Mainline Games Appearances[]
Mario Bros.[]
Mario and Luigi do some plumbing work in New York. It is also Luigi's first appearance.
Super Mario Bros.[]
While not part of the main story, Luigi is used by the second player in this game's multiplayer mode, and within it, assumes the same plot role and functionality as Mario, travelling through the Mushroom Kingdom to save Princess Peach from Bowser and his army of Koopa Troopas, who have invaded it.
Super Mario Bros. The Lost Levels[]
Luigi retains his role from the previous game. However, he now must traverse through a new set of difficult levels and avoid new hazards to save Princess Peach from Bowser. He also has lower traction than Mario making him harder to use.
Super Mario Bros. 2[]
Luigi serves as one of 4 playable characters in this game, alongside Mario, Princess Peach and Toad. He is first seen after Mario suddenly wakes up from a dream involving a staircase leading to a mysterious door to an equally mysterious place, during which a voice identifies the world as the dreamland of Subcon, and asks for Mario's help in defeating the villainous frog named Wart, a tyrant who has cursed Subcon and its people, after which he decides to tell Luigi, Toad and Princess Peach about it, who all admit to having the same dream. The group goes on a picnic, but discovers a cave with a long staircase. Through a door at the top, they are transported to Subcon, revealing their dreams to have been real. After defeating Wart, the people of Subcon are freed and everyone celebrates. However, Mario is shown suddenly waking up in his bed afterwards, calling into question if all of this really happened or if it was just part of his own dream.
Super Mario Bros. 3[]
The plot of this game kicks off with Bowser's seven children (later reconned as his elite henchmen), the Koopalings, invading the Mushroom Kingdom, with each of them going to one of the seven kingdoms within it, stealing the respective king's magic wand and turning them into an animal. Upon hearing this, Peach sends Mario and Luigi to travel to each of the kingdoms, retrieve the wands from them and turn the kings back to normal. Throughout the game, the brothers receive notes and special items from her after rescuing each of the first six kings, but after they rescue the seventh, they receive a note from Bowser instead, boasting that he has kidnapped her imprisoned her within the castle of his own realm, Dark Land. The brothers travel there, enter his castle, defeat Bowser in a battle and free her as a result.
Super Mario World[]
After the events of Super Mario Bros. 3, Mario and Luigi decide to go on vacation with Princess Peach to a place called Dinosaur Land, a prehistoric-themed world swarming with dinosaurs and other enemies. However, while resting on the beach, Peach is captured by Bowser. When Mario and Luigi wake up, they try to find her and, after hours of searching, come across a giant egg in the forest. It suddenly hatches and out of it comes a young dinosaur named Yoshi, who tells them his dinosaur friends have also been imprisoned in eggs by evil Koopalings. Mario and Luigi soon realize it must be the evil King Bowser and his Koopalings, so together, the 3 of them set out through Dinosaur Land to save Peach and Yoshi's dinosaur friends. To aid him, Yoshi gives Mario a cape as they begin their journey. Mario and Luigi continue to follow Bowser, defeating the Koopalings in the process, and saving Yoshi's friends in the process. They eventually arrive at Bowser's Castle, where they fight him in a final battle. They send Bowser flying into the sky and save Princess Peach, restoring peace to Dinosaur Land.
Super Mario Galaxy[]
At the beginning of the game, Luigi and the Toad Brigade are in the castle, but while they manage to escape when Bowser takes it, when he attacks them, the green plumber gets split up from the group before getting abducted by a ghost named Bouldergeist, who takes him to the Ghostly Galaxy and sequesters him in a small prison. Completely terrified, Luigi remains trapped inside the haunted mansion until he's found and rescued by Mario, who breaks in his cell and reassures his twin. In the main part of the game, Luigi appears in a few specific galaxies for certain missions where he's found a Power Star, but has also gotten himself stuck, so Mario needs to make his way to where Luigi is located so that he can rescue him and retrieve the star that he found. He can also be seen with the Toads on the Comet Observatory between accessing different galaxies taking a break. However, after all 120 Power Stars are found, they can be replayed with Luigi, which is designed to be a little harder since while as usual, Luigi can jump a little higher, his grip to the ground isn't as good, so if you're walking or running and stop, he'll slide to an extent, making certain areas with narrow footing more precarious. The cosmic clones he races on certain levels are also noticeably tougher.
