Nintendo’s other mascot, Mario’s brother Luigi, has been discovered in a prototype build of Sega GT – a racing game on the Dreamcast. CombyLaurent1 is the Twitter user behind said discovery, who understandably seemed extremely enthusiastic by the finding. Luigi was apparently spotted in a hidden race in Sega GT‘s prototype build, which of course means it wasn’t ever released to the public.
Beware, this is completely crazy!!!
Secret race in a Dreamcast prototype of SEGA GT !!!
Name of the race is “sonygt2” !!!
Who’s there? It’s Luigi !!!!!!!!#sega #dreamcast #Nintendo pic.twitter.com/ajqb0crQ8l
— Sega Dreamcast Info (@CombyLaurent1) September 18, 2021
CombyLaurent1 and his team are video game preservationists, who have already unveiled more than 700 PS2 prototypes in March 2021. The finding surrounding Luigi comes from the latest dump of prototypes, which represents close to 500 Xbox and Dreamcast game builds. In a project named Deluge, they continue to study and release older game prototypes from previous console generations.
Their team generally analyzes prototypes in advance – instead, doing it during a live stream this time around. Surprise surprise, that was when Combylaurent1 stumbled upon the unexpected finding. Luigi was found in a race named “SonyGT2” within Sega GT, with the name likely referencing Sony’s own Gran Turismo. With Sega GT being a direct competitor to the PlayStation game, the naming does make some sense.
Luigi’s Prototype Sega Dreamcast Appearance: Not For The Public
Clearly, Luigi’s appearance wasn’t meant to be for the public. Not only does is he the property of Nintendo, but the Italian plumber didn’t even appear in the game’s final release. CombyLaurent1 told Kotaku: “When I discovered Luigi yesterday, I was laughing out loud. knew that this kind of thing existed from old dev’s anecdotes. I never thought I would come across it on one of my prototypes.”
Luigi‘s inclusion in Sega GT‘s prototype build was likely just an internal joke among developers. It isn’t uncommon for dev teams to include fun placeholder text or characters in their games – which will be removed for the final build anyway.
Maybe it’s a tad more discreet to add Luigi rather than including Mario off the bat.
