 Let's talk about Waluigi. Something of a dark horse within the Mario universe, the character of Waluigi seems to have been invented for the sole purpose of rounding out character rosters in sports titles. Waluigi has never shown up in a meaningful way in a main series Mario game. He's welcome to join in for cart rallies and tennis matches, but he's always left on the sidelines when things get more serious. And yet, the character has developed a frankly phenomenal fan base among western gamers. Thanks in no small part to the comic efforts of Matthew Taranto, fans have fallen in love with this oft overlooked video game character. All of this leads us to the current debate. Why, when Waluigi is designed specifically to take up space in busy character-driven Mario games, has he been left out of Nintendo's crowning duel? Why is Waluigi not in Super Smash Brothers on the Nintendo Switch? The answer is simple, because Nintendo. Special thanks to commenter the bat with the bowtie pro for suggesting this video topic. Nintendo has always marched to the beat of its own very peculiar drum. Where other games companies listen to play a feedback or attempt to stay relevant in a shifting media landscape, Nintendo is known for planting its head firmly in the sand and refusing to move. It's for this reason that the Switch still doesn't have a viable online service with built-in voice chat. It's also a big part of why Nintendo has managed to remain relevant, where so many other companies from the 80s have lost ground to newer upstarts. Nintendo's basic strategy is to make the games they want to make and force players to engage with them on terms of the company sets. This doesn't always work out, but even when Nintendo is forced to seed ground, it gives up as little as possible. Take the Wii U for example. Nintendo's higher-ups expected people to buy the system simply because it was the successor to the Wii. They envisioned a future where everyone had a console that could also be used in handheld mode. When the Wii U bombed, Nintendo released the Switch. This wasn't so much a concession that their Wii U idea was wrong, so much as it was an insistence that, under the right circumstances, this form of gameplay could thrive. Nintendo's rigid approach to game design is the reason why the Super Mario brand has remained unchanged and yet very much relevant for over 30 years. The formula worked then, and no matter what anyone else in the games industry is doing, Nintendo expects that that same formula works today. The one time Nintendo did allow Mario to change direction, we got the Super Mario Brothers movie, and it's clear that the company is less than eager to repeat that experiment. This attitude can also be seen in Nintendo's recent lawsuits, which are directed at a pair of ROM distribution sites. It's impossible to get many retro Nintendo games on the Switch. Gamers may then feel justified in taking matters into their own hands. Not so, says Nintendo. The company has forbidden people from getting these games through any legitimate means on a modern console, and they will respond with severity if anyone attempts to undermine them on this. So what does this have to do with Waluigi? Well, if Nintendo refuses to listen to outside feedback, then it doesn't matter how large the fan outcry for Waluigi might get. The developers of Super Smash Brothers want someone else in the character slot that could have been given to Waluigi, and that's final. Fans can shout as much as they like, but Nintendo will not listen. The company is not in the habit of coutting to the demands of its customers. Instead, we are expected to play the Nintendo way, or not at all. The next question is whether this is a bad idea. Honestly, it's probably a good thing. No, seriously. It's worth pointing out the buzz among Japanese Nintendo fans surrounding the character of Ridley, a new inclusion in the upcoming Smash Bros. Japanese gamers have begun referring to Ridley as Captain America. This is an allusion to the character's popularity in the United States, and a criticism of the perception that Nintendo bowed to foreign fan demand when deciding to include Ridley in the game. On the very rare occasion when Nintendo does listen to its Western fans, its Japanese fans complain. And who can blame them? When Western media panders to a foreign audience, it always feels a little uncomfortable. Have you ever seen an American film that features a gratuitous trip to China? Looper spends several minutes setting up Shanghai as the beacon of civilization. Transformers 4 involves an extended scene of Stanley Tucci drinking Vitasoi amid Hong Kong skyscrapers. The Chinese cut of Iron Man 3 includes additional footage in which Tony Stark flies to China and remarks on the nation's fantastic scientific development. These scenes exist to try and make Western movies more appealing to an Eastern audience. They often disrupt the flow of the narrative and add little to the story. This kind of filmmaking has been criticized by moviegoers for being shallow, manipulative, and driven by nothing but profits. The same thing happens when Japanese games include elements that appeal to an American audience. Local Japanese gamers can be understandably unhappy about their own culture being watered down in order to pandate to foreigners. This is made all the more challenging considering that Americans typically get their way in most entertainment media around the world. Gaming is one of the only art forms in which Japanese cultural identity can thrive. Obviously, Waluigi is of Japanese origin and his inclusion in Smash Bros. wouldn't be entirely without precedent. It's also worth noting that he's a culturally complicated character to begin with, as the mirror reflection of a Japanese interpretation of an Italian-American stereotype. In spite of all of this, it's easy to see why Nintendo of Japan might not want too much outsider input while deciding on the character roster for Super Smash Bros. The game may be a celebration of many different kinds of video games from different cultures, but the more this game caters specifically to Western tastes, the more difficult it is to stay true to its own Japanese cultural roots. It's up to you to decide whether you think a little integration and multiculturalism within Smash Bros. is a bad thing. Certainly, it's hard to argue that this would be the greatest travesty in the history of international relations. It's also entirely possible that, with time, Nintendo might decide to include Waluigi after all. As we've seen with Ridley, Western fans do often get their way eventually. For the moment, though, bear in mind that Nintendo has good reason to be wary of bowing to fan pressure too often, especially when that pressure is coming from fans that are. Let's face it, not the core audience of the game. Today is not the day of Waluigi, but that doesn't mean that fans should give up hope just yet.