After Nintendo’s E3 conference centered around the reveal of Super Smash Bros Ultimate fans have been in an uproar over the exclusion of Waluigi. I don’t think highly of Waluigi, and I think even less of the fans behavior. The outcry surrounding this one particular character is insane, and people need to take their outrage down a notch. Would I like to see more characters in Super Smash Bros Ultimate? Yes. But the reality is that roster space is limited and character slots are valuable. As such, Waluigi should bring something to the table that every other possible candidate doesn’t. Personally, I don’t think he is worthy.

Who would he replace?

The entire point of Super Smash Bros Ultimate is that every character from four previous games would be playable in the game. So right off the bat, you cannot replace any of those characters with Waluigi. Next, there are 3 newcomers to the game: Inkling, Ridley, and Daisy. I think it is indisputable that Inkling and Ridley are far more deserving to be in the game than Waluigi. They both are main characters from major Nintendo franchises while Waluigi is a side character who only appears in spin-off titles.

Moreover, those characters are from underrepresented series. Inkling is the only character from Splatoon to be added to Super Smash Bros Ultimate, and Ridley is the third character from Metroid. The Mario series already has like 10 characters in the game, Waluigi would be overkill. The only debatable newcomer is Daisy, but Daisy is an “echo” fighter, meaning that she simply copies her moveset from Peach. Daisy was easy to create, and an entirely new Waluigi character would not be. I imagine that Daisy was a quick addition to the game while Waluigi would require much more work.

He is not a major character.

There are a lot of characters that get requested to be put in Super Smash Bros. Obviously, Ridley and Inkling were probably the two most desired characters and they both made it in the game. Other than that, Bomberman, King K. Rool, Shovel Knight, Banjo & Kazooie, Bandana Dee, Decidueye, and Shantae were all also some high-profile choices that were commonly requested. Like Waluigi, none of those characters made it into the roster either and I think they are all probably more deserving.

Truthfully, I don’t know when this Waluigi hypetrain got in motion. Only in the past few years have I seen Waluigi gain a whole lot of attention and before that he was a throw away character. I think that he is some internet culture phenomenon that is popular solely as a joke. Sure, the existence of a bizarro Luigi who can only say “WAHHH” is kind of funny, but I genuinely feel the majority of his popularity exists due to meme culture. Waluigi’s entire existence came about because Wario needed a partner for the original Mario Tennis. Since then, he has not starred in any of his own games, nor is he a main character in any game. He is a spin-off filler character, and that is not debatable.

Realistically, Waluigi’s meteoric rise in popularity is only because he has become a meme. Super Smash Bros games are timeless, and I would be pretty disappointed if the developers added a meme character in the game over a major character from another franchise. Sure, it would be hilarious now, but the nature of memes is that in a few years it won’t be funny anymore. If Waluigi is added now, years down the line people will be asking “Why was Waluigi included over X,Y, or Z again?”.

The fans behavior is disgraceful.

Ok, now for the serious part of the article. The real issue at hand is that fans have been acting terribly since the reveal of the Super Smash Bros Ultimate roster. It was pretty evident at the Nintendo E3 presentation that the game’s director, Masahiro Sakurai, was determined to fulfill many fan requests. They brought back every single character from every previous game, that in itself is pretty crazy. Furthermore, they added two highly requested new characters, Inkling and Ridley. And they added the somewhat popular Daisy as an echo fighter to boot. So, what is the fanbase’s response to the fulfillment of many long-time requests? To go completely ballistic apparently.

Seriously, is it worth making such a fuss over Waluigi after Sakurai and his team worked hard to include numerous fan desires? I would be surprised if the developers ever listened to fans again. It was stated directly that they went through great lengths to include every previous character and Ridley in particular was difficult to design. Yet the developers are treated like garbage because of the exclusion Waluigi. Furthermore, harassing a game developer over Twitter is immature and unacceptable. The fact that there is such an uproar about this is absurd. What about EA’s predatory practices? What about the pre-ordering problem? What about microtransactions? What about cash-grab DLC? Seriously, of all the things people choose to get upset about, it’s Waluigi. Unbelievable.

I’m all for tons of different characters being included in Super Smash Bros Ultimate, even Waluigi. But including characters takes time, resources, and money, so roster space is ultimately limited. Inlcuding Waluigi as a joke character over numerous other worthy choices is kind of bizarre if you ask me. Waluigi is a meme, and memes die off. Still, regardless if whether or not you want Waluigi in the game over anybody else, don’t act like a jerk. Harassing the developers over social media and writing angry posts about Waluigi is just disrespectful. Even if you’re joking, remember that people’s literal livelihood was making Super Smash Bros Ultimate, and berating them and their efforts because they didn’t include a meme is unacceptable. Maybe I’m taking this too seriously, and honestly, I didn’t care much about the issue at first. But when a developer goes out of their way to appease fans and they get flak for it I can’t help but get offended. Games are meant to be fun, the community should strive to be friendly, not full of vitriol and hatred.