Luigi Discovered In Forgotten SEGA Racing Game
While we'd love to imagine a dystopian paradise where all the gaming giants share their IPs, it just ain't gonna happen. Although the likes of Fortnite have seen Sony's Kratos and Microsoft's Master Chief suit up on the battlefield, asking for the major players to share their franchises is like asking for a live-action Avengers vs Justice League movie.
The closest we've got to this sort of concept is Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. series, where the great and the good have joined forces - we're still holding out hope that Crash Bandicoot is the final Ultimate character. Sticking with Nintendo, it turns out of its most famous faces has been discovered in a forgotten SEGA game.
Why is Luigi in a SEGA game?
Looking back on the history of video games, the SEGA Dreamcast falls into that unfortunate category of forgotten consoles that never reached their full potential - we're looking at you Wii U. A recent leak of over 135 Dreamcast prototypes revealed a tonne of details from these older games. Inside a prototype for 2000's SEGA GT, Luigi seems to have snuck in a cameo.
In his green overalls, there's no denying this is Luigi in all his Nintendo glory. It might seem odd that Luigi is there instead of Mario, and to be honest, we're not quite sure why he's here at all. Speaking to Kotaku, CombyLaurent1 explained that they think Luigi is in the level "sonygt2" as a joke.
"When I discovered Luigi yesterday, I was laughing out loud", said CombyLaurent1. "I knew that this kind of thing existed from old dev’s anecdotes. I never thought I would come across it on one of my prototypes."
Unless we've missed something, Luigi isn't in SEGA GT or its 2002 Xbox sequel. Bored devs are known for hiding popular characters or in-jokes inside the back of games, however, Luigi is a niche one, to say the least.
Why was Luigi cut from SEGA GT?
In all likelihood, Luigi was never meant to be part of the game. Still, it's easy to imagine him popping up in the Sonic Racing series. Especially because it was a subtle rip-off of Nintendo's lauded Mario Kart. We've seen other racing games like Diddy Kong Racing, but let's be honest, they're all weak imitations of Mario Kart.
Remembering how protective of its characters Nintendo is, you can only imagine the lawsuit that SEGA would've been slapped with if Luigi actually made it into SEGA GT to wave a checkered flag. CombyLaurent1 is part of "Project Deluge" - which aims to preserve prototypes and early builds of games.
"Project Deluge" released over 700 PS2 prototypes in March, but in the latest drop, 349 Xbox and 135 Dreamcast builds are being preserved for the ages. Even if Luigi didn't make the cut for SEGA GT, he'll be immortalised as part of "Project Deluge".
Seeing Luigi in SEGA GT reminds us of when the Nintendo Source Code leaked 24 years after Super Mario 64's release and confirmed that Luigi was also lurking in the shadows. Is it a running joke that Mario's younger brother is destined to hide out in the code of video games without stepping into the limelight?
