Nintendo Responds To Claims That Luigi Is "Needlessly Sexualized" In Recent Super Smash Bros Screenshots

Once known as the dopey character that little brothers and sisters everywhere were forced to play when the older sibling chose Mario, Luigi has recently come under some fire for being over sexualized in the latest Super Smash Bros trailers. The backlash over the younger plumber’s “super sexy hat” and “ass lifting boots” has caused Nintendo to issue several statements about the issue, quickly denying the claims that Luigi is in any way sexualized for their newest game.

“As tempting as it would be to make people actually like Luigi,” Nintendo said in one such statement, “we absolutely would not stoop to the level of making one of our characters sexual just to sell more to games.” Nintendo claims that they did make several cosmetic and mechanical changes to characters, but none of them sexual as the complaints assert. Yoshi, for example, received a more upright stance to make him more human-like and Zero Suit Samus received new high heels that added extra height as well as larger butt muscles for protection from opponents. Feeling that the skintight suit wearing version of Samus was underpowered, Nintendo knew they needed to buff her to make it a fair fight with the other characters - the same exact thing they did with Luigi.

Several IGN forum users pointed out that, compared to his model in the previous entries, Luigi’s rippling abs and cleft chin are obvious ploys to attract a female audience Luigi as well as make male gamers not feel inferior while playing as him. “No one likes that green loser and they know it,” forum user SamusIzSexC69 said in his post, “and now they’re trying to change that by just making him a hot piece of digital ass. They’re advertising him as having ‘advanced sucking power’ with his vacuum. You tell me that doesn’t make your private parts tingle just a bit. Shame on you Nintendo.”

It is unknown at this time if or how Nintendo will change Luigi’s model before the game’s release, but we look forward to kicking his ass with Zero Suit Samus and those sweet high heels when it does either way.