During the Castlevania character reveal, Luigi can be seen exploring Dracula’s Castle. It’s like a scene straight out of Luigi’s Mansion, except this mansion is a lot more terrifying than those Luigi has encountered in the past. Still, everything seems somewhat run of the mill for Luigi and his ghost vacuum until Death appears and kills him.
For most Nintendo fans this was a shocking moment - to watch as Death rips the soul out of Luigi and then captures it. Thankfully, Simon Belmont and Richter Belmont show up to save the day, or at least to show off their new moves in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. And by the end of the trailer it looks like Luigi’s soul is going back into his body…until a giant white face appears in the window.
Since the trailer’s airing, many fans have been wondering if Nintendo really did kill Luigi, with most assuming this was just a clever form of misdirection in order to introduce the Castlevania crossover characters. Nintendo’s UK twitter account even confirmed that Luigi is “okay,” so there shouldn’t be too much to worry about.
At the same time, there has been a fervent discussion within the Nintendo fan community regarding the company’s disinterest in Luigi as a character. When Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was first revealed, the game promised to feature every character from the series thus far, and yet somehow Luigi was missing. Plenty of memes were created surrounding the fact that Luigi has fallen out of favor, but it was all in good fun until Nintendo literally killed the character.
So no Luigi isn’t dead but Nintendo did kill him, if only for a brief bit. We’ve come a long way since the Year of Luigi.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate releases December 7, 2018 for Nintendo Switch.
