A video uploaded to a small Japanese YouTube account last month has become an important part of video game history. A seconds-long section of the video appears to show the first-ever known footage of Luigi in Super Mario 64.
The 13:20 mark of the video–which was uploaded to the Now In Game Channel account on November 22–shows a brief look at a few monitors at Nintendo’s booth from the 1995 Space World convention in Japan. One of the monitors flashes to a room with checkerboard flooring, while a tall figure in a green shirt, green hat, and overall performs the SM64 spin jump and floats to the ground.
We finally have a glimpse of what the early multiplayer mode for Super Mario 64 looked like! This is also the first time we have seen Luigi’s SM64 model outside of the Nintendo Leaks! Take a look! pic.twitter.com/Ev3R7NDBtp
— Marionova (@Marionova64) December 15, 2023
Per VGC, the footage matches a 1996 interview with Nintendo head Shigeru Miyamoto in an official Japanese strategy guide which mentions Luigi as an intended second playable character. In the interview, Miyamoto describes an area which closely resembles the stage seen on the monitor–specifically the “room made of simple Lego-like blocks” where the two plumbers could “run around in there, climb slopes, jump around,” and more.
The newly revealed video comes three years after a massive leak of internal Nintendo information showed Luigi’s character model from Super Mario 64 for the first time. A 2009 interview with Miyamoto and late Nintendo president Satoru Iwata also spoke about the game’s multiplayer mode, which apparently used split-screen technology to keep both characters on-screen.
Mario, Luigi, and many more are playable in the duo’s latest adventure, Super Mario Wonder, which is available now exclusively for Nintendo Switch.
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