Super Mario Galaxy 2[]
Luigi isn't involved directly in the game's story, but throughout the game, Luigi will appear at the very beginning of certain missions in some of the galaxies, and if Mario talks to him, he will offer to switch with him and take over finding the Power Star on that mission, something he is shown to be happy and eager to help with, in contrast to his more cowardly behavior in other games.
Super Mario 3D Land[]
Luigi doesn’t play a major role in the first half of the game, only appearing as an Easter Egg in the fourth letter sent by Peach to Mario. He however has a more important role in the second half of the game, where Dry Bowser abducts and takes Luigi to the Special Worlds, where he's used as a bait to lure Mario. Luigi sends a letter to his twin brother to warn him and ask him to bail him out of there. He's imprisoned in the castle of the first Special World, where his cries for help are heard until Dry Bowser is defeated, where Luigi starts encouraging his brother and, as they leave the castle, thanks him for coming to his rescue. He then becomes playable, and helps Mario rescue Peach when Bowser kidnaps her again.
Super Mario 3D World[]
At the beginning of 3D World, he, along with Luigi, Peach and Blue Toad, are watching fireworks show as they walk along a path leading from the castle until they find a tilted glass pipe. After Mario and Luigi fix it, a green fairy-like Sprixie princess appears and tells them that Bowser has kidnapped and trapped the rest of the Sprixie princesses in jars. However, they then witness him arrive through the pipe and capture her in a jar before escaping through it. Peach is the first one to jump into the pipe after them, with Mario quickly going in after her and the other two following suit. They find themselves in a realm known as "The Sprixie Kingdom" and set off to find the Sprixies. Throughout the game, he can be selected to play with on any of the levels and can use all the usual power-up items, as well as the new Super Bell, which allows them to don a Cat Suit that allows them to utilize new cat-like abilities, namely running faster on all fours, performing unique scratch attacks, and climbing up walls to reach otherwise inaccessible areas. After the heroes save the final Sprixie, Bowser recaptures all seven and heads to his amusement park fortress.
After they make their way through all the amusement park levels, defeat his minions and reach him in his fortress, Bowser uses the Super Bell to transform into a cat form called Meowser. The group proceeds to climb the tallest tower by utilizing the Super Bell and defeat Meowser. The heroes then say goodbye to the freed Sprixies and travel home through the pipe back to the Mushroom Kingdom. After the end credits, the Sprixies build a rocket ship in World 1 so that when they return, they can play extra levels in outer space and collect more Green Stars.
Super Mario Odyssey[]
Luigi runs the Balloon World mini game, a free mini game released in a free update in February 2018, which is based on either Mario hiding balloons on the map for others to find, or finding balloons other players hid. Luigi's outfit can also be purchased by Mario at the Crazy Cap shop.
Super Mario Bros. Wonder[]
Luigi appears as a playable character alongside Mario and others. He was present at an event held by Prince Florian when Bowser began terrorizing the Flower Kingdom.
Spinoff Games Appearances[]
Luigi's Mansion Series[]
Luigi is the titular protagonist in the Luigi's Mansion series. He has to save Mario from the clutches of King Boo, who trapped the former in a painting.
Luigi's Mansion[]
One day, Luigi receives word that he won a mansion in a contest he did not even enter. Mario decides to check out this new mansion for anything suspicious, but when does not return, Luigi is forced to find the mansion himself and locate his missing brother. Using a map, he arrives at a large rundown building that was supposedly his luxurious mansion and soon discovers the location to be haunted when he is cornered by a ghost. Luckily, he is rescued by Professor E. Gadd, who tries and fails to catch the specter with his Poltigust 3000. They retreat to E. Gadd's laboratory nearby where Luigi explains his situation to the professor and learns that Mario could be in terrible danger without the proper equipment to combat the mansion's ghosts that have escaped from portraits in E. Gadd's Gallery. Luigi is given a Poltigust 3000 of his own to use and a Game Boy Horror to stay in contact with E. Gadd before entering the mansion again to continue his search for Mario.
Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon[]
Luigi is relaxing in his house when he is suddenly startled by Professor E. Gadd contacting him through his television. He is teleported to the professor's bunker in Evershade Valley where E. Gadd informs him the Valley's friendly ghosts have suddenly gone hostile because a malevolent force has shattered the Dark Moon that previously hung in the sky above. Luigi must help reassemble the Dark Moon by gathering its shards before the ghosts start causing havoc outside Evershade Valley.