling companion. What made Luigi decide he belongs in the company of criminals?
By the way, have you noticed the timer in all these screenshots? Whereas in NSMBU, you are given plenty of time to explore and enjoy levels, New Super Luigi U gives every course a strict and pressuring 100-second time limit. Luigi is always on the run.
There is one more thing to unpack about these stages. Do you see the absurd number of Piranha Plants in this screenshot, and the one above it? Unlike NSMBU, which starts off fully relaxed and slowly adds an increasing, but manageable challenge, New Super Luigi U's courses are from the very start a hellish gauntlet of endless traps, obstacles, and enemies – far more firepower, in fact, than the Koopa Army is known to employ. Do these horrifying places really exist, all over the Mushroom Kingdom? Or, are they merely the guilt-riddled nightmares of a felon on the lam?
One final detail makes the true nature of New Super Luigi U most obvious. In the Toad Houses throughout the game, Luigi is granted the exclusive opportunity to obtain a 3-Up, appearing in the form of a smiling crescent moon.
In the Tarot, the Moon Arcana symbolizes "dreams, madness, illusions, fear, fantasy, the subconscious, and trickery". The meaning is clear. The world of New Super Luigi U is not reality. It is a fantasy world – a warped and illusory nightmare of a deeply-troubled man, struggling to come to terms with having committed the unthinkable.
In conclusion, this post provides my indisputable proof of how New Super Luigi U is the harrowing adventure of a delusional Luigi after he murdered his brother in cold blood. In light of such damning evidence, do you agree with my conclusion? Disagree? Can you find a way to fit Bowsette into all this?
If you read through all this and were hoping it would end with something like "Wait! Mario shows up at the very end! All is well!", I'm afraid to tell you that it doesn't. The final scene of NSLU is as arresting for its disappearing act as the opening scene:
Some real Orwellian shit...*shudder*
Some real Orwellian shit...*shudder*
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