Badass Luigi is surprise star of 'Mario Kart 8'

Luigi has always been known as the gentler of the two Super Mario brothers—but not anymore.

 

In "Mario Kart 8," the newest Nintendo game featuring the famous plumber and his gang, Luigi's death stares—which come after he takes out a competitor—has triggered memes and fan art, Geekosystem.com reported.

 

"As his 'death stare' expression very clearly states: the year of Luigi’s not over, motherf@$&ers. Screw fire flowers—he’ll burn a hole in you with those eyes," it said.

 

 

Geekosystem also theorized Luigi's "badass" moments in the game could be due to "years of pent-up rage at being the eternal understudy" that made him "stone cold ruthless."

 

Before Luigi started "riding dirty," tech site Mashable said he had been "typically a light-hearted goofball in a green hat."

 

"The new 'tude has earned Luigi his own fan club on Reddit (where) r/LuigiDeathStares is currently featured on Reddit's trending page," it said.

 

"The Luigi Death Stare players get when Luigi attacks or passes them makes it clear he’s done with being a supporting character and he is now all about that life. Suddenly, I need a Wii U," added Gamma Squad.

 

Sales boost

 

Meanwhile, a separate report on T3.com said "Mario Kart 8" became the fastest-selling game on Wii U, selling more than 1.2 million copies worldwide since its release last Friday.

 

It said the game led to a 666-percent increase in the number of Wii U units sold compared to last week, though the game made second in the multi-platform charts, runner-up to Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs. — Joel Locsin/TJD, GMA News