Luigis Mansion gave Marios brother his own identity
(N4G GameCube)

Before Luigis Mansion came out in 2001, Luigi was stuck in Marios shadow. Luigi started life as a green-colored palette-swap for Mario in the 1983 arcade game Mario Bros., and that was his role going forward for a long time. If a Mario game had two players, Luigi would be called into action. Thats why the announcement of Luigis Mansion felt like such a big deal. Every major Nintendo home console had launched with a Mario game. Now, the GameCube was going to debut in 2001 alongside a solo Luigi adventure. Finally, the little brother plumber was getting the spotlight.