Luigi Gets His Chance To Shine In 2013

What a hero.

Poor Luigi. For years he existed as little more than a carbon copy of his brother Mario, and when he finally was given a personality, he turned out to be, well…a bit of a dorkus malorkus.

But wait! In the latest Nintendo direct, the company dubbed 2013 “The Year of Luigi” in honor of the green guy’s 30th birthday! Finally, Luigi gets his due! Well, sort of. Actually this whole “Year of Luigi” thing mostly seems to be a way of deflecting criticism that Nintendo’s over-exploiting Mario by labelling a bunch of upcoming Mario games Luigi games. Hmmmm.

There are a couple legit Luigi games coming — Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon (coming March 24th) and New Super Luigi U, a major chunk of DLC coming for New Super Mario Bros. U which stars Luigi and remixes all the game’s stages. Other games announced though, like Mario and Luigi: Dream Team and Mario Golf: World Tour are just Mario games that happen to also contain Luigi.

There was also plenty of non-Luigi related news announced. Hit the jump for all the info and lots of video…

via GoNintendo here and here

First off, you can view the entire 37-minute Nintendo Direct below.

Don’t have time for a 40-minute video featuring grown Japanese men in Luigi hats? Here’s all the important non-Luigi info…

Animal Crossing: New Leaf finally arrives in North America June 9th.

– A bunch of new 3DS eShop games on the way, including HarmoKnight (a rhythm platformer by the makers of Pokemon), Mario and Donkey Kong: Minis on the Move, Dillon’s Rolling Western: The Last Range, and the unfortunately titled, Kersploosh.

Wii Street U, a version of Google Street View that works with the Wii U GamePad is available for download now.

Donkey Kong Returns 3D was announced. This will be the same game that was released a couple years ago on the Wii, just ported to the 3DS. Could this Wii-to-3DS thing become a trend?

Hit the second page for some trailers and new game footage lifted from the Nintendo Direct…

The first Luigi’s Mansion was one of the biggest disappointments I’ve suffered as a gamer, but I’m almost, alllmost ready to give the series another chance.

Well, this looks suitably wacky. Too bad Nintendo also put the Paper Mario series on the 3DS, stealing the Mario & Luigi series’ niche.

I’m going to manage the s–t out of my town.

Something you should know about me — I kind of love golf games. I’m more excited for new Mario Golf than I really ought to be.

So, there you have it. Not as exciting as the Nintendo Direct of a couple weeks ago (which, naturally, has everyone on the Internet complaining and predicting Nintendo’s doom) but still, the first half of 2013 looks solid for the 3DS. What do you folks think?

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